Tuesday TV Report

Last night's episode of Glee was probably the best episode of Glee I have seen and that's counting the Joss Whedon-directed Neil Patrick Harris episode which was my favorite episode last season. And I say, it's about damn time. As much as I liked the first episode of the season, the two follow-up episodes left a bad taste in my mouth with the obvious exceptions of Heather Morris' and Chris Colfer's tour de force performances as Brittany S. Pierce and Kurt Hummel respectively. But last night's episode really was a rare specimen in that I could find no fault in it whatsoever.

Let me list the reasons why I thought it was a great episode:

1. They managed to spread the wealth around giving all of the kids (save for the missing Puck) ample screentime to not only sing songs and actually speak with more than just one-liners, but to be able to flesh out their characters more.

2. The assignment for the week aka "duets" also enabled the show to mix and match a few characters who don't get much screentime together such as Artie/Brittany, Mercedes/Santana, Sam/Quinn, and in the end Rachel/Kurt.

3. The song performances were quite inspired, from the rousing rendition of "River Deep, Mountain High" from Santana/Mercedes to Kurt's fierce "Le Jazz Hot" number to Sam/Quinn's adorable take on "Lucky" as well as Rachel/Finn's hilariously inappropriate "Born Again" performance. There was also the fun Chorus Line number from Tina/Mike and the wonderful "Happy Days" from Rachel/Kurt.

4. Rachel was likable in this episode! Her super competitive nature worked in the first season, but her personality has more recently started to grate on me. She was finally given another dimension in this episode as she and Finn tried to let Sam win. Plus her touching and sincere scene with Kurt (as well as their final number) was a long time coming.

5. The adults were nowhere to be found. Okay so Will Shuester was there, but I think he may have said 3-4 lines tops (keep this up!). Of course, Sue Sylvester is brilliant and she was missed, but the choice to focus on the kids was great. More of this PLEASE.

6. They actually put some closure on the Kurt/Finn drama last season. I was one of the few that thought Finn was too harshly punished for what he did while Kurt got off scot-free. Glad Kurt was knocked down a peg or two regarding that and I thought they handled the whole thing quite well.

7. New kid Sam is a great addition. Great singing voice? Check. Lots of shirtless scenes? Check. Total dork who knows the N'avi language? Check. Yeah, he's a keeper.

8. This is related to #1 but seriously fleshing out the "minor" characters! We got to explore Brittany's feelings towards Santana and Artie (that solitary meatball nudge was so poignant). We got to see Tina/Mike date Asian-style (heh) as well as Artie realizing his feelings on that whole relationship. Plus Kurt feeling lonely, Quinn's resolve to do "whatever she wants," and so much more. Great stuff.

So I'll forgive them on that hot mess of a Britney episode and Finn praying to a grilled cheezus, because last night's episode was just so very excellent.

Right after that was Raising Hope and I'm still not exactly sure what I think about this show. I do know that I love love love Martha Plimpton and last night's episode pretty much focused on her character which probably made it my favorite episode to date. Don't get me wrong, the show is funny/quirky and the cast is great, but I'm just not 100% sold on it yet.

Two shows I haven't talked about AT ALL since they dared to premiere a week after the official premiere week are The Good Wife and No Ordinary Family. Now last season, I was completely taken by surprise when it came to The Good Wife. I thought it was going to be yet another one of those lawyer type shows, but I ended up checking it out because of great buzz/reviews and I loved it ever since. This season it's been more of the same with a little extra drama to spice up this usually cut-and-dried genre. Really enjoying the silent and not so silent rivalries going on (Florrick vs. Childs, Alicia vs. Cary, Will vs. Diane, Kalinda vs. Blake, Eli vs. the world). It's all just so good.


No Ordinary Family is... okay. I mean that's pretty much the extent of what I feel about the show. I truly love Julie Benz and like Michael Chiklis and this was certainly one of the shows I was highly anticipating. It's fun, I guess, but I feel like they're not really taking advantage of this whole concept of a family with superpowers. I mean last night part of the storyline was Chiklis' character getting dance lessons. WHY? The kids also need to be developed a bit better and last night they tried to address this. I do like the overarching storyline of there being more of "them" out there and the mystery of exactly how they got their powers. But I want more from this series.

As for the ratings, Glee is a powerhouse delivering blockbuster-type of ratings equal to its hype and buzz. The rest are doing okay, but could be doing much MUCH better. No Ordinary Family started out strong, but has fallen a bit while The Good Wife will test CBS's mettle as the show is doing okay, but not pulling in the demo numbers worthy of this Emmy-winning show. Finally, Raising Hope just got a full season order and relative to other new shows, FOX should be just fine with its performance.