Episode Review: GLEE, "Bad Reputation"

To be honest, I don't know how I feel about tonight's Glee, and I will probably have to watch a few times before I officially make up my mind. It just felt like the show was all over the place, and there was way too much going on, which made for a very muddled episode.

From a narrative standpoint, nothing really gelled, and there was so much going on that it was hard to keep up. I'm kind of glad Will hit rock bottom and Emma called him out on his bad behavior, but I'm sure they'll patch things up soon. Kurt, Mercedes, Brittany, and etc. trying to get into trouble in order to elevate their Glist status kind of fell flat, but they did give us a pretty entertaining version of "U Can't Touch This". Other than that, their storyline was pretty much a throw away. Quinn being the creator of the Glist, and Will figuring out that it was her, and understanding her motives was a sweet little scene that made up for some of the sloppiness of the episode.

The two subplots that kind of worked were Sue's storyline and Rachel's harem of dudes. I could really careless about Sue and Olivia Newton-John (the guests stars are starting to get distracting and they're adding very little to the overall show), but we once again had the chance to see Sue interact with her sister, which was really touching. Seeing her as a sister really rounds out her character, and shows us that she might not be as evil as initially portrayed.

Rachel's video project was just nuts, but it got even crazier when she had all three of her boys playing her love interest, which was a nice little twist. I also loved how Finn called her out before storming off yet again. Plus, we got to see Santana and Brittany dressed up as angels, which was not a bad thing.

Musically, the episode was kind of a letdown with the exception of "Ice Ice Baby" and "U Can't Touch This". This was two weeks in a row where the music was underwhelming, which isn't good for a show about a glee club. Also, the "Physical" video was just wasted time that could have been spent on tightening up the stories. I know that Sue is one of the breakout characters, but giving her two full-length music videos in three weeks is overkill.

The one element of "Bad Reputation" that was solid was the choreography. While I wished the "Ice Ice Baby" routine focused more on Brittany and Mike, seeing everyone's moves was entertaining as hell. The "U Cant' Touch This" scene was also pretty cool, mostly due to the fact that Brittany was able to stand out a little bit more (I'm a pretty big Brittany fan if you couldn't tell). While "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is one of my least favorite songs, I do have to admit that the ballet/walk-out sequence was poignant. I've never been big on dance numbers, but I couldn't help but be impressed this time around.

I'll be re-watching "Bad Reputation" a few times so I can fully appreciate the episode, but my initial reaction was "meh". It definitely was one of the weakest episodes to date, but I was still entertained, so in the end it was an hour well spent.

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