Tuesday, September 28, 2010

CATCH ME ON DISNEY/MA WHO IS HE?/DOWN DIRTY STINKY, GRIMY AND GRIZZLY*: I'm not much of a Britney Spears fan, and you already know my mixed feelings about Glee. So why am I so excited about tonight's Britney-themed episode? Two reasons.

First, it's also a Brittany-themed episode. I thought Heather Morris was the best thing about Glee even before she said a dumb word on the show, mostly for her wild enthusiasm as a featured dancer. Once they started giving her lines, it was great, except that the show's increasing emphasis on solos and ballads meant we got less dancing. Brittany speaking more, yay; Brittany dancing less, boo. Tonight she'll dance and sing, so yay and [tbd].

Second, I don't know this "Me Against the Music" song, but "Toxic" is, I repeat, a great song, and I kind of like "Slave 4 U" in the same Scheherazade-on-ecstasy way. And I kind of don't think there's any way to mess those up short of having Corey Monteith sing them.

*Ol' Dirty Bastard version, I know.

28 comments:

  1. Jenn.4:08 PM

    You could also ruin them by adding in some Will rap.  I'm just saying.

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  2. isaac_spaceman5:51 PM

    Surely, but since they gave Slave 4 U to Heather Morris and Toxic is a production number, I didn't think that likely.  And I can't imagine they'd let him do the ODB rap -- Wu Tang Clan ain't nuthin' to fuck with. 

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  3. christy in nyc7:31 PM

    Every time there is dancing on Glee, my eyes just seek out Brittany in the background. She has an unusual talent. I often wonder if they only show her in little snippets so that she doesn't draw too much attention away from the singers, or if they're not doing it on purpose but it feels that way because there's no such thing as enough Brittany dancing.

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  4. My lord, they've certainly committed to the uber-meta rabbit hole they went down last week.

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  5. Lea Michele's line about attacking the paparazzi made me roll my eyes.  Leave the meta-commentary to Community.

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  6. Nancy8:50 PM

    Heather Morris is amazing. Couldn't look away. She out-Britney'd Britney and then some.

    However, Lea M. on "...Baby one more time" was laughable. It was also in much too high a key, losing all its growly punch. Major fail.

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  7. Carmichael Harold8:59 PM

    I agree with Nancy about Heather Morris. I'm not sure I understand the point of the shot-by-shot video remakes, and the two main stories (loosen up Will!; be a loser Finn!) where kind of lacking, but I was really happy with the extra camera time with Brittany. . .although they may want to dial back some of her lunacy ("are you a cat?") before it feels worn out.

    By the way, is the blogger kid the worst character in all of television?

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  8. bill.9:04 PM

    <span>By the way, is the blogger kid the worst character in all of television?</span>

    I vote yes.

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  9. calliekl9:14 PM

    I don't watch Glee, just came in to agree with isaac regarding Toxic. Most excellent.

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  10. It was hard listening to Lea Michele singing a song written for a much worse singer.

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  11. HATE Jewy McJewstein.

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  12. Anonymous11:15 PM

    I sense another tangent post coming.

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  13. Genevieve11:15 PM

    Hate, loathe, despise and abominate.

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  14. It will be done.

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  15. lisased11:53 PM

    That was me.

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  16. Adlai1:46 AM

    I'm just watching for Mike Chang's abs.

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  17. KCosmo7:11 AM

    I thought the episode was pretty lousy except for basically every minute of Brittany S. Pierce's camera time.  Anyone notice Mark Kanemura?

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  18. Of course, the other thing is that Michele is probably the weakest dancer among the female student regulars and the reason the video is so iconic is the dance sequences.

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  19. "Toxic" was excellent, although (as covered above), I can't believe how much they cut away to the nerd character. Pissed me off.

    "Baby One More Time" felt slow to me, but maybe that was to accomodate the fact that Lea Michele can hit all the notes?

    Heather Morris ROCKS.  And I liked Stamos as the dentist.

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  20. isaac_spaceman11:13 AM

    That is a great song.  If Lea Michele were more focused on making the song sound great instead of flaunting her voice, maybe it would have sounded not so emarrassing. 

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  21. gretchen11:21 AM

    Totally agree about the key change.  Epic fail.  And I hadn't realized how good a dancer Britney is until I saw Lea Michele doing the choreography and basically stripping all of the oomph out of it.  Wow. 

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  22. gretchen11:22 AM

    Where?  I was actually keeping an eye out for SYTYCD dancers in the background, but didn't spot anyone.

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  23. gretchen11:23 AM

    Agree.  She is so totally committed to every move, even when the choreography is lame. 

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  24. gretchen11:24 AM

    I didn't mind it, mostly because I thought Lea Michele's delivery was really funny.

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  25. gretchen11:34 AM

    Okay.  So I really, really want to like this show.  But I thought last night's episode was kind of a mess.  I loved the Heather Morris dance numbers, but what was the point of the plot?  I mean, the whole point was that Brittany S. Pierce doesn't think she'll ever be as famous or successful as Britney Spears and has some Britney hallucinations that leave her feeling empowered.  So how does the episode end?  With yet ANOTHER Lea Michele solo (that isn't even to a Britney OR an adult contemporary song).  It doesn't help that I think that Rachel Berry is almost unwatchable.  (Seriously.  Why is Finn with her again?)

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  26. tortoiseshelly1:08 PM

    Gretchen, he was in both "I'm a Slave 4 U" and "Me Against the Music", though I noticed him most prominently sitting on the couch with Santana and again dancing with Brittany in "Me Against the Music".

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  27. Marsha1:08 PM

    Hideous episode. And I'm someone who loes the show. No plot, showcase for the horrid Jewfro guy, and the shot for shot remakes of videos I've never seen were pointless to me. In addition, if you want to show off Heather Morris dancing, let her dance! Instead, we get these videos that are designed to showcase someone who ISN'T a fantastic dancer, so they cut from two-second clip to two-second clip and we never get to see any sustained movement.

    And if I never see another TV show use the dentist's office as an excuse to make characters fantasize, it'll be too soon. Is Glee really so unoriginal that it had to go to the "is this real life" well???

    Ugh. Please don't ever do this again.

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  28. The Other Kate2:21 PM

    You said it, Marsha. I enjoy Glee in roll-with-it/oh-whatever way, but last night was the first time I've considered walking away for good. I'll give you Heather Morris's amazing dancing, John Stamos's good comic delivery, that nice reaction shot from Coach Beist, and maybe a funny line or two. The rest I found stupid, charmless, over-the top crass (seriously with the Jacob Ben Israel stuff?!) and a painful retread of territory the show has already covered two times too many.
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