If only all shows could take place in New York.
“New York” was one of the most photographically intriguing episodes of Glee, and perhaps even one of the most visually interesting episodes of any show currently on television. Maybe the views of New York were as realistic as the contrived plots of Glee episodes – which is to say not realistic at all – but they certainly served their purpose. They made me wish I could be in New York too.
I have been to New York before, a few times in fact, and though at 12 I made the decision to move out there as soon as possible – in a similar spur of the moment epiphany like Rachel has in the show – after a few years had passed I was no longer stunned by the New York verve.
Yet as always, Glee has just the right recipe to make even the dull seem glamorous (see: many of the songs they perform), and with New York they did just the same.
Even with hotel rooms and restaurants – including a pizza place that seemed vaguely familiar to me via a 2007 visit to the city – the beauty of the city was preserved through brightened visuals of scenes in Central Park, Times Square, Lincoln Center, among other quintessentially tourist locales.
Which fit the story perfectly, really. “New York” was all about the New Directions first venture into the “Big Apple”, as they might put it. Not only their first trip to nationals, but their first big trip together – in some cases (Kurt’s), their first trip on an airplane. So really, this show was all about new beginnings, and it accomplished that well.
Love developments galore were a big part of this new beginning streak. The more predictable Rachel and Finn pairing had their comeback. The less expected Mercedes and Sam pairing made a random and surprising moment in one of the final scenes.
It’s almost as though Glee, with every episode, is trying to just make love triangles into even more complicated geometric figures. How many different pairings can you create in one small high school club? Certainly not this many in any logical sense.
But that’s something to deal with next season.
As for the actual nationals competition, this was one instance in which Glee took the emphasis off the actual competition. In previous episodes where the New Directions performed at sectionals, regionals, etc., there was always a large portion of the show cut out and dedicated to a theatrical several-song performance.
But they did it right this time. The length did not seem extended for the sake of dragging out the results of the competition. In fact, it came down to the wire in such a way that anyone could assume without a doubt that they had not won nationals – after all, with only eight minutes left in the episode, could they really perform in the final round of nationals?
They may not have won this year – or at last year – but somehow I don’t think anyone is going to lose faith. Even though this show is silly and at times very contrived, it’s really fun to watch. For good music, for interesting characters, for that secret desire for soap opera drama without the terrible acting.
The New Directions didn’t win nationals this year, but next year holds the promise of a new boundlessness for Glee. Hopefully they’ll take us back to New York again.
The Songs of “New York”:
“My Cup” – This was the most random performance of the night, but it was cute anyway. The beginning has some lyrics that have The Office blogger in me screaming “that’s what she said”, but otherwise it was pretty adorable. I wouldn’t mind more weird Brittany S. Pierce songs like this.
“I Love New York/New York, New York” Mash-up – For some reason I had a difficult time hearing the breaks between the two styles of music in this mash-up. I can’t say whether or not that is a positive thing. The only issue is that “New York, New York” really deserved its own performance away from being mixed together with a Madonna song. But I guess this is just a fact of life with Glee. After all, they did a mash-up with the Supremes song “Stop! In the Name of Love” when that song is so much better as a stand-alone.
“Still Got Tonight” – I heard Matthew Morrison released his own CD recently and this is a pretty interesting way of promoting it. The song was nice and as usual he brought a lot of power to the performance.
“Bella Notte” – The first thought after hearing this version of the Lady and the Tramp song is that there absolutely needs to be more Disney on this show. It was such a lovely song to use and a fun rendition. In Glee we have Top 40, 80s rock, musical theater, and a myriad of other genres. But why not more Disney?
“For Good” – Having an emotional connection to Wicked certainly didn’t help in keeping the tears from forming when Kurt and Rachel started singing this showstopper. If I could love Glee anymore, I realize it whenever they perform something from Wicked. There should be no more doubt in the world that Lea Michele should play Elphaba in a film version of the musical.
“Yeah” “As Long as You’re There” – Sunshine is a really interesting character and this song started kind of dry but ended really beautifully. “Pretending” – Pretty reminiscent of Finn and Rachel singing “Faithfully” on the first season finale, this song was an okay original. Didn’t exactly give the same spine tingle that the Journey song did a year ago, but still good. “Light Up the World” – Computerized and a bit of a throw-away original song in my opinion. Considering some of the songs that have ended previous episodes of Glee, I can’t believe this was the best they could do. At least it will be easy to top next season.