'Glee' recap: 'Dynamic Duets'
Not really a Thanksgiving episode, just an episode that airs on Thanksgiving
Kevin McHale and Cory Monteith on "Glee"
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In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'll restrict this week's recap to the things I enjoyed about "Dynamic Duets."
Unlike the last two weeks, there were actually a few things I liked about this episode -- written and directed by Ian Brennan, who brought just a little bit more imagination and energy to the proceedings than we saw in back-to-back duds "The Role You Were Born to Play" and "Glease." Still, the hour was entirely devoid of New York scenes and far too eager to foreground characters who don't deserve the spotlight.
Anyway, the positives: There was a solid five minute section in the second half of the episode devoted almost exclusively to the budding friendship between Blaine and Sam. Blaine explained exactly what happened when he cheated on Kurt (it was a random Facebook hookup, Blaine regretted it immediately and it only strengthened his feelings for Kurt) and then Darren Criss and Chord Overstreet sang David Bowie's "Heroes" with all the charisma and conviction one would expect from actors worthy of prominent roles on weekly television.
While it's easy to buy 30-year-old Cory Monteith taking on a leadership role, it's still hard to swallow a roughly 19-year-old Finn Hudson so suddenly thrust into command of the glee club. I've never been one to hold "Glee" to the standards of docudrama, it usually spoils the fun, but this is clearly a case of writers struggling to find a way to keep both Finn and McKinley front and center on the show and feels misguided on both counts. But elevating Finn to New Directions leader does prove how unnecessary Matthew Morrison's Will Schuester has become (the only teacher we saw this week was Dot-Marie Jones' Coach Bieste, which was just fine) and provided us with one endearingly dopey moment when Finn pitched his Foreigner idea for Sectionals.
Overstreet showed off a mighty fine impression of Tom Hardy's Bane from "The Dark Knight Rises."
Heather Morris had a funny line! "You guys, I don't smell raspberry hair gel. Does anybody know where Blaine Warbler is?"
And that's pretty much it. Next week is "Glee's" actual "Thanksgiving" episode featuring the first trip to Sectionals for the awful new New Directions. Also, the return of Sarah Jessica Parker and Dianna Agron (among others). Let's hope they're reasons to be thankful.
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November 23, 2012 at 1:19AM EST Reply to CommentI LOVED this episode — it felt like Glee again, with tons of humor to go along with the few serious moments. After being weighed down so much all season by unending, unrelenting, soul-crushing angst, it felt awesome to watch an episode where I laughed all the way through. And I loved not having major shipping drama weighing things down every other minute. I'm a huge fan of Rachel Berry, and I didn't miss her for a second tonight, nor did I miss the New York side of the show at all. In fact, I was disappointed to see the NY moments in the promo, with my instinctive reaction being "I just laughed for a full hour; why do you want to drag me down again, Glee?" I don't think one song next week with SJP and her troupe is gonna make NYC a place of fun and humor, but maybe the show will prove me wrong.
Back to 4x07 and McKinley -- the comic book theme was incorporated SO well, especially for someone with a deep love and appreciation of the original Batman TV series (Blam! Slaine!) and 1970s Saturday morning superhero cartoons.
Finn’s initial stumbles trying to lead were hilarious.
Lots of the cast got moments and were included -- and included well -- which we haven't seen in a long time
Puck's brief appearance was great.
The scene where Ryder learns about his dyslexia and talks about it to Finn was powerfully acted by Blake and Cory — really, really well done. There was great development of the Ryder/Jake friendship and rivalry, and of Marley’s interactions with the two of them, and great development of the Kitty/Marley interaction — which was awesome, especially since we keep seeing the camera showing us the ‘friendship’ is all an act by a still purely evil Kitty. Becca is doing a fantastic job with that role.
I loved the Warbers’ plan to seduce Blaine — and I’m someone who mostly thinks the Warblers are a total waste of screen time. I agree completely that they've outrun their time as rivals, but, as you say, they were a logical and compelling part of Blaine's story in the episode, and their stealing the trophy was kitsch-y fun. The use of the blazer was hilarious.
The Sam/Blaine stuff was great—especially the mission to reclaim the trophy, lifted with utmost faithfulness from original Batman’s exploits of the Caped Crusader and his trusty sidekick.
The music was good throughout — songs which I just liked OK listening to them before hand I ended up loving in context in the episode. “Some Nights” was a total stand-out number — best one this season. One of the best numbers in the past two seasons. I hope we see a lot more group numbers to close out episodes — this is classic Glee doing what it does best: showing how characters can fight and struggle and be rivals and mess up and then come together in song and be stronger as a group than they are isolated or as individuals (i.e. what a group of superheroes can do, per Finn’s dialogue).
Ian Brennan, who wrote and directed the episode, hit it out of the park. So enjoyable to watch Glee as a COMEDY again.
lol are you going to leave that commonet on every single site
November 23, 2012 at 3:00AM ESTGuest HAHAHA Now Glee pay for guys put positive comments on the sites? Well pay me and i could do that too.
November 23, 2012 at 5:27AM ESTLiz Good episode, very Glee-like. Look, of coarse Glee will never be as great as it was in s1, but I stopped trying pick every episode apart on every single little detail because it is just getting to frustrating. But lately I feel like Glee is trying to sort of regain some of its original form back. For example, Glee also kind of started out initially with a group of small people and then other characters joined the club for various reasons and for various agendas. Now we kind of have the same situation - at the beginning of s4 we had the original group of Glee members and now there are new people joining in and it is still a very long process till they all get along and I already see some similarities to s1. We have a person in charge of them who is trying his best and just like Will in the beginning Finn is starting with bad ideas - remember that hands in gloves number the first five members of Glee did in the beginning? There is that too.
November 23, 2012 at 2:31PM ESTLook, I stopped expecting Glee to have incredibly new ideas with the development of the Glee club but how else can it actually develop than unite a bunch of kids with music through which they can express themselves. Glee might have lost most of its spark since season 1, but I'll tell you this, the past 3 episodes at least gave me some reason to continue watching the show. I like the fact that they are back to focusing on what is happening at McKinley and not on how Rachel Berry annoying tries to make it NY while not growing as a character at all. Also, I am really liking Blake Jenner and hope that he stays longer than the 7 episode arc he is given, because he is the main reason I am actually starting to like the newbies - the Fun Nights number at the end was great! I am liking the bond between Jake and Ryder and Blaine and Sam. I hope the show remains this focus because IO could not care less about how Rachel feels about the shower dude.
Marshall1
November 23, 2012 at 12:44PM EST Reply to CommentJust answer me this: Does Cory Montieth gets to wear a tight and revealing costume? If not, I'm not interested lol
SCN
November 23, 2012 at 2:58PM EST Reply to CommentThank you, Geoff, for hitting the nail on the head. What they've got both the actor Cory and the character Finn doing right now is babysitting the new faces. Finn counts for less among the writers now than they do. Still, at least we finally know his place in the pecking order. I really wish every other Finn fan would just wake up and realise what an utterly pathetic sad sack of a character he's become. But that probably ain't gonna happen since most Finn fans seem to regard an episode of him not only continuing to hang around his old high school with kids one or two years younger than him while pretending to coach the glee club or mop the floors or whatever it is, but making even more of an ass of himself by dressing up as a superhero, as some kind of highlight of the season so far...
nikster
November 24, 2012 at 6:08AM EST Reply to CommentAlthough I agree with all comments around Finn taking over ND, I do disagree at the improvement of this weeks episode. I thought it went a little to far past reality with super hero week-- it isn't Halloween. Plus, I am not a fan on cutting out NY without any reasonings. I feel like the story line is just repeating and they are grasping at crazy "fun" concepts.
Misty May
November 24, 2012 at 8:16PM EST Reply to CommentI thought the episode was great and i enjoyed the heck out of it. It had lots of funny moments, serious moments, and as a Finn fan I am glad he has a decent arc so far. I think great things are ahead for him which is only right considering they destroyed his confidence last season to make him a Lima Loser. And those who think that it is unbelievable that a 19 year old could sponsor an after school club, think again. Most teachers don't have the time or energy these days for after school clubs...they do not get paid and half the time they contribute their own money for expenses. So it does happen that former students that were gifted at the particular skill do sponsor clubs. It happened in my high school with the Art Club. The superhero theme was really funny with their comic book pages, running in the hall, the auditorium scene with Finn, Ryder and Jake. It is a fun way to spend an hour when you have nothing else to do and see what your old "friends" on screen are up to.
Gabby
November 25, 2012 at 8:25PM EST Reply to CommentFiller ep - not worth the film it was printed on. Stupid episosdes can only go so far
AM7
December 1, 2012 at 9:11PM EST Reply to CommentYou can't just switch schools the next day at the snap of your finger.
Also are they trying to make Kitty the most abhorrent individual on the show?