(spoilers under the cut)
I loved Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holliday. Her character is so blunt that it’s wonderful. She says exactly what everyone thinks of the other characters (Rachel’s uptightness, Terry’s bitchiness) in a matter-of-fact way, which makes it hard to not like her. Though I’ve got to say, she has to be the most knowledgeable substitute teacher I have ever seen. One of my favorite Holly teaching moments (aside from the singing cause well, it’s the singing) has to be her getting into a period costume to teach history. Just think about how many different costumes she must have in her closet. Not only that, but she’s awesome that she knows all their tricks. Watching her sliding over the buttered floor was one of my favorite moments in the episode. Near the end of the episode I realized that the awesomeness of this character is oddly similar to the awesomeness of April Rhodes. They’re both blonde, they come in, sing a number in the choir room and win over most of the Glee members, and in the end, the character is still somewhat damaged but came away learning something.
Ah. The return of the outrageously large Cheerios trophy as well as a Sue determined to take over the school through careful, nefarious planning. How I have missed the evil snarky Sue. It’s when she has the best lines. Still, the slow motion shot of Principal Figgins getting sprayed with spit made me cringe. The poor guy. You don’t show up for a couple episodes, you get sneezed on and get super sick. What I don’t get is why this girl isn’t in quarantine. She’s just spreading her disease all over school. And I am surprised that Sue didn’t try harder to get rid of the Bieste. After all, if she fired the Bieste, then the school can keep the football team and she can get what she wants. But I suppose that Sue can only go after one teacher at a time and this episode is all about attacking Will.
Oh poor Mr. Shue. You can see the doom written all over his face after getting sneezed on. But you gotta say, the mini-Glee clubbers are a wonderful result of his illness. They were all so damned cute. I particularly loved mini-Mercedes. Though I do have to say that the initial portrayal of Mr. Shue in this episode is kind of unfair. While he does do a lot of the older songs in the series, one of the first songs he ever does in the series is Gold Digger, which shows that he is aware of and appreciates popular music. So I don’t think that Mr. Shue would be so unaware of current music that he needs to go to Holly Holliday for help to make “Singing in the Rain” hip and modern.
There is a reason that I haven’t missed Terry. I don’t know how but she never ceases to amaze me with how deranged she is. All her baby talk made me want to cringe, and that was BEFORE she tried to take Mr. Shue’s temperature from behind. I was so proud of Mr. Shue for not getting pulled into all her crazy, until he didn’t. But thankfully, he only dipped a toe in all that crazy before coming back out of it.
As for Rachel, she is really becoming a one-dimensional character this season. While she has always been a rather self-centered person, she had these other qualities about her that made her likeable enough despite that self-centeredness. This season, I found that most of the time, I just wanted her to shut up whenever she talked because everything that comes out of her mouth is “Me, me, me.” And this episode just went and confirmed that. AGAIN. Which is why I was so glad that Holly Holliday called her on being so uptight.
One last thing that I don’t really get: If Karofsky is so scared about other people finding out that he is gay, why is he throwing flirtatious winks at Kurt at lunch where anyone can witness it?
Musical Sequences:
“Forget You”: This is a pretty Glee musical moment, jammin’ in the choir room. While the musical number had a very fun energy to it and Gwyneth Paltrow is amazing, the visuals are pretty much what you get in every other episode.
“Make ‘Em Laugh”: This is actually my second favorite musical number in this episode. I’ve never actually seen Singing in the Rain so I have nothing to compare it to but it is rather hilarious. You could tell right away that it’s going to be a dream sequence because the scene is set up to start so abruptly. I love watching Matt Morrison and Henry Shum dance and they do comedy dance sequences so well that you can’t help but laugh.
“Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag”: I don’t know what it is about this number that puts me off. I wanted to like it but I felt like it was missing this spark. I can’t quite say what it is about it though. The costumes were ok. The dancing, while not the best compared to some of the other cast members, was decent; and the vocals were enjoyable but it was definitely missing something. (Amendment: After watching the Hot Honey Rag number from the Chicago movie again, I realize now that this dance sequence lacks the sauciness of the original. View here for comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEzlqrPsRvA)
“Singing in the Rain/Umbrella”: This was really my favorite musical number. The choreography, the costumes, and the music all fit together really well. In fact, this is one of the better mashups so far in this season. And really, who doesn’t like the idea of splashing around in the rain?
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