By: Brittany Lauro-
The second episode of the newest season of Glee, which aired at 9 p.m. Sept. 20 on FOX network, took yet another rocky trip down Britney lane during its episode entitled “Britney 2.0”. I think it’s safe to say – oops, they did it again.
The Britney Spears theme seemed rather lackluster in the grand scheme of the show. While the episode had its laugh-worthy moments, it also felt familiar and insipid. The idea had the potential to awaken all nostalgic 90s kids if it weren’t a repeated theme from last season. How many times can we make fun of the train wreck that is Britney Spears? Brad Falchuck, tell me you’re not lacking inspiration two episodes into the new season.
Media Credit: MCT Campus
Can we talk about Unique (played by Alex Newell) for a moment? For those not well acquainted with the show, Unique is a transgendered character ultimately dealing with her identity issues. No shocker there, Glee has always done its part to shed light on such issues. We’ve seen a slew of homosexuality, a hint of physical disability and an entire army of teens fighting to fit in. Unique’s character definitely didn’t come out of left field and I’d say it’s about time for a new round of social issues. However, what comes as a shock is her parallel to Mercedes, a former beloved Glee-er no longer on the show (womp womp). The two not only share the same skin color, body type and hair style but their mannerisms as well as their sassy personalities are notably analogous. Every time Unique z-snapped her fingers or rolled her eyes I thought to myself “Mercedes, is that you?”
Falchuck’s apparent nostalgia for the former Glee crew seems painstakingly obvious through Marley, the newest addition to the glee club. She was first introduced in the premiere of the current season entitled “The New Rachel”. How reminiscent can you get? It’s apparent that while Marley is meant to fulfill her own role, she’s also meant to fill the holes in the hearts of Rachel-lovers everywhere.
At first I was rather annoyed by the carbon-copy characters. I had my pen out, or rather my Microsoft word document open, fingers at the ready to type a strongly worded letter to Falchuck about his lack of inspiration. Then it occurred to me: maybe the repetition is intentional. High school, for the most part, never really changes. You have your star quarterback, your popular cheerleader, your overzealous theater chick, and the bad boy who is never really satisfied with his latest act of destruction. Glee lost all their archetypal high schoolers in the finale of last season so perhaps the replacements serve to keep the effervescent high school mentality alive.
This is not to say that the whole episode was uninspired and cyclical. While Glee has given its viewers a few dull episodes to whine about in the past, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Britney 2.0 was one of them. Though it seemed a smidge uninspired, there were many moments that left me laughing out loud on my living room couch. The main issue of the episode seemed to be the downfall of Brittany (played by Heather Morris). Brittany is somewhat of a depressed disaster after being kicked off the cheerleading squad for her less than acceptable grade point average and her failure to be a good role model. It was hard for Glee viewers, also known as Glee-vers (very creative America…), to resist chuckling when Coach Sylvester pulled out Brittany’s latest math test where she answered every question in crayon with instructions to refer to the back of her paper where she drew an elementary illustration of a happy world without math. A+ for thinking outside the box?
I have to admit I was an enormous fan of the Britney Spears’ 2009 meltdown rendition. My next-door neighbors probably heard me giggling during the school performance of “Gimme More,” where she insists on lip synching while eating cheese puffs, in a spoof of Spears’ VMAs performance, and again when she attempted to buzz off all her hair during a mental breakdown.
I will say the most shocking moment of the 60-minute episode was the two-minute return of everyone’s favorite bad boy, Puck (Mark Salling). He appears in the choir room for a short inspirational chat and I swear, every heart tuned into FOX that night skipped a beat. If Glee wants any chance of surviving this season, we’re going to have to see a lot more of our favorite heartthrob.
The only character development we really witnessed throughout the episode was with Rachel (Lea Michele). She stands up to her uppity dance teacher Cassandra (Kate Hudson) during a raunchy performance of “oops I did it again” where she spends most of the two-minute ballad fidgeting on a wooden table being carried by men in black shirts. This is apparently the standard we use to measure sexiness these days (very classy America).
Overall the episode was stagnant and its sole achievement was humor. The love affair between Marley and Jake is still undefined, Brittany is reinstated as class present, everyone still misses Puck and no one knows whether Alex Newell will appear in a dress or a tie next Thursday.
Hopefully this Thursday leaves the 90s in the 90s and gives Glee-vers something more memorable and inspired than “Britney 2.0”.
