by Chris Saccaro
After a near month long hiatus, “Glee” returns with “The Role You Were Born to Play,” an episode that does nothing new or exciting to change the show’s dynamics. Even introducing “The Glee Project’s” winner Blake Jenner didn’t give “Glee” the spark it needed to make this episode anything more than the typical “preparing for the annual fall musical” episode.
The last episode of “Glee” left many of the characters in a transitional state, especially Blaine and Finn. However, as Blaine uses this period to mourn his lost relationship (read: fade into the background), Finn catapults into the A-story, overshadowing all of the actual students at McKinley High.
Having half of the graduating class returned just makes it so much more clear how similar the new characters are to the old ones. The love quadrangle between Marley, Ryder, Jake, and Kitty feels stale already, and it’s made staler by the fact that the characters themselves are archetypal shells of others. This is especially true of Kitty. Hopefully the writers will show us something about Kitty that will make her meanness more tolerable, because at this point it’s just antagonistic for the sake of being antagonistic.
This is also the case with Sue’s tirade against Finn’s choice to cast Unique as “Rizzo.” The writers are constantly on the fence with how to handle Sue. They are either pushing her towards the role of compassionate, misunderstood authority figure or ruthless, sadistic cheer coach. Sue’s inconsistency is almost as ingrained into the show as the musical numbers, but that doesn’t make it any more forgivable this time around.
One of the more well handled storylines of the week, Will and Emma’s decision to try out a long distance relationship, seems to work only because it opens the possibility of Will not being on the show for a few episodes.
“The Role You Were Born to Play” did a good job at picking songs that were not actually from “Grease” for the kids to audition to. We gotta save the real “Grease” songs for next week. So for this week, save for Blaine’s pitifully sad rendition of “Hopeless Devoted to You,” most of the songs included the usual array of pop and classic rock.
As stated before, “Glee” has all the possibility in the world to use the fourth season as a way to get back the freshness of its first. When “Glee” first came out, it was highly regarded for it’s unique voice and interesting take on high school. Yet, by now, that uniqueness hasn’t changed. It’s just being recycled with a crop of younger actors. And in a world where teen dramas are everywhere, “Glee” can’t afford to keep recycling the same tired storylines of love triangles and intolerance.
Chris Saccaro is a staff writer. Email him at entertainment@nyunews.com.
