Glee: A Very Glee Christmas (2010)

I want to smack their stupid faces.

I should start this by saying I have a thing about Glee.

I watched about two-thirds of the first season before deciding I was ultimately not enjoying it and quitting before it became a full fledged addiction.

This is the first episode I've seen since then.

As I watched, I could feel the ghostly hand of pointlessly melodramatic soap-opera-style continuity calling me back. I could feel the chance that I would get sucked back in.

Happily, I escaped, because this is a terrible episode. It continues to be basically the same plot: teen romance creates drama/evil gym teacher is wacky. Rinse, repeat.

Overall the series, and this episode in particular, suffers from the tension between drama and farce. The drama is boring, but when the drama laspes, there's nothing to ground the farce. And the farce isn't funny enough to stand on it's own.

The music was every bit as horribly over-produced as I remembered. I love musicals, but I really hate watching these characters "sing".

There were a few not terrible scenes in this episode. Kurt and Kurt's crush singing Baby, It's Cold Outside was well shot. The plot about Brittany believing in Santa wasn't stupid for every minute. Sue had some funny lines, but I thought they really pushed her character too far into self-parody.

Erin asked me while we were watching if there was anyone who watched this show who didn't root for Sue. I honestly have a hard time imagining it.

And then the completely stupid rip-off - not-parody, actually just a rip-off - of The Grinch culminated in a ear-bleedingly saccarine version of Welcome Christmas. In whch they appropriated/re-purposed a lyric. And thus Erin was reduced to swearing violently at the screen. I'm forced to agree. In the scope of holiday blasphemy, that is beyond the pale.

Please don't encourage ths show. If for some reason you are trapped or tricked into watching this episode, I highly suggest following it with Community: Regional Holiday Music to wash out your brain.