I love the performance of Torn but agree with the sentiments about old Rachel vs new Rachel.
I didn't really mind the whole makeover as much as some did but I really don't understand why such a drastic change was necessary. Rachel's outfits in season 3 and the first 3 episodes of this season were perfectly nice and hardly too young or unfashionable for a college freshman to be wearing.
I'm guessing this could relate to the exchange between Kurt, Rachel and Brody that was leaked, where Kurt says something about her being 'all plaid skirts' last year and now she's 'slutty barbie' (as well as the whole topless issue of course)
I haven't been able to stop listening to the girls version of 'Locked Out Of Heaven'. It is the best song this season so far. Almost as good as 'Rumour Has It/Someone Like You' from season 3.
I haven't been able to stop listening to the girls version of 'Locked Out Of Heaven'. It is the best song this season so far. Almost as good as 'Rumour Has It/Someone Like You' from season 3.
You are a crazy person...like...actually crazy!
What?! WHAT?! WHATTTTT!?!?!
Okay actually not that fussed but that's so funny to me. "RHI/SLY" is my favourite and most listened to track from Season 3 and is just an amazing mashup and performance in the episode. It's creative, it's emotional, it's two pretty awesome songs working REALLY well together and that drum beat is just insane.
I haven't really listened to the original "LOOH" but from what I know of it, the arrangement is the same and the opening "Oh yeah yeah yeah eh!"s sound identical to Bruno Mars' voice just because of the way Marley sings. The only difference being the gender swap. What is it you really like about it because I really don't see it?
Of course everyone is different...my personal favourite track of this season is probably "Crazy / You Drive Me Crazy", "I don't know how to love him" or "Torn". It's been a pretty lackluster season for music thus far but I hold out hope...
I think the big problem was how sudden her makeover was. If it had been gradual then it might have been fine but less impactful. Some of Rachel's clothes were dreadful (the outfit she wore when stretching out Cassie in "Britney 2.0" for example) but looking at her in that white jumper and her knee socks just makes me go "awh!" and so a sudden change wasn't exactly necessary.
This is all been caused by Brody! He is the one to blame!
I'm kind of hoping that the last part of this episode will be that once Rachel has resolved her drama that we see her getting changed to go to class and she slips on her hairband and puts on some knee socks combined with her "new Rachel" outfit, looks at herself in the mirror, smiles and then the episode ends. Just a token and nod that Rachel remembers who she was alongside who she is becoming.
Oh if only that would happen at the end of the episode, I think I'd weep buckets! The thing is from pics of her on set since she seems to carry on with the same style as the rest of this season!
Oh if only that would happen at the end of the episode, I think I'd weep buckets! The thing is from pics of her on set since she seems to carry on with the same style as the rest of this season!
Well from the description of the following episode, "Diva":
We know Rachel's bad attitude lasts until at least then because apparently Kurt has decided he is done with her arrogance and they end up having a diva off to "Bring Him Back" from Les Mis...
Well from the description of the following episode, "Diva":
We know Rachel's bad attitude lasts until at least then because apparently Kurt has decided he is done with her arrogance and they end up having a diva off to "Bring Him Back" from Les Mis...
Well from the description of the following episode, "Diva":
We know Rachel's bad attitude lasts until at least then because apparently Kurt has decided he is done with her arrogance and they end up having a diva off to "Bring Him Back" from Les Mis...
I think I can sum up my opinions about 4x12, "Naked", as..."meh".
I'm so bored of McKinley now. They really are just rehashing old stories and things we've seen before, I just cannot find it in me to care anymore. Marley and Jake have said "I Love You" (I enjoyed their performance of A Thousand Years) so can we PLEASE move on from their story now! It seems like an appropriate place to end it...
and what so Brittany actually got the highest SAT score? I swear to God if they come back to that in a future episode I will be done with Glee! All the crap they try and resolve in a single episode ("My test scores are bad...Don't talk to me about it!...I have dyslexia, Finn...I am taking lessons and things are okay now" etc.) but that is left either as legitimate and Brittany got the highest score or it's going to be part of something else.
The worst part of it is that it impacts on the New York storyline which makes it so rushed that it doesn't feel like a proper story arc is being told. The whole NY storyline was so rushed through I didn't get a real sense of drama or tension from it. Santana and Quinn (who I think are both great) didn't have to be there and I'm sorry but the whole "Rachel is old friends with Quinn and Santana" thing is such crap. I thought it was crap when Quinn started giving Rachel advice in S3, I thought it was crap when Rachel gave Santana a photo of her to put in her locker...It's just crap! Its not founded!
Basically the NY storyline didn't meet my expectations of it (so naturally I am disappointed). Torn should have been sung later in the episode when Rachel actually had time to be "torn" over the decision. They had absolutely no reason to sing "Love Song"...I mean ABSOLUTELY none...it made absolutely zero sense...zero!
The problems is that they never bothered to give Rachel friends outside of Kurt and Finn. She might have had something with Mercedes potentially but that wasn't exactly invested in properly so now they have to tack on Quinn and Santana and pretend like they didn't hate Rachel's guts! It's going to continue to happen. The mistakes of S2 and S3 and the lack of investment in rich character background is going to keep on biting the new episodes in the ass.
I think I can sum up my opinions about 4x12, "Naked", as..."meh".
I'm so bored of McKinley now. They really are just rehashing old stories and things we've seen before, I just cannot find it in me to care anymore. Marley and Jake have said "I Love You" (I enjoyed their performance of A Thousand Years) so can we PLEASE move on from their story now! It seems like an appropriate place to end it...
and what so Brittany actually got the highest SAT score? I swear to God if they come back to that in a future episode I will be done with Glee! All the crap they try and resolve in a single episode ("My test scores are bad...Don't talk to me about it!...I have dyslexia, Finn...I am taking lessons and things are okay now" etc.) but that is left either as legitimate and Brittany got the highest score or it's going to be part of something else.
The worst part of it is that it impacts on the New York storyline which makes it so rushed that it doesn't feel like a proper story arc is being told. The whole NY storyline was so rushed through I didn't get a real sense of drama or tension from it. Santana and Quinn (who I think are both great) didn't have to be there and I'm sorry but the whole "Rachel is old friends with Quinn and Santana" thing is such crap. I thought it was crap when Quinn started giving Rachel advice in S3, I thought it was crap when Rachel gave Santana a photo of her to put in her locker...It's just crap! Its not founded!
Basically the NY storyline didn't meet my expectations of it (so naturally I am disappointed). Torn should have been sung later in the episode when Rachel actually had time to be "torn" over the decision. They had absolutely no reason to sing "Love Song"...I mean ABSOLUTELY none...it made absolutely zero sense...zero!
The problems is that they never bothered to give Rachel friends outside of Kurt and Finn. She might have had something with Mercedes potentially but that wasn't exactly invested in properly so now they have to tack on Quinn and Santana and pretend like they didn't hate Rachel's guts! It's going to continue to happen. The mistakes of S2 and S3 and the lack of investment in rich character background is going to keep on biting the new episodes in the ass.
I agree about lovesong being completely pointless, but I do think it's believable about Quinn and Rachel, because since the end of season 2 they've been building up a bit of a friendship, but not with Santana, that seemed to be put in for the sake of having Santana there.
Thought the Blaine/Sam storyline was very cute. I just hope it doesn't change their dynamic when Sam finds out about Blaine. Loved the little reference to Trouty Mouth
Rachel's topless storyline: Found torn very moving and strange to watch, only Rachel could sing a duet alone. You can see the tension with Kurt, he is going to kick off at some point! Can't say I blame him.
Men of Mckinley calender: Was ok, some good lines in there though, I did laugh at the 'shoulders just being your shoulders' conversation between Jake and Ryder. Also liked how they fitted in some male body issue story with Artie, people are too quick to assume men are happy to take their tops off anytime.Oh and I liked Finn being clever for once and blackmailing Sue!!
Actually just realised Kurt sang a duet by himself as well
New York: I quite liked Torn, though Lea Michele didn't really do anything new with the song and it's a fairly bland song. It just served to highlight for me that even though her new attitude is problematic, Rachel does look so much better now and has really matured since McKinley, which was inevitable.
But seriously, they brought Naya and Dianna back for 5 minutes of girl talk?! :rolleyes: Apart from it being completely unbelievable that they would both be able to drop everything to rush to New York when Kurt called (as if it was even believable that he'd call them at all...!), neither got any of their own plot development at all about from the world's biggest hint about Santana's future, and the fact that last time they saw each other Quinn and Santana hated each other was completely glossed over.
Despite that they still managed to put in the best performance of the episode. Love Story was completely pointless, but it served to highlight how good all 3 of them are, and it was great to see them singing together.
I don't think it's far-fetched that Santana or Quinn would come to see Rachel eventually (the far-fetched bit is how quickly they got there) - Santana and Rachel were friends by the end and mutually respected each other - that's growing up and maturing, which they both did, Santana especially, and Rachel's been supportive of her since her sexuality was made so public, so that's not surprising to me that they're friends. And Quinn and Rachel have been developing as friends since season 2, despite the poor writing, so that's not surprising either. It's clear that Quinn was there just because she hasn't been around for a while and people would start wondering if she'll be back, and Santana was there to foreshadow upcoming plots, but it was nice to see them both nevertheless.
I did find it surprising that we didn't get much of Kurt's reaction to Brody moving in though, although presumably it's part of the clear build-up to Kurt exploding at Rachel.
I thought the actual plotline was as usual a bit contrived, but preferred it in terms of the confidence-building for Sam at McKinley rather than Rachel's struggle. Though don't get me started on Brittany's test score...
Apart from Blaine helping Sam, I was bored by most of the McKinley stuff as usual. It's strange to say it, but for me the only good thing about McKinley now is Marley and Jake. I love them as a couple, loved their duet (A Thousand Years is one of my favourite songs) and thought their story was very sweet
Overall, not a terrible episode, but as usual the returning guests were underused (when is Naya actually going to be a regular again like she's supposed to be? :rolleyes: ) and seeing even a glimpse of Amber Riley and Dianna Agron made me nostalgic again for the original cast.
I really enjoyed that one. Yeah, it suffers from the same and often out of nowhere narrative problems most/all episodes of this show seem to suffer from but I enjoyed it.
The Naked calender stuff was silly to the extreme and Sam's behaviour was annoying in parts but it was nice to see Blaine being a good friend nonetheless.
I'm impressed with how much Finn is managing to be both a) surprisingly competent b) not annoying and shockingly enough c) outsmarting Sue. I'm actually starting to like him as a character because of this.
Rachel and the movie thing wasn't too interesting but I'm starting to see why people seem to think Lea Michele only plays herself now.
Kurt did naff all in this episode. Might have been better not featuring him for once and Brody was kind of annoying too.
Loved Quinn/Santana returning in this one and the girls version of Love Song with Rachel's. Jake's take on Let Me Love You is actually better than the original itself.
"Love Song" made sense in context if you know the history of the song. The original artist, Sarah Bareilles, was told by her record company that she had to write another ballad that would be a "marketable love song" for an album. She didn't want to. "Love Song" was the result, written in anger and it's not about love. It's about not being told what to write because an artist has his/her own reasons for writing. In context, it's a perfect song for a young actress who makes a stand against pressure to do something she's not comfortable doing and defining herself. (Works for Artie, too.)
I often think Glee is much smarter than people give it credit for - like the coffee metaphor for Finn growing up. I wish there were still some invested critics covering the show who recognised it.
Not my favourite episode.The Sam video near the end was touching, Marley and Jake are sweet (if a bit dull). Enjoyed the last song. But the rest - a bit of a chore to watch sadly after last week's return to form. All a bit 'by numbers'.
Ah well, perhaps next week will be better - my Glee optimism is still invigorated from last week
I often think Glee is much smarter than people give it credit for - like the coffee metaphor for Finn growing up. I wish there were still some invested critics covering the show who recognised it.
I'd noticed the "coffee arc" and when he came so close to drinking it this week I yelled "Damn it Finn!!". I'm looking forward to him finally getting to accept coffee
As for your description of why "Love Song" works. I was vague aware of its nature as her record company trying to force her to write certain music and even if you don't know the backstory then the lyrics very clearly make it clear that its a story about being forced into doing something you don't want to do...
Two problems with that: 1. Nobody was forcing Rachel to do anything...literally nobody was forcing her. There was no pressure (other than that you might argue her career desperations put on her).
2. I sometimes think Glee can go SO subtle that it is unnoticed and therefore uncredited. A lot of Glees writing, especially in earlier episodes, was clever and adult, constantly riding the line between appropriate and innappropriate. They made references and jokes that you had to pay attention to and there was even the vaguest sense of continuity. The problem with that is that if you make something SO subtle that people don't notice it then there is no benefit because you just come across as crummy...
Like Brittany...both moronic and wonderfully brilliant.
Kurt did naff all in this episode. Might have been better not featuring him for once and Brody was kind of annoying too.
I don't know, his exchange with Rachel and Brody could be seen as a bit of a set up for next week's episode, which is good as then their confrontation won't be one of those plots that's completely out of the blue.
I found Brody pretty gross and sleazy this episode.
Torn was great, although it made me want the 'old Rachel' back so much - it wasn't just the hair, makeup and clothes, even her mannerisms and the way she spoke seemed different. I never noticed it that much before but when you have both the 'old' and 'new' Rachel together, you can really see the difference.
Nice to see Quinn and Santana return, although I hardly buy that they're such good friends with Rachel. Love Song was pretty good but as I wasn't aware of the meaning behind it, it seemed incredibly random.
Lima: The boys of McKinley are obviously really attractive but I feel like there was too much flesh in this episode? Idk but they are really hot. I also feel like the episode excluded straight male fans but I guess they're a minority. Besides that Marley and Jake's storyline was so cute, Jake singing Let Me Love You was jaw-dropping amazing.
New York: Everything about it was A+ except for the random song choice for Rachel/Santana/Quinn to sing but their voices were phenomenal it didn't matter. I loved the hint that Santana will be moving there .
"Love Song" made sense in context if you know the history of the song. The original artist, Sarah Bareilles, was told by her record company that she had to write another ballad that would be a "marketable love song" for an album. She didn't want to. "Love Song" was the result, written in anger and it's not about love. It's about not being told what to write because an artist has his/her own reasons for writing. In context, it's a perfect song for a young actress who makes a stand against pressure to do something she's not comfortable doing and defining herself. (Works for Artie, too.)
I often think Glee is much smarter than people give it credit for - like the coffee metaphor for Finn growing up. I wish there were still some invested critics covering the show who recognised it.
I had no idea about the origins of that song but that's pretty damn cool and is rather clever for the show.
Comments
I didn't really mind the whole makeover as much as some did but I really don't understand why such a drastic change was necessary. Rachel's outfits in season 3 and the first 3 episodes of this season were perfectly nice and hardly too young or unfashionable for a college freshman to be wearing.
You are a crazy person...like...actually crazy!
What?! WHAT?! WHATTTTT!?!?!
Okay actually not that fussed but that's so funny to me. "RHI/SLY" is my favourite and most listened to track from Season 3 and is just an amazing mashup and performance in the episode. It's creative, it's emotional, it's two pretty awesome songs working REALLY well together and that drum beat is just insane.
I haven't really listened to the original "LOOH" but from what I know of it, the arrangement is the same and the opening "Oh yeah yeah yeah eh!"s sound identical to Bruno Mars' voice just because of the way Marley sings. The only difference being the gender swap. What is it you really like about it because I really don't see it?
Of course everyone is different...my personal favourite track of this season is probably "Crazy / You Drive Me Crazy", "I don't know how to love him" or "Torn". It's been a pretty lackluster season for music thus far but I hold out hope...
Oh if only that would happen at the end of the episode, I think I'd weep buckets! The thing is from pics of her on set since she seems to carry on with the same style as the rest of this season!
Well from the description of the following episode, "Diva":
*Home.
Should be interesting to see.
Pft, if it isn't "I Dreamed a Dream" or "On My Own" then who even cares
Kidding. Damn it, Huggzy! I thought that wasn't right.
'Home' is my fave song from Season 1.
'River Deep – Mountain High' from Season 2.
'Rumour Has It/Someone Like You' from season 3.
and
'Locked Out of Heaven', so far, from Season 4.
Blasphemy! :eek:
I am really looking forward to
It's a pretty big song to tackle but I can't wait to hear the two versions of it.
I'm so bored of McKinley now. They really are just rehashing old stories and things we've seen before, I just cannot find it in me to care anymore. Marley and Jake have said "I Love You" (I enjoyed their performance of A Thousand Years) so can we PLEASE move on from their story now! It seems like an appropriate place to end it...
and what so Brittany actually got the highest SAT score? I swear to God if they come back to that in a future episode I will be done with Glee! All the crap they try and resolve in a single episode ("My test scores are bad...Don't talk to me about it!...I have dyslexia, Finn...I am taking lessons and things are okay now" etc.) but that is left either as legitimate and Brittany got the highest score or it's going to be part of something else.
The worst part of it is that it impacts on the New York storyline which makes it so rushed that it doesn't feel like a proper story arc is being told. The whole NY storyline was so rushed through I didn't get a real sense of drama or tension from it. Santana and Quinn (who I think are both great) didn't have to be there and I'm sorry but the whole "Rachel is old friends with Quinn and Santana" thing is such crap. I thought it was crap when Quinn started giving Rachel advice in S3, I thought it was crap when Rachel gave Santana a photo of her to put in her locker...It's just crap! Its not founded!
Basically the NY storyline didn't meet my expectations of it (so naturally I am disappointed). Torn should have been sung later in the episode when Rachel actually had time to be "torn" over the decision. They had absolutely no reason to sing "Love Song"...I mean ABSOLUTELY none...it made absolutely zero sense...zero!
The problems is that they never bothered to give Rachel friends outside of Kurt and Finn. She might have had something with Mercedes potentially but that wasn't exactly invested in properly so now they have to tack on Quinn and Santana and pretend like they didn't hate Rachel's guts! It's going to continue to happen. The mistakes of S2 and S3 and the lack of investment in rich character background is going to keep on biting the new episodes in the ass.
Promo for "Diva": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7GjzYF3iyk
"I BLEW YOU AWAY!"
I agree about lovesong being completely pointless, but I do think it's believable about Quinn and Rachel, because since the end of season 2 they've been building up a bit of a friendship, but not with Santana, that seemed to be put in for the sake of having Santana there.
Rachel's topless storyline: Found torn very moving and strange to watch, only Rachel could sing a duet alone. You can see the tension with Kurt, he is going to kick off at some point! Can't say I blame him.
Men of Mckinley calender: Was ok, some good lines in there though, I did laugh at the 'shoulders just being your shoulders' conversation between Jake and Ryder. Also liked how they fitted in some male body issue story with Artie, people are too quick to assume men are happy to take their tops off anytime.Oh and I liked Finn being clever for once and blackmailing Sue!!
Actually just realised Kurt sang a duet by himself as well
New York: I quite liked Torn, though Lea Michele didn't really do anything new with the song and it's a fairly bland song. It just served to highlight for me that even though her new attitude is problematic, Rachel does look so much better now and has really matured since McKinley, which was inevitable.
But seriously, they brought Naya and Dianna back for 5 minutes of girl talk?! :rolleyes: Apart from it being completely unbelievable that they would both be able to drop everything to rush to New York when Kurt called (as if it was even believable that he'd call them at all...!), neither got any of their own plot development at all about from the world's biggest hint about Santana's future, and the fact that last time they saw each other Quinn and Santana hated each other was completely glossed over.
Despite that they still managed to put in the best performance of the episode. Love Story was completely pointless, but it served to highlight how good all 3 of them are, and it was great to see them singing together.
I don't think it's far-fetched that Santana or Quinn would come to see Rachel eventually (the far-fetched bit is how quickly they got there) - Santana and Rachel were friends by the end and mutually respected each other - that's growing up and maturing, which they both did, Santana especially, and Rachel's been supportive of her since her sexuality was made so public, so that's not surprising to me that they're friends. And Quinn and Rachel have been developing as friends since season 2, despite the poor writing, so that's not surprising either. It's clear that Quinn was there just because she hasn't been around for a while and people would start wondering if she'll be back, and Santana was there to foreshadow upcoming plots, but it was nice to see them both nevertheless.
I did find it surprising that we didn't get much of Kurt's reaction to Brody moving in though, although presumably it's part of the clear build-up to Kurt exploding at Rachel.
I thought the actual plotline was as usual a bit contrived, but preferred it in terms of the confidence-building for Sam at McKinley rather than Rachel's struggle. Though don't get me started on Brittany's test score...
Apart from Blaine helping Sam, I was bored by most of the McKinley stuff as usual. It's strange to say it, but for me the only good thing about McKinley now is Marley and Jake. I love them as a couple, loved their duet (A Thousand Years is one of my favourite songs) and thought their story was very sweet
Overall, not a terrible episode, but as usual the returning guests were underused (when is Naya actually going to be a regular again like she's supposed to be? :rolleyes: ) and seeing even a glimpse of Amber Riley and Dianna Agron made me nostalgic again for the original cast.
The Naked calender stuff was silly to the extreme and Sam's behaviour was annoying in parts but it was nice to see Blaine being a good friend nonetheless.
I'm impressed with how much Finn is managing to be both a) surprisingly competent b) not annoying and shockingly enough c) outsmarting Sue. I'm actually starting to like him as a character because of this.
Rachel and the movie thing wasn't too interesting but I'm starting to see why people seem to think Lea Michele only plays herself now.
Kurt did naff all in this episode. Might have been better not featuring him for once and Brody was kind of annoying too.
Loved Quinn/Santana returning in this one and the girls version of Love Song with Rachel's. Jake's take on Let Me Love You is actually better than the original itself.
Overall a fun episode, 8/10.
I often think Glee is much smarter than people give it credit for - like the coffee metaphor for Finn growing up. I wish there were still some invested critics covering the show who recognised it.
Sugar seemed to have vanished again though.
Agree with that, he really impressed me this episode and is fast becoming my favourite McKinley character.
Also noticed Sugar had disappeared again, Vanessa must have had the episode off.
I liked Jake's 'Let Me Love You'.
Loved the gang singing together at the end, reminded me of Glee of old.
The New York stuff was 'Meh'.
I wish the quality of this show would remain consistent.
Ah well, perhaps next week will be better - my Glee optimism is still invigorated from last week
I'd noticed the "coffee arc" and when he came so close to drinking it this week I yelled "Damn it Finn!!". I'm looking forward to him finally getting to accept coffee
As for your description of why "Love Song" works. I was vague aware of its nature as her record company trying to force her to write certain music and even if you don't know the backstory then the lyrics very clearly make it clear that its a story about being forced into doing something you don't want to do...
Two problems with that: 1. Nobody was forcing Rachel to do anything...literally nobody was forcing her. There was no pressure (other than that you might argue her career desperations put on her).
2. I sometimes think Glee can go SO subtle that it is unnoticed and therefore uncredited. A lot of Glees writing, especially in earlier episodes, was clever and adult, constantly riding the line between appropriate and innappropriate. They made references and jokes that you had to pay attention to and there was even the vaguest sense of continuity. The problem with that is that if you make something SO subtle that people don't notice it then there is no benefit because you just come across as crummy...
Like Brittany...both moronic and wonderfully brilliant.
I don't know, his exchange with Rachel and Brody could be seen as a bit of a set up for next week's episode, which is good as then their confrontation won't be one of those plots that's completely out of the blue.
I found Brody pretty gross and sleazy this episode.
Torn was great, although it made me want the 'old Rachel' back so much - it wasn't just the hair, makeup and clothes, even her mannerisms and the way she spoke seemed different. I never noticed it that much before but when you have both the 'old' and 'new' Rachel together, you can really see the difference.
Nice to see Quinn and Santana return, although I hardly buy that they're such good friends with Rachel. Love Song was pretty good but as I wasn't aware of the meaning behind it, it seemed incredibly random.
New York: Everything about it was A+ except for the random song choice for Rachel/Santana/Quinn to sing but their voices were phenomenal it didn't matter. I loved the hint that Santana will be moving there
I had no idea about the origins of that song but that's pretty damn cool and is rather clever for the show.
Currently the chart positions are:
[Torn #57] [Love Song #47] [This is the New Year #30] [A Thousand Years #23] [Let Me Love You #11]