Glee – Season 1, Episode 3: “Acafellas”

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That creaking sound you hear just might be the sound of people jumping off the bandwagon after this episode. “So much going on! Introduction of lots of new characters! Scary! Give us the pilot episode over and over again!” But people, that’s never the way it goes, not with good shows, anyway. And this, y’all, is a good show.

So I welcomed the introduction of Will’s parents, especially Victor Garber as the Iron Dad (“I spent six months in the Hanoi Hilton” was dopeness but come on, Garber was so much harder as Jack Bristow in Alias) and Blowsy Alcoholic Mom (about whom more later). Sure, their story went nowhere except a brief “I’m chasing my dreams” toss-off, but it bodes well for the future to have Victor G. around.

And I welcomed the lightning introduction of Henry the Thumbless Shop Teacher, shoehorned in just so Will can start an a capella group made of male teachers. This move fits in with Will’s constant struggles about his own self-worth and manhood, but it also just gives Ryan Murphy the chance to show Matthew Morrison’s great singing. “I Want to Sex You Up” is a damnably fine song for them to be performing, as were “This Is How We Do It” and (my favorite) BBD’s “Poison.” Top shelf all of this, including the interactions between the different guys–Coach Ken, busting many moves!  At least for a while.

The first stumbles set in with the introduction of Puck to the group. So far, all we know about Puck are three things: (1) he’s an asshole jock with a mohawk and a sadistic streak; (2) he’s unnaturally attached to Finn, needling him and touching him about as much as Chad touches Troy in the “High School Musical” movies, WHICH IS A LOT; (3) nope, actually it was just two things after all. But now, suddenly, he’s a cougar-hunting boy-band wannabe? And we have to care about him? Jeez, just two episodes ago he wanted his friend to seriously injure a wheelchair-bound geek. Hard to keep up! Anyway, that performance ends up being a lot better than it should have been.

And there is another blip here, too, dealing with Kurt and Mercedes. I know just last week I was saying they needed more for the backup vocalist people to do, and now here I am complaining about it–which either makes me a hypocrite, or the only man who sees the situation correctly. But no one bought their one-sided romance, because Mercedes herself implies that she knows he’s gay before they even start going out. (“I don’t think I’m his type,” remember?) So why exactly WOULD she talk herself into loving him so much she gets to destroy his windshield? But at least it all led to Mercedes blasting out “Bust Your Windows” (backed by cheerleaders, natch), which was pretty fine indeed. The final coming-out scene was affecting but kinda DUH, OF COURSE HE IS, AND PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE ALREADY KNOWS.

Furthermore, Terri sucks and so does her pregnancy plotline, although I love the dramatic irony shown here with Will giving completely wrong-ass narration. Shows which trust their audiences usually go far. Then again, so did According to Jim….

But the main plots here were damn good ones. Rachel undercutting Will to hire the crazy choreographer, egged on by the cheerleaders and so vexing to Finn, had a great payoff when the dude ended up being the complete asshole they knew he was and they got to fire him and be all inspirational about being outsiders 4EVA. And Will realizing that he is better as a teacher than as a singer, or at least more important to more people, was kind of harsh but rewarding.

Yet, as usual with this show, it’s all the side stuff that is the most important. Great tidbits: Kurt’s tiara collection; “Sniff your armpits. That’s the smell of failure”; Quinn’s cryptic final statement; the thumbs-up cake; Josh Groban killing it with the comedy (he already showed this on 30 Rock, but there he wasn’t trying to do Blowsy Alcoholic moms); was Emma really scrubbing her tall phallic potted plant throughout that WHOLE scene?; the crowd reactions during the concert; the fact that their laconic Indian-seeming principal is named Mr. Figgins, which is not a new revelation but I didn’t mention it last time and it needed mentioning somewhere; the other school’s glee kids all throwing up from the intense workout from the choreographer; the fact that said choreographer is played by the same dude who was the “Duckface” kid that Stephanie Tanner defended/dissed on that one episode of Full House, and the fact that MY WIFE made that call.

Hope for next time: fewer things, deeper things. Funnier things. More glee competition. More Sue, more Emma, more everything. Is that too much to ask?

3 Comments

1. 

   Sandra

   September 17, 2009 at 11:23 am

   Dakota, the choreographer, was also the snarky little kid from Jurassic Park that bitches out Sam O’Neil for something about raptors at the beginning of the movie. How very random.

   Nice little recap – I’m hopelessly in love with this show already.

   Reply
2. 

   Damon Cap

   September 20, 2009 at 7:38 am

   I liked the episode and thought the Acafellas were great. My nitpick though was when Bust Your Windows was just busted out during the car wash. All the other music break out numbers fit the storyline, this was just out of the blue not within the actual story.

   Reply
3. 

   Ken

   September 20, 2009 at 5:37 pm

   I enjoyed “Acafellas”. If the Pilot was a “B+” and “Showmance” was an “A-”, the third episode was a solid “B”–a necessary “bridging” episode that further develops the characters and sets up the conflicts and plot points for the rest of the season. These sort of epsiodes are common in serialized entertainment, especially in new television shows like Glee as they establish the characters and find their voice.

   Reply