I put this theory out on Twitter this morning, and I’ll mention it again here, because I enjoy writing about Glee for some reason. Anyway, it struck me as I was watching last night’s episode, “Duets,” that continuity on Glee is kind of like the DC universe just after “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” By that, I mean that it’s intermittent, sometimes functional, and dependent on who’s writing at any given moment.
“Duets” is one of the good-continuity Glee episodes, in that characters remember things that have happened and behave in ways that indicate they learned something from those experiences. That’s a good thing, because Glee is rarely more frustrating than when it ignores character continuity for a passing joke or punchy scene. But, as I’ve mentioned before, Ryan Murphy’s attention span is a fleeting thing. (The celebrity-centric episodes like “Britney/Brittany” are sort of like line-wide crossovers where every character [or comic] gets wedged into a storyline or tone that doesn’t necessarily make sense for them.) So we really should just enjoy the good bits of episodes like “Duets” and tolerate the rest.
Some more specific thoughts after the jump:
Tina was right when she called Artie a horrible boyfriend. But he’s a horrible boyfriend in ways that sort of make sense for him or at least are consistent.
Rachel didn’t make me deeply uncomfortable last night, and it’s because she behaved in ways that reflect the things she’s been through during the past year’s episodes. I remembered why I liked her, and I thought she and Finn were kind of cute together, which isn’t normally my reaction.
Quinn owned the episode for me, and I thought Dianna Agron was perfectly lovely throughout. Again, the writers allowed her behavior and choices to reflect a year’s worth of experiences, and she reminded me why I find her the most interesting character on the show. I thought she and Sam had nice chemistry and sang well together, and I hope the characters can still be friends… y’know… after.
I adore Kurt, but I’m glad Finn called him on his stalk-y nonsense. I’m annoyed that Finn encouraged other characters to closet up so they could make it through life, but I was with him earlier in the episode. I didn’t think that number from Victor/Victoria really expressed any duality, but maybe “The Ballad of Lucy and Jessie” from Follies was too long and difficult to edit due to those marvelously Sondheim-ian lyrics.
Aside from the extremely awkwardly staged make-out scene with Brittany, I loved Santana a lot, and I thought her duet with Mercedes was the musical highlight of the episode. There’s really no way they wouldn’t have won that gift certificate in a fair contest, which Mr. Schue is incapable of staging.
I thought I would miss Sue Sylvester more, but there was a lot going on and some nicely divided focus on several characters, so her absence was tolerable. Puck better be back in the next episode, or I will cut someone.
