Glee is back and its first episode, "Auditions," brought a promising feeling for the success of its sophomore season.
The key, it seems, is to give Jane Lynch (who plays cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester) as much screen time as possible. The moments in this episode with her were consistently the funniest, as were her lines of dialogue.
For example, when explaining to Will Scheuster (Matthew Morrison) about how his glee club, New Directions, should have tryouts instead of accepting everyone, she presents a court summons for child endangerment. Students have been in line for her tryouts since the summer.
"One girl ate a pigeon," she said, "and several others started worshipping a possum carcass as their lord."
The writers found a great plot for Will and Sue in "Auditons," by having them team up against a new deep-voiced big-boned football coach, Shannon Beiste.
Their - and our - introduction to Beiste is seeing her triumphant in Principal Figgins' office after Figgins tells Will and Sue that their budgets are being slashed by ten percent in order to fund athletics.
What follows is a team effort of sabotage by Will and Sue against Beiste, which leads eventually to her breaking down in tears.
Beiste's presence also affects Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) who goes in one episode from being the star quarterback to cut off the team. All last season we saw Finn's confidence in himself rise, especially in terms of being the star of glee. But after being cut from the football team, Finn tells his girlfriend Rachel (Lea Michele) that, "I'm not the quarterback anymore. I'm just another glee loser."
Finn's ex-girlfriend Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) has already felt the sting of being demoted from the top of the school's totem pole. Last year when she got pregnant, she was kicked off the Cheerios, where she had been head cheerleader. But after feeling down about herself and her lowered status, she found confidence in her talents as a singer and her new family in the glee club.
But in "Auditions," Quinn is seen putting on the Cheerios' uniform once again and as she struts down the hall, it is obvious that she has chosen her old self again and likes the attention she gets as the head cheerleader.
Rachel is desperate to cling to her role as lead female star of the glee club. She is so desperate, in fact, that she deliberately sabotages an effort made by an eager new student, Sunshine Corazon (Charice).
To say Sunshine can sing is an understatement. It was apparent during a slightly awkward duo of "Telephone" by Rachel and her in the girl's bathroom. But for anyone that had doubts about her talent, she proved how sensational her voice is during her audition for the glee club. With her song of choice, "Listen" from the movie "Dream Girls," she delivered a truly stunning performance and in my opinion the best song of the episode.
But Rachel is intimidated by Sunshine's talent and in the end that is what pushes Sunshine away. In a shocking twist at the conclusion of the episode, it is revealed that the new star talent will not be singing with New Directions, but rather with their arch nemesis Vocal Adrenaline.
Finn attempts to recruit a new football player, Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), to the glee club. Sam performs Travie McCoy's "Billionaire" with the guys in the club, and sings great. But after seeing Finn get kicked off the team, he declines to audition saying he "doesn't want to start [as a new kid] three touchdowns behind." Instead, he is the team's new quarterback, taking over Finn's position.
The songs in this episode were decent, but "Listen" was clearly the success. Between "Billionaire" and Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," there was a lot of rapping in the episode, mostly done by Artie, a handicapped student whose girlfriend Tina just broke up with him for another member of the group.
One of the best parts of the episode was the opening sequence in which an annoying nerdy journalist named Jacob Ben Israel grills the glee club members and supervisor about their summer. It seemed to be a parody of many questions that the actors or producers of "Glee" may have gotten themselves. For instance, Jacob asks Rachel if she believes she is "hard to work with," which is most certainly a reference to the rumors of actress Lea Michele being difficult on set.
After the success of last year's Madonna-themed episode, the glee cast will be performing Britney Spears' songs next week. As long as they make sure to balance the singing and drama with Sue Sylvester sub-plots, I think this episode and the coming ones will be a success.