TV Review - Glee: Season 3 - Favorite Music, Vol. 2

Lea Michelle singing
"It's All Coming Back to Me Now"

What do you do when you have a hit TV series that's set in high school and the nature of the show dictates that it stay in high school forever, but the teenage characters are ones that you to follow forever? FOX's Glee, since the beginning, has been about Lima High's glee club, but, over the past three years we've fallen in love with Rachel, played by Lea Michelle, Finn, played by Cory Monteith, and Kurt, played by Chris Colfer. The problem is the three of them can't stay in high school longer than normal. Eventually, they'll graduate and then the producers have to make a choice. The show can continue to be what its original premise was or it can follow its most popular characters wherever they go.

The final episode of Season 3, which aired May 22, was the graduation and the way it ended indicated Season 4 might try to have its cake and eat it too. This show isn't like Boston Public. It's never really been about the lives of the teachers. The only teacher for which the show cares is Will Shuester, played by Matthew Morrison, and Season 3 exhausted what little direction that character could go. The writers are clever and I'm sure they'll come up with something, but I really hope that Season 4 will hit the reset button and introduce a freshness that this past year lacked.

The first half of Season 3 had some really good musical numbers and performances from the cast. Aside from the Whitney Houston tribute, most of the numbers in the second half of Season 3, which I'm calling volume 2, have been forgettable. Even the Michael Jackson tribute was kind of lame. Out of the 13 episodes in volume 2, each with several numbers, it was difficult for me to find five that I felt were worth listing, but here I go.

#5. NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE - performed by Dianna Agron, song from The Jackson 5, in the episode "Michael" - 1/31/12

#4. DANCE WITH SOMEBODY - performed by Heather Morris and Naya Rivera, song from Whitney Houston, in the episode "Dance With Somebody" - 4/24/12

#3. BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME - performed by Jenna Ushkowitz, song from Celine Dion, in the episode "Props" - 5/15/12

#2. IT'S ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOW - performed by Lea Michelle, song from Celine Dion, in the episode "Nationals" - 5/15/12

#1. I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU - performed by Amber Riley, song from Whitney Houston, in the episode "Heart" - 2/14/12