TV Review - Glee: Season 4 - Favorite Music

The cast of GLEE as superheroes
in episode "Dynamic Duets"

Glee has been bifurcated. It's now bi-coastal. Half the show is done in Los Angeles, acting as Lima, Ohio. The other half is done in New York City, acting as New York City. The stuff in New York is competing with NBC's Smash, while the stuff in Los Angeles is trying to reinvent but constantly falls on nostalgia. The story lines are always hit or miss. Having Finn become the head of Glee club is probably the best move that the series made all year, while episode 7, the superhero episode, is by far the best individual broadcast the show has done all year.

The show always gets away with some great one-liners and gags. The parody of Chris Crocker was fun. The self-mocking line that no one on the show lip-syncs was similarly fun. Blaine and Kurt hate-watch Treme. Sam's impressions are above many of the current cast of SNL. Sue Sylvester attacks gay television and Wade's gender confusion. All of the ridiculous costumes in the superhero episode had me laughing, and there's great Prometheus and Marley & Me jokes.

Out of the first ten episodes of Season 4, there have been dozens of musical performances, again all covers of popular songs, Top 40 radio as well as numbers from Grease. Those show tunes, as imagined in episodes 5 and 6, weren't as good as last year's West Side Story or The Rocky Horror Show, the year before that. Yes, it could be argued that the numbers are getting progressively worse, but there are still plenty that I enjoyed.

#6. "FELIZ NAVIDAD" - performed by Kevin McHale, song by José Feliciano, in the episode "Glee, Actually"

#5. "3" - performed by Jenna Ushkowitz, Chord Overstreet and Samuel Larsen, song by Britney Spears, in episode "Britney 2.0"

#4. "OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN" - performed by Lea Michelle, song by Britney Spears, in episode "Britney 2.0"

#3. "BORN TO HAND JIVE" - performed by Amber Riley, Jacob Artist, Melissa Benoist, Blake Jenner and Becca Tobin, song from Grease, in episode "The Role You Were Born to Play"

#2. "THE SCIENTIST" - performed by entire cast, song by Coldplay, in episode "The Break Up"

#1. "TEENAGE DREAM (ACOUSTIC)" - performed by Darren Criss, song by Katy Perry, in episode "The Break Up"