Glee Recap: Lea-Lovin'

Glee "Mattress" (6/10)

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl with a beautiful voice. She lived in a land called Broadway and sang for the joy of the American people. Then one day, as soon as it had come, it was gone. The girl left the street that had brought her joy, and she was exiled to a place that auto-tuned her voice and made her character unlikable. The evil writers strung her up and had her sing, then changed it into garbage for their own amusement. But, one day, the girl said "Screw this" and decided to rise above the petty and illogical writing, the awful mutilation of her voice, and her weak-vocally-and-acting-wise partner to produce television magic. And it was known throughout the world as the day Lea Michele saved Glee.

Okay, so that might be overkill, but there was still not a lot to latch on to in this episode. Oh no, they draw on Finn's face with marker! Oh no, Emma is still going to marry the fat dude (am I the only one who thought that already happened?)! Oh no, the quick-fire recap was rendered useless by the amount of material! Oh no, Matthew Morrison is starting to reveal that he's not that good of an actor! But, even through all that, Ms. Michele gave her best performance to date as Rachel Berry. So I'm dedicating this recap to all the GOOD things that happened at McKinnley High this week.

- While the auto-tune was as tragic as ever, the lip-synching was mostly on point.

- Apart from the cheesy "I WILL talk to Figgins!" declaration from Will, the first scene was well-shot, well-written, and show-cased Jane Lynch's deadpan comedy nicely. The line about her not needing tear ducts actually got a chuckle from me. Between that, Sue's corner, and her comments to Quinn, this was a great episode for Lynch.

- Rachel singing Smile might have been drastically over-produced, but it was still enjoyable and fun to watch/hear. Again, kudos to Lea for making the best out of a bunk situation.

- Getting to the commercial was much less forced than plots in episodes past.

- If you take the mattress scene at face value, it was a pretty awesome musical number. The choreography and such was done very well. Even though I wish they hadn't given the exposition about "performing" (as if they could learn all that in fifteen minutes) it was a solid "movie musical" song.

- The way Will found out about Terri's non-pregnancy was totally legit. I expected some big soap opera moment where she told someone who told someone who told him, but this was a very pleasant surprise. And strangely enough, the scene where he confronts his wife is a much better vehicle for her. Gilsig is a powerful actress, and this plot point showed just how incredible she is. This scene was also logical and well-thought out.

- I'm not sure why the company would pay them in mattresses, but it sure made for a convenient segue.

- We got a Big Bang Theory cross-over with the photographer!

All in all, this was a decent hour of television. Which means it was a huge comeback from the last two weeks. Here's hoping Glee can continue this ascension into the mid-season finale.