‘Glee’-Cap 1.18: The Sex Shark’s Gotta Swim, Baby

The award for best line in this week’s ‘Glee’ goes to Puck: “I’m a sex shark. If I stop moving, I die.” Classy.

Question for readers: Is U2 really considered “Classic Rock” now? Geezus, this show makes me feel old sometimes.

Anyway, episode ‘Laryngitis’ is all about being broken down and built back up. Rachel loses her voice (while singing an awful Miley Cyrus song; how appropriate) and worries that having her tonsils removed will affect her ability to sing. If she can’t sing, just what is she worth as a human being?

Puck shaves his mohawk and immediately loses his mojo. Even the nerds are no longer afraid of him. His plan to move back up in the social strata is to date Mercedes, because she’s suddenly popular, and it’s always a good idea to date a popular girl. She’s having none of it at first, but eventually sees some benefit in the relationship. This most odd of pairings leads to a showdown with jealous Santana, and a dueling duet to “The Boy is Mine.”

Speaking of jealousy, Kurt is unhappy about all the time his father keeps spending with Finn. He decides to butch it up and… gasp!… date a girl to win back daddy’s attention. With John Mellencamp as his blue collar role model, he picks “Pink Houses” for the week’s glee club assignment. Of course, that may have something to do with a mistaken assumption that the song is about home decorating.

I think I’ve come to the conclusion that dimwit cheerleader Brittany is my favorite character. She rarely has much to say, much less sing, but each time she does get some dialogue, every line is a howler. Even her cutaway reaction shots are priceless. This week, she believes that Kurt has gone straight and assigns herself as his girlfriend, mainly so that she can complete her goal of making out with every guy in school. Their brief relationship is very, very funny.

Even without a major storyline for Sue, ‘Laryngitis’ is a quite entertaining episode. The musical numbers are a lot of fun, and the lip synching (though still obvious) isn’t quite as pronounced or distracting as last week.

It can be argued that the episode is a little heavy-handed. Mr. Schuester even says directly that he wants the students to find their voices. And the song choices are perhaps a little too on-the-nose. This hits its zenith when Finn, who’s decided that he wants to win Rachel back from new boyfriend Jesse, actually sings “Jesse’s Girl” in front of the class. Real subtle. I’m pretty sure that the entire storyline about Jesse was written just to lead to that joke.

No matter, the show’s hokey sincerity and lack of irony are refreshing in today’s TV landscape. The series makes them work as strengths. The final scene between Kurt and his dad, as blatant a tear-jerker as it may be, is just wonderful. Really, we need more like this on television.

Next week, Neil Patrick Harris guest stars! That’s going to be legen… wait for it…

2 comments

  1. amoni

    My favorite line was when Puck enters the room sans mohawak and Brittany whispers “Who’s that guy?”. Kurt brilliantly nailed his song “Roses Turn”.

  2. Tim

    I too thought that the Jessie character was given that name just so they could do this song a few episodes later.

    I have been entertained by the recent post-hiatus episodes, but I’m disappointed in the musical numbers. There haven’t been any standout numbers like “Don’t Stop Believin'”, “Defying Gravity”, “Keep Holding On”, and so forth. But, it’s early. I’m hoping for a big finish.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *