Since I disagree with every review I've read of last night's episode so far, I'm writing my own.
First, it should be said that I LOVE Grease. My parents had the soundtrack on vinyl, it's one of my Mom's favorite movies. Even Grease 2, which is universally considered terrible, is a guilty pleasure for me, just because I get to see Frenchie and the Riddell High teachers again.
Now for the actual review of the episode.
Sue and Finn: First, I'm glad to see Mean Sue back. Her rampage through the hallway was classic Season 1. I also love her line about "I'm only saying what everyone else in America is thinking" regarding Finn leading the Glee Club. Schuester and the show's writers can say all they want that it's fine for Finn to lead Glee Club since it's an extracurricular activity and not a class (But Schue gives them homework, I don't remember ever getting homework from an extracurricular activity), but it's completely ridiculous that he would ask a barely 19 year old kid to take over a club rather than leaving any other qualified adult at that school in charge. List of possibles: Emma, Will's own fiancee, who's been involved with Glee in the past, chaperoning the club at Sectionals when Will was banned in Season 1 following the mattress incident. Coach Bieste, who co-directed West Side Story last year. Ricky Martin's character, David Martinez, who is an awesome singer and teacher, and last we knew should be teaching Spanish at McKinley. It's a lazy way to keep Cory Monteith involved in the show, even though Finn has no reason to be any place but in the tire shop. I love Finn, but his storyline is sad and full of holes.
NYADA and NY: It is ludicrous that Rachel and Kurt would have made the trip back to Ohio for one weekend. If the show ever bothered to give you a sense of what time of year it was, they could justify some of the graduates being around because it's fall break or Thanksgiving, etc. But since Glee only shows us a calendar at Christmas, Valentine's Day and Graduation, we just assume the graduates have nothing better to do that FLY HALFWAY ACROSS THE COUNTRY to hang out at their old school. (This also applies to having had Puck show up earlier in the season and of course, Mike and Mercedes being there now. Also having Amber Riley there and only having her sing back up on Hand Jive last week is like buying a gourmet cupcake to look at. And what happened to Sam and Mercedes? Not one scene together since she's come back? Seriously?)
The only NY plot that made sense to me, that everyone else has made yucky faces at is Cassandra July seducing Brody. It's college, not high school. If Brody's a Junior at NYADA then he's at least 20-21. He's got an insanely hot body and Cassandra July is a desperate mean old has-been. Kate Hudson has done a great job making her character thoroughly unlikeable. And her dance number with Brody was sexy. If you didn't see her tirade at Rachel coming at the end of the episode, then you haven't been paying attention.
Unique/Wade: I thought Unique not being able to play Rizzo in Grease was a total faceplant for this character. Finn warned Wade last week that he was going to take some heat for this, and he needed to be ready for it. Instead, he completely caved and didn't even try to argue with his parents and Sue when they wanted to pull him out of the musical. I do love Unique's voice though, so I was glad we didn't completely miss her take on "There Are Worse Things I Can Do" And as much as I love Santana, and agree that she made a great Rizzo, she would have been even more perfect if they had done Grease last year, when she was actually still a student at McKinley. And didn't Finn and Artie get any understudies? Did that few people audition for Grease?
Other New Characters: I like the Marley/Ryder/Jake triangle. All three of these characters are interesting and and I like hearing them sing, both separately and in combination. I really enjoyed the dialogue between Marley and Ryder this episode, and their performance of "You're the One That I Want" was great. Kitty - she's the perfect mean girl character, she's like Quinn Fabray without a soul. Her voice is only just passable though. It was cute on her duet with Jake last week, but I hated hearing her do "Sandra Dee." I would like her making alterations to Marley's costumes to be found out soon.
Old Glee Clubbers: The only reason Artie had lines in this episode is because he co-directed the musical. I generally think this season has neglected Tina, Artie, Sam and Britney horribly. They should be the ones leading the club now, rather than dragging back Finn and everyone else. Once someone gets out of Ohio, they should stay out. Britney's had one song so far this season, in the election episode, which she shared with Sam. I don't think Tina's had a solo this entire year, the only time we hear her sing on her own is during Call Me Maybe in the first episode. She and Artie also both did songs in the Britney 2.0 episode, but they were so completely unmemorable I had to go to Wikipedia to find that out.
Blaine/Kurt - Kurt's lines at the end about their relationship being over because he couldn't trust Blaine anymore rang sad and so true. Kurt has a developed a more adult understanding of relationships. Blaine's performance of Beauty School Drop-out was fantastic though, the best Grease number of the whole show. If anyone is going to portray a dreamy teen idol, Blaine is it. Also regarding that number, Sugar was the most adorable perfect Frenchie.
Song by Song rating - Scores of 1 - 10 - 10 being better than John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, and 1 being worse than Grease 2.
Greased Lightning - 8 - The cleaned up lyrics took me out of the performance
Sandra Dee at Slumber Party - 3 - I really don't like Kitty's voice, and it doesn't stand up to Stockard Channing's at all, not even if a partially deaf person was writing this review.
Beauty School Dropout - 10 - Blaine is amazing and can sing anything he wants.
Sandra Dee, Reprise - 9 - Marley knocked this one out of the park.
There Are Worse Things I Could Do - 9 - Santana's voice is perfect for Rizzo, and I like the three characters, Santana, Unique and Cassie singing it together at the end.
You're the One that I Want - 7 - The Marley/Ryder part was great, the Finn/Rachel part was so... 3 years ago. I know everyone wants to see the old cast singing and dancing together, but I wish they had gone back to the actual cast of the musical for the finale. The flashback Rachel sees makes sense, but not letting them finish the song that way.
I think that about covers it. I'm going to download the original Grease Soundtrack now so I can remember the actual words to Greased Lightning... I know it wasn't a honey wagon...
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