Glee

I was expecting so much from this episode...and now I can't describe my feelings...I've watched it twice to make my opinion but still it's hard.



Some parts were pure genius like the duet between Ryan Brian (love that name by the way!) and Will. They were good and really into the song. I think the best part of the show was when Artie was dreaming about him dancing at the mall. It was really a nice piece of dancing and he deserve his solo! The filming was so great it was like so real! with the camera and cell phones images. I was thinking they went to a mall and just shoot that scene in the middle of the crowd.

The final song was great to as always...



The Rachel story line was nice because for once she was really herself and not in total control for trying to be a star. It shows that despite she's got a good opinion of herself she is fragile too. Shelby Corcoran is her mother???? Really that is so huge, it's unbelievable, no??? I though that she was using Jesse from the beginning but to put her down and win regionals. But using Jesse to make Rachel to want to find her biological mother is a strange??? because I think soon or late Jesse is going to break her heart. There is more behind this storyline I think. But the good thing of this is the duet between Indina Menzel and Lea Michele.



The theme of the episode : Dreams for the future made me think a lot. I think it was really a special episode not cheesy at all but more about introspection what do we really want for our future and that dreams are making us alive, it's the light, the hope...

Well, if you have been watching CBS' How I Met Your Mother or probably the Harold and Kumar series, it is really really hard to take Neil Patrick Harris seriously. Somehow, he didn't really strike to me a Glee-guest-star worthy material. Dream On was a really bad song choice and NPH voice didn't really pull that song off.



I enjoyed the storyline involving Artie and Tina. We already had an episode with Artie facing the reality of living on a wheel chair, unable to dance and all kinda sad stuff. But this time it was good, with a dream sequence where he dances in a mall in a world where his legs work. This also fits perfectly into the scheme of things where the writers want to focus on one character per episode. With that said, I would love to see an episode on Brittany (god, I missed her one liners this week!).



The best part of this episode was Idina making her singing debut with a duet rendition of I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables. Yes, that song which made Susan Boyle famous. As much as I hate to say, I thought Lea sounded better than Idina. Hopefully, we get a solo sometime soon.



Good episode, not a spectacular one though.

WOW, I had, of course, noticed Artie's (Kevins') talent for singing and his amazing ability to look as if he's always been in the chair (because IRL he can walk) but holy hell!! NOW I'm VERY disappointed this actor was cast as permanantly physically disabled. KEVIN CAN DANCE!!! The mall scene was incredible!! I haven't researched it enough, but was it filmed line? Like, in the mall with randoms who didn't know it was happening, because some of those extras looked genuinely surprised by what was going on. Regardless, it was a brilliant scene and I couldn't ehlp dancing around my living room in my pj's. LOL



THe developong Rachel/Jesse/Vocal Adrenline storyline just got incredibly juicy and I'm BUSTINGto see the next episode!!!

in this episode an Auditor arrives to speak to the Gleek and auditor is call Bryan Ryan? but the great thing is that Bryan Ryan is play by Neil Patrick Harris! and Bryan turns out to be a Glee club memeber and Will's high school Rival. later Bryan has everyone write down there biggest dream and he rips up Arties' rude! and we learn that Artie's biggest dream is to be a dancer but he can't since he is in a wheelchair and the best thing about this episode is that in a fancy dream we see Artie dance and he has awesome moves and later we learn that Rachel's dream is to find her mom and to think that Shelby the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, is reveals to Rachel's biological mom! but due to a agreement with Rachel's two dad that prevents her from meeting with Rachel intill she is 18. and another best thing about this episode is that Will sings dream on with Bryan and NPH has an awesome voice he doesn't do that on How I met your mother or does he?

So this was it: the awaited Joss Whedon directed episode. Ok, it's directed, he's not in there for the book. So we need to distinguish. Furthermore: NPH. Tri-stinguish.

Just a scene here:



For the directing, well, S06E07 is way back but mass scenes are something for Joss. I _loved_ the intercuts on Arty's "Safety Dance" for the extra flash mob-feeling. Really!



For the storytelling, it's just too cheesy. Huuh, I stand up and dance, just like that... oh, it was just a fantasy.

NPH: not in this shot, thanks.

sums up to: really?



And the mixed impressions can go on, I mean, how much pace did Rachel and Jesse got in this episode and what's the weird spin about it? I mean, Really?

It's not like characters are built-up, it's like they are just dropped down onto you. And the in-betweens the dropping are filled with (mostly good and sometimes great) performances, dance- and vocal-wise.



12-13 "kids" and some "adults" can not be told in around 45 minutes minus all the singing and dancing. And even boiling it down to some main characters and side-kicks won't work for too long: still not enough time to get people identified with the characters instead awaiting the next show element. And those will get more diverse to address accumulating more different watchers.



Hell, Glee needs a spin-off for the characters. If not, it's just a staged Superstars/Big Brother in Highschool.

Well, there's never been anything directed by Joss Whedon and starring Neil Patrick Harris which didn't turn out to be awesome (Dr Horrible's Sing-along-blog, anyone?), so I had very high expectations for this episode. Good news is that it mostly delivered. Bear in mind Glee has been going downhill since the mid-season break, most of the episodes after the amazing Sectionals fell flat on their faces, both in terms of the drama and entertainment they delivered as well as the songs they featured, so this episode came in as a breath of fresh air in order to lift Glee back up to where it deserves to be. NPH's performance on Dream On was simply amazing, hitting all the high notes effortlessly, it was so good to see him let loose on such a fine song.



Then we had Arty's fantasy dance sequence, which I simply adored. Safety Dance is one of my favourite songs, I retain fond memories of dancing to it in my teenage years. Plus, I'm of the opinion that Kevin McHale is one of the finest dancers of his generation (check out his videos on YouTube if you don't believe me), so I was initially very disappointed to see he was cast in Glee as a character who was permanently bound to a wheelchair. This dream sequence totally made me smile and giggle in, well, glee. Wow, that boy can sure dance.



Ever since the rumours about Idina Menzel getting cast as a guest star in Glee were confirmed, the fans had been speculating she might turn out to play Rachel's biological mother, due to the startling resemblance of the two actresses. Loving that storyline. Their duet was a true showstopper: two spectacular singers doing what they do best.



All in all, the best episode of Glee since, well, Sectionals for me. Right up there with the awesome Pilot episode...

Whedon's directing captured the esence of the show - the music. The camera didn't just record the picture - it was magically floating and being part of the performance. Not only that, Neil Patrick Harris did an awesome job, both acting and singing. Now I would really want him to quit HIMYM (don't get me wrong, I love NPH as Barney) and join as a reccurent cast member.

The story was also amazing, the subject of ones dreams is always great to watch. Here we saw three storylines - Will/Bryan, Rachels and Artie's. Will and Bryan, two old pals that had dreams about their future. Rachel was searching for her lost mother and Artie... with Artie I think we were just shown the world by his eyes, 'specially with "Safety Dance". The dialogs were mature and enjoyable, from start to finish.

Joss, Neil, please come back for an encore and maybe, just maybe, stay here forever.

Bryan. Ryan.

Genius.

I was on board from the word go with this one, and the much anticipated Neil Patrick Harris/Joss Whedon episode totally delivered!



The rivalry between NPH's Bryan and Will Shuester was a fantastic touch, that keeps the Glee club teacher's personal life just as interesting as any of the kids'. The flashback to Shue's own High School glee club days were awesome. The chemistry between the two actors throughout the episode was just fantastic. And that duet? As good -IF NOT BETTER- than Aerosmith's original classic! Yes, I would go that far.



From a directorial standpoint, even if you didn't know who was directing this episode, it is easy to tell that Dream On just 'feels' a little bit stronger than previous Glee episodes. The pacing is just that much sharper, the dialogue more polished. Almost every scene, from Artie and Emma at counseling (heartbreaker) to Ryan and Sylvester's confrontation (arousing) was funnier or more emotional than what we're used to getting. Everything was just overall...better than usual. From a storytelling standpoint I thought the way they handled the theme of holding on to your dreams was phenomenal. I defy anyone to not be a little inspired to re-pursue whatever life-long goal slipped away from them after watching this. The story also did a good job of acknowledging how hard it is to make these things come true, and how high the failure rate is. And how cheesy/foolish it seems to never give up hope. Between the poignant story of Artie's wheelchair condition, Rachel's search for her mom, and the two former glee club rivals where it never panned out, this entry has a lot going for it. If I had any criticisms, they are minor. I always like to get a little more from all the players, and Kurt, Finn, Puck, Quinn, and Mercedes had virtually nothing to do. Also, there were moments in the Rachel-searches-for-her-mom plot that didn't seem very original. Including the fact that, well, Rachel is searching for her mom. (When are we going to meet these 2 dads we've been hearing so much about?) I did think is was perfect that Shelby turned out to be Rachel's mother. I remember saying a few episodes ago how much they looked alike.



"Piano Man" by Billy Joel.

A fun juke box, karaoke style to it- I don't think we've ever seen anyone sing a song on this show where the original vocals were still left in.

Grade: B



"Dream On" by Aerosmith.

Nothing more to add to what I stated earlier. Except that Will sounded great, and watching NPH let loose was a pleasure. Way to sell the hell out of this rivalry, guys! Grade: A+



"Saftey Dance" by Men Without Hats.

Mmm...Not terribly into this one. I appreciated the scope of the number, and I even spotted a dude from America's Best Dance Crew's 'Heavy Impact', dancing in the group, but the whole thing was overtly silly. A dream sequence in an episode called 'Dream On' makes plenty sense, but this one suffers from what many weak fantasy sequences do: its done in a way that feels random and out of place. Basically, if this scene was cut, we wouldn't have missed a thing.

Also, I hate this song.

Grade: C- "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables.

I gotta say, they finally got me. I choked up the instant whatsherface started singing on the tape. Glee tends to always be overly sentemental in the last number, but there was something about this one that really worked. I give credit to Lea Michele's emotional performance. and to excellent vocals all around.

Grade: A+ "Dream a little Dream" by Mamas & Papas

I love Artie's voice. A touching solo for him as he watched his girl Tina dance with Mike Chang (He has a name! Now if only he could speak!). Could he lose her to a new romance? That might be interesting.

Grade B

One word: wow! I thought this episode was great on so many levels! Loved Artie's dream sequence...Thought it was genius and man, can that boy dance! Loved they finally showed that Shelby is Rachel's bio mom. I was actually a little surprised by this...I thought with all the chatter about the resemblence between the two that the writers would not go there, but I'm glad they did! I think it adds another level to Rachel's story line. Neil Patrick Harris was good. I wouldn't say the best guest star ever, but he was alright. He sure can sing/dance! I also loved Sue's line about having a secret room like David Letterman...hilarious! This episode did not disappoint!

Who woulda guess?



I was almost giving up on Glee after the last few episodes. I always assumed, if you're not a teenage girl nor a middle aged mama on a search for a family show, the whole "let's start singing outta nowhere for no apparent reason in sight" shenanigans is a bit too much to handle. And Glee has been cruising on this road for some time now since it's been back from its break.



What this episode showed us is that it is indeed possible to make a Glee club musical tv show without being jaded.



The writing was surprisingly better than we've seen before. And was not all about "what is the most stupid funny thing Heather Morris can possibly pull off" or "can Sue be any meaner than this" like we've grown used to expect, this writing had actually GOOD creative decisions.



You don't need a stage and microphones [or an ice rink, for that matter] to get a duet, Kristin Chenoweth. You just need two old and drunk high school friends at a bar on a nostalgic beer trip. See? No cheese.



Artie's dancing number was another high high in this episode. Didn't know he had it in him, and again: no cheese. It's nice to see that the kid can be a lot more real than we've seen since Glee came around. I had doubts they had the chops to deal with this matter with any kind of honesty since it's mostly an "up and go, sun is shining" spirit show and, let's face it, being in a wheelchair is just down right depressing. But they did it. Let the kid fall face flat on the floor just when he's trying to reach further with all he's got, and there is where you've got something real. Joss taught me that. We'll feel for him, we'll hurt along with him, cause it's real!



Major props to the writer and Kevin McHale on this one.



NPH... What can I say? It's Neil. And Aerosmith. Enough said.



To finish this up, just gotta mention the work of my personal guru, Joss. Great job done. Wouldn't have asked for a better episode. My expectations were so high and he managed to fulfill them all. Once again, thank you for one more great hour of television.

As a fan of the show I could feel his spirit in every scene. I was moved to tears several times throughout the episode. He did exactly what I would have with the episode if I was the director.The revelation that Jesse actually has feelings for Rachael and that Shelby (Vocal Adrenaline's Coach-Idina Menzel) Is actually Rachel's mom and then they sang together I couldn't stop the tears flowing. Artie's mall dance break fantasy sequence broke my heart when I saw it was only a dream! I wish he would walk again for real.Kevin McHale is a fantastic dancer and a real asset to the show. Cons: Tina didn't sing ( I would like some of the fringe characters to get some solo songs too!) Like Brittney she needs a solo, everyone else has had one it's her turn to shine! In conclusion I hope NPH will return to do more cameos because I loved his performance and I thought it was hysterically funny when him and Sue were plotting to shag!