Glee

An amazing tribute to one the greatest artist ever existed. She has inspired many generations with her positive attitude towards life and be true to oneself.

From beginning to end it was a fun show to watch. It was funny, dramatic and insightful. The way the incorporated Madonna's songs into the plot was genious. The performances were top notch and pace was very fast.

Sue Sylevester was able to show some vulnerability and every character tried to go deeper into their relationships but failed to come out with good results. That's life, you try and try until you get what you want. Like Madonna!

Everybody did an excellent job.

I've never been a fan of Madonna... Never. But this episode was excellent, with powerful performances and the great and sarcastic remarks by Sue Sylvester.



One thing I like about Glee is that the songs performed by the young cast have a very good quality due to the great voices and the experience some of them have, especially Lea Michele. Besides, the cast has a lot of chemistry and that makes the show fun to watch.



The 'virgins' scenes were hot. I never thought Finn was going to go through it, but well, I guess it was expected, since he is after all, a guy.



The mash up and the last song were amazing. The choir, the new kid, the cheerios number and the very common boy vs. girl struggle, makes this episode a classic.

Pre-hiatus, I was obsessed with Glee. Needless to say I was disappointed when the show finally came on again. The last episode was blah, this episode inspired in me such a burning hatred for this show and what it has become and everyone involved with it that I barely understand what I'm feeling. Glee is dead to me, and I refuse to watch another episode of this trash. Gone are the days when the music was solely an aid to the storyline and not just a lousy gimmick. Here, there's a music video every two minutes, a misguided idea by the creators that the reason anyone watches this show is for the musical numbers and so must include a dozen of them each episode in a sad attempt to build ratings, no matter how boring and poorly inserted they are. Characters randomly breaking out into song, complete with scene and costume changes, is not entertainment, its karaoke. I honestly can't remember a single thing they sang. I remember hearing Papa Don't Preach (Madonna right?), but then I realize it was from a much earlier episode. Why do I remember THAT scene? Because it had a point and enforced a solid theme pertaining to a character, which made it memorable. With all these crappy dance numbers, there's no room for development anyway. Numbers like "Express Yourself" falls flat because of how little relevance the song's message has for the characters and the storyline, which brings me to my next point. In their mad dash to "fashion" some character development, they ended up ramming the characters into a wall. The result is artificial and ridiculous. The theme of the episode is feminine empowerment, or something, and like the staff just fished for topics out of a bowl, the entire episode is just one randomly chosen theme that the plot must revolve around (not the other way around) in a desperate bid to be clever and thematic, a trillion times worse than what they did in Hairography by repeating the word "distraction" a gazillion times. The male characters are now misogynistic (they massacred Artie, for no apparent reason), the females are now insecure, and Sue now has a dumbfounding obsession with Madonna that is bolstered to such an insane intensity that we wonder why she never once even mentioned Madonna before this episode, let alone acting like she's the centerpoint of her existence. Not a single thing about this makes sense, and the guys singing about being girls was just bizarre. There's also less logic to go around than usual for the sake of "character development". Sue is an unapologetic psycho who has tried again and again to destroy the glee club, and then someone insults her hair (HER HAIR?!?!) and suddenly Kurt and Mercedes want to be her friends? Even join the Cheerios?? Why??? How could anyone think this makes any sense? This isn't the only leap of logic in this miserable episode, but its by far the worst. Second being Rachel's boyfriend, member of a rival troupe from another school, joining their glee club for TWU LUV LOLZ. Oh yeah, that was an unpredictable, original and completely sensical thing for a person to do and he won't totally become another spy, a storyline we've already dealt with in this show. While the show has never been as witty or as hilarious as it thinks it is, not a single joke in this episode has worked. Its the same brand of one-liners that we've gotten used to with the show, but now they've just become bland and a cheap attempt at giggles. While I'm sure the writers thought it would be amusing (for the audience? who knows) for the show to acknowledge that the "hair gel" jokes have long since passed their expiration date, it doesn't change the fact that they are boring and lazy and really should just die already. The rest of the "humor" are flatliners, going past desperation to mention Ann Coulter. Seriously folks, Ann Freakin Coulter. You do know your main audience are teenagers right? And in what universe is a clearly faked photo of two people in bed (one with clothes on) usable as blackmail? And no, there's no way Sue would EVER consider a furry coned bra as a viable image choice. Its not even funny, so what's the point of this? And finally there's the Madonna theme itself, less a tribute and more a...um...I'm not really sure what this is. Who under the age of 20 gives a crap about Madonna? Why would they make an episode solely designed to lick her boots? Did she pay them to go on and on about her for 40 minutes on a failing tv show? There's just no way for this not to be a gimmick. Sue's unfathomable obsession that's only decided to manifest itself for this one episode, the idea that playing her songs at all hours through the intercom in a school while kids are in class isn't disruptive and possibly breaking some laws, Madonna impersonators walking around in a high school, an unjustifiably creepy and overlong Vogue video with Sue looking a like a robot with a wind machine that serves no purpose in anything. This is an unbearably bad episode that not even Madonna fans should appreciate. Its gimmicky to the core, and only proves that anything good and original that catches even a bit of attention will have people make stupid choices just to prolong it. Glee was doing fine, I dont understand why they had to do this. It was a fresh show with great characters that used music creatively and purposefully. Now its just another High School Musical. After only two hopeless episodes, I'm done with this crapfest. It was good while it lasted.

SELL OUT! It's official, FOX has ruined one of the shows I have really come to enjoy watching with my wife. This episode was merely one loosely tacked on plot fragment to not always correctly tie into a Madonna song. Not only that, but the "Vogue" music video was already shown LAST week so it felt really wasteful of screen time this episode. Lastly, Sue has really somehow become a caricature of herself these past two episodes and I fear that this show is running on borrowed time now that they have decided to turn the show into an itunes music sales commercial. Sadly, even Fox stated they would be ramping up the number of songs and promoting of artists with the show. Somewhere in a villa in Europe, Madonna is asking her agent why he/she ever talked her into this debacle.

Let's face it. Glee isn't always awesome. In fact, I think that the Acafellas episode is possibly one of the worst shows to ever on TV.



HOWEVER



When Glee is good, it's REALLY good.



And I thought "The Power of Madonna" was really good.



Even though I don't like Madonna, I think that they did a great job covering her music and made it a lot catchier than she did.



Examples:

Like a Prayer -- 5 out of 5 stars. Awesome.

Like a Virgin -- 4 out of 5 stars. Really good vocals.

4 Minutes -- 5 out of 5 stars. Incredible.



Although the sexism part of the story was eh... cheesy... other parts of the show were good. My favorite "dramatic part" was when Finn, Emma, and Rachel all had the opportunity to lose their virginities. Finn to Santana (one of the "Gleeks" who we basically know nothing about. We only know she's hot and a whore. That's it.), Emma to Schue (which SHOULD have happened, IMO), and Rachel to Jesse (which I knew wasn't going to happen.



I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole Finn and Santana sleeping together thing. Kind of random... and bad for his relationship with Rachel... but at the same time, it adds drama, which is good. Always. :))



I loved Sue in this episode. While others have said that it was unfitting to have her be so obsessed with Madonna, I absolutely loved it and found it hilarious.



Can't wait for the next episode.

I am totally aware I'm biased since I am just enamored with Cory Monteith, but everyone needs to stop hating on this episode. When Madonna gives you the okay to use her entire catalog how do you pass that up? No plot? Pretty sure there was. Sue's random obsession with Madonna? So they took some artistic liberties but it was still hysterical. The musical numbers were great. Jonathon Groff's addition made it even better. Blah blah blah he's obviously a spy for Vocal Adrenaline but who cares. The fact is the soundtrack is #1 on iTunes and two of the singles are in the top 20. Whether you like it or not the power of Madonna is undeniable, it doesn't matter if you like her music or not.

This was not what everyone expects of glee... Boring episode nothing exciting happen, SPOILER ALERT!!!

The only new changes are Mercedes and Kurt going with the cheerios, and Finn/Rachel characters are becoming -stupid-, Really this show needs to go back to roots or maybe we will not see a second season of it.



This was not what everyone expects of glee... Boring episode nothing exciting happen, SPOILER ALERT!!!

The only new changes are Mercedes and Kurt going with the cheerios, and Finn/Rachel characters are becoming -stupid-, Really this show needs to go back to roots or maybe we will not see a second season of it.

i think this one was one of my favorite episode this season. first of all, i love Madonna and all of her songs, and i love Glee so combined together have to make a good episode. i loved all the dance scenes in the episode but i think my favorite(just by a little bit though) was Like a prayer, i also watched the behind the scenes for this episode, and i thought it was really cute how amber (who plays Mercedes) got to sing with her mom onstage, even it's just a small part at the end, i still liked how they got to stand together and sing. i also loved the cheerleaders dance, and i thought the Vogue dance with sue was hilarious.

Empowerment of women, "boys" growing up and starting to act like "men", a Sue Sylvester make over!! What a fun and crazy episode, just what we love about Glee. I'm keen to learn the real story behind Jesse's introduction and courting of Rachel... is it to spy on New Directions? Is it just to get into Rachel's pants? Is he working a two part plan with his coach going after Will? Who know's, but this is going to be fun and juicy finding out!!



I just LOVE Emma!! She's so wonderful and sweet and beautiful and I'm not even sure Will deserves her, but they are hilariously fun to watch!

Normally after watching an episode of Glee the songs get stuck in my head & I watch the episode again & again just to see the song & dance numbers. Not to mention I laugh over small comments or pick up little bits I missed the first time I saw the episode & OK,I admit it, I like early Madonna. She really hit it big when I was younger & I grew up listening to some of her early hits & normally I wouldn't mind an episode using all Madonna songs but that's when the songs support the story rather than setting a CD of Madonna's greatest hits to an episode of Glee. Needless to say, that hasn't happened with this episode. There wasn't anything new added to these versions of the songs so basically these were the same songs I grew up with. If the songs had been organically woven into the story it would have been different. For example, "Express Yourself" would have been fine as an example of female empowerment but to suddenly jump from the choir room to the stage, not to mention in costume & with fully choereographed routines (which by the way, what trimester is Quinn in anyway? How did she do all that dancing pregnant) just seemed to be too much of a gimmick. Too bad they already used "Papa Don't Preach" earlier in the season, that would have been a perfect example of using a Madonna song to illustrate a point while moving the story along. Compare this to say Artie's rendition of "Dancing With Myself" which seemed to give a new perspective of the challenges he faced without feeling forced or cheesy. On the contrary, it felt sweet & touching. And the "Vogue" video was such an obvious ripoff. Sue Sylvester spends every episode making everyone's life hell but as soon as Will makes a couple comments back, she crumbles? Hardly realistic. If she can't take it, then she isn't the tough character she has been shown to be so far & she shouldn't be dishing it out. Also, the guys singing about being a girl made me about as uncomfortable as it did Puck & I am female. Finally, an episode about female empowerment should not have fallen into the ultimate of sexist cliches, even if it was to show the effects of casual sex. The girls don't go through losing their virginity but the guy does, even though he felt nothing because it meant nothing? Isn't this the stereotypical cliche that good girls don't while boys are supposed to get "experience"?



There was so much wrong with this episode, I can't begin to critique it all. From the cheap Madonna imitators in the hall (silly & stupid) to blasting Madonna through the speakers on a constant basis (blackmail or no blackmail, don't you think parents would complain & the Principal would have bigger issues than cheesy & fake-looking photos to worry about if that happened) to the nearly non-existent plot used to link Madonna songs together this episode was disappointing from the opening of a bedazzled Madonna journal to the last overproduced number. If you want to do a completely musical episode & still move the plot along, look to Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More With Feeling". That had constant song & dance numbers but managed to still move the plot along.

So I'm basically going to repeat what most of the reviews on here have said. The storyline for this episode was crap! Actually it was non-existant. Sue's obssession with Madonna was quite frankly...confusing. I know the episode was centered around Madonna but the whole "Madonna got me through tough times garbage" didn't suit Sue. The producers should not have leaked Sue's vogue scene because by the time I watching it, it was like old news. And is it just me or are the hair jokes getting old? I liked the first one about Shuester smelling like cookies wafting from ovens of little elves in his hair....other than that the jokes were a bust.



Lastly, I have to say that 4 minutes to save the world was the best song in terms of vocals. However, the whole cheerleading routine with the pep rally crowd reminded me of High School Musical and I had to hold down my vomit. I was practically snoozing when the girls did a rendition of "Express yourself". And Jesse is now enrolled in MacKinley High.....riiiiight. That was the final cherry on this head scratching episode.

The irony of using the Material Girl as the subject of this episode is that the show has obviously become material. As such, it has lost its innocence, and with it, its charm.



After last week's disappointing re-introduction to the show, I decided to give it another go. Yep, bigger audience means it has now become a bigger commodity, and as a commodity protecting of it then becomes the priority.



So out the window goes the story development, out the windows goes realism (for example, as Sue asked the Principal, "do you not understand the blackmail process and how that works?", I gotta ask, does she? The only evidence we've seen of blackmail material is a cell-phone photo she took of the both in bed together, in which she has her clothing on – something that an amateur could cook-up in Photoshop.) Out goes character development and growth.



To be replaced with ... what? Songs!



What the producers –who to their surprise have suddenly got a hit show- don't realise is, that if other fans are anything like me, then they don't watch this show for the music, for the singing, they watch it for the stories, for the characters, and that the singing is a pleasant by-product of their stories that we see unfolding before us.



In fact I hate musicals, I hated the "High School Musical" movies (which I was 'forced' to watch while entertaining my nieces and nephews.) I hate the unrealism of, in the middle of the drama people would spontaneously break out into song and choreographed dance. For me, there is nothing more jarring to the flow of an unfolding story.



So I never saw "Glee" as a musical TV series; they sang and danced as part of their Glee Club membership, as rehearsal or performance –in a way, as part of their job. And the odd time that spontaneous singing and choreographed dancing occurred, it turned out to be a fantasy held by the character in question.



So now we get song, a lot of song, with not only choreography, but instantaneous costume changes, and weak story-telling. We have Sue who has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. An improbable blackmail (What sort of relationship does the Principal have with his wife that he couldn't tell her the truth, or at the very least, discredit a photograph as fake?), to get Sue back to the same position as she had been since episode one. We get Rachel coming off as so naive as to be unbelievable, in her relationship with Jesse, and in her attempts to hide it. We get the messy will-they-won't-they Will-Emma relationship. We get major changes to other characters, seeing them make big decisions, without the emotion, the story-telling behind them. And we get ridiculous glimpses into forced/artificial situations just to provoke a laugh, such as Sue seriously considering the cones on her breasts as a legitimate image change, Arty dictating to Tina how she must make a complete 180 degree change to her image and personality, and Sue manhandling students when she is upset, among the many others.



(In fact I would think Sue's manhandling of students in the corridors –an immediate fireable offense for any teacher in the real world- would mean that the Principal would have Sue over a barrel, as all he would have to do is sit back and let the parent committees take over.)



How many episodes are we now going to get where the important thing is the songs, and the characters and storyline are only significant when they fit with the themes of the songs.



Surprising for me, the only real thing I found that contained any poignancy, any real storytelling of merit, and indeed some semblance of the charm of the early episodes, was the Principal reassuring Sue of her worth as a strong woman.



As for the Rachel-Jesse situation. last episode I didn't see how Jesse in his relationship with Rachel could be any more a threat to New Directions, than Rachel in her relationship with Jesse is a threat to Vocal Adrenalin. (It would be a more interesting storyline if the one actually in the relationship to get advantage for his/her own Glee Club was Rachel.) So I thought the rest of the team's pressuring of Rachel to break it off was a tad unreasonable.



Now that Jesse has joined the school, and seemingly is part of New Direction, it not only destroys the potential of a delicious storyline of Rachel actually using him for her team's advantage, it's just replaying Sue's-cheerleader-spies-in-the-team storyline, Nonetheless, the only real threat Jesse posses is to Rachel personally, to her emotional well-being and emotional stability. Yet as we already know, it is a well-used, overly-used cliché of TV shows (and movies) where some kind of competition is a major part of the storyline, after the main character has his/her heart broken or an emotional setback, instead of devastating them completely, it becomes the catalyst for them fighting even harder, putting in an even greater effort, culminating in victory for themselves and their team.



Heck didn't this very thing happen to Finn two episodes back. (Of which we have not since seen any more emotional fallout from, as if it has all been forgotten and forgiven.)



Anyway, I afraid I'm nearly at the end of my patience with this series, and am about ready to give it up. Next episode will tell for me.

what the hell was that crap? it's like they just wanted to cram as many songs into the one episode as possible while they had the backing to do so... this show was awesome because it was sharp, witty, funny and clever. after the hiatus, it's come back as... a giant music commercial. and not even a well done one. this episode had several key plot points, loosing virginity, merc and kurt joining the cherrios, jessie joining the school... and none of it was addressed with any significance, emotion, or... time. it's like they were given a list of songs they were allowed to do and then decided to stick on a few badly done plot points around it. the only positive aspect of this episode is that we got to hear what santana's voice was like, albiet briefly.

After watching the first half of the show, I was actually elated. This episode in a lot of ways resembled one of first few episodes. We had some nice music together with some playful banter, and Sue ridiculing Will, and he burning her down. The gray scale montage with Sue's version of Madonna was also pretty good.



But somewhere along the way, probably after 25-30 minutes into the show, they completely lost it. In a desperate attempt to create a background story for the 'Like a Virgin' track, the writers somehow felt Rachel, Emma, and Finn should go and get laid. The whole story felt forced upon. Then we have a myriad of storylines with Kurt and Mercedes joining the cheerios, Jesse leaving Vocal Adrenaline and joining New Directions, within the last few minutes. And suddenly out of nowhere they wrap up the episode with a song.

Alright, I also don't understand why so many people are bashing on this either. I personally thought that it was very enjoyable. I love the plot with Sue. Finding out about why she makes fun of Will's hair all the time and her kind of developing some sort of relationship with Mercedes and Kurt. The entire cast did a fantastic job with Madonna's songs, I have to say, especially Like A Prayer. (SPOILER)I's so confused about Jesse, though! One minute he seems all conniving and untrustworthy and then the next he seems like he actually cares about Rachel. I do have a bit of a theory on that. I think that at the moment he's there to spy, but I think he's actually going to enjoy New Directions Glee Club more than Vocal Adrenaline and he'll actually fall for Rachel. At least, that's what I'm hoping for cause the chemistry between the two is just undeniable.

This episode was amazing for the singing. I love when there is a lot of singing and not so much talking. the final with like a prayer was a great performance.

But the story and the drama was not that good except the fact that there's always a Madonna song in every situation.

But I don't judge the storyline if it' believable or not because I'm not american nor a teenager so sometimes I can't understand some stuff.

But this episode was perfect because it was the perfect balance between a musical and a tv drama and the theme (the Madonna tribute) match perfectly!

Madonna is an icon. No doubt about that. Your enjoyment of this episode of Glee won't be based upon whether or not you like her as an artist. (Though if you dislike Madonna, this hour will be all the more tough to sit through) No, enjoyment of this episode is intrinsically related to how well is holds up as a story. Which is to say, almost not at all. There is virtually no plot here, only shallow setups for each subsequent musical number. And, man were there a lot! I'm of the opinion that Glee works best as an equal balance of story and song. If I wanted nothing but music, I'd just watch MTV (well, not really anymore, but you get the idea). More on MTV later. The Power of Madonna did try to insert themes relating to the singer, including self-identity, ownership of your body, and the perils of being a woman. All of this is a great idea, but I guess it was better on paper than in practice. Will and Emma are spinning in circles still, Jesse joins New Directions for Rachel, which feels like a missed opportunity (now it's the same spies-in-the-club plot we just finished), Finn is doing something uncomfortable that he's unsure about- again. You know, I can't even remember what actually happened in the episode because it was filled with so much music.



The bottom line was, the men were treating the girls poorly (were they really? I've seen much worse, people) So the whole ep came off as a weird female-appreciation special. Seriously, this episode was super-girly. With the negative out of the way, on the positive side, the music itself was mostly really good. And for me that saves the episode. A big deal since 80% of this was music, and since the songs hold up, Power of Madonna gets a passing grade. Why complain of getting too much of something if that something is actually really good?



Ray of Light:

Just dance choreography from the Cheerios. It should be noted that I actually hate this "New school" hypno-dance song. Grade: N/A



Express Yourself:

With the help of the ladies, Rachel shows the boys that this Madonna task will be a fun assignment. Fun number, but a little in-your-face for my taste. Grade: B-



Open Your Heart:

Finn is a bit of a surprise on this duet. He harmonizes great with Rachel and the arrangement worked well. Grade: B+



Vogue:

I mean come on! This was an excellent recreation of the classic music video, and I couldn't help watching this and saying to myself, I miss MTV. If you think about it, something like this can't really happen anymore these days. I can't name one iconic music video out of this generation of music. Something from today that can be homaged years from now. The music video era is truly gone. Anyway, after a sob story, Kurt and Mercedes offered to make over Sue(do we buy any of this?) and the result is something I think Glee fans will remember for a long time to come. There was a sneak peek of this production last week, too.

Grade: A+



Like a Virgin:

So Finn made a deal with Santana, Emma made a deal with Will, and Rachel and St. James were ready to do the nasty as well. I loved the staging of this song, essentially a group number, and there was great editing. It helps the song is a classic Madonna essential. Grade: A



4 Minutes:

going back to Kurt and Mercedes, I found them to be a refreshing highlight of the episode despite the mostly flimsy storytelling. They have joined the Cheerios! That should be interesting

Grade: B+



What it Feels Like for a girl:

Blech, blech blech! No! They needed something for the guys to sing, and all I learned here was how much stronger of a voice Artie has over everyone else. This song was blech.

Grade: D-



Like a Prayer:

Big closing piece. Sounded great. No complaints here. High five for Kurt on the high notes!

Grade: A

Why Fox why? Why is it that every time you have a great show, like Glee, you have to go and screw it up? The first half of the season was great, there weren't too many songs, the characters actually had a chance to develop, and it seemed more like a TV show then a tv musical. Now it's just let's put every single little plot thing in this show and put a song around it. Hey I know, what we should do, we've been objectifying women, let's sing about it and then give a "heartfelt" apology, then they'll take us back and forgive us. Jesse, joining new directions, boy I didn't see that coming from a mile away, and I know exactly what's going to happen the rest of the season as well, Jesse is eventually going to betray New Directions, go back to his original club, but they still aren't going to win because the Glee club is going to overcome all obstacles and Finn is finally going to be with Rachel. What a storybook ending.



Hopefully this show improves next week, I still have some faith that it can turn itself around, but please, less songs, more plot. I mean I know the plot wasn't great in the first place but still it's better then shallow filler dialogue in between songs.

Ok, I don't know why people are hating on this episode so much. True, it was no "Preggers" or "Sectionals" but it was pretty darn good. Yeah there were a lot of songs but Madonna is a pretty daunting subject for one 40 min episode. Plus, look at what Madonna herself said about the episode. She loved it.



I liked this episode because it threw Glee back to the time when the kids would sing what they couldn't actually say to each other. The mash-up Finn and Rachel did together was especially good after the awkward end to last week's episode. They found their chemistry again which really makes me happy. The whole Jesse transferring schools was quickly done, I'll admit. But, there have been times when the writers have dragged out plot points that get tiresome after a while (ie Rachel quitting or storming out of Glee every five seconds in the first half of the season). The plot line with Sue was very well done. I loved seeing why she makes fun of Will's hair every time she sees him. Plus, the writers actually gave him some good comebacks, albeit for evil purposes, but that's way better than "Bring it." I'm glad Merc and Kurt are standing up for themselves. If Cheerios can double up with Glee why can't they do the same if it makes them feel good. Plus, we got to see Becky again. She's so sweet!



Emma and Will's relationship was kinda weird. I'm glad at the end they finally set up some sort of line they can't cross.



All in all, I think this was a great episode with a really awesome message. Madonna is an icon for a reason and Glee did her justice.