The Purple Piano Project

Season 3, Episode 1, Aired
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The third season kicks off with Will assigning the glee clubbers a new project which will help them get back on track after losing at nationals last year. Sue sets off a new project as well: running for office in a congressional campaign with a focus on getting arts out of schools.

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Fan Episode Reviews (6)

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  • The good, the bad, the borderline offensive and the are you freaking kidding me?

    7.0
    "Good"
    By sodapopgirl721, Nov 17, 2011
    The season premiere of Glee wasn't the best, but watch season 2, there has been much, much worse. Let's start with the good:
    The send-off of Sam. I loved Sam's character but being that Chord Overstreet is persona-non-grata at Glee nowadays and that Ryan Murphy is a reputed prick, I figured they;d make it so Sam decided he was too cool for glee, ditched the club and Mercedes and was badmouthing them or something. But Mercedes blithely tells the frizzy-haired kid his dad got a job out of state which fits Sam's storyline and means his family got to move out of the hotel so they handled that very almost maturely.
    Getting rid of Lauren Zizes. I absolutely hated her character as she brought nothing to the plot except to cause unneeded problems and spew verbal venom, she was like a teen version of Sue in the glee club. I will not miss her.
    Blaine... in general. I couldn't help but smile whenever he appeared on the screen.
    Will and Emma... halfway. I loved that they;re a couple and making each other;s lunches in their lunchboxes but they need to stop making it such a big deal they haven;t slept together. it was a good storyline in the Madonna episode but until they finally do the deed, stop bringing it up!
    The musical numbers. One thing that made season1 so great and season 2 so aggravating was season 2 did almost only top-40 songs. but the premiere was back to season 1 where they did a nice hodgepodge of songs that you aren;t likely to hear on the radio the next day so it;s less likely you;ll get sick of them.
    Rachel and Kurt's bestie-ship. It's one of the most adorable relationships on the show and it was good they learned they're not the best. Since Glee is going for "realism" it was a good lesson for Rachel and Kurt to both learn that just because they're the best in Lima doesn't mean much. Granted they are both talented but they needed to see that.
    The bad:
    Blaine. He's in both categories for a reason. The best thing about Blaine was that he was different from Kurt and that they balanced each other out. But now that Blaine just joins New Directions? They;re turning him into Kurt. Turning Blaine into Kurt when there already is a Kurt? Bad misuse of Darren Criss. Not just because he can charm the pants off basically anybody.
    Quinn. But firstoff I absolutely detest her character. Season 1 she was a good girl who made some mistakes and was a little superficial but she was still likable. But season 2 she turned into a social climbing monster who did nothing but abuse the people around her. and I find it very hard to believe she went from a wholesome girl who went to church to a poser with pink hair and a tattoo. I know she;ll be back but I don't miss her in glee club.
    Where are these kid;s parents? I mean I get that they;re seniors but Glee is turning into one of those shows which makes you go "Where are these kid;s parents?" If Quinn's parents threw her out because she got pregnant, even if it's just her mom wouldn't she care her daughter smokes and has an "ironic ryan seacrest tattoo"? (is there anyway to have a sincere ryan seacrest tattoo?) And wouldn't Blaine's parents care that he's switching schools his senior year? it just bugs me
    The borderline offensive:
    Sugar. First off Glee has got to stop giving these charatcers stripper names - Sunshine, Sugar, we;ll still remember them if they;re named Jane or Emily. It wouldn;t be Glee if they didn't include something at least somewhat offensive which in this case is her "self-diagnosed asperger's." that in itself is borderline offensive but it's clear she doesn't know what asperger;s is which isn;t where you can;t control what you say: that;s tourette's. i know she;ll be back but i aleready can;t stand her.
    The are you freaking kidding me?!
    Suddenly Tina and Artie are juniors! This wouldn't meant they were freshmen in season 1 which they never established, it;s just Ryan Murphy PO'd his main stars (Lea, Cory, Chris) an he has to make some of them so that they have to stick around in season 4. he could just make brittany and puck fail senior year, which is believable.
    Was it the best? No. Does it have potential? Yeah. Could it have been a hell of a lot worse? Oh yeah.moreless

  • "Glee" still not back on track

    5.0
    "Mediocre"
    By braves_snl, Nov 17, 2011



    I'm not sure that this train is going to get back on the track. Season two of "Glee" was a disappointment that was noted by many critics (including this one) and fans (including this one) alike after the wonderful opening season. The storylines in season two just went down the drain and we were told that everything would be fixed in season three.
    After the season three premiere, however, on Sept. 20 I'm just not that confident that things will turn around. The premiere titled "The Purple Piano Project" was, frankly, one of the weakest episodes in the now two plus seasons of "Glee." Once again everybody in the cast seems to be lost in some way, I know it's high school and that happens sometimes (if not frequently), but it just feels like "Glee" is once again recycling storylines.
    Another weak aspect of the season three premiere is that there honestly weren't that many musical performances, especially the amount that we typically see and none of the ones that were in the episode really stunned me. The best was maybe a tie between the New Direction's Go-Gos classic "We Got the Beat" and Blaine's (Darren Criss) crooning of Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual." Neither were great though. Better song choices and performances could certainly help the season in future episodes.
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    Will (Matthew Morrison) and Emma (Jayma Mays) are back together after season two saw them apart. Knowing this show they'll probably be off again again and then back on again again sometime in the near future.
    Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) is back to her old way (of course) in trying to ruin the Glee club's lives after she kind of warmed up to them (again) toward the end of season two … seems like it's going to be a pattern. You know when the show's best character is starting to grow tiresome that it's a bad sign for the show as a whole.
    In yet another recycled storyline, Santana (Naya Rivera) still can't decide where her true loyalties lie – with New Directions or the Cheerios. That one is sure to be brought up again soon.
    The only real surprise, but barely touched on thing, in the season three premiere was that Quinn (Diana Agron) has become somewhat of a rebel without a cause and has quit the Glee club. Surely, it won't be long until she's back or at least has a musical number.
    The two high schoolers with the most attention on them: Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Rachel (Lea Michele) seem to have bonded over the fact that both want to have a future on Broadway and we'll probably see too much of that this season (as they might spin those characters off), while certain characters (Mercedes) once again get pushed to the back burner and largely ignored.
    Long story short from the season three premiere … "Glee" is still a mess and if it doesn't get its act together its ratings (which were poor compared to last year) will continue to sink.


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  • A very good and promising start.

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By WinterType, Sep 28, 2011
    ***SPOILERS***
    I thought that this episode was very well done. There was actual character development, no love drama and some surprises.
    We start the season off with Sam gone, Lauren quiting (Glee club's not cool anymore) and Quinn being all punk with pink colored hair and part of a group called the 'Skanks'. We also start senior year for some of the characters, that's why Will decides this year needs to be the year where the 'New Directions' give everything. A girl named Sugar (who has 'self-diagnosed Aspergers') auditions to be a member of the Glee club, but she can't sing at all and Will needs to man up and tell her that she won't be a part of the club. Rachel & Kurt really want to go to New York after Graduation and go to Juilliard, but turns out that they don't have a musical theater department, so Emma suggests NYADA, a great but competitive school, who has a mixer for new applicants. Turns out that all the members (led by a girl named Harmony) have a lot of credits already, unlike Rachel & Kurt. They have very very sweet scene in the car afterwards, where they almost give up, but they build themselves up. So Rachel suggests 'West Side Story' to the Glee club as their school musical this year and Kurt wants to run for senior class president. Sue is running for the united states house of representative and is back to her old evil self, wanting to suspend the 'Arts in public schools'. Will tries to fight back and 'glitter bombs' her, but it actually helps her. Speaking of Will, him and Emma are now an item, but they're relationship is still non-sexual. Santana needs to decide wether she wants to be a cheerio or a glee member, and she decides to be on Sue's side, which leads to Will banning her from Glee club. Kurt and Blaine are still a couple and Blaine transfers to McKinley High. Mercedes has a boyfriend, Mike and Tina are also still a couple, Brittany is still hilarious and dumb.
    Now to the musical performances, I'm just going to grade them.
    1.We Got the Beat (Glee Cast) = B (Really enjoyable)
    2.Ding Dong the Witch is Dead (Rachel & Kurt) = B (Was just silly fun)
    3.It's Not Unusual (Blaine) = C (Fun, but not much more, felt kind of filler)
    4.Anything Goes/Anything You Can Do (Harmony) = A- (Definitely the best)
    5.You Can't Stop the Beat (Glee Cast) = A- (Nice ending, liked it a lot)
    All in all, season 3 is off to a great start, hopefully it will stay this way quality-wise, or get even better.moreless

  • Things change, things stay the same. Welcome Back, Schuester.

    7.5
    "Good"
    By Bob_Scrivens, Sep 28, 2011
    Like last season's premiere, we start by learning what everyone did over the summer. Quinn rebelled, Finn & Rachel stayed together, Mercedes & Sam split, Will & Emma cohabitate, Blaine transferred to McKinley, and Sue is back to comic villainy. The roiling status quo of high school has a suprising placidity to it; we realize that each little turn may turn back, each alliance and dalliance may be broken or discounted.
    But there is a new wrinkle this year: graduation is a reality for roughly half the cast. This ain't Welcome Back, Kotter, with the same students in the same class for year after tedious year. So good on them; real plans are being made.
    Kurt and Rachel plan on attending an arts college in Manhattan ... a plan given a comic roadblock when they discover that Julliard doesn't have a musical-theater program. (Yes, it's credible that they would be innocent of that fact, and the reveal is funny.) This leads them to mix with a new group in an insane level of competition for an insanely competitive performing arts school. The result is a gobsmackingly-good production number. The sight of Rachel- and Kurt-clones performing Cole Porter with such energy and polish recalls the very first musical number of the series, when the underdogs went to see Vocal Adrenaline's performance of "Rehab". The number is this episode's highlight.
    The other numbers -- pop and Broadway staples all -- get such workmanlike treatment that they entertain without exciting. "We Got the Beat" and "It's Not Unusual" were puffed-up productions so faithful to the originals that they could not surprise. Kurt and Rachel's jazzy "Ding-Dong" rendition -- I'll admit that I don't know who re-interpreted it, but I'd lay even money that K&R executed a note-for-note re-creation. And "You Can't Stop the Beat" pulled that tired stunt: a down-tempo, soulful intro to an abruptly raucous (and faithfully so) follow-up. Musically, this was a very un-challenging episode.
    The characters were also un-challenging. The only new face I remember was Sugar, a 30-year-old girl with hilariously-bad stage presense, pretty transparently intended as an Eliza Doolittle to be transformed into a song-and-dance machine worthy of Rachel's post-graduation empty spot. The new flavor she brings -- self-diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome -- is neglibile in a show where everyone constantly speaks their mind. (Honestly, who DOESN'T seem to be suffering from Asperger's on this show?)
    The plot directions mapped out for early this season -- two characters running for office, two more competing for Head Cheerleader, two more for the Big Lead Role -- feel a bit ho-hum. The one-liners, while chuckle-worthy, lacked the sting of seasons past. Glee has the increasingly difficult burden of surprising us in the confines of high school's rule of the-only-constant-is-change. I don't think they've exhausted the possiblities yet, but most of this episode felt familiar, to a fault. For this episode, they played catch-up with familiar faces, using familair tunes in mostly familiar ways. I look forward to new faces and unlikely songs given a sly spin; by necessity, those are coming. 'til then, this was a fun hour, nothing more.moreless

  • Glee Season 3 premiere returns not strong and not weak.. simply somewhere in the middle.

    7.0
    "Good"
    By JaCkKbAuEr2424, Sep 22, 2011
    Glee returned for its third season in a surprisingly low-key affair. There weren't any Top 40 hits to be found here or over-the-top dramatic scenes that felt like the writers trying to shake things up for no reason. I actually thought the writers did better with these character than they have in awhile. That being said, this premiere just felt average. There were plenty of great jokes to be found and the episode chose some surprising songs for the cast to sing but I'm not sure how exciting everything is.
    The biggest change is Quinn becoming some sort of punk who smokes underneath the bleachers with a bunch of other punks. Her character was intriguing in the first season when she was this prude who actually wasn't the prude she claimed to be, but the second season gave her the short end of the stick in terms of plot and development. I'm excited to see where they go with this. Also, finally getting Will and Emma together will get rid of the ridiculous water-treading they did last season.
    But come on, I love Jane Lynch and Sue Sylvester as much as the next person, but can she seriously just give up or take a break from ruining the Glee club? It seems insane and it's becoming one-note. I know many people won't agree with me, but I find myself getting less and less interested in what the writers have her do as of late. Focus more on her Senate run and less on her hatred of Glee Club. Or at least don't make it so ridiculous. Although I have to say, seeing her tear the purple piano apart was pretty hilarious.
    My review probably comes across as harsh; I really did enjoy the premiere, but I know the show can do better than this.moreless
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