The TV Chick

We all knew the Britney Spears episode of Glee was coming. I expected epic, and epic is what I got. Perhaps not epic plot-wise but we all watch Glee for the music right? So in that sense, I was blown away. The Glee kids (mostly Kurt) is advocating for New Directions to perform Britney Spears, but Schue won’t have it. Brittany, the character, not the pop star was the real star of this episode that centered around Spears music. She had the best dance moves (seriously AMAZING), the best songs and the best one-liners. One of those was that her name is really Brittany Spears because her name is Brittany Susan Pierce and she has constantly been tormented by living in the shadows of the musician. Oh man, amazing!

The theme of this episode was most definitely angst. Emma was back and made me smile even if she caused Will Schuester some serious pain. Carl is helping her with control issues. She bought green grapes and red grapes and mixed them together. I am no Emma Pillsbury but who does that?? Big step for her!! And we also got to meet the infamous Carl — played by Uncle Jesse himself, John Stamos. He surprises her in school and gives her a kiss on the mouth in front of Will. Will says he will let Carl to talk about dental hygiene to the Glee club, making a nice analogy to loosening the reins and making exceptions. Will, Emma loves you, she just needs to get a little messy with Carl before she goes running back into your arms. I liken their relationship to Ross and Rachel on Friends, and maybe even Jim and Pam on The Office. Sadly, it will be on again/off again for a while before the audience gets what they want. Once they are together, things are great but it doesn’t make for good television. Will and Emma will have their time, clearly they are meant to be.

Another angsty situation is between Finn and Rachel. Finn is feeling like part of him has been stripped away now that he has been kicked  off the football team. The football team even tries to beat him up and rips his letter jacket, but Artie gets in the way and they feel too bad about beating up someone in a wheelchair. Stay classy, football jocks! Rachel wants Finn to quit football. He tells her she can’t ask for him to choose between football and her.

And then there are the numerous trips to the dentist which results in top notch music videos. But first, Carl talks to the Glee club, and gives them capsules to turn their teeth blue if they have plaque. Rachel has a ton of blue on her teeth. Artie and Brittany have blue on their teeth. Apparently, Brittany rinses her mouth out with soda. Carl makes a comment about singing and dancing and not being as good as Will. I sense there will be some singing and dancing showdown in the future.

At the dentist, Brittany has cavities in every single tooth. She goes under anesthesia and it’s music video time! First up is “I’m A Slave For You.” Much like the Madonna “Vogue” video, the Glee cast matches the actual video perfectly in “I’m A Slave For You.” Heather Morris is spectacular. Of course, I knew she was a great dancer before this, but she is such a star. Her voice certainly rivals that of Lea Michele’s (and anyone who knows my love for her knows this is a huge compliment coming from me) and I hope to see her getting a lot more solos in the future. I couldn’t take my eyes off her the entire episode.

Next, Santana shows up to the dentist with Brittany, and wants anesthesia. Second music video time! This time it’s Me Against The Music! The real Britney Spears has a cameo where Brittany tells her she’s hot. Brilliant! I thought Naya Rivera really rocked it out in this video too. I completely agree with agree with Brittany’s line “I’m more talented than all of you. I can see that clearly now.”

And then it’s time for Schue to go to the dentist. He admits to Carl he still has strong feelings for Emma. Carl asks Schue to back off, but he says he doesn’t think he can do that. Schue reluctantly agrees but if Emma starts leaning his way, all bets are off. Carl tells him to loosen up and gives him some candy. Oh boy.

One more music video! This time it’s Hit Me Baby One More Time. Rachel was at the dentist and under anesthesia of course. Despite a lot of people not enjoying this particular music and dance number, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I even sang along at parts. Lea Michele could sing the phonebook and I would still like it. I loved her Britney outfit, and her  killer voice and outfits.

Meanwhile, Will decides to heed the advice of Dr. Carl and buys the same car he did (a corvette). He takes Emma for a drive but she looks like she’s in pain while he’s singing along to some easy listening. But he almost runs over Terri. Terri and Will have a showdown in front of Emma, who marches off (smart girl!) I love that Jessalyn is back. And in this case, she was the voice of reason, despite yelling out “Hey Homewrecker!” Terri tells Will that one day he’s going to come to his senses and come back to her, the only one who loves him for who he is. While I am in no way advocating that they get back together, Will really needs to do some finding himself. So does Emma, but they will both come to their senses.

Sue shows up and regales to Will her tale of seeing Jacob naked. She tells him Britney Spears is a gateway to other bad things. Will decides the Glee Club will perform Britney to piss Sue off. Britney Spears cameos once again and she tells Tina she was dumb to dump Artie. Artie does Stronger in a football uniform with Puck and Finn dancing. Clearly it was another dentist music video fantasy. I want to praise the Glee creative team for this. They are constantly pushing boundaries with their music and their story lines and this was no exception. Any number of cast members could have sung Stronger and had it resonate with their character’s plot. In fact, I wouldn’t ever even think of a guy singing Stronger. Even Britney Spears herself posted on Twitter how great Artie’s rendition was. So if I’m going to praise Glee for innovation (which I frequently do), this is a prime example. In a surprising move, Coach Beiste lets both Artie and Finn on the football team. I’m interested to see where this goes, but continue to be impressed by anything Dot Marie Jones does.

Schue decides he will perform Britney with the Glee Club which was pretty amazing. They perform a super raunchy rendition of Toxic for the whole school. And you know Emma wants it, even if she is the only one seated and looks shocked. Sue pulls the fire alarm, and confronts Will. She was injured in the self proclaimed sex riot.

Finally, Will sits down with Emma. He apologizes for his performance (which let’s be honest, was for her) and admits it was inappopriate and weird. He just thought she wanted him to be less uptight. In reality, he wanted him to relax. She brilliantly compares him to Britney, and tells him he needs to reign it in and be himself. I kind of loved this pep talk.

And because we all know how insecure Rachel is, she made Quinn test Finn. However, despite Quinn’s best attempts at winning him over, Finn says he does have feelings for her and always will but there’s someone else. I kind of adore them teaming up together. I hope there’s more interaction in the future. I think it’s really that I love Quinn in everything. I would have loved to see her sing some Britney Spears. At the end, Rachel sings the Paramore song “The Only Exception” and dedicates it to Finn. She was wrong to try and control him. Everyone is thinking about their significant other (or the one they let get away). I’m really okay if Rachel ends each episode singing a ballad.

I loved the music in this episode and the music videos. They were truly incredible. Heather Morris is a shining star, and clearly has been underutilized up until this point. The plot did develop with Emma and Carl and Will, so that was anchoring it down plot-wise. But I feel like legitimately it was mostly a collection of music videos. I’m not saying I didn’t love that, it was just a bit random and felt like there was not much of a plot. I have faith in this show and the creators and creative team. I know that they know what they are doing and they wanted to just do a fun tribute episode. After all, can a Britney Spears episode really be serious and super plot driven? Probably not. I just think after the Madonna episode, perhaps I expected something a little different. I loved it for what it was and it was incredibly quotable but I am a bigger fan of the episodes that pull at my emotional heartstrings, and sing to me while doing so. Next week’s episode looks like it will do just that.

In any case, here are my favorite Britney Quotes: “It feels like a Jewish cloud.” and “Finn can fly?”

Glee airs Tuesday nights at 8 pm on FOX.