The TV Chick

For the most part, everything I’m hearing about last night’s Glee echoes my own sentiments. I can sum it up in one word: Wow. I realize I have never-ending love for Glee, but if you read my review from last week, you would know that from time to time, I’m not super crazy about an episode. However, “Dream On” completely blew me away. The episode, directed by Joss Whedon, starts with Mr. Schue meeting Brian Ryan (the unstoppable, super talented Neil Patrick Harris). They have been rivals since high school and Brian has basically come back to make Schue’s life a living hell (and shut down the Glee Club but what else is new?) One of the best moments was when Brian is shown participating in a show choir support meeting. Brian decides to ruin the Glee kids dreams by telling them they will never achieve them. What a way to deflate hope, NPH! You redeem yourself later though.

The episode centers around the concept of dreams: Artie dreams that one day he’ll be able to dance, Rachel dreams about meeting her mom and Brian Ryan dreams about being a star again. Tina and Artie have their first of many heart to hearts at the beginning of the episode. She found out Artie’s dream, and he thinks it’s stupid and he’ll never become a dancer. Tina asks Artie to do a project with him (since Schue didn’t assign one) and asks him to dance with her. Tina and Artie rehearse and he gets up on crutches but then falls over and yells at Tina to go away. This scene has gotten a variety of different critiques. Personally, I don’t think the purpose of this scene was to pity Artie. He is a strong character with strong viewpoints who has a great personality. It was a sad moment, but it did show us that Artie had pride in himself and hopes and dreams like the rest of us.

Rachel’s dreams are quite obvious (to be a Broadway star), but she confides in Jesse (Jonathan Groff, so so happy you are back!!) that the thing that is missing in her life is her mom. Jesse wants to help her find her mom, and seems extremely overzealous about this. Rachel thinks her mom is Patti Lupone. She researches her and does the math and it was quite hilarious. Jesse asks why she’s so afraid of finding out the truth. They are going to investigate in her basement, at Jesse’s suggestion. We find out why he is so into this later in the episode.

But back to our favorite high school rivals, Schue and Brian Ryan. We find out that Terri Delmonaco was the one that got away from Ryan, and thus finally finding out Terri’s maiden name! I know she’s back soon, and I am so excited to see what happens. Schue explains to Brian that music gave him the strength to get out of a terrible marriage. Brian admits to being miserable since he stopped performing. He sneaks to NY to see Broadway shows. They sing “Piano Man” which was fantastic. This was one of their two duets on the show and both were amazing. Schue convinces Brian to try out for a local production of Les Mis. It is at the audition where they sing “Dream On.” Can I just stop for a second and praise Neil Patrick Harris. Not only is the guy a brilliant actor, comedian, magician and overall awesome guy, but he can sing his heart out. “Dream On” probably ranks in my top 5 musical performances of the entire season, and that’s saying a lot.

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By now, you all know my feelings on Glee. This week’s episode, titled “Dream On,” might be my favorite of the entire season. I will be posting a review soon but recently I had the chance to chat with Joss Whedon, who directed this week’s episode which guest stars Neil Patrick Harris. Joss is obviously a TV director/writer/creator extraordinaire, so it was an absolute privilege to be on the media call with him. And quite honestly, you can tell that this episode is directed by Joss Whedon. There are little touches that shine through that make the episode so amazing. He talked about his experience, working with Neil again and what makes Glee different from any other project he worked on. He even talked about what other show he’d want to direct in the future.

What was it like directing someone else’s show?  Can you give us an update on Avengers?
I can’t give you any updates.  This is purely a Glee call.  Directing somebody else’s show is – I’ve done it once before, twice just with The Office.  It helps if the show’s unutterably wonderful.  That takes a lot of the pressure off.  It’s a little tricky.  You’re living in somebody else’s house and you have to make sure that you’re fulfilling their needs.  It also takes some of the burden off you.  You don’t have to be the guy who sees the big picture.  You just take what they give you and make sure that you’re servicing it as best you can.  Having said that, Glee is probably harder to shoot than any other show in recorded history, with all the different elements going on and whatnot; it’s a different kind of challenge, but ultimately enormous fun.

What were you able to do with the dance number that maybe you weren’t able to do in your other musical episode from Dr. Horrible?
Well, dance would be one thing.  There’s more real hard-core dancing in the show, not in every number.  Some numbers are just about movement.  Then I get to be seriously involved in creating that movement.  Then some numbers are real dance numbers and that’s all Zach Woodlee and Brooke, the choreographers, they’re phenomenal.  There were numbers that I didn’t know exactly how they worked narratively until I saw the choreography and then said, oh, this all works just fine.  I got to really shoot some fun dancing and most of the stuff I’ve done has been more just movement.

 Could you talk a little bit about was there any sort of feeling that once again, I’m directing sort of a high school show…a different one, but…
Well, I don’t feel like I’ve necessarily been pigeonholed.  I like high school shows, needless to say, I think they tap into something very primal.  When you have some elements that take them to the next level, whether it’s physical or musical, it’s the kind of thing that completely jazzes me.  To work with a troupe of people who are still young, and fresh and excited to be doing the work, you can’t beat that.

Could you talk about the dance number, the mall number.  How did that fit in?  Was that the most difficult?  I’m not trying to put words in your mouth.
Well, here’s exactly what you must say.  Actually, I want somebody to put words in my mouth, somebody to talk, to tell me – what  do people know about that number?  I haven’t seen the ads and I don’t want to be spoiler guy.

No, we’ve got the episode.
 Oh, you guys have the episode.  You know, the thing about that number is that really was Zach and Brooke getting it done.  Ultimately, it’s a complicated, it’s a big, big number, very gratifying, I think because we’re seeing things we haven’t seen before.  I do pride myself on being the guy who knew we were actually going to be able to shoot it pretty quickly because once it gets dialed in, you pretty much just shoot them doing it.  Because of the number of extras and the enormity of the number, people thought it was going to be much more of a bear than it actually was.  We had two film cameras and four video cameras going the whole time, so the thing actually went pretty quickly.  We were able to tack on another scene that day, which is great, because those schedules are a bear.

What was it like working with Neil again?
I am so tired of that guy.  Why do they always make me direct Neil?  Why the pain?  Neil is a consummate pro and a dear friend, which is an ideal combination.  There’s no problem.  My only complaint was that I wanted to shoot even more of the kids than I got to, that and certain craft service issues about not having caviar, but really that’s in my …actually. I feel like he’s one of those people who expresses the way I wish I could express myself.  He’s like a muse, and he’s friends with Matt.  The sort of rivalry/affection between them just informed the whole thing so much.  We had such a good time.  He came in the day after the Oscars, the day before How I Met Your Mother.  He fit this into his schedule in the most bizarre fashion.  I even got him and Jane Lynch to come in late on Friday night after finishing How I Met Your Mother, just so that we could knock a scene off because the schedule was so hard for him.  Always cooperative, always imaginative; Neil’s the man.

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