'Glee' Strikes a Pose

So we've all pretty much been excited about this Madonna-themed episode of Glee since it was announced several months ago.  With shoes that big to fill, the show ran a huge risk of coming up short.  But then again, this is Glee and it's about the only show that can both take on Madonna and live up to the hype surrounding such a huge endeavor.  Therefore, I didn't lowball my expectations the way I do whenever I hear something good about an upcoming episode of any of my other favorite shows (I find, overall, that my expectations set standards that no show can live up to, and as such, I wind up being disappointed more times than not.  Hence, the lowball plan works pretty well).  I expected this episode to deliver.  I expected it to rock.  And, I expected it to do Madonna proud.  The only question, then, did it succeed in meeting these expectations?


Thankfully, it did.  When I was in high school, I was in show choir.  We sang, we danced, we competed and it was a lot of fun (although, not considered dorky the way it is on this show.  And I'm not just saying that).  One year, we got to do a Madonna medley.  It.  Was.  AWESOME!!  We had a choreographer who taught us the "Vogue" moves, and we danced and sung our little hearts out on stage.  It was the most memorable of all of my show choir numbers and certainly, the most fun.  So, I could relate to glee club's excitement upon learning that they too would be tackling Madonna (although, our costumes were a lot less... should we say... revealing than the ones in this episode).  The only problem with Madonna; there are too many good songs to choose from and everyone has their favorites.  I'm surprised they left out "Material Girl" and "Papa Don't Preach" and I would have loved for them to include "Crazy for You," but the must-haves were "Like a Prayer" and "Vogue" and both were included.  So, overall, good song choices (even if I felt that "4 Minutes" was a bit out of place).

Normally, this show doesn't feel like a traditional musical.  It's more of a modern, hipper musical in TV show form.  But this week's "Like a Virgin" montage was very much the traditional musical.  I actually liked the mix of a nod to tradition and different feel for the show.  I wasn't sure who was going to go through with it, but I felt fairly confident that Emma was not.  Thankfully, Rachel decided against sleeping with Jesse.  THAT would have been the biggest mistake of her life thus far.  And what angle is he trying to play now that he's spying on glee?  We know he doesn't really like Rachel, so why keep up the charade now that he weaseled his way into her glee club?  He doesn't need a spy anymore because he is now the spy.  He's up to something and I don't like it.

Kudos to the show for addressing the whole girls are disrespected angle.  It's an epidemic in our high schools, so it was nice to see it dealt with by the guys in a candid way.

Glee is currently airing Tuesday nights on Fox.  If you missed this week's episode, check it out at Fox.com.  The music of Glee is available on iTunes.