Glee Covers Roundup 12/6/11: Hold on to Sixteen

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  7 Responses »
Dec 072011
 

Every Wednesday, our resident Gleek Eric Garneau gives his take on last night’s Glee covers.

In “Hold on to Sixteen,” New Directions and their rival glee club the TroubleTones compete in the Sectionals competition. Meanwhile, Quinn (Dianna Agron) plots to get Shelby (Idina Menzel) fired and an old friend returns to McKinley High.

Just last week I was thinking about how, in the future, we’ll be able to look back and pinpoint lackluster Glee episodes with an alarming degree of certainty based solely on the presence of Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), a character who appeared only in season two, which seems generally agreed-upon as the worst of Glee‘s output to date. It should be no surprise, then, that when Sam returns to the show this week he brings with him a very season two-styled episode that feels the need to rush through a whirlwind of plot points without really doing justice to any of them. Even though “Hold on to Sixteen” is one of those special “competition” episodes that brings plots to their culmination by design, everything about it feels so hurried that nothing really has a chance to land – it’s 20 minutes of plot, then 20 minutes of performances, then a tacked-on happy ending. Honestly, I did not enjoy it. Continue reading »

Glee Covers Roundup 11/15/11: Mash Off

 Posted by at 10:30 am  1 Response »
Nov 162011
 

Every Wednesday, our resident Gleek Eric Garneau gives his take on last night’s Glee covers.

In “Mash Off,” New Directions and rival glee club The Troubletones square off in a friendly competition to see who can produce the best mash-up in preparation for the upcoming sectionals competition. But what starts as jovial quickly turns sour, especially for Santana (Naya Rivera), who’s sitting on a pretty big secret that’s about to come out.

It’s about time for Glee‘s annual mash-up episode. I’ve talked before about how much I enjoy it when Glee travels down that particular road, so I’ll just give a quick recap here: mash-ups give Glee a chance to do something it rarely does otherwise, which is get creative with song arrangements. That’s because the show has no choice; these mash-ups have no precedent and are invented specifically for these episodes, which means they have to be at least somewhat creative, even if that creativity’s misdirected. Continue reading »

In the Spotlight: Boy Bands

 Posted by at 5:00 pm  Comments Off on In the Spotlight: Boy Bands
Feb 252011
 

Call me old fashioned, but I am still a sucker for Joey Fatone, Brian Latrell, and the other Lachey Brother from their boy band glory days. The success of their songs didn’t come from legendary lyricism or face-melting guitar solos, but from their pop-perfect voices and sweet dance moves. Their boyish good looks didn’t hurt either. So join me in some late-’90s nostalgic looking with covers of all those dirty-pop hits. Though a biased fan, I will attempt to objectively scrutinize these covers and determine whether they’d be teen-idol approved. Continue reading »