Glee is back for its fourth season tonight at 9p and it graduates to a whole new level of goodness. I have to admit I had grown to the point that I loved to hate Glee, but the season premiere made me love to love the show again.
The show starts off with Rachel in NYADA taking dance classes from Kate Hudson and she is no longer the star. Her character is getting knocked down a peg and because of that we get a New more likable Rachel. She is basically a little fish in a big sea and she is barely able to swim. She will make one friend and Brody (Dean Geyer) will have you motoring.
There is no Finn sighting tonight and we find out that Kurt did not get into the school with his BFF. So he is back home and walking around McKinely High like he still goes there while he waits to start community college.
Now back to McKinely High, Tina is finally breaking out and that is a very good thing. Artie is just there, Blaine is Blaine and Brittany is still Brittany without her Santana. On that note the only Glee graduates we see tonight are Rachel and Kurt, the rest are no where to be found. Sue Sylvester is also barely there, but in one scene we get to meet her new baby that she brings to work.
And talking about babies, there are a bunch of additions to the cast this year! Season 3 sensation Alex Newell returns as Unique and he has transferred to McKinley. Puck might be gone, but his half-brother Jake is trying to join the Glee Club. Also new to the club is Marley (Melissa Benoist) and she will blow you away. If you thought Lea Michele could sing, wait until hear their cross-country duet for Billy Joel’s New York State of Mind.
On the song front, I am praying that the show finally makes Call Me Maybe go away like all the other kitchy songs they have done in the past like Forget You, I’m Sexy and I Know It, and Friday to name a few. Kate Hudson sings a mashup of Lady Gaga’s Americano and J-Lo’s Dance Again. They end the episode with Adele’s Chasing Pavements. There is one big number that comes before it and it is the rare one where the original is so much better. Blaine sings Imagine Dragon’s It’s Time to Kurt and it just doesn’t work.
Could be because while the NYADA cast got new choreographers, McKinley did not. They so desperately need new moves because they have been boring me since season 1.
Now on that note, tonight’s season premiere is as good as the series one. The show is so tuned down, that it is fun again. It feels more like Fame the series than it does Glee and that is a very good thing. It is real and not cheesy. It is enjoyable again! My theory is that is because Ryan Murphy is so busy with American Horror Story and The New Normal, that he doesn’t have time to make Glee over the top. So if that means keeping TNN on NBC for a full season, so be it. I would rather have Glee like this than Ryan Murphized.
So if you gave up on the show, its time to come back. It’s what was, and not what it has become.
Oh and Kate Hudson has never looked or acted better than she does on Glee tonight. She was born for this role more than any of her others. She will wow you like hasn’t done since Almost Famous. If you need a reason to tune, then she is it.
