Glee The Rhodes Not Taken Review

Glee got a healthy dose of awesome this week, via guest star Kristin Chenoweth – right on the heels of her well-deserved Emmy win for Pushing Daisies.

Chenoweth was terrific as April, a former classmate of Will who he decides to recruit to replace Rachel based on a technicality – April never graduated, and thus he brings her back to high school to bring her considerable singing skills to Glee.

Problem is she also brings alcoholism and a healthy sense of promiscuity along with her – which she is first able to use to make friends with all of the Glee members, but soon causes plenty of problems. As always, Glee pushed things to the humorous extreme, as she not only gets Kurt drunk, but offers him "vintage muscle magazines" to better get him on her side. The use of Hall & Oates' "You Make My Dreams Come True" behind the "April makes friends" montage was fun, although that song was just used to brilliantly in (500) Days of Summer, that it feels a bit early for another TV show or movie to use it.

The rest of the episode soared musically, however. Chenoweth and Lea Michele got to duet (albeit not onscreen) on "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret. Hearing these two Broadway veterans go toe to toe – in a vocal sense – was great. And it was very fun hearing Will and April sing Heart's "Alone" together, with the show continuing to cull from many different genres and styles. I even enjoyed Carrie Underwood's "Last Name", and I'm not a country fan of all – though it helped having Chenoweth giving such a great performance of the song, complete with all the Glee members dressed like cowboys.



April was an hysterical creation, and it was clear Chenoweth was having a great time with the role. Her opening scene was perhaps her funniest, as Will goes to find her and discovers a drunken mess of a woman, who makes comical allusions to being a prostitute. I loved her line about having just "cracked open a box of wine." This show definitely can get a bit edgy, which it sometimes tempers by simply not confirming what seems to be going on – After all, it sure seemed like April slept with Puck to befriend him, didn't it?

Meanwhile, we got to see a bit of a darker side to Finn, as he blatantly manipulated Rachel, by using her crush on him to try to lure her back to Glee – it's good to see this, because up until now, Finn's been a bit too straight-laced to totally invest in -- his kick ass car crash into a mailman flashback aside.

On the downside, this episode had too little Jane Lynch – although Stephen Tobolowsky again was extremely funny playing the extremely extreme Sandy. And the resolution to the episode felt rushed, as Will suddenly decided to pull April from a show, after already letting her perform half of it. Not to mention, April's, "I'll get my life back on track" bit also felt a bit forced. Glee still hasn't quite found the right balance between its very fun musical scenes, it's very funny comedic scenes and its more dramatic moments – with the latter often feeling out of place and too earnest in comparison to the rest of the show.

Still though, this was another terrifically entertaining hour of television. And yes, the kids—joined by the returning Rachel -- killed it on Queen's "Somebody to Love" in the finale. There is enough emotion in those moments that the show can afford to tone down some of the more blatant heart to hearts I think.

SOURCE: http://tv.ign.com/articles/103/1030649p1.html
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