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| Mercedes sings "All I Want for Christmas is You" to open Glee's Christmas special. |
Christmas is here! And do you know what that means? Holiday-themed episodes on television, and Glee was no different. The night opened with Mercedes and the other club members singing and decorating the choir room's Christmas tree (or "Holiday Tree" if you live in Rhode Island) and it immediately evoked a spirit of fun and merriment to get the episode going.
Plot-wise, Coach Sue asked Artie, Kurt and Blaine to come into her office where she asked if the glee club would be interested in helping her at the homeless shelter. The holidays remind her of the sister who passed away last year and Sue wants to keep busy so she doesn't think about how much she misses her. The guys all agree that the glee club will help out. Unfortunately, they all soon forget about their commitment with Sue when Mr. Schuester comes into the choir room announcing that the local PBS station wants them to do a televised Christmas special. The kids are all ecstatic, and since Artie did such a great job directing the school's musical, he's the one chosen to direct the special. (Just a side note, but the actual episode was directed by none other than Schuester actor Matthew Morrison.)
Aside from preparing songs for their second TV debut (let's not forget their mattress commercial in the first season), gift-giving also needs some attention. Rachel has given Finn a detailed list of what she wants for Christmas, but the good-intentioned but often dim-witted Finn decides to deviate from that list. He buys her some sort of pig that will feed a starving African village. Very charitable, but not exactly the diamond earrings Rachel had in mind. And speaking of people in faraway lands, Rory misses home and wishes that his family could afford to visit him from Ireland. Sam understands him, seeing as his family is away in Kentucky, and the two become friends.
The Christmas special airs and it's a delightful throwback to 60s black-and-white television, complete with a sleek mid-century chalet as the setting where the very dapper Kurt and Blaine host some of their friends around the piano. Another handful of songs are sung and some references to Star Wars are thrown in just for kicks. Artie really is just a nerd at heart. The special is supposed to end with Rory retelling the story of Frosty the Snowman, but instead he improvises and tells the biblical story of Christ's birth. The kids are touched, and they all head over to the homeless shelter to help out Sue and sing one last rousing number, tugging at our heartstrings like only Glee can.
The Pros:
- Who doesn't like Christmas songs? Even the Jewish characters do! Tonight's episode was filled with some very fun songs, my favorites including Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You," a Kurt and Blaine duet of "Let It Snow" (reminiscent of last Christmas' "Baby It's Cold Outside"), "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music (although hardly a Christmas song), and the 1984 Band Aid charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" That last one will make you cry, unless your heart is two sizes too small...
- Also cool about "Do They Know It's Christmas?" is that all proceeds from the Glee cast version will be donated to the Band Aid Charitable Trust.
- The song "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" that the episode is named after is a Glee original! Pretty cool, huh? It was written by their executive music producer Adam Anders.
- Sue saying, "I made plans to shoot reindeer out of a helicopter with Sarah Palin, but she cancelled." That woman cracks me up!
- CHEWBACCA! Ha ha! Apparently they had to get special permission from George Lucas and use the only actor allowed to play Chewbacca.
- Artie: "The phrase is 'Merry Christmas' not 'Morose Christmas.'" That's right people, only happy songs!
- Kurt's introduction of Blaine as his "best friend and holiday roommate" was pretty funny. I really thought those two were adorable all dressed in their retro tuxes. I also have a soft spot for black-and-white, so the show-within-a-show was really my favorite part of the episode.
- I loved that Rachel named a pig after Barbra Streisand! Ha ha!
- Even for Glee standards, Damian McGinty who plays Rory is not the greatest actor in the world. And although I enjoy his voice, they haven't given him a song yet that really wows me. At least he's not wearing green all the time anymore.
- I could have done without the Cheerios and their ribbon-dancing. I'm not even a fan of that Waitress song "Christmas Wrapping" that they danced to...
- No more Glee for a while... the show is going on Christmas break.
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