Recap: Glee Season 4 Premiere

Glee returned last night for its 4th season with many new faces and, what feels like, a fresh start after last season’s big win. (Spoiler warning: this post will discuss the premiere)

Right off the bat, we’re whisked away to a ballet class in NYC with Rachel, and Kate Hudson’s Cassandra July is fierce and tough as her dance teacher. She is absolutely the Sue Sylvester of NYADA. Cassandra is tough on Rachel in class and seems to pick on her. When she heads to the co-ed restroom at the end of the day for her nightly moisturizing routine, she hears a guy singing in the shower… finding a new guy in same way Finn was discovered. This guy, Brody Weston, is definitely going to give Finn a run for his money. He’s gorgeous, can sing and flat out tells Rachel that he’s not gay.

Cut to McKinley High where Kurt is wandering the halls, Schue got a haircut and Sue has a baby! “Robin, for my favourite deceased Bee Gees”. She’s got a new lacky, Kitty, who seems to be the bitchy version of Quinn Fabray in season 1. With Rachel gone, there is a competitive push among four of the New Directions to take her place, with Artie put in the place to make the decision. Glee Club is flying high with the popular crowd coming in from their Nationals win and audition notices go up for new members.

“That’s a great haircut, Mercedes. I thought you graduated last year.”
~ Brittany, upon seeing Unique, drops one of her (in)famous quotes.

Sitting with the “cool” crowd, New Directions gets coerced into making fun of the overweight lunch lady. Unbeknownst to them, she is the mother of Marley, one of the new students who plans on auditioning for the glee club. This storyline has so much potential, and I’m really excited to see where it goes. It’s so heartbreaking, watching the mom insist on keeping their family ties a secret so she could fit into the popular crowd as she’s sewing on J. Crew labels onto clothes from second-hand shops. After a long gruelling round of auditions where a guy known as “Just Jake” sings beautifully, but gets cut off by Will and then proceeds to throw a tantrum on stage to Marley, winning the favour of many from the glee club. After Jake throws the music stand, I immediately thought of how it was obvious they were trying to build him up as the new “Puck”, resident bad boy. Little did I know that the story would spin in that direction and he, in fact, is actually a Puckerman.

Blaine has a sit-down with Kurt after watching him painfully and aimlessly wander Lima, Ohio as a server in the local coffee shop, running around catering to the disrespectful clients. He encourages him to go and as Kurt’s father, Burt, drops him off at the airport out comes a beautiful speech from a father to his son, setting him out into the world.

“All great artists need a little struggle in their lives”
– Wise words from Burt Hummel

This man needs an Emmy. What a fantastic character throughout this whole series.

The musical theatre students sit in front of Carmen Tibideaux (played by Whoopi Goldberg) and the first years must perform a song. The first girl gets called out as not working on what they discussed at her audition and is immediately cut. Rachel, with adorable encouraging looks from Brody, doesn’t choke this time and impresses Tibideaux. Pulled from her Ohio roots, Rachel breaks down in tears constantly, sitting in the park, looking at (what looks like) stock Glee promo photos of Finn on her phone. Brody offers her words of encouragement at one point, and grabbing her phone to take a photo of them together. (You just know that’s going to come back at her in a future episode.) She calls Kurt during another bout of depression to find him behind her, on the other side of the fountain and they rush to each other in an epic hug.

I LOVE the infusion of New York City into this season.

The Twitter hashtag throughout the premiere was #GleeIsBack and if the season premiere is any indication, it certainly looks to be that way.

Songs covered:

• “Call Me Maybe” – Love when the 2 girls are singing, or all of them together… but it’s a weird mix when it’s the 2 guys singing this song.
• “Americano/Dance Again” – Kate Hudson looks fantastic in her solo.. great mash-up
• “New York State of Mind” – Love when they do these cut-scenes, with both very talented singers, and very different styles. Rachel’s got the classic Broadway sound and Marley a more contemporary version.
• ”Never Say Never” “Just Jake”’s performance of gave me chills… but weird that they cut him off and let Marley, sing all the way through?
• “It’s Time” Always love Darren Criss’ voice.. and love the “Stomp”-style accompaniment
• “Chasing Pavements” Marley does have a fantastic voice but it probably would sting for those that have been there for 3 years to get trumped on the girl’s first day

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