GLEE - "Duets" 10/12/10

Last night's "Glee" was the best episode of the season so far. The season has been uneven at best, with many great musical numbers (of course), but some really awkward character interactions that didn't amount to much. It was obvious that Ryan Murphy really had something to say with last week's religion-themed "Grilled Cheesus" episode, but it came across as too heavy-handed, and nothing stuck out as truly memorable.

"Duets," however, was a return to the glory of the first season and showed us this season's first truly great episode. The tone was happy throughout, which really served the episode well. Layla and I barely stopped smiling for the whole hour (this is the effect one would expect from a show called "Glee," but smiles were notably absent from our viewing experience last week). The thing I loved most about the episode is that by setting up the idea of a duet singing contest at the outset, each character got a chance to showcase his/her talents. There was plot, but very little of it. Now, I'm all for shows with big ideas and ongoing character arcs and the like, but "Glee" definitely did right to take a step back from all of that this week after last week's debacle. Instead of plot this week, more focus was given to the musical numbers and the talent behind them. In fact, the only real plot in this episode was the introduction of Sam into the glee club and the possibility of a romance between he and Quinn. Besides that, the episode was all about establishing who each character was going to pair up with for their duet and then showing those duets.

Also, unless my memory is playing tricks on me, we didn't see Sue Sylvester a single time or even hear her name mentioned. I'm not saying that it is a good idea to leave Sue out as the show moves forward, but her absence did serve the show well by allowing more room for lesser characters like Artie and Mike Chang.

Things I Liked:

• Finn and Rachel's performance of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart." This song was the perfect choice for their duet, and their subsequent decision to throw the competition showed remarkable maturity and self-awareness.
• Kurt stole the show once again with his performance of "Le Jazz Hot!" from Victor/Victoria. He played both sides of the "duet" with himself perfectly, and was also very effective, as always, in the scenes with his father.
• Mike and Tina's duet, "Sing," was great. If only every episode had enough room for great performances like this one from the secondary characters.
• In an episode full of great performances, my vote for best duet goes to the duet between Rachel and Kurt which closed out the episode. Again, Rachel showed heretofore unseen maturity in the scene where she talked Kurt into singing with her by actually trying to relate to him through his issues instead of serving her own agenda. These are the two best performers on the show, and watching their duet was the perfect way to close out an almost-perfect (finally) episode. Happy days are here again, indeed.

Things I Didn't Like:

• I am usually a big fan of Brittany and Santana, but allowing the lesbian tension between the two to actually show itself this episode was a big mistake. Instead of being funny like it should have been, it came across as weird, and I'm not sure if the dynamic between the two can ever recover now that we've actually seen them being intimate. Also, Brittany's seduction of Artie later in the episode only served to further lower my opinion of her as a character.
• Puck is one of my favorite characters, so it was jarring for me to hear, in the episode's opening lines, that he is now in prison. Too convenient and definitely a wasted opportunity for comedy by not showing him committing his crime.

I will be watching next week, and actually can't wait for it. "Duets" is definitely the highlight of my week so far.