"Audition" Overview (Glee)

Hello! So, the title of the Glee premiere is totally relevant. Not only is the club searching for new members, but the show itself is working to expand its fanbase. It auditioned, and to me it passed with flying colors. This first episode was not the hyped-up extravagent spectacle that I think some people were expecting. It was pretty grounded in its themes and the way the storylines were executed. Even though Rachel sending the new girl to a crack house, not an active one however, was a little overboard it fit her character. Now, on with the synopsis!

The beginning of the episode starts off in a TMZ fashion with Jacob Ben-Israel interviewing various glee members about topics that he has posted in his "blog". Ironically enough, most of them were real topics that have been talked about over the summer. "How do you respond to a post on my blog that you should quit rapping?" (@ Mr. Schue.) That was the best one in my opinion. Mostly because I also do not enjoy Mr. Schue rapping. After the little opening sequence, we find ourselves in Figgins' office with the new football coach, played by Dot Jones, Sue and Schue yelling at each other about budget cuts. Both the Cheerios and the glee club's budget got cut by 10% and the football team's was increased. This causes Sue and Schue to colaborate for most of the episode to try and overthrow Coach Beiste (pronounced beast, it's French).

Because Matt transferred to another school, New Directions is looking for new members in order to qualify for nationals (which are in NYC). In order to recruit new people, the club does a performance of Jay-z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind". This was fantastic. I am in love with this version of the song. I liked how the rap parts were spread out over Artie, Puck and Finn. During the performance the camera cuts to our two new characters. We meet Sunshine in the bathroom while Rachel is hanging up posters and thus ensues the Telephone battle! This was a fantastic part of the episode. I was blown away by how well Sunshine can sing. She has such a powerful voice for someone who is 18. Sam's character is introduced to us when Finn overhears him singing "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" in the locker room. He then auditions with "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy & Bruno Mars with the rest of the glee guys backing him up.

Artie thinks that being on the football team will give him a better shot of getting Tina back so he confronts Finn about helping him join the team. They present the idea to coach Bieste and she shoots them down. When Finn tries to convince her to let Artie on, she yells at him and kicks him off the team. This leads to Finn wanting to try out for the Cheerios so that he can maintain some sort of popularity. Thank God that storyline didn't follow through. That would've been extremely awkward.

In the end, Sunshine auditioned for the club with "Listen" from Dream Girls and was welcomed to the club, Sam didn't even come to try out because of what coach Beiste did to Finn for trying something different, Schue gave up on trying to destroy Beiste Finn and Rachel had a beautiful moment in which they decided never to break up and then Sunshine was stolen from New Directions by Vocal Adrenaline's new coach Dustin Goolsby, played by Cheyene Jackson.

Diagnosis: Marvelous! I thought this was a great first episode and I am looking forward to next week's Britney episode!!

Wish you well,
St. Ann