Lea Michele Shines in Lackluster “Glee” Season Premiere; “Audition” Review

Cue more worry about whether “Glee” can return to the magic of its first thirteen episodes. After a largely lackluster season one back nine (save for the excellence of “The Power of Madonna” and “Home”), the FOX pop culture phenomenon returns with a rather tame second season premiere. With the distance growing between what made the show so special and the wavelength on which the show is currently operating, it appears that “Glee” might have changed permanently for the worse.

That is not to say that “Audition,” which premieres Tuesday on FOX, does not have some fantastic moments. “Glee,” after all, still is one of the most entertaining comedies on television, and for all the negatives and setbacks, the episode still manages to deliver ample laughs and a pair of breathtaking musical numbers.

While season one belonged to Emmy winner Jane Lynch, who plays the instantly-legendary Sue Sylvester character, season two kicks off in favor of Lea Michele. The actress behind Rachel Berry has always successfully managed to combine a flare for comedy with legitimate vocal chops, but surrounded by a cast that has otherwise largely succumbed to newly innocuous, hit-you-over-the-head-with-it comedic writing, Michele truly stands out in “Audition.” Her acting seamlessly transitions between hilariously condescending (in a bathroom scene with new guest actress Charice, as well as in a scene with Tina and Mike) and emotionally vulnerable (a late scene with boyfriend Finn, played by Cory Monteith), and she consistently brings bright spots to a rather inconsistent first episode. And that does not even include her strong, show-closing rendition of “What I Did for Love,” one of the standout musical numbers in an episode that struggles with a set of otherwise-contemporary songs.

Given the likelihood that “Glee” will fizzle in the eyes of television insiders, even though its popularity with viewers could actually increase, it is possible that Lea Michele will never again receive an Emmy nomination. That does not mean her performance is anything less than first-class.

But outside of moments involving Lea Michele and some occasionally funny lines from other cast members, the episode itself suffers from the same return blues as last season’s spring premiere “Hell-O.” The comedy is far too slapstick, and as the show wants to introduce a number of potential story arcs for the first portion of the season, it does little to actually develop any characters or plotlines.

The episode opens with the crushing reality that despite the club’s success last year, the New Directions have not made any progress in climbing the social ladder. The members still get slushied. The school is still largely indifferent to their performances. Few new individuals have any interest in joining. The focus, therefore, is on the battle to define oneself socially and how that social struggle affects all involved with the glee scene (and involved in the high school at large). The premise is interesting enough, but the execution simply does not work.

One arc sees Jane Lynch’s Sue and Matt Morrison’s Will, sworn rivals, “team up” to take down Coach Beiste (Dot Marie Jones), the confident but unrefined new female football coach whose interest in turning the team around means she will take budgetary dollars away from the Cheerios and New Directions. The idea of Sue and Will aligning in a high school “prankster” collaboration is amusing, but the whole thing falls flat quickly. Yes, there is a funny scene involving Sue convincing Brittany to make a rather significant allegation against the new football coach, but the plotline also includes something as lame as “poop cookies.” The alignment also struggles due to a limited effort to establish any sort of dynamic between Will and Sue (they have less chemistry in these scenes than they did at any point in season one) and the fact that the antics start to affect Beiste’s mental state far too early. Yes, Sue makes it clear that this woman is essentially the dorky girl from high school and that any bullying will immediately break her down, but in trying to derive entertainment from the Sue-Will tandem, it would have been nice for there to be a bit of a challenge.

Of course, Beiste’s personal anguish over the bullying manifests as an extra degree of harshness towards her team. One victim of her laying down the law is Finn, whose role on the team and future as a ‘cool’ kid is jeopardized by her anger.

Finn, who brings hilarity that includes the development of an absurd Glee club that mirrors army recruiting pamphlets he saw being passed out at the “day care center,” tries to play the social hero in the season premiere. In addition to working hard to impress and recruit new student and potentially-talented singer Sam (Chord Overstreet), he also tries to help Artie win back Tina. Tina, upset with Artie’s performance as a boyfriend, was swept off her feet by a nearly-shirtless Mike Chang’s “situation” while the two served as counselors at ‘Asian camp’ (yes, Asian camp) and now has little interest in rekindling her flame with Artie. Artie is visibly depressed, and he feels the best avenue for proving his worth is joining the football team. But when Finn tries to convince Beiste to give Artie, a handicapped student in a wheelchair, an opportunity to play football, she goes off the deep end.

Like Sunshine (Charice), Sam (Chord Overstreet) shows interest in joining glee during the New Directions’ otherwise-ignored version of “Empire State of Mind.” (For what it is worth, the performance is worth ignoring–the rapping, that of Artie in particular, is trainwreck bad.) But while Rachel, threatened by Sunshine’s excellent performance in their dueling duet version of “Telephone,” makes every effort to sabotage Sunshine’s efforts to join the team, Finn makes every effort to help secure Sam as a new member. Finn even arranges a pre-audition with the male members of the club; had the vocals on Sam’s rendition of “Billionaire” not been overproduced and had Artie not provided the rap verse (again, why is the phrase-jumbling Artie one of the go-to rappers?), it would have been a starmaking performance.

For different reasons, neither Rachel’s nor Finn’s recruiting effort pans out in the season premiere, but the arc at least results in new characters being introduced. Granted, Charice’s Sunshine has absolutely zero personality or presence in her acting scenes (presumably by design), but when she gets on stage for her rendition of “Listen,” viewers will take notice. Chord Overstreet’s Sam lacks that magical musical number, but as he seems to be more involved in the actual storytelling, he will likely have a greater opportunity to connect with “Glee”‘s passionate fanbase.

Another storyline involves Quinn, no longer pregnant, making her push to return to the top of the cheerleading hierarchy. Initially in her way are a skeptical Sue Sylvester and an insecure new cheerleading captain in Santana; Quinn, however, reverts back to her cunning ways in her attempt at redemption. The fairly uninteresting and humorless Quinn storyline takes time away from furthering her romantic chemistry with the likes of Puck and Finn.

So, yes, that means no real emphasis on Kurt and Mercedes, who are relegated to background conversations for much of the premiere. Puck receives a comedic line or two, but he, too, is not really a focal point of “Audition.” “Glee”‘s continuous desire to “reboot” every time it embarks on a hiatus again adversely affects the quality of the show; instead of catching up on the character drama and development that makes “Glee” so interesting, the writers instead focus on introducing new components. That commentary is not meant as a condemnation of the Sunshine, Beiste and Sam characters; it is simply a plea that the writers live up to the promise of developing the various characters beyond cliches. Let Artie do more than deal with his handicap and pine after Tina. Let Mercedes do anything of personal significance. Let Mike Chang actually have a personality. Why try to force-feed new characters when there is so much left to do with the characters who already own viewers’ hearts?

As noted earlier in the review, the tone of the show has changed, resulting in a shift from an off-color, quirky, biting sense of humor into a far more mainstream and innocuous brand of comedy. There are absolutely some subtle, laugh-out-loud lines, but so much of the show’s comedic material is weightless and obvious. Sue, for instance, makes sure her Cheerios sign-up sheet says, “No fatties” (get it? cheerleaders are shallow!). The masculine, yet female football coach is named “Beiste” (get it?). Jacob produces a video blog entitled “Big Gay Summer,” a self-aware “refresher” that is supposed to provide self-deprecating updates on the characters; in execution, nothing about the segment is clever and insightful, and the only hint of humor comes from an exchange between Finn and Rachel (and even that relies on rather obvious, thought-free comedy). What happened to the uproarious, somewhat-offensive Puck monologues? What happened to Jane Lynch’s sense of comedic restraint? Not even the usually-on-fire Brittany can consistently deliver; she has some gems but also some blatantly unfunny “forced” one-liners.

The whole appeal of “Glee,” as a comedy, was the fact that it injected an unfamiliar, off-beat, clever (and occasioanlly dark) brand of comedy into a “High School Musical” setting. That comedic tone is hardly present in “Audition,” which seems to represent “Glee”‘s attempt to embrace its mainstream standing rather than to stay consistent with the quirky tone that made the show such an attraction last fall. Viewers will laugh, but they will be laughing in smaller doses and for different reasons than they did when they watched early season one episodes.

Musically, the episode is very hit-or-miss. Lea Michele’s “What I Did for Love” and Charice’s “Listen” are truly great “Glee” performances, but some of the others fail miserably to impress. “Empire State of Mind” exposes how awkward the cast members are at rapping (as does “Billionaire,” which also features weird editing on the chorus), while “Telephone” is bogged down by excessive auto-tune and post-production effects.

How disappointing is “Telephone?” The talented duo of Lea Michele and Charice rely on more production editing and assistance than Lady Gaga and Beyonce do in the original (particularly Michele, in this case). It would be one thing to mirror the vocal effects of Gaga’s hit song, but to add effects to what is supposed to be an off-the-cuff performance in the bathroom is just absurd.

Though it is not treated as a formal single, Sam performs “Every Rose Has its Thorn” a capella in the shower. The performance is apparently enough to convince Finn that Sam belongs in the New Directions, but as far as convincing America that he is a legitimate singing talent, it is not a success–the vocals really do not sound good at all.

The diehard “Glee” audience is one of the most passionate and loyal in the world of television, and a chance to catch up with the likes of Rachel, Finn, Sue and Will is appealing enough to make “Audition” an enjoyable hour of television. But this is simply not the same show with which “Glee” diehards fell in love, and the writers really need to focus on rekindling the quirky, goofy weirdness that made the show such a sensation in 2009.

“Glee” launches a FOX comedy block also containing “Raising Hope” and “Running Wilde” on Tuesday, September 21.