“Glee” Strikes Out With “Blame it on the Alcohol,” Makes “Greek” Look Great

Following the airing of one of its worst episodes to date with the post-Super Bowl episode, “Glee” appeared to be in the midst of a hot streak. Its “Silly Love Songs” delivered on all fronts as one of the best segments of the season, while the Justin Bieber-centric “Comeback” made for a fun, clever diversion. That run ended with the truly atrocious “Blame it on the Alcohol.”

An absolute mess from start-to-finish, “Alcohol” misfired with goofy humor and rushed plot developments. Positioned as a highly-anticipated glimpse into how the McKinley students and teachers hold their booze, the episode quickly devolved into an absurd cartoon with little redeeming value.

In conjunction with Alcohol Awareness week at the school, the episode built towards the New Directions performing a song on the harms of alcoholism in a school-wide assembly. Along the way, the kids and their coach Will Schuester gained first-hand experience with the benefits–and hazards–of excessive drinking. It all culminated with an obvious, trite punchline in which the kids vomited an alcoholic concoction during their performance of “TikTok,” unintentionally sending their fellow students the message that alcohol abuse is bad.

Beginning with the students’ party at Rachel’s house, the writing was so off the mark that one could not help but wonder if a single member of the creative team had ever been to a high school social gathering. Between Finn’s “we think this is clever but it is totally worthless” assessment of drunk girls at parties and the general antics of the group, everything about Rachel Berry’s first alcohol-influenced party was an absolute disaster. And while one can argue that “Glee” deliberately exaggerates reality to elicit laughs or prove a point about high schooolers, neither of those was the case. A strong Rachel-Blaine duet on “Don’t You Want Me” was the only redeeming quality of the totally pointless, painfully unfunny party scene.

Things did not improve as the episode progressed. Will and Beiste eventually got their turn to indulge in the sauce, but their night at a honky-tonk bar was as cheesy and boring as the kids’ party. The humor radar was off from start to finish, and any “fun” associated with putting the supposedly-uptight Will in such an outrageous situation was dampened by the fact that every development was so obvious (Schu riding a mechanical bull at a honky-tonk bar, how unexpected!) and the fact that Will has become such a distant, minimalized character in the show that there is hardly a demand to see him “out of his comfort zone.” Again, if not for a fun rendition of “One Bourbon, One Scotch One Beer,” the scene would have been an absolute abomination.

There was one potential bright spot (a relative term, but standards for quality can decline quickly) with Will ending his night with a weird, forward drunk dial that he presumed was going to Emma, but instead of developing something juicy and intriguing–like having the call go to someone like Terri–they simply made the call part of a very odd and off-the-mark storyline with Will and Sue. As the call actually went to Ms. Sylvester, Sue had evidence to expose Will’s drunkenness and further an unnecessary side storyline about confronting Will’s improper conduct, one which found Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester in her least-amusing form to date.

A similar issue arose in the earlier party, as a game of spin the bottle prompted Rachel and Blaine to lock lips. The drunken kiss made Blaine reconsider his homosexuality, crushing Kurt, who would stand to lose both a gay ally and the object of his affection if Blaine “went straight.” A potentially-intriguing turn, the plotline was quickly brushed aside, returning at the end of the episode with a rushed resolution. Why not spend a few episodes building out this relationship–it would give Kurt and Blaine something to do while allowing Rachel to operate independently of Finn.

Due to a misconception–Blaine slept off his hangover from Rachel’s party in Kurt’s bed–Burt thought he had walked in on his son’s homosexual hookup, a confusing scenario for a father whose prior conditioning revolved around the prospect of catching a boy with a girl in his room. An intriguing storyline (it is one thing to abstractly tolerate his son’s homosexuality, but how does a straight dad react to the actual concept of his son acting on that desire?), this would have represented the next natural “step” in the evolving relationship between Kurt and his father. This too, however, was given no time to develop, resulting in a rare scenario in which a Kurt-Burt storyline failed to click. Something so foreign and monumental for a relationship between an “old school” heterosexual father and his openly-homosexual son deserved far more attention and investigation than it received.

Such an unfunny, poorly-written episode seemed to hinge on one thing: the supposed boldness of a youth-skewing show admitting that underage drinking is an acceptable reality. The message was not, “Drinking always screws your life up,” but instead, “Teens are going to drink, that’s a given, and truly supportive adults both recognize this reality and figure out ways to assist in making sure they handle their drinking properly and in moderation.” Undoubtedly a valid approach to teaching and parenting, the message nonetheless fell flat due to how dated it felt for the television atmosphere. Scripted programming is no longer committed to a drug-free, sex-free youth–programs like ABC Family’s “Secret Life” and “Greek” routinely portray high school and college life as it really is rather than as old-fashioned parents pretend it is. And, in the case of the tragically-underrated “Greek,” the handling of drinking and promiscuity is done far more naturally and honestly–and that is on a show that is an over-the-top, exaggerated comedy. There is no reason a show with the writing and acting talent of “Glee” could not have at least rivaled one of the key ABC Family series in terms of honest youth portrayal. “Blame it on the Alcohol” again reminded television insiders of the degree to which “Greek,” which has only two original episodes left, has been underrated and underappreciated.

For many fans, “Glee” is still delivering something special–quirky dialogue, odd-ball storylines and tremendous music. But for those who actually got into the show as a high school character piece, each week seems to mean another step away from the show they loved. And for every glimmer of hope (“Silly Love Songs”), there is an episode like this, a reminder that the show has not yet re-discovered its magic.