One seeking harmony with reality is probably not seeking out FOX’s “Glee” on Thursday nights.
That does not mean his eyes cannot widen when the show makes a particularly egregious error.
Three seasons ago, the minds of astute viewers were boggled when high school teacher Will Schuster (Matt Morrison) displayed an errant calculation when advising his students on how to profit by selling salt water taffy.
This week, the “Glee” writers, in seeking to make references of relevance in November 2013, forgot that their episode was not set in November 2013.
Season five opened as a continuation of the school year from season four, and based on the comment that the show’s central New Directions are six weeks from Nationals, the current action is clearly set in the spring of 2013.
Less clear is how a Glee club with virtually no budget managed to lease a time machine for Thursday’s “A Katy or a Gaga.”
Designed to show the New Directions the importance of combining the down-to-earth, lighthearted spirit of Katy Perry with the edgy extravagance of Lady Gaga–and to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the two as they market their “Prism” and “ARTPOP” albums, respectively–the episode included renditions of new Perry single “Roar” and new Gaga single “Applause.”
One problem: those singles did not release until the summer of 2013. Even if one of the New Directions somehow managed to hear a leaked demo, he would not have seen the music videos (both released two months ago) and would thus not have been able to so precisely reference the imagery in his group’s performances.
Thursday’s episode also erred by referencing Netflix fan favorite “Orange is the New Black,” which did not debut until July.
The decision to end season four in the middle of the 2013 school year presented numerous problems, and an inability to authentically write season five in the present is one of them.
