It almost seems too easy to take a jab at this week's episode of GLEE through its episode title, ‘Bad Reputation.' Given the absolute disparity of quality between the episode last week and this one, however, I can't help but go for it: the writing this week could give the popular series a really bad rep.
The episode opens with the club laughing around a video of Sue Sylvester jazzercising and lip synching to Olivia Newton John's "Physical." Kurt, who found the video in her syringe drawers in her office, shows his fellow Glee club members, who in turn decide to post the video to the internet as revenge for Sylvester's constant attempts to sabotage their club.
The inner-monologue in which Sue realizes the video has been seen by her peers, including a severely underused Molly Shannon as new McKinley faculty member Brenda Castle, is funny, but loses its acerbic bite when Sue essentially rehashes every point made in the voiceover when she later enters her feelings into her journal. This, too, goes for the remake of Olivia Newton John's "Physical" video that she makes with the Aussie songstress herself; like the "Vogue" video in ‘The Power of Madonna,' the only joke here is that Sue is lip synching to a very famous song in a video made to look like the iconic original. What results is a boring, unnecessary three minutes that fail to move the plot along at all.
Meanwhile, a ranking of the sexual promiscuity of the members of New Directions, the Glist, has begun circulating around the halls of McKinley High School, causing rifts and self-esteem issues within the club itself. Mr. Schuester decides that the circumstances give the club a sorely-needed opportunity to sing more tired, ridiculously dated songs. In keeping with the trend of the last few episodes, the episode's theme, indicated of course by the title, is brought up at least once every ten minutes: Mr. Schuester gives his kids an assignment to find a song with a - you guessed it - bad reputation and reinvent them for the better. This finally allows Matthew Morrison to get back to what he does best: rapping. Though the performance of ‘Ice Ice Baby' does not help the song's supposed ‘bad reputation' in the least (there's nothing inventive about it in the way that the mash-ups from the earlier half of the season were), it is a hilarious interlude in which the entire club, including Morrison and Jonathan Groff, gets to dance a la Vanilla Ice.
In terms of performances this week, ‘U Can't Touch This' and Rachel's project for the week, a music video for ‘Run Joey Run,' are actually hilarious. The former, performed by Artie, Kurt, Mercedes, and Brittany as an attempt to help them appear more hardcore and help their positioning on the Glist, both moves the plot along and entertains. I didn't think it was possible to dance like M.C. Hammer without the use of one's legs, but Artie proves otherwise. ‘Run Joey Run' is, similarly, Rachel's attempt to seem more promiscuous to the school through creatively editing her three main men, Jesse, Finn, and Puck, together in the video, complete with bad student film symbolism, shaky cameras and smoke machines. The video works in a way that Sylvester's parodies have not; instead of the writers resting on their laurels and hoping that the end result is amusing, they work harder to be cheesy and ridiculous in a way that succeeds, for once.
The only truly positive move the writers have taken this week character-wise is that in which they give Emma Pilsbury a spine. Though her change in demeanor, largely thanks to Sue, is incredibly abrupt, the moment in which she calls Will out for his slutty behavior is both funny and a little painful to watch; Jayma Mays has finally been given the opportunity to take the character out of the one-dimensional parameters given to her previously and expand on the emotional possibilities.
The episode ends with Rachel and her male trio of past and present suitors singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" after the three call her out for using them to advance her position on the Glist, which we find out was made by Quinn in order to boost her own self esteem. Admittedly, I lose a little respect for anyone who attempts to perform the Bonnie Tyler/Jim Steinman power ballad seriously; the song is so overly dramatic and corny that it automatically lends itself to parody. Despite this preconceived opinion of the song, I think it's arguable that the performance, like the majority of the others from the episode, does nothing to redeem the song of its reputation - in fact, I think Ellen Degeneres and Josh Groban performed the ballad more convincingly on her talk show (it's a worthy Youtube search).
