It seems pretty repetitive to open this week's GLEE-Cap with another sarcastic remark about the insistence of the writing team to keep making arcane, trite "theme" episodes from week to week on GLEE, but then, it reflects their general style. As the title of the episode indicates, this week's GLEE revolves around the subject of dreams and aspirations, namely those of Will Schuester, Artie, Rachel, and Vocal Adrenaline coach Shelby Corcoran. Even with the added talents of director Joss Whedon and Neil Patrick Harris, "Dream On" is another in a series of muddled messes for the show.
Neil Patrick Harris guest-stars this week as Bryan Ryan, Will's former glee club cohort, who comes to McKinley to help make budget cuts - not surprisingly, New Directions is yet again faced with the threat of being shut down. Will thus makes it his mission to prove to Ryan that the club is a valuable asset to the school, which in turn proactively gives necessary attention to the overwhelmingly grim state of the arts in public schools in the country at present. If there's one positive thing GLEE has done in its success, it's the light the series has shed on the issue.
Will brings Bryan to a bar in order to try to convince him of New Directions' worth, which leads to Bryan's confession that he continues to dream of being a stage star (and leads to the best joke in the episode, where he admits that he sneaks off to Broadway shows and shamefully keeps a box of Playbills in his basement like porn). Will convinces Bryan, after an amusing duet to "Piano Man," to audition with him for a community production of Les Miserables. The audition, however, brings out the old rivalry between the two, culminating in a shared audition in which they duet to Aerosmith's "Dream On." The duet is hilarious, if misplaced; I however, must admit that electric guitars and microphones are pretty common at community theatre auditions, and not enough productions of Les Miserables feature Jean Valjean rocking out to the guitar solos in "Bring Him Home." Neil Patrick Harris does what he does best in the episode; his deadpan readings of the simplest lines (like "I want to punch your face") and wonderful singing voice are always a joy to see on stage or screen. Matthew Morrison, however, just can't seem to catch a break with the writers; his screentime has become more about delivering the clichéd message of each episode than anything else. Will's speech about black holes, accompanied by cheesy piano befitting a Danny Tanner moment on Full House, paired with his speech at the end about sacrificing his dreams for the sake of the club, is the sappiest moment in the show's history so far.
The storyline that brings the most shocks (that is, if you couldn't figure the twist out from the mere mention of Idina Menzel's casting) involves Rachel and her quest to find her birth mother. Though her inductive reasoning and research brings her to the seemingly logical conclusion that her fathers impregnated Patti LuPone while in an Ohio Marriott, it becomes clear that Shelby Corcoran is, in fact, Rachel's mother. Jesse plants a tape of Shelby's singing into one of the many boxes Rachel searches through for clues about her mother's identity, making it clear that his joining New Directions was not to spy, but to help Shelby connect with Rachel.
The confession Shelby makes to Jesse seems out of place - mainly because it seems that she would have had to tell Jesse her reasons for having him go to McKinley weeks previously. The "I Dreamed A Dream" duet between Menzel and Michele proves to be more of a making-painful-faces-while-lip-syncing competition than anything else (the winner is unclear).
Artie's dream to be a dancer is the most heartfelt of those presented in the episode. The fantasy sequence in which Artie sings and dances to "The Safety Dance" in a mall is cute and enjoyable, much like "Dancing With Myself" in the first half of the season, and gives Kevin McHale a surprise chance to get on his feet and bust a move. The episode allows McHale a prime opportunity to show his range as an actor, effortlessly transitioning from optimistic to sullen, to ultimately accepting of his disability and the fact that he will probably never walk or dance again. His "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" is bittersweet and simple, and a nice way to end an overall disappointing episode.
Though the preview for "Theatricality" is relatively exciting - Kurt singing "Bad Romance" should prove incredibly entertaining - I may start counting how many times they use the title in the episode and then sending the number in to Murphy himself to show him how boringly predictable his series has become.
