While not perfect, this week's episode of GLEE finally goes in a new direction that points to a promising future for the series. Though still inconsistent in tone and unbalanced in attention to the cast as an ensemble, GLEE is finally beginning to find a 'Home.'
‘Home' opens with Sue Sylvester issuing an ultimatum for Mercedes: wear a gender-appropriate uniform (re: no pants) and lose ten pounds or be kicked off the squad. Driven by an upcoming magazine spread on the Cheerios, Sue pushes the Cheerios to drives Mr. Schuester and his club out of the school's auditorium for a week, forcing them to find "a new home" (a phrase regrettably uttered by Schuester in the first five minutes of the episode).
Though a variation on the phrase is forcefully used at least twice between every commercial break, the episode is the most heartfelt and even-toned since ‘Wheels' in the first half of the season. The episode gives particular focus to Kurt and Mercedes, giving the viewing public a much-needed break from the Rachel Berry storyline. The audience is given just the right amount of silliness when Mercedes, attempting to slim down to please Sue and to feel less insecure, has food-relatEd Hallucinations that make her see her glee club cohorts as different treats before passing out on the cafeteria floor. The only scenes in the episode that verge on melodramatic are the one between Mercedes and Quinn in the nurse's office and the one in which Mercedes sings Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful." Both are borderline soap opera material, though they give Amber Riley a long overdue chance to show her versatility as an actress.
Meanwhile, Kurt hatches a hair-brained scheme to win Finn's love by setting their parents up at a parent-teacher night in order to have the families merge together. Finn's attachment to his father's chair, which manifests out of his mother's decision to throw away her late husband's things to make room for her new boyfriend, Burt Hummel, allows for a clever transition into the Dionne Warwick standard "A House Is Not A Home;" Colfer sings the song gorgeously, while Monteith struggles through his part. Kurt's plan backfires when his father bonds with Finn over basketball and he realizes that, though getting their parents together would get him closer to the object of his affections, Finn has more in common with his father than he ever could. Mike O'Malley as Burt Hummel gives a fairly honest, heart-felt performance. I must say that it's nice to see a father figure in the media who accepts his son's homosexuality with little struggle. It's probably one of the only positive things the writers have accomplished with the series thus far; the inversion of father-son acceptance in Burt and Kurt's relationship will be interesting to see play out.
The episode also marks the return of Kristin Chenoweth as Will's boozing high school crush April Rhodes, whom Will encounters when he unknowingly attempts to rent out the roller disco she owns for New Directions rehearsals (the encounter is a missed opportunity for a Xanadu reference or two, unfortunately). Will and April reconnect over their failed, flawed relationships, and spend most of the episode commiserating over their loneliness and inability to find a stable home and family.
The duets between Chenoweth and Morrison are well-performed and entertaining; the segue into "Fire" is perhaps the least forced of any previously done on the show, and feels the most spontaneous. I don't know how she does it, but Chenoweth seems to be the only cast member immune to the heavy-handed auto-tuning the show's editors are so fond of. Mr. Morrison is not quite so fortunate; during "One Less Bell To Answer," he comes off sounding as if he's a member of *NSYNC. It's slightly bizarre to see Chenoweth sing a reprise of "A House Is Not A Home" the same week she opened to tepid reviews in Promises, Promises, where the song was added in order to beef up her part. Though Chenoweth and the shoe-horning of the song into the show on Broadway have received harsh criticism, she gives us an idea of why the producers would have wanted to tamper with the Neil Simon/Burt Bacharach show to begin with; she rips into the song with a fervor and talent that is awe-inspiring.
