Glee Season 6 Episode 9 Review: Break Free
Miranda Wicker
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With only three episodes left before the Glee series finale, it's unclear what, exactly, we should be expecting from this weekly song and dance, but some sort of closure comes to mind. This was not it.
Glee Season 6 Episode 9 was just a painful waste of an hour with nothing more than a few highlights.
Here's the reason this final season of Glee isn't working: the new New Directions. We've been there, done that, and frankly, the first crop of newbs was better than this one by a mile.
Props to Kitty's meta line about actually allowing them to sing instead of announcing the return of an alumnus, but most of this cast feels like nothing more than seat fillers, so giving them any storyline at all feels silly. Why should we get invested in anything having to do with these characters when this is all over in three short weeks?
Sure, they can sing, and if we were sticking around for another season, watching Spencer go from jerk to nice guy leader would be acceptable. Getting to know Madison and Mason and exploring the dynamics of their wonder twin status would be okay. But we're past the point of being able to present these new situations and turn over all these new leaves in 44 minutes.
We don't need elaborate stories about how the Superintendent's nephew is a spoiled brat whose connections landed him among the members of the New Directions. Or about how the guy Spencer has his eye on just happens to be friends with Roderick and play ukulele and have an interest in singing and dancing but not so much interest that he won't join glee club on his own until the hot jock surprise kisses him in the choir room.
I mean, it's fun and all, but something like that would've been infinitely more cute if it were possible to muster up a single care about these characters. (And if they could all act, but maybe in the final season finding reasonably believable talent wasn't as a priority.)
Aside from "Uptown Funk" and "Cool Kids" and the rest of the Glee music there was very little to enjoy about tonight's episode. For me, at least. I wanted to care about Mason and Jane and then just stopped myself because – what's the point?
It's too little, too late to get any of us invested in their love lives or their friendships. Give us more about the characters we've come to know and love and relegate this new cast to the background where they belong.
Now, even when we do have our old gang together at the forefront of the story, forgive the cliche, but it's the same old song and dance.
Sue destroying the New Directions and Will Schuester is so old it's not even remotely interesting. Plus, it doesn't make sense unless Sue suffers from multiple personality disorder, which might actually be a thing and the writers have just never said it.
She swings from being friends with Will and genuinely seeming to care to being slightly acerbic but poking fun in a mostly good-natured way to outright hating everything about him and swearing him her mortal enemy and it's all just nonsense. Complete, total nonsense.
Why, over the course of six seasons, has this pendulum swung so wildly between Will and Sue? I suppose the only answer is because why not? Why develop characters and have them grow and change and develop any sort of mutual respect for one another when it's easier to do that and then rip it all away and have them hate each other and wash, rinse, repeat every week.
OH WAIT. The first way is actually easier!
This cast got too big, and instead of allowing for natural goodbyes to occur, Ryan Murphy tried to keep everybody. I love Sue Sylvester's one-liners and track suits as much as the next Gleek, but she probably should've exited the stage long about Glee Season 4. She's just a caricature and a prop now.
I'm hoping these final three episodes, kicking off next week with Glee Season 6 Episode 10, titled "The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester," destroys the hurt locker and sends Sue on her way so we can try and enjoy what's left of the series.
What about you? Did you love or hate this episode? Do you care about these new characters? Are you ready for Glee to end?
If you want to relive the glory days of what was once a pretty epic show, watch Glee online right here!
Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.
