For those of you not familiar with the show, Glee is set at McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. The series follows the members of the school’s glee club, the New Directions, as they deal with the usual teenage issues—falling in love, popularity, jealousy, etc.—while trying to win New Directions its first national championship in years. New Directions is led by Spanish-turned history teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), a member of New Directions during his high school years. Will is involved in a sexless, yet committed relationship with OCD-afflicted guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays). Track-suited cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) is the show’s sharp-tongued antagonist—forever scheming to take down the glee club. Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) is a mannish female football coach with self-esteem issues.
Season three is a time of changes and tough decisions as some of the principle members of New Directions—Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), Finn Hudson (Corey Monteith), Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron), Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley) Noah “Puck” Puckerman (Mark Salling) and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) prepare to graduate. As Glee fans have come to expect, the major storyline of the year involved the spotlight hogging Rachel. With her heart set on attending NYADA—the fictional New York Academy of Dramatic Arts, she spends much of the year fretting over auditions and acceptance letters. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Finn is much less certain about his future, proposes to her despite fear of being an albatross.
As for the rest of the crew at McKinley High, Santana comes out as a lesbian, admitting to being in love with the unbelievably ditzy Brittany S. Pierce (Heather Morris). Most amazingly, Brittany runs for class president. In one of the most unbelievable twists of the season, Quinn adopts a bad-girl image, only to return to her good-girl self and getting hit by a truck in a texting-while-driving accident. Kurt and Blaine (Darren Criss) deal with the ups and downs of being in a relationship, while Asian-American students, Mike (Harry Shum, Jr.) and Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), continue to sort out their issues largely on the sidelines. For a short time, Puck want to play daddy to Beth, the baby he had with Quinn, despite the fact that she was adopted by Rachel’s biological mother. And Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), having decided to have a baby, has been dealing with a pregnancy.
As if Glee didn’t have enough cast members to juggle, a reality show called The Glee Project brought about two cast members that didn’t really add anything to the show; if anything, they seemed woefully out of place. Damian McGinty played foreign exchange student Rory Flanagan and Samuel Larsen came aboard as the dread locked, religion centered Joe Hart. Though competent—McGinty did a charming version of “It Isn’t Easy Being Green”—neither character made a very strong impression and the integration of their stories just made the show seem bloated. The one real positive from The Glee Project was the discovery of Alex Newell, who quickly gained a following as Wade Adams, a cross dresser whose on-stage persona Unique brought down the house on the few occasions she sang.
And then there are the numerous guest spots, from Ricky Martin and Jeff Goldblum, to Gloria Estefan, Lindsay Lohan and Whoopi Goldberg. Granted, the cameos are a lot of fun but trying to fit all the special guests into the storyline often gives the entire proceeding a very disjointed feel. Essentially, Ryan Murphy and company try to do too much at once, leaving some plotlines unresolved and characters woefully underdeveloped, given the constraints of a 43 minute episode. Even so, many of the individual episodes—considered on their own—show flashes of greatness. Standouts include a holiday episode that’s an homage to the 1963 Judy Garland Christmas Special—Kurt and Blaine act as the hosts and the Whitney Houston tribute episode, which aired shortly after the singer’s untimely death in February.
The thing that still makes Glee worth watching is the music. The cast is multi-talented and the mix of new songs and classics is perfect. Watch any episode of Glee and even if the storyline makes little sense, just wait two minutes and someone is going to bust out with a nice rendition of a recognizable song.
Framed in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, Fox’s 1080p transfer is a fairly good one. Given the fact that the show is shot on film, you will notice some grain. The image is nicely detailed and color and black levels remain appropriate throughout. There are no real digital anomalies to speak of.
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track puts the various songs front and center where they belong. The surrounds get a nice workout, with the LFE contributing effectively and bass coming into play when necessary. Dialogue remains clean and clear throughout the set.
English SDH, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles are available.
The following special features are included:
- Glee Music Jukebox: On each disc, you can enter the Glee Musical Jukebox and go straight to the performances of your choice.
- Glee Under the Stars (1080p, 7:45): Footage of the “kick off the season” premiere party at Santa Monica High School.
- Ginger Supremacists – Extended Scene (1080p, 4:05): An extended version of the uncomfortable dinner scene with Emma’s parents.
- Sue Flashback – Deleted Scene (1080p, 2:43): See Sue in high school!
- “Santa Baby” – Deleted Scene (1080p, 3:50): Santana and Finn go shopping for a Christmas present for Rachel.
- Glee Give a Note (1080p, 7:46): Jayma Mays and Dot-Marie Jones present the Culver City Middle School with a $10,000 check for musical education.
- Glee Swap: Behind the Scenes of “Props” (1080p, 5:41): A behind-the-scenes piece for the Freaky Friday-esque body-swap episode.
- Meet the Newbies (1080p, 13:20): An introduction to the new members of the cast.
- Saying Goodbye (1080p, 15:19): The series regulars reminisce about the season finale and the three years of the show thus far.
- Ask Sue: World Domination Blog (1080p, 6:07): Sue Sylvester comically fields questions from viewers.
- Return of Sue’s Quips (1080p, 2:58): A montage of Sue’s put-downs.
