SPOILER ALERT

Hey, Gleeks!

It is week two for season two of ‘Glee’ and the long-awaited Britney Spears episode, in which the pop princess herself makes several appearances, has finally arrived. The members of New Directions receive a visit from dentist/Emma’s new boyfriend and competition for Mr. Schu, Carl Howell (John Stamos). Upon discovering the disastrous state of many of the students’ teeth, the dental delinquents of the group make individual trips to see Dr. Howell.  Ditzy Cheerio Brittany spends the most time in the dreaded dentist’s chair. She becomes distressed when Dr. Howell plays a Britney Spears song during a visit. Shortly before, we finally discover the full name of the queen of the dumb blondes: Brittany S. Pears. The name similarity has scarred the Cheerio into resentment for the more famous Britney Spears. However, with the help of some dental anesthetic-induced dreams, in which she takes Spears’ place in several of the singer’s music videos, she comes to embrace the other Britney.

Meanwhile, Coach Sylvester is adamantly against Glee performing any Britney Spears songs…ever. When New Directions gets the crowd cheering with their version of ‘Toxic’ at a pep rally, Sue pulls the fire alarm, claiming that they were inciting a sexual riot. The rush to get out the door ends up injuring several students, including Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman), the school newspaper reporter whose stalker-like crush on Rachel has escalated to full pervert mode when Rachel takes Britney to heart by donning the iconic slutty schoolgirl outfit from the “Baby One More Time” video.

Rachel, fearing she may lose Finn again, tries to make him choose between her and football, while he tries to make her revert to her typical style of dress, but they work things out. On the bright side, both Finn and Artie make the football team in one of the later scenes in the episode.

I had been looking forward to this episode for months. I could not see how it could possibly go wrong. Ryan Murphy, the creator of the show and director of this episode, failed in his attempt to be original by recreating Spears videos, instead of the typical style of the cast doing the “Glee” version of the song. The problem with the technique is that we have all seen it before.

We can watch Britney videos any time on YouTube. The only Britney number where Murphy did not simply recreate the music video, ‘Toxic’,was the best Britney number of the night. I can’t give my full two cents without fawning over the fact that Uncle Jesse (Stamos’ ‘Full House’ character) was on ‘Glee’! He is the earliest crush many of our generation can recall (no, not the middle school crush, I am talking kindergarten, here). It was ironic that he played Emma’s love interest, considering she bashed the actor in season one. Unfortunately Uncle Jess-I mean John Stamos’ presence could not save the episode.

Okay, now on to the ‘Of the Weeks‘.

Number of the Week:

• The best number was the only non-Britney tune ‘The Only Exception’ by Paramore. Yes, I know, it is truly frightening when Paramore is as good as it gets. However, the number was sweet and beautifully sung by Lea Michele as Rachel. The video to go along with it tied up all of the loose ends. I will say that ‘Toxic’ was a close second place.

Moment of the Week:

• Whether you were laughing hysterically or ready to vomit, no one can deny the shock effect of the crowd shots during ‘Toxic’, particularly those of Rachel’s fanboy, Jacob Ben Israel. Only a few more moments and some serious fines for Fox network stopped the fawning nerd from exposing himself and publicly masturbating, while watching the subject of his…ummm…affection dance in a very sexual manner. You can call it revolting or call it hilarious. I call it the moment of the week.

Here is the episode, if you want to catch up, or just want to relive the good moments (which are few and far between) of the episode.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/180098/glee-britneybrittany

The good news is it can only go up from here, kiddies. So I will be blogging after next week’s episode. Bye till then!

-Alissa

Alissa Mesbov can be reached at [email protected].