Beginning, Middle and End, People!

Just like most of the rest of the country, we love the show, "Glee". But as much a breath of fresh t.v. air the show might be, it suffers at times from wildly erratic writing. It's almost as if the show's writers have no sense of characterization or narrative. One of the show's main writers has never written a show before, and the other two have thin writing resumes at best. And it shows. One minute a character is evil personified, and the next minute the character is, without warning, sweet and warm-hearted. It's disconcerting to watch; we're guessing the writers didn't do well in basic literature class in the 8th grade. And the storyline is all over the map. One week we're pulled along on the major story arc, the glee club trying to win a championship, and then, for the next two episodes, that story arc completely disappears and we're asked to get involved in a couple of one-off storylines which come out of nowhere, and then disappear by the next episode. Characters come and go on the show without warning. Watching the show for a coherent storyline is like watching a game of Wacka-Mole and trying to become emotionally invested in each Mole.
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But with that said, it really doesn't matter. The fact that this show is never going to win any awards for writing is beside the point. It's all about the music and the singing. And Sue Sylvester. And on those two points, the show is a must-see each week.
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Last night's show was a perfect example of the state of the show as a t.v. production. It was almost painful to watch the completely contrived story of Kurt and Finn's parents' romance, but the songs on the show were spectacular. Kristin Chenoweth returned for her second guest appearance, and her duet with Matthew Morrison on Burt Bacharach/Barbra Streisand's "One Less Bell to Answer/A House is Not a Home" was breathtaking. Mercedes got a rare solo, and made the most out of it with Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful", and even Kurt got a solo, who also sang "A House is Not a Home". And even though the show desperately needs good scripts, the writers do manage to come up with some unbelievably funny one-liners from time to time. Besides making Sue Sylvester one of the funniest characters on t.v., (and a role for which we'd bet the farm that Jane Lynch will win the Emmy this year), the writers have finally figured out how to give Santana and Brittany some great supporting lines. Last night, Brittany with a straight face to Santana, "I think my cat is reading my diary."
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But as good as last night's show was, the episode we are dying to see is next week's, in which Molly Shannon guest stars as a badminton coach, and none other than Olivia Newton John shows up to duet with Sue Sylvester on "Physical". Oh. My. God.