Glee - Episode 5.02 "Tina In The Sky With Diamonds" - Review

Glee’s second episode was a vast improvement over its premiere. The musical numbers felt like they fit into the plot a little bit better and I actually found myself laughing several times throughout the episode.

The main issue I had with this episode was the same problem I had with the bulk of season 4. The split between the Lima and New York storylines felt very uneven, and I found myself not caring about the Lima storylines as much. Much of the reason for this is that the main seniors at Lima don’t have the pull that Rachel, Finn, Kurt, etc all had. And while I don’t hate the new characters that were brought in last season, when you still have Rachel and company on the show, it’s hard to get invested in these new characters.

On the Lima side of things, we had prom. I don’t need to see prom every season, and it honestly felt a bit old. Even the Carrie stunt felt tired. We’ve seen the prank-at-prom used in earlier seasons so I’d like to see something different at this point. We’ve also seen crazy Tina before, and no one has every liked her, so I don’t understand why we have to see more of her. We also have the makings of another relationship that has the potential to be inappropriate. The age difference doesn’t reach ick factor status, but if she’s employed by the school, it’s still inappropriate.

On the New York side of things, Santana has a new love interest in Demi Lovato’s Dani. Personally, I think these two are cute together and it was nice to see Santana get excited about someone else. Santana also landed what has to be the greatest commercial ever. That was probably my favorite part of the episode. While Santana did get the national commercial, her naivety is getting her paid with product, not money. Rachel was in such a funk over the Funny Girl auditions that she couldn’t even muster jealously over Santana getting said part. Of course, the episode ends with the Funny Girl producer showing up to tell Rachel that she won the part. I understand that people are going to be upset that Rachel got the part because it isn’t that realistic; however, this is the Glee world. When are things realistic? In the grand scheme of things, I’m happy Rachel got the part, knowing what is coming next week. She needs some happy news. And they could choose to go a lot of interesting routes for the rest of the season. So time will tell how this storyline plays out.

Other notes:
--- Sue had some glorious zingers this episode. Samjelina Jolie was pretty much my favorite.
--- If we had Santana getting commercials like that every episode it would be hilarious.
--- I am going to be a wreck during next week’s episode. The promo alone made me tear up.

Musical picks for this week:
“Here Comes the Sun” – the harmonies were so beautiful in this. Best song of the season so far.
“Let it Be” – I normally hate the Lima/New York split songs, but this was the last bit of feel good we’ll have for a while so I can’t knock it too much.