"Get" GLEE: Episode 8. "Wheels"

Reviewed by Ike Holter
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How seriously should we take this show?
Asian girl with a fake stutter. Cheerleader cheating off a girl with down syndrome. Girl with down syndrome being screamed at by cheer-leading coach. Pot cupcakes. Baby-daddy-mama-drama, gay boys breaking their own balls to belt "Defying Gravity", and a 12 person wheelchair propelled number to "Proud Mary".
I think this is the most serious show on TV.
Once you peel past the immaculately cut and prerecorded musical numbers, what's left?
Plenty.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Glee is a sad show about funny people.
For all the talk about this being "the happiest hour on TV" (Entertainment Weekly), what happened in last night's episode was infinitely darker and more daring then the number one rated new drama, CBS's "The Good Wife".
Now, since Glee seems to like the after-school-special-gone-wild approach, let's break down each preposterous plot beat--step by step.
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1.
Gay Kid wants to sing "Wicked":
Try, fail, fall.
Now, there's no doubt that Lea Michelle was born to sing the cloying and overblown act one finale from Wicked. But Kurt's struggle to sync that mile-high F note was admirable--and then, in the next scene, terrifying.
Kurt's botched note was done on purpose. He couldn't deal with his Father receiving more gay-bashing calls at his uber-butch Car Clinic, so, Kurt threw the audition in the ingenue's favor.
What gay boy doesn't want to stand in front of his school and (figuratively) nail Idina Menzel?
2.
Asian Girl has a FAKE stutter:
Oh-no-she-didn't.
See, I didn't buy A.G's stammering. Not for a second. It seemed so shoddy, so forced; it had to either be fake or one of the worst attempts at the easiest speech affliction in the United States.
The whole episode was leading up to Artie getting to use his "working penis". The longing looks.
The giggles.
The Glee. (Yes, I went there.)
Just when you start to think this is a show nearsighted enough to hook-up the two characters with "disorders", Glee flips the switch.
Turns out A.G was pulling a Kaiser Soze and is a manipulating bitch who needs to get her shit together.
Who pretends to have a stutter?!
.....I mean, really?!? Drama.
3.
Sue has a mentally handicapped Sister who she visits and reads "Little Red Riding Hood" to.
.....Um. I think that says enough.
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Now, we all know that the actors playing Artie and A.G aren't REALLY disabled; watch an episode of TMZ or Acess Hollywood and you'll see the Glee kids standing and speaking in long sentences with nary a stammer or a stop.
You can laugh. It's not "real."
But as soon as the Girl with Down Syndrome hit the scene, I started to feel queasy.
THIS is real. Like. Really-real.
How does a show that delights in spotlighting people's disabilities even THINK to put someone on the screen who actually suffers from something serious?
Lauren Potter is the actresses name, and I thought she did amazing work. Her character was treated with class and dignity.
We walked that tight-rope for a while, however--watching Sue Sylvester scream at a mentally handicapped girl is, let's be honest, heart-breaking--but seeing Sylvester's mentally handicapped sister in the hospital bed put the cap on any kind of bullying.
Introducing characters with D.S is always incredibly tricky. You don't want to put halo's around their heads, but if you beat them into the ground you become the devil.
Glee took the high road.
The shaky, narrow, maybe-a-little-un-PC high road.
This episode was written by Ryan Muphy, my least favorite writer on the show. Now, there were moments that crossed completely over the line (The football dude yelling "This is for YOU, Artie" was vom inducing) but on the whole I thought this was a pretty stellar outing.
****
MIDTERMS:
MUSICAL NUMBERS:
B
WRITING:
A-
DRAMA-RAMA
A+
GAYNESS:
A-
G.P.A
A-