Yes, it was that fantastic. With no real story line to be found, The Power of Madonna episode turned out to be more of a pastiche of Madonna-centric performances tied together by one common thread - admiration and thanks to The Queen of Pop for her Heidi Montag-like changes to the face of Pop Music.
Although the themes of misogyny in the Glee Club, loss of virginity and the ever-present theme of Sue Sylvester's Cheerios versus Will Schuester's New Directions were touched upon, it all fell a little flat. An interesting twist though was thrown in late with Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Mercedes (Amber Riley) unexpectedly switching over to Team Sylvester, performing an electric rendition of 4 Minutes which I never really liked before in all honesty.
Need I say again how phenomenal Jane Lynch was in her frame-for-frame copy of Vogue? And even though I wasn't sold on the guys' version of What It Feels Like For a Girl after hearing its recording only, I love it now after seeing its tie-in with the episode. It did seem a little rushed for resolution though late in the episode. Also, the cast's incredibly rich and full-sounding rendition of Like a Prayer which was slapped-on at the end, really brought it home as the episode's finest moment. I wish only that it lasted longer than the condensed version television audiences saw. For the full effect, you really need to listen to The Power of Madonna disc. Madonna would be proud.
(p.s. Follow me on Twitter).
i'm a little late with this one, sorry...
ReplyDeletei really enjoyed this episode; one scene i liked especially was the "open your heart" number, when the couple meandered the halls of the school, with the background kids all passing in and out wearing various phases of madonna.
i have to ask, though, what you mean by saying, "with no real story line to be found"? there were stories for many characters, indeed.
i don't know if GLEE will ever hit the heights they did with "all the single ladies" episode (acknowledging my perspective is probably skewed to fall for that story), but i really enjoyed the two episodes in this second half season.