Glee Christmas Show

I liked the message of the show, about the true meaning of Christmas, though it was heavy-handed and super cliche. The show overall was pretty dull. Not up to Glee's standards at all.

The black and white 60's-style TV show segment was sort of clever, but who was that for? Not the core audience, that's for sure. I found it kinda silly and boring, and the laugh track was excruciating (and it never could have been done for the $800 budget Artie was given!) "Bachelor pad" - please - I guess they were being ironic, but I thought that was sort of offensive.

And while we're on that topic, having Blaine and Rachel sing "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" together was bizarre - why hetero-ize the show that way? That's not what we want or expect from Glee! There's so many ways that number could have been staged, including having each of their boyfriends involved, or just having one of the couples singing it.  The Kurt-Blaine duet of "Let It Snow" sort of counter-balanced the earlier number, but was too little, too late (and couldn't hold a candle to their flirty duet last year of "Baby It's Cold Outside").

In general, I thought there were too many songs packed into the episode (9!), including "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, which didn't fit and should have been cut, along with at least one other.  Many of the numbers were just a person singing, including "Blue Christmas" (Rory) and "River" (Rachel), which gave the show a very inert feeling. The only number with any energy was the Brittney-lead "Christmas Wrapping."

Worst of all, two of the major characters (Puck and Rachel) are Jewish, and the word "Hanukkah" wasn't even mentioned, though it would have been very easy to slip it in somewhere. Rachel begging Finn for Christmas presents was obnoxious, but more so, knowing that she was Jewish.  While we're on the topic - lots of Jews work at homeless shelters and soup kitchens on Christmas (like my family!), though you wouldn't know it from this program, which sets the final scene there without any acknowledgement of Jewish involvement. Thanks for contributing to the invisibility of our people and our holiday!

All around very disappointing! The first season's Christmas show was the best, but even last year's was so much better than this.