Glee Review: Grilled Cheesus

About friggin' time they sang some Billy Joel!

Glee got serious this week! In a big change of pace from last week's insanely entertaining, but ultimately unimportant Britney/Brittany, this week's episode sees Will and Co. tackling religion and how each member of the club views that tricky subject.

It all begins when Finn makes a grilled cheesus, aka, he sees the face of Christ in the burn marks of his grilled cheese. This hilarious concept turns into one of the heaviest episodes Glee has given us. Kurt's dad, Burt, has a heart attack, and the prognosis doesn't look good. All the members of the club tell him to pray for a cure, while they do the same, but Kurt isn't having it. He adamantly believes there is no God, and cruelly, but understandably brushes off their help.

Meanwhile, Finn is praying to Grilled Cheesus for help with his everyday problems, namely, going farther with Rachel in the sack, and traversing the ranks in the football team. He accomplishes all this, but, big fucking surprise, has a realization that maybe it isn't right what he was doing.

Sue shows a significant more amount of humanity when she tries to stop the club from singing spiritual songs, as she shares the same opinion as Kurt. This doesn't stem from Sue's pathological need to ruin New Directions; it is actually a deeply personal feeling for her, one that we haven't seen from her yet.

Unlike last weeks Britney Spears focused episode, the songs in here all have connection to the plot and what each character is feeling. The only problem is that, while all the songs are well performed, most of them are so painfully obvious that the message is lost! I really dug Puck sticking to his mantra of only singing songs by Jewish artists, leading him into a rollicking rendition of "Only the Good Die Young". Kurt's heartfelt ballad of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", was beautiful, and, though I could see it coming from a mile away, Finn singing "Losing My Religion" was pretty good, if only because it's REM, and they rule! All the other songs, especially the finale, made me pull a face palm on myself. Both of Mercedes' songs were good, but, oh so cliched. Whitney Houston's "I Look To You" was nice, but Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge of Troubled Water" rang hollow. And then the finale. "What If God Was One Of Us"? Really? Can't you think of something a little less obvious?

Despite this, the episode dealt with the heavy subject matter very well, thanks in large part to the acting on Chris Colfer. As Kurt, he displays wonderful vulnerability, and does a great job selling it. Jane Lynch also does solid dramatic acting. Cory Monteith is alright as Finn, but I couldn't help but get annoyed by his character this episode. Kurt's dad is in the hospital, and Finn is still a selfish asshole for most of it. This is the same exact we've seen him go through countless times. I wish he would grow the fuck up already!

A good episode all around. Not perfect, as some song choices drag it down a little bit, but, for sheer dramatic content, this is one of the best offerings Glee has providing yet.

Also, I love how Mercedes says hello to her congregation! "Hey Church!" Awesome!