Glee Review: A Very Glee Christmas

You know, that brings up a good point. What is the difference between a Santa elf and a slave?

Tis the season bitches, and not even McKinley High is above celebrating the most magical time of the year. The teachers all draw names for Secret Santa, and the glee club attempts to raise money for the homeless by caroling around the school. Both ventures fail epically, Secret Santa because the whole thing is rigged by Sue so she would be the only one whose name got drawn, and the caroling because people still hate the glee club., resorting to throwing shoes at them and shouting, "You're making me hate Christmas!" as they walk out.

Meanwhile, Artie rallies the club to play along with the fact that Brittany, not surprisingly, still believes in Santa. Brittany's wish this year is for Artie to walk, which, as anyone with a brain can tell you, is impossible. So, Artie, Bieste, Will, and Brittany's parents fashion an extremely complex plan to let Brittany know that Artie can't walk without destroying her belief in Santa. Ai-yi-yi!

Also, Finn and Rachel break it off for real, as if last week's break up didn't count.

Now that some serious plot lines are out of the way, this episode was a return to Glee's former glory. A Very Glee Christmas was chock full of ridiculous plots, great humor, and some solid songs. The Brittany/Santa thing is a little hard to believe, but it was honestly very sweet to see Artie go to such lengths to keep her happy. Who knew their relationship had gotten so serious so quickly. Sue rigging the Secret Santa was a wonderful return to her usual shenanigans, and when the cherry on top is her dressing up as the Grinch to steal all the presents from the choir room. Priceless.

Song wise, this episode was pretty good. The clubs soulful rendition of "The Most Magical day of the Year" was great; Kurt and Blaine's duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was decent enough, even though the song is creepy as hell; the finale "Welcome Christmas" from How the Grinch Stole Christmas was alright. Rachel's two songs were just ok. It's not that they're bad. It's just that it's the same stuff we've seen her do countless times. I wish she would give up on the ballads, and sing a raucous show stopper already.

Humor wise however, this episode was on point! The scene where the club goes to see Santa had me rollicking the whole time, especially when Mike states that he wants Channing Tatum to stop being in stuff. Brittany had some winner lines, and it was a delight to see Sue up to her old tricks again. To see Sue dress up as the Grinch and Becky dress up as Max, and then see her drag a wagon full of presents as Sue lunged on top of it, was pure comic gold!

All in all, it was a decent episode that proudly returned Glee to its old ways. There are some things that drag it down. Rachel trying to win back Finn was annoying as all holy hell! But, the ending, which sees Artie "walk" for the first time was really sweet. Speaking of which, how the hell does Bieste have that much money? Just something to think about.

So, that's it for now. Glee returns in February. This first half of the season, not gonna lie, was a little lackluster. For every Britney/Brittany or The Substitute we got an Audition or a Never Been Kissed to go with it. Hopefully, in the interim, Ryan Murphy will take a critical look at Glee and revamp it. He'll take out the pointless celebrity cameos. He'll do away with tribute episodes. Everything will be good. Although, it's been reported that Katie Couric will be on the first episode to air in February, and that episode will feature "Thriller". Uh-oh!