Glee Season 2 Volume 1

     You all know I am a huge fan of FOX's Glee. It's the only show I currently review every episode of. I was super excited to get the DVD for the first half of the current season. Sadly, I find myself a bit disappointed. Not with the episodes, which I have written repeatedly were better than season one, on the whole, but with the special features, or lack thereof.

    The best extras included on the set are just clips of the episodes, reorganized. "Glee Music Jukebox" has returned, where you can scroll through the song list from every episode on the disc and just watch the actual song. Or hit shuffle and the DVD picks one for you. I also enjoyed "The Wit of Brittany," which is about two minutes of some of Brittany's (Heather Morris) best one-liners.


     I also liked "Getting Waxed with Jane Lynch," in which we get to see some of the process it took Madame Tussauds's to make a Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) wax figure. There are 15 minutes from the Glee panel at the San Diego Comic-Con from last summer. Also included is a seven-minute look behind the scenes of episode five, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show."

     All of these features are great, but I felt like I wanted more. Perhaps it's not a bad lineup, considering this is less than half a season of Glee, but I wish there were some episode commentaries or further discussion with the cast and crew.

     The one feature I was truly disappointed in was the exclusive bonus song from "The Rocky Horror Glee Show." Called "Planet, Schmanet, Janet," it is about a minute long. There wasn't anything new filmed, just the old red-lips-mouthing-the-words trick used for the opening. I enjoyed the music, but longed for something more substantial.

     That being said, these ten episodes were mostly fantastic. At the bottom of this article, I will include a list with links to my reviews of each one, in case you'd like to check them out individually, but in summary, it featured tighter writing and better acting than season one. Kurt (Chris Colfer) was given lots of development and a potential love interest (Darren Criss). We met a fun substitute teacher (Gwyneth Paltrow), and the football team got a new coach, Beiste (Dot Jones). Puck (Mark Salling) met a girl named Lauren (Ashley Fink) who rocked his world, while Emma (Jayma Mays) married her dentist, Carl (John Stamos). Plus, so many great musical numbers, including Christmas and Britney Spears songs.

     Glee returns from hiatus after the Super Bowl tonight, and we'll get a second episode on Tuesday at 8 p.m., in the show's normal time slot. Two sure-to-be-great episodes in three days!  What could be better than that?

Season Two Episodes (So Far):
#2.01 "Audition"
#2.02 "Britney/Brittany"
#2.03 "Grilled Cheesus"
#2.04 "Duets"
#2.05 "The Rocky Horror Glee Show"
#2.06 "Never Been Kissed"
#2.07 "The Substitute"
#2.08 "Furt"
#2.09 "Special Education"
#2.10 "A Very Glee Christmas"

Article first published as DVD Review: Glee Season 2 Volume 1 on Blogcritics.

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