TV Review: Glee - "Naked"

Part of: Gleekonomics

The latest installment of FOX's Glee finds out many of our favorite characters getting "Naked." At McKinley, the guys are putting together a shirtless calendar to raise money to pay for their bus to Regionals in Indiana, while in New York, Rachel (Lea Michele) considers doing a topless scene in a student film.

A few minutes into "Naked," this episode is looking pretty bad, one of the worst we've seen all season. It begins with the Warblers being charged for steroid abuse, prompting the local news to report that McKinley is going to Regionals in their place.

First of all, it doesn't look like the case has been settled yet. Isn't it a little early to write off the Warblers? Second of all, the New Directions are disqualified at Sectionals, and another group isn't, so what logic leads anyone to believe that McKinley is still in the game? Thirdly, while it may be local news-worthy to cover steroid abuse in a glee club, they certainly wouldn't talk about McKinley at length, even if the New Directions are the defending national champions. And the entire thing is presented incredibly unrealistically, complete with a trumped-up version of an anchor rant.

For the record, I live in Columbus, Ohio, hours away from Lima and McKinley, which are actually hours away from each other, and our local news is not anything like Rod Remington (Bill A. Jones) and Andrea Carmichael's (Earlene Davis) program, which appears to be Columbus-based. Even when Glee stretches reality for the sake of a joke, it does not do a service to Columbus to portray it so poorly.

Then we go to the choir room where Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) announces her calendar idea. Marley (Melissa Benoist) pops in with the musing that it is January so it is the perfect time to sell calendars. Wrong. January is a terrible time to sell, especially if they won't be ready until late January or early February. Dumb.

Continuing on this trend of bad writing is a scene in Figgins' (Iqbal Theba) office where he tells Brittany (Heather Morris) that she got an almost perfect score on the SAT, even though she just drew pictures in the dots. This is not possible, and for a girl who didn't graduate high school in four years, a cruel plot twist. For Figgins to reveal this in front of Sam (Chord Overstreet), whom he then says has a very, very low score, is unprofessional, and should not happen even in a fictional education setting.

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Article Author: JeromeWetzelTV

Jerome Wetzel has hosted two entertainment based podcasts, "Geek Out With Jimmy" and "The Good, The Bad, & The Geeky". He is also the author of the An Actor's Nightmare book series. He currently writes television reviews for examiner.com and blogcritics.org. …

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Article comments

  • 1 - CJ

    Feb 05, 2013 at 9:49 pm

    I can't believe that in order for ND to win the make it so the warblers cheated, way not make it so another group cheated. The guys who play the warblers don't get enough credit, this show really has gone down hill, now The Almighty Johnsons now that's a brilliant show.

  • 2 - Lucas

    Feb 08, 2013 at 12:25 pm

    You're right, I didn't like when the episode started, it seemed so crazy and unbelievable. I really "hated" when Lord Tubbington was using the computer. It was so unreal. And yes, the epidose was better throught the hour.

  • 3 - darci

    Feb 08, 2013 at 1:58 pm

    So yeah that mash-up of "Hot In Herre" with "Angel is the Centerfold" was awesome. Perfectly ridiculous choreography to fit with this whacky mash-up but it turned out to be catchy too

    Maybe Pharrell should produce a new J. Geils Band track because seriously this mash up made for an awesome song.

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