‘Glee’ season 6, episode 7 review: ‘Transitioning’ walks down familiar path
“Glee” has done many tremendous things for television throughout its run, but one of the most significant ones is helping to usher in an era of social change when it comes to how people see LGBT issues on TV. “Transitioning” took that a step further, and they did so through the lens of Shannon Beiste becoming Sheldon Beiste for the first time.
Still, the issue we have with the story line is not the storyline itself so much as the character. We love Dot-Marie Jones; the fact that she has not won an Emmy for this role yet is criminal. The problem that we have here is more along the lines of the story not really fitting the character. In the first five season, Coach Beiste’s story was about someone who felt like a woman, but had a hard time expressing that femininity to others. Now, she is someone who always felt like a man on the inside, and she is getting the chance to express that the others. We love that Jones has great material, but it feels like the writers reversing course to tackle a social issue that they could have just tackled with just Unique. It was nice to have this character back this week, since it always felt like the show never really touched on this as much as they should have in the past.
Now that we’ve said all of this, the transgender choir at the episode of the episode was remarkable, and this episode was a good way to ensure that Will ended up leaving Carmel High, that way he could eventually find his way back to New Directions … even if it is an advisory position. He has given up a good job and plenty of superficial perks to do so, so this is not just some halfhearted move from him.
Wasn’t it nice to have a Matthew Morrison storyline again? We really miss the early days of the show, when this was really more of his story. We thought the show had a more consistent flow to it that way.
On the relationship front, this episode brought us Rachel and Sam finally deciding to be an item. We weren’t sure about this at first, but we’re starting to come around. While we don’t think that Rachel necessarily needed a full-fledged romance this season, we did think that it was time to at least show her realizing that it is okay for her to fall in love again. Meanwhile, everyone saw Kurt and Blaine coming, right? We’re mostly just shocked by how Karofsky just decided to throw his hands in the air and move forward.
In the end, this episode was solid, if not exactly spectacular. Our lingering problems were the one thing standing in the way. Grade: B-.
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