“You’re always singing about R.E.S.P.E.C.T. but respect isn’t something you can ask for, you have to demand it.” – Lauren
I am going to hold nothing back and say that I did not care for “A Night of Neglect.” I was so glad to have new episodes of Glee back, but all it did was let me down. It seems that most of the episodes of Glee during this second season have been recycling the same subjects instead of moving the storylines along or trying something new.
It was time for New Directions to start fundraising for New York and Mr. Schuester decided to have them try to sell taffy to students by going door to door. The kids didn’t think it was a good idea though. Artie, Tina, Mike, and Brittany revealed that they didn’t even have enough money to go to Detroit for their academic decathlon team. Mr. Schue decided to help them raise funds too.
Elsewhere, Sue decided to figure out a way to interfere with the Glee club’s (again) fundraiser. She enlisted the help of Vocal Adrenaline coach Dusty Goolsby, the ex-glee director Sandy Ryerson and Mr. Schue’s ex-wife, Terri. I didn’t find these scenes funny but did find the group name of League of Doom and their nicknames to be funny with Dusty being called Mr. Handsome, Sandy being the Pink Dagger, and Terri being Honey Badger.
Over a pizza date, Holly tells Will that he needs to do more than just sell taffy. She suggests a “night of neglect” benefit to raise money and have the kids sing songs by artists who are normally neglected. Mr. Schue takes the advice and the glee club agrees to the idea. In a surprise, Sunshine Corazon (from the season premiere) comes along to offer her help and get people to come, but she wants to sing. Rachel thinks she is just spying on them for Vocal Adrenaline and Puck tells Rachel to give Sunshine a chance since Rachel did send her to a crack house for a fake audition. Rachel gives in but is not happy about it.
Will finds Emma cleaning a counter with an electric toothbrush and she reveals that Carl wants an annulment. They have a chat with Will, telling her that he will help her through the break-up and her OCD because he is her friend. Just as they are having their moment, Holly walks by and sees them. After her history class, Holly was given a proposition by Dusty to dump Will and go out with him. I do agree with his claim that “I’m handsome, I’m good looking and I’m easy on the eyes. Also, I’m gorgeous,” but Sue is right, he is a tool. Will happened to come into the room right before Dusty left. Holly told him Dusty was hitting on her, but she also told him she saw him and Emma together.
Mercedes had issues of her own this episode with feeling like she is the one that is neglected all the time. Her demands (humidifiers, a bucket of green M&M’s and a puppy to dry her hands on) were too much for Finn and Quinn, the benefit coordinators, to handle so they handed the problem off to Rachel. She got everything that Mercedes wanted, but Mercedes also wanted to be the last one to sing. Rachel told her that wasn’t going to happen because Sunshine would be the one to do it.
Time for the benefit and Sunshine ends up being a no show thanks to Dusty and Mercedes refusing to go on even though there is no Sunshine. Sue gets a few students and Sandy to be hecklers at the benefit, so along with Kurt and Blaine, they are the only ones who attend. Tina goes on first but ends up leaving the stage because of the hecklers. Holly takes on the hecklers, telling them it is not okay to make fun of people while Rachel takes on Mercedes telling her that she needed to stop worrying about if people like her and make being a star more of a priority. I thought Rachel’s message was a little wrong, telling Mercedes it was better to be famous than to be friends.
The hecklers end up leaving the benefit and Mercedes gives in to perform the last song. Sandy ends up being moved by Mercedes’ song and gives enough money for Artie, Brittany, Tina and Mike to be able to go to Detroit. Sandy is scolded by Sue, but she has plans for Terri to be the next one to wreak havoc on the Glee club. Holly decided to take a teaching job in Cleveland and breaks it off with Will.
I think what bothered me about the episode is they just keep repeating the same themes with Mercedes tired of not being in the spotlight and the Glee kids feeling neglected by everybody else. I just felt that the episode didn’t really advance any storylines besides giving Holly the exit we knew was coming. I do like it though when they give the secondary characters more screen time and would like see Tina sing more solos. I guess this was the point of the episode, but they could have pulled it off better. I was a little sad by the lack of Kurt and Blaine too. Although their confrontation with Karofsky did show that the issue is not over and hopefully this will be resolved soon. I did find the scenes of the academic competition to be pretty funny, mainly because Brittany is hilarious. I am still crossing my fingers that the rest of the season is going to be better and will end on a good note.
Some stats and info about Glee, “A Night of Neglect”
TV SHOW – Glee
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 17
AIRED ON – April 19th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX/Hulu
GENRE – Drama, Musicals, Comedy
CREATED BY – Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy
CAST – Chris Colfer, Jane Lynch, Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison, Kevin McHale, Naya Rivera, Jenna Ushkowitz, Amber Riley, Mark Salling, Heather Elizabeth Morris, Chord Overstreet, Darren Criss, Harry Shum Jr., Cory Monteith, Jayma Mays, Dianna Agron
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.