The Painful Ups and Downs

If Glee would just throw out the ridiculous obsession with weekly themes and let the characters go through what they're going through it could be an incredibly touching show. This week's theme was preachy and strange, but this week's story was really pretty great. Mike O'Malley, the show's best supporting cast asset, brought back the character of Kurt's dad, who carried a heartrending scene then promptly had a heart attack, landing him in the hospital for the rest of the episode. The result was Chris Colfer, possibly the strongest actor of the young lot, in a tour de force performance as Kurt worried about his father. There were some lovely scenes (Kurt at his father's bedside was beautiful) and one of the greatest song deliveries the show's done so far ("I Wanna Hold Your Hand" brought tears to my eyes). It also led to some really wonderful moments for Jane Lynch's Sue. Overall, the god talk was wearing, the songs extraneous and some of the conclusions honestly detrimental (the final conclusion that religion should be allowed in the school was just a flat out bad idea) but in between a lot of preachy filler, there were some moments of honesty that made the whole thing worth it.