EXCLUSIVE Glee: The New Rachel Review

Glee is back (in a few months' time)- has anything changed?
Starting up a new season cast and tonal reboot of a US show always proves hard for the writers, as proved in recent dramas like Smallville and House, but often the fruits of the writing team's labour can then be seen later on. The most obvious question, then, is whether the 'reboot' premiere episode of Glee Season Four will wow you enough to love the show all over again when it returns in a few months time. Certainly, The New Rachel is not lacking in ambition: it focuses on two parallel story arcs, that of the New Directions recruiting new members with the loss of their Upper Grade pros, and that of Rachel and Kurt finding their way outside of McKinley High for the first time. We get to see great songs like Empire State Of Mind and Chasing Pavements incorporated along the way too, so it's a welcome surprise for the programme to prove once again that it can pick up from several different styles, genres and eras (you'll see what I mean!) of music over the course of just fourty minutes. Lea Michele in particular is on top form as Rachel this time around, but due credit must go to a lot of the newcomers on the New Directions and NYADA scene in the first episode, as it takes a lot of courage to join a show that was once right-on-top in terms of its star appeal but that's now monumentally shifted. And make no mistake, you do feel that shift that the writers were teasing at the end of Season Three: there's no sign of Finn, Quinn, Santana, Puckerman- well, actually...wait and see- or any of those characters who left McKinley in Goodbye earlier this year bar Rachel and Kurt, which indeed gives a strange feeling to the whole affair. My main problem with The New Rachel is a rather fundamental one, though- despite its generally feel-good nature, there was a lot of recycling of old series elements here. From the haphazard ditching of Tina's boyfriend over the Summer (sound familiar?) to the return of Sue with her baby, to the discriminated-against member of staff tormented by her weight, there really isn't much here we haven't seen before, and even the episode's title should begin to indicate at the lack of originality on offer this time around. The score I've given Glee's Season Four opener The New Rachel is actually  strong, in its defense, thanks to the brilliant array of songs and some great star performances (Kate Hudson and Whoopi Goldberg provide the highlights), but I have to admit that if things keep going the way they are in terms of the overarching series narrative, then the show may well start to drop in quality big time and even meet its end come the end of the season. Beware, Gleeks- this could start to signal the beginning of the end...Glee: The New Rachel airs on Sky1 in January 2013.
4/5