The episode was OK.
The Madonna episode was much better. One reason is Madonna's music is much, much better (c'mon Like a Prayer or Like a Virgin vs. Toxic and I'm a Slave 4 U?).
The other thing is most of the music felt very shoehorned in. The fantasies felt very forced, as did the semi-desperate Britney Spears cameos (desperate for her, not the show).
....
With that said, it was not a terrible episode and there were a lot of things to like.
Heather Morris--wow. That girl can dance. She blew the roof off with her two numbers. Plus her hilarious one-liners. My guess is this episode went a long way to remind the male viewers there is more than Santana and Quinn to drool over. Nicely done.
The actual singing--woah. Every single Britney Spears song was approved upon. Now, again, the only Brit songs they sang that I think are half decent are Hit Me Baby One More Time and Toxic. But they were all elevated by simply superior singing (and Heather Morris is not much of a singer at all, but her voice sounds less thin in autotune than Ms. Spears').
Quinn helping Rachel--I was really happy to see this. Since previews I dreaded that they were going to needlessly revisit the Quinn/Finn drama. It didn't make sense for Quinn or Finn to want to go back to that (despite unsurprising regrets), but it was at Rachel's behest, which shows again more depth to Quinn while...
Rachel is kind of a ***** this season--I'm not complaining as a point of drama, but trying to pressure Finn to quit football, her inability to show remorse for her diva vanity last week and sending Sunshine to a crackhouse. She is really annoying. Kind of refreshing.
Jane Lynch--nailed it again.
So a so-so episode that had eye candy to make up for the mediocre to awful music.
Favorite lines:
"This looks like the room in the spaceship where I got probed."
"Rachel, your fashion sense usually looks like it could only appeal to Japanese businessmen with a very dark and unique fetish, but I like your outfit today. Yay!"
"Seriously, you have more vests than the cast of Blossum."
"Are you a cat?"
I hope we get no more jukebox episodes after this--minus Rocky Horror, of course.
