July 11, 2012

Episode Review: THE GLEE PROJECT, "Fearlessness"

The Glee Project strayed away from its "-ity" naming convention to give us "Fearlessness" which ended up being one of the least entertaining episode to date.

Homework Assignment
Apparently, "Fearlessness" was the appropriate follow-up to "Adaptability" because it felt like a direct sequel as Robert and the crew once again tried to push everyone out of their comfort zones. For the Homework Assignment, the contestants had to show off their rapping skills by performing the Heavy D and The Boyz classic, "Now That We've Found Love." As it that wasn't hard enough, they had to do so in front of Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jane Lynch.

I'll give them credit, as a way to deal with the fact that none of them were strong rappers, they decided to just go silly with their performance, which ended up being smart move. Unfortunately, my girl Nellie struggled with her lyrics, but she didn't let it deter her too much. In the end, Jane decided that Lily and Aylin were the top two, and Coach Sue went with Lily much to Aylin's dismay.

Video Shoot
This week's video put the wanna-Glees in swim suits as they posed as a swim team that was being picked on, and a slushie facial from Rick the Stick led to them breaking out in song while tossing frozen beverages at one another. The actual song was the mash-up of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "One Way or Another," and they had some big shoes to fill because this was one of the better sequences of Glee Season 3. It's just too bad that we didn't get a choreography session this week because I feel Zach would've really tested their fearlessness. Plus, we would've got more of him, and this show works best when we get a lot of Zach.

Overall, I'd say that everyone did a decent enough job, but of course some did not excel as much as others. Charlie was once again too distracted by Aylin to take things seriously, and his girlfriend also had a hard time being professional on set. He was not the only one who could not get past inherent weaknesses because Nellie and Michael also struggled to get out of their own ways.

Last Chance Performance
It was pretty easy to figure out who was going to be at risk this week since the video shoot segment only really focused on Charlie, Aylin, Nellie and Michael. Before the Bottom Three was revealed, the mentors praised Lily and Ali since they personified the week's theme, which was hard to argue with (in spite my of dislike for both of them).

Naturally, the aforementioned four were the last ones standing in front of the mentors, and they rehashed all of the drawbacks that the contestants had. When it was all said and done, Michael got to stick around for another week, thus making the Bottom Three: Charlie, Aylin and Nellie.

First up was Aylin, who had to sing Rhianna's "Take A Bow." To be honest, Aylin crushed it and reminded everyone why she's been one of the front runners since the start. Ryan lectured her on how she could be a first for Glee and how she could mean so much to so many viewers, but I'm still not quite sure I understand why she was in the Bottom Three to begin with. Because she laughs stuff off instead of letting things get her down?

Next was Charlie, who was assigned Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual." What was unusual was the fact that Charlie had never heard of the song before, which should have gotten him eliminated on merit alone. I'm shocked by how many of these so-called singers/performers have never heard of some of these classic songs before getting on The Glee Project. OK, back to Charlie's actual performance. He did a good job, and made things fun by throwing in his own lyrics, but it was pretty clear that he was not going to change no matter how many times he was tossed in the Bottom Three.

Lastly, there was Nellie. She sang Beyonce's "If I Were a Boy," which clearly shook her up since it's hard to sing such an iconic song from such an iconic performer, but at least she had heard of it (and performed it) before. Right off the bat I thought she was done with because she started off so meekly, but she amped things up and sang her butt off, and she ended up moving some of the judges. She also got some of the best advice of the night from Zach when he told her that he's tired of telling her how great she is, which hopefully will be the kick in the pants that will help her realize how amazing she can be.

After deliberations, it was decided that it was Charlie's time to leave, which shouldn't have been a shocker since he's been in the Bottom Three four straight times, and because the editor spent so much time highlighting his relationship with Aylin. It wasn't the most subtle of foreshadowing. I have to say that I agreed with the call even though I liked Charlie early on. I think in the end the mentors realized that he was going to be a handful to work with and they didn't want to deal with him, so he had to go.

Final Thoughts
For some reason I didn't feel "Fearlessness." I think part of it had to do with the fact that it felt so much like "Adaptability" and "Tenacity" that it didn't bring anything new to the competition. That being said, this was one of the few episodes that I was emotionally invested in because Nellie was at risk, and I'm not ready for her to go. On the bright side, her chance to sing for Ryan all by herself could be seen as a good thing since she was able to showcase her amazing voice without anyone else there to steal the spotlight. I just hope she can let herself go like she did during "Sexuality" so she can stick around until the end.

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