I respect Chris Dierkes' take on why Glee should only be one season, but with all due respect, it's wrong. The show's problem, in fact, is just the reverse. There's so much plot crammed in the show right now that nothing's getting developed appropriately or spun out in ways that are interesting to watch. It's vastly more intriguing watching Kurt forge a nervous peace with his loving-but-uncertain father over a number of episodes, or Quinn decide what it means to be pregnant than for Rachel to rip through two whole relationships in 45 minutes. That kind of squeeze makes the musical numbers a lot more awkward and wedged-in. The show is more plausible when it treats the characters as people who express themselves through music so much that it's totally natural for them to hop up on an available stage at a bowling alley:
or who hear their own, self-created soundtrack when they walk down the halls of their school:
It's much less good than when, for the sake of fitting a musical number into a episode that doesn't have a natural place for it in the first eight-odd minutes, the script declares that Finn needs to find himself through a Van Morrison (NB: I am, apparently, as dumb as Finn, who made a Van Morrison reference before this, and forgot this song was by the Doors.) Doors song determined by an incredibly awkward frame device. I thought Tuesday's episode in fact didn't really work at all until it hit the final number, a cover of the Beatles "Hello, Goodbye," in which Finn generated the first real heat he's shown towards Rachel all season (A side note: it's even less funny to pretend that Lea Michele is plain than it is to pretend Tina Fey is ugly. It's just insulting and stupid.):
And there's also the matter of there being this huge, great cast, which the creators have already announced they're expanding in the back nine and the second season. Some of the show's best episodes have been the ones that don't focus on the core four, and spend time instead with Kurt, Artie, and Puck. That Mercedes hasn't had an episode centering on her so far is criminal--and I'm more interested in listening to her sing than Rachel, which maybe wouldn't be the case if the show didn't focus so intensely and myopically on her and Finn, who is definitely not the strongest male lead vocalist. There's clearly stuff going on with Tina. In other words, Glee needs to slow down, pace itself, and use all the tools in its kit. And relax. The show's only one of the biggest pop culture phenomena out there right now. It's got time. The creators might as well use it.