THE GLEE PROJECT: ‘Believability’

Sunday’s episode of THE GLEE PROJECT packed a pretty emotional punch, huh? The theme was believability, and while all of the kids did a great job with the challenge, we sadly had to see one more contestant go home. Let’s discuss, shall we?

HOMEWORK

• The homework assignment this week was to sing “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper. I thought it was one of the best performances yet. With fewer and fewer people left, the contenders are getting the chance to shine individually now. Guest mentor Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina) chose Hannah as the winner. She then announced they would be singing “The Only Exception” by Paramore for their music video, with the concept being that they each had a crush on another contestant who didn’t feel the same.

RECORDING STUDIO

• In the recording studio, Alex had a breakdown. He was trying to get to a raw place with the song by thinking of his father who had passed away when Alex was young. I think Alex has really grown throughout this competition. He doesn’t annoy me as much as he had been and I think him being comfortable enough to be vulnerable has been a big part of that. Because of that vulnerability, it brought out a sincere, emotional side to his vocals. It proves he can be sassy, dressing up in drag one week, and expose himself emotionally the next.  Great job, Alex!

• When Alex went back to the lounge where everybody was hanging out waiting to go into the studio, he mentioned his breakdown to everyone. Lindsay was up next and you could clearly see a plan hatching in her head. When she got into the studio, she broke into tears, too, which looked pretty fake to me. She said it was because she was lonely and missing home and wanted to talk to her mother. Um, couldn’t she just call her like Cameron did with his mom a few weeks ago? After she left, Nikki mentioned to her assistant how fake it all felt and I completely agree. Lindsay just doesn’t seem like a genuine person and she likes to create drama for the sake of creating drama. I’m not a fan of her stealing ideas from the other contestants for her own gain (kissing Cameron a few weeks ago in their video shoot after the Samuel/Marissa kiss in theirs, crying after Alex in the studio, etc.) and I’m just not a fan of her.

MUSIC VIDEO SHOOT

• This music video was supposed to be the biggest acting challenge yet; they didn’t even have choreography. It posed an interesting challenge to the contestants in the fact that it was just them acting alone in a close-up shot. Here’s the music video if you want to see what I’m talking about: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZwzsxIwGis[/youtube]

• Again, they had Alex longing after a guy during the shoot. Like I said last week, wouldn’t it be more of an acting challenge to have him wanting a girl? If he could have portrayed that believably, he would have won the challenge hands down. It turned out, though, he did a pretty good job of acting like he wanted Damian – he even gave Zach chills!

• Damian, on the other hand, seemed to have come from the Emma Watson School of Eyebrow Acting and just waggled them a lot to get his point across. Thankfully he toned it down in the final product, like you can see above.

THE BOTTOM THREE

• Since there was no choreography this week, Nikki helped Robert pick the bottom three — Hannah, Lindsay, and Samuel.

• For Lindsay’s last chance performance, she sang “Maybe This Time” from CABARET, which she said she had never heard. That’s just crazy to me! Even if she had never seen the musical, Kristin Chenoweth and Lea Michele sang it on GLEE! She seemed distant and like she was trying to manufacture the emotion of the song. She needed to be vulnerable in the song and she wasn’t. When Ryan called her out on it, she said she felt she needed to be strong for her family to prove her worth since she was adopted. Zach said under his breath that he felt like it was overcompensation. Ryan kept harping on the fact that he needs her to be the next Lea Michele/Rachel Berry. Again, that’s the problem with Ryan. These kids’ personalities and struggles shouldn’t dictate what he writes for the story. She shouldn’t have to be the next Lea Michele. If he wants her for the show, she should be her own character. And I don’t think there needs to be another Rachel, even after she graduates – one is enough and Lindsay would never be able to live up to Lea’s performance.

• Samuel sang “Animal”  by Neon Trees. No lie, the GLEE version of this song is the top played song on my iTunes so he had a lot to live up to for me personally. I thought he did a great job. He has the quirkiness, the moves, and the voice to pull it off. Ryan said he wished he would have come out and sung it vulnerably and emotionally, which had me yelling at my TV, “But that’s not the type of song that is, Ryan!” Yes, it would have been cool for him to turn it into a ballad and get introspective with it, but he only had an hour to prepare it! And all of that “get vulnerable with it” crap is coming from the man who put that song in an episode called “Sexy” for goodness sake!

• Hannah’s last chance performance was to “Back to December” by Taylor Swift. I thought she sang it a little flat, but her performance came across as sweet. Ryan, Zach, and Robert seemed to love it, which is why it shocked me they chose her to go home. Did that surprise anyone else?

Also, I could have sworn they said last week in the promos for this week that they were sending two people home tonight. Maybe I’m just crazy.

Anyway, what did everyone think of tonight’s episode? Did Hannah deserve to go home? And can you believe are only two episodes left? Who do you hope wins it all?