How 'Glee' went from 'brilliant' to 'basket case'

"Glee" is at times a "brilliant" show, but lately it's been a real "basket case," says Matt Zoller Seitz at Salon. In its second season, the popular show has turned into a "chaotic, illogical, embarrassing mess." It's relying too heavily on incoherent tribute episodes, stunt casting, gimmicky weirdness, and the easy hilarity of Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester character. It's lost its center — not to mention basic concepts like character, plot, and theme. "It's time for an intervention." Here, an excerpt:

"Glee" is still a brilliant series — or at least a series with the potential to be brilliant — and I continue to admire its goofball inventiveness. Its lamest hour is more imaginative than the greatest hours of more conventional shows. It's not as though you can watch a "Glee" episode in which football players and cheerleaders boogie on a gridiron while dressed like "Thriller" zombies and a cheerleading coach fires a mannequin out of a gigantic cannon and think, "Oh, come on — not that again" ...

I hope "Glee" gets a grip on itself and returns to some semblance of consistency and sense. Right now it's the network TV show as brilliant cokehead pal — lively, charming and funny, but also manic, scattered and inept; the sort of friend who would show up during the last 10 minutes of your birthday party looking like he just rolled out of a dumpster, and regift you a present you gave him last year — with the shrink-wrap still on it. You look at a friend like that and think, Deep down, he's still the same person he always was — and even at his worst, he has his moments. But you also wonder if those moments are worth the trouble.

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Read the full article at Salon.