At least they kept that humanization of Sue strictly for the viewers and herself, not for anyone else in the school (except for the paying for the ramps, which I think was partially a tribute to her sister and Becky, and partially a way to screw with the minds of Will and Figgins). For no other reason, I loved it because of the way that Jane Lynch played that beautiful moment when she began reading to her sister--I tearing up right now just remembering it!

As jerky as Will can be at times, it was great how he brought the rest of the club on-board with Artie by having them do the number in wheelchairs. And here's hoping he learned his lesson about automatically giving numbers to Rachel when others have expressed an interest. Speaking of, Proud Mary was great because it had everyone performing it and swapping the lead, not just Rachel and Finn.

Terrific moments (other than the bookreading): everything between Kurt and his dad, equally well-played by both; the reveal of Puck making hash brownies, which I was just waiting for as soon as Will announced a bake sale; Rachel and Finn working together to get him a job (I thought he'd use his mechanical skills to get a job with Kurt's dad, but this was funnier). Bad moments: anything with Quinn being a demanding woman without pointing out she has options of her own as listed upthread just made me grit my teeth--suck it up and do for yourself, girl!!

Best thing about the ep: no hint of Will's wife!!!

Oh, and I forgot to say that I'm glad they're humanizing Sue this early on, because otherwise they'd be stuck with another Frank Burns.

And here's hoping he learned his lesson about automatically giving numbers to Rachel when others have expressed an interest.

This is increasingly disturbing me. Not just the unfairness to others, but her admittedly melodramtic "can't you create a teachable moment without ruining my life" thing - the way he throws all the opportunities and accolades her way but then arbitrarily yanks them back is starting to feel borderline abusive.

I agree with Kathy's terrific moments.

I'd like to read what some people in a wheelchair thinks about the whole "time in a wheelchair/song in a wheelchair" thing. My first reaction was, "At least it's not a fat suit." My second reaction was "Ally!fail." Anybody got links to a good disability blog post on the topic?

I also agree with all the Quinn WTF. Plus, seriously, her parents *will* figure it out at some point, so she needs to suck it up and tell them.

Oh, and I'd *really* like Mercedes to get a lead part at sectionals.

This is increasingly disturbing me. Not just the unfairness to others, but her admittedly melodramtic "can't you create a teachable moment without ruining my life" thing - the way he throws all the opportunities and accolades her way but then arbitrarily yanks them back is starting to feel borderline abusive.

So very much this. We had a complete douchnozzle husband and wife team that directed all of the choirs and the school musical every year. And even though the leads were pretty much a given, no matter who you were, you were given an audition. Even those that had it pretty much sewn up. They had to audition, they had to do callbacks and they had to do it in front of everyone. Will should be running Glee the same way. Every part gets an audition. Every single one.

But auditions would mean that they'd have to come up with a character note for Rachel other than "I demand nothing less than everything because I'm the best, and if you don't give me everything that I think I deserve then you're ruining my life."

signed, known too many Rachels

Hmm. That Murphy article was pretty "oh we're so special and groundbreaking and whatev" for me. But this bit was interesting:

Speaking of rocking out, “Wheels” also features the show choir’s first diva off, a battle royale between Rachel and Kurt. The idea was born when Colfer shared with Murphy how he had begged his high school drama department to let him perform his favorite song, “Defying Gravity,” and he was denied every year because he’s male.

I wasn't familiar with the song, but other than the key it was sung in it didn't strike me as particularly gendered. I certainly didn't think Kurt performing that would be more likely to subject his dad to slurs than, say, walking down the hall dressed as he normally is.

I'd like to read what some people in a wheelchair thinks about the whole "time in a wheelchair/song in a wheelchair" thing. My first reaction was, "At least it's not a fat suit." My second reaction was "Ally!fail." Anybody got links to a good disability blog post on the topic?

There's a number of news articles - it seems to have drawn attention more to the fact that the actor playing Artie is not disabled, rather than concern about the episode itself (which I haven't seen - I'm behind on Glee). See [link] (I love Robert David Hall to bits) and all manner of similar articles in newspapers all over the internet. For blog posts on the wider disability issue and Glee, the only ones I can find are the glorious Trouble in China at [link] and MANY other posts(she's really angry about Glee) and FWD/Forward at [link] (I haven't decided whether I agree with the post yet). I'll ask around the disability blog community to see if I can find any more specific posts about the most recent ep.

I'm only up to episode 5, but I'm nonplussed by Artie - nice to see a disabled character, would be better if he was played by a disabled actor, even better would be a wider representation of disability rather than focusing on wheelchairs (used by only 8% of the disabled population, in the UK at least) - but ultimately this is a comedy and they're out to have fun, not to change society single-handedly. In short, I have not made up my mind about the whole thing. (I might have to skip to this ep to think about it, especially if "time in a wheelchair" means 'empathy exercises', which are WIDELY discredited in the disabled community, and I'd like to know what Glee's take on this was.)

If my friends and I *ever* get round to the disability and cult film/TV podcast series that we've been planning for about a year now, I'm sure we'll talk about comedy, and Glee in particular.