Advanced TV Review: Glee Season 6 Premiere (Part 2) “Homecoming”

The two hour season six premiere of Glee (the final season) airs tonight and I was lucky enough to check out the premiere in advance. Below is my review of the second hour and if you click here, you can read my review of the first hour. Thanks for reading!

Photo Credit: Jennifer Clasen/FOX

In “Homecoming,” more beloved members of the original glee club – Puck (Mark Salling), Quinn (Dianna Agron), Santana (Naya Rivera), Mercedes (Amber Riley), Brittany (Heather Morris), Artie (Kevin McHale) and Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) – all return to McKinley for Homecoming and help Rachel and Kurt recruit members for the new glee club.

So when new girl, Jane arrives at Dalton and approaches Blaine, he must decide if he wants to go against tradition or stand for equality. It may have been an easy decision before but now as a person of authority, what will he choose to do? I loved this dilemma for him and can’t wait to see what other hard choices he will have to face in this role he has taken on at Dalton.

Meanwhile, Rachel has trouble recruiting members to the glee club. No surprise there. But remember what I said about the throwback to the Pilot episode and the parallels with Finn’s storyline? It’s much, much stronger in this episode. Much stronger. And it’s oh so beautifully executed.

That’s not the only thing I loved about this episode. The illustration effects in this episode were great and I loved how it tied into Artie’s project. But back to the glee club! It was exciting to see New Direction back together again as they helped Rachel recruit new members. (The power of Santana! Ha).

As for the music? New Directions alumni give a great performance of “Take on Me.” Jane (Samantha Ware) sings “Tightrope” and if you didn’t get to see Ware in The Book of Mormon on Broadway, enjoy this performance of hers and make a note to see her on Broadway in the future!

Quinn, Santana, Brittany, & Artie sing “Problem” and it’s definitely a favorite number of mine from this episode. Can we take a moment to acknowledge how perfect this song was for these four, especially Dianna? That was great. Roderick (newcomer, Noah Guthrie) and the New Direction alumni sing “Mustang Sally.” I wasn’t too impressed with this number but it was fun seeing some of the glee club numbers jump in on his audition.

Finally, New Directions alumni and the new recruits sing “Home” and it is undoubtedly the best arrangement of the hour. What a perfect closing number to the finale. Just beautiful. So all in all, this is an episode that will melt your heart and have you thirsting for more! The final season of Glee starts off strong and gives me no doubts that I will love how it all comes to an end. This is the beginning of farewell, the beginning of a poignant curtain call so don’t miss it tonight. Come home.

The final season of Glee kicks off with a special two-hour premiere airing TONIGHT 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT on FOX.