Grading the season premiere of "Glee"

"Empire State of Mind". Grade: D. Who thought that it would be a good idea to give all the glee club guys turns at aping Jay-Z's flow? How many more times will I need to put up with Mercedes' melisma diva act at the supposed "climax" of songs this season? (answer: far too many)

I'm still not sure if this performance was just supposed to be cool for the characters or also for the viewing audience. If it's the latter, then someone needs to tell the writers and producers that stealing hip hop poses and mannerisms from 1984 isn't cool in 2010.

"Telephone". Grade: B+. Take two great singers, give them one of the year's biggest songs (one that happens to be really easy to sing), and add a dash of dueling divas flavour to it. Nothing but fun!

"Billionaire". Grade: C+. I hate this song. So Freaking Bad. It's like Jason Mraz (who I like) with the Barenaked Ladies' sense of humour (both of which are awful). The song is a fail, but I guess if you like the original then you'd also like this note-for-note copy of it. So the grade at least reflects that.

"Listen". Grade: B-. Would have been higher without Sunshine's Celine Dion-ish habit of acting out all the song's words and accents with her hands.

"What I Did For Love". Grade: B. I love me "A Chorus Line", and Lea Michele knocked this one out of the park according to the pre-show buzz. I think the show's plot got in the way here. Needless to say, Rachel isn't at her best when she's wandering the halls of the school feeling sorry for herself. She needs to go completely OTT, and the storyline didn't let her do that.

Pretty good episode overall though, nothing too memorable, but I like how they kept the storylines SIMPLE, at least for now.