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" After managing to weather the tragic minefield of Cory Monteith&amp;#039;s death with a beautiful and emotional episode, Glee still had a difficult question to answer, namely where do you go after that? Their solution - to keep things light and fluffy with an episode dedicated to the astonishingly catchy pop stylings of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.  It&amp;#039;s a good plan - it&amp;#039;s not really a stretch to suggest your average Glee viewer is a fan of a couple of tracks from Gaga or KP or both, and a good sing-song should definitely prove a distraction from any lingering post-&amp;#039;Quarterback&amp;#039; blues. The only problem is the performances are pretty scarce. Instead, &amp;#039;A Katy or a Gaga&amp;#039; uses the recent sales-off between the two girls as a plot device to get the members of the glee club to realise who they truly are, the show clearly going for a feel-good message, but overdoing it and turning what should be a fun episode into a bit of a snorefest.  The whole &amp;#039;a Katy&amp;#039; or &amp;#039;a Gaga&amp;#039; thing kicks off when New Directions discover that this year they will be battling a show choir called &amp;#039;Throat Explosion&amp;#039;, a bunch of fiercely creative, passionate outsiders who live to perform - a troupe of mini Lady Gagas, basically. Meanwhile, some members of the group are worrying that they&amp;#039;ve lost their &amp;#039;weirdo&amp;#039; credentials, the glee club now plagued with wholesome, all-American slices of cuteness like Katy Perry. Mr Schuester challenges them to turn their weakness into their strengths by having those in the club who identify themselves as &amp;#039;a Gaga&amp;#039; - Unique, Tina, Jake and Kitty - channel their inner Katy Perry, and vice versa. Sam is leading the charge for the Katys after seemingly blowing his chance with Skrillex and NI\u0418-loving nurse Penny thanks to his passion for glittery, girly Nick teen series True Jackson, VP. Determined to impress her, he becomes obsessed with creating a performance so edgy that it will be &amp;quot;declared legally clinically insane&amp;quot;. With Penny the guest of honour, the group give a rendition of &amp;#039;Applause&amp;#039; that is appropriately &amp;#039;out-there&amp;#039;, featuring a shirtless Sam with creepy skeletal wings, Ryder caged in a weird costume corset thing and Blaine becoming a reanimated drag queen version of both Siegfried and Roy.  When Sam approaches Penny about the performance, she admits that she wasn&amp;#039;t a fan - but only because Gaga is too dark for her. She never had a musical edgy side, she only went along with it for the sake of all her boyfriends, and all it got her was a broken heart. She&amp;#039;s done with bad boys, she&amp;#039;s a Katy Perry fan. It&amp;#039;s music to Sam&amp;#039;s ear and he pulls her in for some goofy snogging. It&amp;#039;s actually kind of cute.  However, the &amp;#039;Applause&amp;#039; performance doesn&amp;#039;t go as well for Marley, who decides to make a statement by refusing to don Gaga&amp;#039;s seashell bikini and instead bounds on stage in a cutesy Katy ensemble, declaring that she won&amp;#039;t be changed.  This annoys Mr Schuester, who suspends her for deliberately ignoring the assignment. It&amp;#039;s a bit of a sudden and strange turn for the show to take, particularly since it is the exact opposite of Glee&amp;#039;s fundamental message. And that&amp;#039;s before we even start thinking about the real-life ramifications of a teacher suspending a teenage girl for refusing to strip to her underwear. Marley&amp;#039;s outburst is over the rubbish new bitchy cheerleader Bree, who&amp;#039;s been strutting around in Gaga&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Telephone&amp;#039; police line outfit and engaging in raunchy choreography sessions with Jake in a bid to lure him away from her (you know, just like Kitty tried to do last season?) Determined to stay true to the person she is, Marley refuses to let Jake take her virginity during a later make-out session, her reluctance leading to a massive argument as they discuss their respective fears and frustration. Even if it&amp;#039;s a bit &amp;#039;after-school special&amp;#039;, it still feels like an authentic replication of the exchanges that have gone on between many a teenage couple, so props to Glee there. Of course it&amp;#039;s all leading up to Jake cheating with Bree, her cold and callous, he brutally aware of the terrible thing he&amp;#039;s about to do but, hey, he&amp;#039;s a man and therefore clearly ruled by his tackle. Honestly, we&amp;#039;re not sure how we feel about a character that seems to have grown more human since his fixture-smashing debut reverting back to a poster child for bad boys who do bad things to nice girls.  Meanwhile, the Gagas of the glee club are struggling to come up with an idea for their Katy performance. With the deadline looming, Tina realises they need to steer away from the gimmicks and the pagentry and just focus on the simple pleasures of Katy&amp;#039;s music. In an unexpected twist, their stripped down, stools and piano version of &amp;#039;Wide Awake&amp;#039; provides more of a shock than the OTT Gaga performance. It not only sounds great, but it does make an interesting, subtle point about the whole sexing-up of pop music debate that has been pushed to the fore since Miley happened, elevating the whole &amp;#039;Gaga VS Katy&amp;#039; thing above that of a filler theme for one scene. Over in New York, Kurt forms a band with Santana and Demi Lovato&amp;#039;s character Dani, and together they host open auditions for more members. However, the only one who shows up is badass Mad Hatter figure &amp;#039;Starchild&amp;#039;, played by former American Idol star and DS favourite Adam Lambert. He pitches himself with a performance of &amp;#039;Marry The Night&amp;#039; that blows the gang away like an atomic bomb of eyeshadow, his rock-tinged vocals just jagged enough for Glee. He commits to the performance like no guest artist has for a very long time, crotch-thrusts and all. His appearance ten minutes in is really the first thing we bothered to pay attention to this episode. However, Kurt is clearly put out by Starchild and orders him to tone down his look if he wants to be in the band. Referencing the whole Gaga/Perry divide, Kurt later explains that he rejected Starchild because after years of being the niche, kooky, alternative choice (Gaga), he wants to go more mainstream (Katy).  However, Rachel convinces Kurt to give Starchild another chance and the two boys bump into each other again when Kurt realises that a bespectacled young man in sensible clothing at the diner is the same person who was just strutting about like a crazy person. Starchild pleads with Kurt for a spot in the band, explaining that he didn&amp;#039;t get into NYADA and wants to explore any and all creative avenues in New York. Kurt reassures him that he has gotten over his frustration about not being mainstream and understands now that he needs to the best people around him. Starchild is in, and so is Rachel, who gets over her initial fears of spreading herself too thin creatively after Finn&amp;#039;s death when she comes up with the brilliant band name Pamela Lansbury.  Pamela Lansbury - after that do we really need to hammer home how camp this episode is? Glee were clearly trying to keep things soft and go back to bubblegum on their first episode since the hiatus. The sad thing is there&amp;#039;s so much more they could have done with an episode dedicated to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry that what we&amp;#039;ve been given feels like a letdown.  The performances are great, especially those featuring Adam Lambert and the glee club&amp;#039;s closing recreation of the &amp;#039;Roar&amp;#039; video, spat out after Sue reignites their feud for no real reason and suspends them all, but everything between is too bloody safe. We can understand why Glee wouldn&amp;#039;t want to be too adventurous - that might look unsympathetic - but this is pretty much as standard an episode as you can get. Self-deprecating dialogue - check. Random soap box moment (&amp;#039;Why must we choose between female icons, can&amp;#039;t we be them all?&amp;#039;) - check.  The traditional line that makes you wince (Becky&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;bug off, I don&amp;#039;t do handies&amp;quot;), the idea of expressing yourself through a theatrical popstar - yep, tick those off as well. We&amp;#039;re sure things will improve again, especially after Adam Lambert&amp;#039;s promising, rejuvenating appearance, but in our eyes, &amp;#039;A Katy or a Gaga&amp;#039; was a total wasted opportunity. What do you think of this week&amp;#039;s Glee? Are you a Katy or a Gaga? Leave your comments below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/glee/review/a529793/glee-does-lady-gaga-katy-perry-adam-lambert-debuts-in-new-episode/>