I can’t say that Glee’s season premiere floored me. Sure it had its highlights: Newly reinstated Head-Bitch-In-Charge Quinn taking down Santana in the hallway, Asian camp (nuff said) and the whole “Glee’s Big Gay Summer” recap. So much win. On the downside, there were no Sue Sylvester one-liners I found overwhelmingly funny, Coach Beiste is an eye sore and the Finchel PDA has got to go.

I’m also not loving this Sam Evans character yet. Okay, I admit “Billionaire” has pretty much been on repeat since I got the web rip last Thursday, kid’s got a nice voice. But his taking Finn’s quarterback position and being a possible love interest for both Quinn and Kurt makes me doubt I will like his character. Quinn needs to be single or at least until Finn comes to his senses and dumps the annoying bitch. And I agree that Chord Everstreet’s unnaturally large mouth and J. Bieb’s haircut is distracting. By the way, what kind of a name is “Chord Everstreet”? Aren’t there laws against child abuse?

The music, however, was pretty great. I’ve already sung the praises of “Billionare” and the other four songs were just as quality.  The cast managed to make “Empire State of Mind” bearable for me, I’m no Alicia Keys fan. Minus some highly obvious autotune, Lea Michele and Charice did a good job with “Telephone”. Their respective solos “Listen” and “What I Did For Love” were also very well done.

Glee has proven in episodes such as “Throwdown”, “Wheels” and “Journey” that it can master comedy, drama and musical numbers in perfect harmony. Ever since the series went big, things haven’t been the same. It is clear that there is now a bigger budget and they are trying too hard to please the fans. Some of the magic was recaptured in last season’s finale and I was hoping that it would carry over to this season. Unfortunately this did not happen.

I know there are many who enjoyed the premiere and I don’t want to rain on your parade, but you have to admit, Glee just isn’t the same as it used to be. I am however optimistic that things will improve over the course of this season. They are already taking steps in the right direction and the Britney episode looks “outrageous”.

As always, fellow gleeks, don’t stop believing.