IT'S A HELL OF A TOWN: Like most episodes of this season, the finale of Glee was simultaneously overstuffed with narrative (yes, it's yet another round on the Rachel/Finn/Quinn/Jesse merry-go-round!) and utterly unexplained (Sam and Mercedes have been dating since Prom?), and utterly inconstently written (Quinn gets yet another character 180, and Brittany S. Pierce can suddenly deliver long monologues about acceptance and love?), but that's not what I wanted to talk about. What this episode reminds us is that even though the show is known for elaborate production numbers, it so rarely shoots on location or outside. Indeed, the only non-backlot or set material I can recall from this season are the mall used in "Born This Way" (which may well be a stock backlot) and some football-related footage (which was probably shot on a backlot).
In contrast, this week's episode featured copious location shooting, not just outdoors, but even at indoor locations (that was definitely the Gershwin theatre interior and I'm pretty sure that was actually Sardi's), which made the show look gorgeous. Of course, this is likely a deliberate choice to make New York seem like the fairyland of Oz to contrast with the drabness of Lima, but it made the episode look spectacular, even if the original songs weren't up to snuff.
