Michael (Glee)
Written by co-creator Ryan Murphy and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, the episode aired on Fox in the United States on January 31, 2012.
New Directions challenges the Warblers for the right to perform Jackson, and they meet in a parking garage at night and compete to "BAD".
At the end of the number, Sebastian throws a slushie at Kurt (Chris Colfer) but Blaine interposes himself: he is hit in the face and badly injured.
Quinn has done so, and she has been accepted at Yale; she sings "Never Can Say Goodbye" to former boyfriends Puck (Mark Salling), Finn and Sam (Chord Overstreet), and to the glee club.
Despite wanting revenge, Kurt is unwilling to use violence, so Santana goes to Dalton and accuses Sebastian of lying about the composition of the damaging slushie.
Both of the last two shooting days before the vacation began, December 15 and 16, ran a couple of hours past midnight, with the final night not ending until three in the morning.
[6] It had been announced late in the summer that Darren Criss, who plays Blaine Anderson, would be starring on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying from January 3 through 22, 2012, with rehearsals beginning there a couple of weeks before his debut.
The Dalton Academy Warblers return in this episode, and perform "Bad" with New Directions, which was shot on location in a "parking garage just outside the Paramount Studio gates".
[10] The Warblers shot their own number, "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5 with Gustin on lead vocal, but the song was omitted from the final cut of the episode.
[13][14] The Warblers number had already run into difficulties earlier in production: it was originally planned to be Jackson's "Rock with You", but there were problems clearing the rights, so "I Want You Back" was selected and filmed instead.
[15] Gustin and Rivera performed "Smooth Criminal" with on-screen musical guests 2Cellos, Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser, who became famous when their instrument-only two-cello cover of the piece received over three million views on YouTube in its first two weeks.
[19] Recurring guest stars in the episode include Kurt's father Burt Hummel (O'Malley), glee club members Sam Evans (Overstreet) and Rory Flanagan (Damian McGinty), and Dalton Academy Warbler Sebastian Smythe (Gustin).
[26][31] Jen Chaney of The Washington Post, however, thought that it was very much like previous tributes in that it also "featured scattered plot lines engineered to include as many songs by said artists as possible" and also "glorified their respective pop stars’ images to an absurd degree".
[34] Futterman was one of many reviewers who took note of a new feature of this tribute episode when she commented on the "initial whiff of product placement and forced timing" related to the "Immortal World Tour" dialogue.
[26] Rae Votta of Billboard thought the inclusion a "brilliant bit of marketing synergy", but TVLine's Michael Slezak called it "ridiculously unsubtle product-placement".
[35][36] Although Rachel's decision to accept Finn's proposal of marriage was greeted with skepticism, Canning spoke for many when he stated that her "arc in the episode was her best in a while" with "some compelling moments".
[33] The first song was "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", which Bell said "was a fun homage to Michael Jackson, and it set the tone for the rest of the episode".
[30] Futterman said that Blaine's "slick showmanship" made him a "natural for lead vocals", and Slezak called it "the best use of Darren Criss' voice on Glee in quite some time" and gave it an "A−".
[32] Chaney dissented from the general approval; she gave it a "C+" and wrote that "the number was appropriately big and splashy, but musically, it sounded like all the funk had been drained right out of it".
[35] Futterman noted the "interesting twist" in the song's arrangement "thanks to the Warblers' penchant for a cappella", and said that "Artie and Santana" began their battle for "vocal MVP of the episode" with "Bad".
"[30][38] Flandez called it a "phenomenal job", and Stanhope cited "killer performances" by McHale on this number and others as evidence that with Artie only a junior "there is life" in New Directions after McKinley's current seniors graduate.
[28][39] Lynch called the number "awesome" and gave it an "A+", and Goldberg described it as "a perfect example of what the show looks like when it's firing on all cylinders"; both reviewers praised the dancing of both performers.
[29][37] Chaney wrote that the performance "lacked the energy and genuine aggression of the original Michael/Janet Jackson collaboration, although at least Kevin McHale and Harry Shum Jr. got to show off their dance skills", and gave it a "C".
[26][36] Most other reviewers also noted how good their voices sounded together, including Chaney, who gave the song a "B−", and Bell, who called their harmonies "out-of-this-world amazing".
[30] Chaney was unenthusiastic and gave the song a "C", while Flandez had more negative opinion than hers: "Sebastian Smythe got our reaction right: a slow-handed clap".
[28][33] Of the nine cover versions of Michael Jackson's music, all of which were released as singles, five debuted on US and Canadian top 100 charts, and ranked in the same order in both countries.
"Smooth Criminal" debuted in the US at number twenty-six on the Billboard Hot 100, with sales of 108,000; only nine songs sold more digital downloads that week.
