The fourth season of Glee is a reboot of sorts that adds some much needed changes to help keep the series fresh. With many of the main original glee club members graduating last season, Glee needed to find a way to fill the gap and extend its universe outside of McKinley High, and for the most part the series was quite successful.

For the first time, the series follows stories in two entirely different geographical locations. The New York half of the show follows Rachel (Leah Michele) as she goes from being a big fish in a small pond in Lima to being a small fish in a big pond in New York City at NYADA. She soon finds herself with a roommate, Kurt (Chris Colfer) who has his own new adventures working for Vogue.com, and they are eventually joined by Santana (Naya Rivera). The New York storyline has some amazing recurring/guest stars like Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker and Whoopi Goldberg. Also joining the cast are Dean Geyer (“Brody Watson”) and Oliver Kieran-Jones (“Adam Crawford”) as potential new love interests for Rachel and Kurt.

Back in Lima, there’s also a lot of new things going on. The returning members of New Directions include Blaine (Darren Criss), Artie (Kevin McHale), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Brittany (Heather Morris), Sam (Chord Overstreet), Joe (Samuel Larsen) and Sugar (Vanessa Lengies). Plus there’s some new students joining McKinley High—the new Quinn, bitchy cheerleader Kitty Wilde (Becca Tobin); the new Rachel, Marley Rose (Melissa Benoist), a songwriter who dreams of being on the radio, but is a bit insecure and afraid others will find out her mother is the lunch lady; the new Finn, Ryder Lynn (Glee Project Season 2 winner Blake Jenner); and the new Puck, Noah Puckerman’s brother Jake (Jacob Artist). The new school year also finds Wade/”Unique” (Alex Newell) joining the New Directions, and Finn (Cory Monteith) returns later in the season to help run the glee club when Mr. Schue heads to Washington to fight to save the arts.

Throughout the season, the series finds ways to bring back all of the other graduated seniors to pop in for an episode or two—some of these feel a little more forced than others. But fans will enjoy getting the chance to at least check in with these other characters.

Some of the musical themes this season include Britney Spears, Stevie Wonder, Grease the Musical, an homage to Love, Actually, diva week, songs in films, guilty pleasure songs, and acoustic performances. And some of this season’s plot lines include lots of break-ups and new relationships, Broadway and NYADA auditions, an intra-glee club battle for Student Council President, a new rival at the Warblers, a Sadie Hawkins dance, a men of glee club calendar, a power outage, a Catfish scenario, bulimia, a school shooting and a wedding…maybe.

Glee‘s fourth season has some interesting new characters and storylines, plus some great musical performances. I found myself drawn to the New York side of things more than the McKinley High side—the NYC stuff has a more grown-up feel to it. While the Lima side does have interesting plots, some of them do not follow through. For example, the school shooting episode had great potential, and was really emotional and intense, but the final act felt like a bit of a cop out. Overall the good outweighs the bad, especially for those who are most interested in the musical performances—there is much to enjoy from both the NYC and Lima sides of the show.

The show looked and sounded great on its original Fox HD airings, but it is even better on this Blu-ray. This set also contains some entertaining bonus features that provide a nice behind-the-scenes look at the season—none of these featurettes felt like fluff pieces used to simply pad the set. All told, this Blu-ray set is an easy recommendation for fans of the series. Other viewers who maybe dropped off after the first season or two should consider revisiting the series for this fourth season as the New York side of things and cast shakeup reinvigorate the series.

What’s Included on the Blu-ray:

Episodes: (963 min)

• All 22 episodes of Season 4:
  Disc 1: “The New Rachel”, “Britney 2.0”, “Makeover”, “The Break-Up”, “The Role You Were Born to Play”
  Disc 2: “Glease”, “Dynamic Duets”, “Thanksgiving”, “Swan Song”, “Glee, Actually”
  Disc 3: “Sadie Hawkins”, “Naked”, “Diva”, “I Do”, “Girls (and Boys) on Film”, “Feud”
  Disc 4: “Guilty Pleasures”, “Shooting Star”, “Sweet Dreams”, “Lights Out”, “Wonder-ful”, “All or Nothing”
• Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese,

Extras:

• Glee Music Jukebox
  Each disc contains this feature. It gives a list of all of the musical performances in each of the episodes contained on that disc. There are Play All and Shuffle options, and you can select an individual song to just view that performance.
• Movin’ On Up: Glee in NYC (10:02)
  The cast and creator talk about the changes for Kurt and Michele as they head to New York, and the challenges and joys of filming in the city. Includes interviews with stars Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Oliver Kieran-Jones (“Adam Crawford”), Kate Hudson (“Cassandra July”) and Dean Geyer (“Brody Watson”), and Dirctor/Co-Creator Ian Brennan. Also includes footage from the chemistry test between Lea and Dean and Oliver’s audition tape.
• Jarley (8:53)
  Actors Melissa Benoist (“Marley Rose”) and Jacob Artist (“Jake Puckerman”) talk about the Jarley (Jake + Marley) relationship, what it was like auditioning for their roles, their first days on the set, their musical performances on the series, and fan interactions. Includes audition footage for Melissa Benoist, Becca Tobin and Jacob Artist, and the chemistry test between Jacob and Melissa. Also includes interviews with Darren Criss (“Blaine Anderson”) and Lea Michelle.
• Building New York (6:29)
  Dirctor/Co-Creator Ian Brennan, Production Designer Mark Hutman and stars Lea Michele and Chris Colfer talk about the sets for the New York storylines—Kurt and Rachel’s Loft, the NYADA Dance Studio and the Vogue.com Offices.
• Deleted Scenes (10:28)
  Four deleted scenes spread across the first 2 discs of the set—includes a Sue Sylvester/Will Schuester “Mr. Monotony” musical performance.
• Glee On Film (11:56)
  The cast and creators talk about recreating iconic film moments and songs in the episode “Girls (and Boys) on Film”. Includes interviews with stars Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, Matthew Morrison, Jacob Artist, Blake Jenner, Vanessa Lengies, Jenna Ushkowitz, Alex Newell, Becca Tobin, Melissa Benoist, Kevin McHale, and Lea Michele, plus Director/Co-Creator Ian Brennan, Choreographer/Co-Producer Zach Woodlee and Associate Choreographer Brooke Lipton. Also includes footage from the 500th musical performance celebration.
• The Road to 500 (3:54)
  Stars Matthew Morrison, Chris Colfer, Lea Michele, Jenna Ushkowitz, Kevin McHale, Chord Overstreet, and Darren Criss reflect on their first and favorite musical performances from the series.
• Blaine’s Time Capsule (8:12)
  Blaine makes a video recording to himself in the year 2063, for his 50th high school reunion, talking about what it was like for him being a senior at McKinley High in 2013. It serves as a nice recap of the events of the fourth season.
• Glee Premiere Party! (3:41)
  Red Carpet interviews with the cast from the season 4 premiere party for Glee.

Final Thoughts:

Glee looks and sounds great on this fourth season Blu-ray set. The addition of New York and a bunch of new cast members really invigorates the series. The Blu-ray set contains a host of interesting extras that makes it an easy recommendation for fans, and something worth checking out for new viewers or lapsed fans.