Review: 'Glee' starts season again, without humor

THE SHOW "Glee"

WHEN|WHERE Tuesday night at 8 on Fox/5

REASON TO WATCH Returning from a monthlong hiatus, with the first episode featuring "Glee Project" winner Damian McGinty.

CATCHING UP The ties that bind are frayed, as Mercedes (Amber Riley) leaves New Directions to join the new all-girl choir formed by Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), while "West Side Story" now has its cast, with Rachel (Lea Michele) as Maria.

TUESDAY NIGHT'S EPISODE Foreign exchange student Rory Flanagan (McGinty) comes to McKinley. Unicorn-crazed Brittany (Heather Morris) decides he's a leprechaun. Sue's (Jane Lynch) congressional campaign continues. Songs include Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" sung by Blaine (Darren Criss), while McGinty's Flanagan does "Bein' Green" and "Take Care of Yourself."

MY SAY How do you get spilled milk back in the carton? Grab a sponge and soak it up, then squeeze the contents back in the spout. In other words, spilled milk's a lost cause. Best to buy a new carton. The "Glee" restoration project has been busy with the sponge, too, but this cause is not lost. Yes, the magic of the first season was squandered in the second and the third is still searching for its mojo (viewership still off about 20 percent), but what's bugging people now? In some respects, "Glee" has absolutely improved: It's calmer, saner, more grounded, while core character story lines have been dusted off, and cleaned up (as promised). Even Quinn's (Dianna Agron) pink-haired walk on the wild side felt true to who she was (her grief over the adoption).

So why has the magic remained so elusive? Because "Glee" may have actually overadjusted. The first season was about New Directions' cast against the world while this one is about the cast against each other. There's a sense that the relationships have all been scrambled up just so the showrunners can unscramble them in time for graduation and the finals. It can feel manufactured instead of organic. Also of concern, "Glee's" sense of humor is largely gone. Lynch's Sue Sylvester -- one of TV's great comic characters two seasons ago -- has turned into a sloganeering shrew. She's now officially all bile, no heart.

BOTTOM LINE Work remains in progress.

GRADE (season to date) B-