Faith and begorrah, Glee is back! After an interminably long break due to stupid baseball, McKinley High is once again in session. It’s almost hard to remember the last time we saw New Directions, when Mercedes defected to Team Shelby and Rachel threw her hat into the presidential ring because she’s the worst person in the world who refuses to let Kurt be happy (see: trying to steal Blaine in “Blame It on the Alcohol”).

The return of Glee also brings a new face, Rory Flanagan, an Irish exchange student played by The Glee Project co-winner Damian McGinty. So let’s open up this box of Lucky Charms and see if it’s magically delicious or terrifying like that movie with Jennifer Aniston and Warwick Davis.

Rory is a typical horny foreigner, the kind of guy who comes to America in hopes of living out the sexual fantasies promised by teen comedies (like Fez on That ’70s Show or, my personal favorite, Colin Frissell from the movie Love Actually). He’s living with Brittany and is desperate so “snog” her, so he’s willing to go along with the fact that she thinks he’s a magical leprechaun that only she can see.

He’s also sad and lonely, so he befriends Finn. McGinty isn’t the world’s best actor (actually, he’s kind of bad), but he’s adorable and sings like an angel, plus he has an Irish accent, so it’s OK. He also has a default smile that straddles the fine line between cute and creepy.

At the end of the day he fails to get into Brittany’s pants because she realizes leprechauns aren’t real, but he does make friends by joining New Directions with a great audition that everyone loves. Everyone except Kurt, who seems to view a cute kid with a good falsetto as a threat.

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.