A few weeks ago I was invited to a gay friend’s dinner party, where he was serving a authentic Thai dinner for 15 (his mother was cooking it, but that’s another story). When dinner was served, half the party was eating at the table, and the other half was in his living room watching “Glee.” Everyone knew about it, most were fans, those who had never seen it had friends who were telling them they had to watch it.
I’m very torn about Glee, a show about music that has trouble hitting it’s emotional high notes. If you’re not familiar, Glee is about high school Spanish teacher Will Shuester (Matthew Morrison) who restarts the high school glee club. The pilot introduces a core set of members, but as the show has progressed more students have joined. His antagonist is the cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), who feels threatened because the glee club is taking resources away from her nationally known Cheerleading squad, the Cheerios.
I’ve watched since the pilot, and it’s been a rocky ride. For a show about outcasts the show seems to hate it’s outcasts. A central plot line has followed the popular kids as they’ve fallen from grace within their clique because of their involvement with the glee club. We’ve spent episode upon episode following the pretty people mope about how hard it is to not be popular, but there are 4 core characters (Mercedes, Artie, Kurt,and Tina) that have never been in the popular crowd yet that the show repeatedly puts into the background. You’d think the show was embarrassed to have to include unpopular kids in it’s plotlines about unpopular kids.
The writing is all over the map. From episode to episode the show can’t decide if it’s supposed to be a Telenovella or a serious drama. People talk about the glee club as if they’re in an episode of “The West Wing,” yet one of the major plot threads of the entire series is that Mr. Shuester’s wife has been lying for months about being pregnant. Seriously? One of the biggest writing failings is that characters exist in completely different pocket universes from each other; Shuester’s wife Terry and her sister exist in the “plot machination” universe, Sue Sylvester, Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallager) and Rachel Berry (Lea Michelle) seem to exist in the “wacky” universe, and the rest exist in the supposedly “normal” universe. When characters interact with characters with people from alternate universes, the show really struggles to hold together.
So why do I keep watching?
…and that opened the episode. Rather than write original songs, Glee embeds lots of well performed standards into it’s episodes, usually tying them into the plot. The performances usually have to be edited down from the full song in the show, but they’ve been selling full length versions of all the music on iTunes and just released a first CD. It’s easy to see why all my friends love this show; it’s like gay catnip.
When I was talking to my friends they all agreed that the show had it’s flaws, but we couldn’t come to a consensus what those flaws were. Some wanted more of the campy fun plots, others wanted the show to take itself more seriously. Some hated the token gay character Kurt (Chris Colfer), others (mostly me) loved him. The past few weeks the show has given some time to the outcasts and stabilizing the wild tonal shifts that make the early episodes hard to watch, but they still have a fake pregnancy as a core storyline. I think the show is a mess, but it’s a mess with something for everyone and good music to cover it’s flaws.
Would you like Glee?
- If you are a straight guy – do you like twenty-something women playing teenagers in tight outfits? Then you might.
- If you’re a woman – do you like drama? Did you hate high school? Then maybe.
- If you’re gay, you’re already watching.