Glee: Commentary on the Premiere
Sep. 7th, 2009 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ficwizeI cannot express how stupidly excited I am for this show. I'm even having trouble expressing why. Regardless, I shall try and explain below a cut for spoilers for the first episode.
My high school was a lot like the one depicted in this show. We had clicks like mad - the jocks (and among that class, football was GOD), the socialites (can I say that I went to a Junior League Coming Out Ball without getting laughed at???), the brains (I was in this group), the grunge, the druggies, and of course, band (also a member of this group).
I think part of the appeal of the show is watching people navigate those tricky waters. While the show is definitely pushing the characterizations to the borderline of the cliched absurd, I don't think they've crossed it yet. And if they can naviagate that line - close enough to be an ironic commentary without crossing into farce - I will be *hooked* like whoa
I don't think the setting is in the Southern USA - there were none of the usual indicators, including accents - but watching it feels like being back in high school again, except without actually being back in high school.
I also really like that the characters are all flawed. None of them are perfect, not even the teachers, who in varying degrees are drug addicts, royal bitches, socially awkward and not above lying and blackmail to get what they want. They seem actually human - so long as they don't become caricatures of themselves.
Then comes the cast of teenagers. The football jock bullies who torture others less fortunate than themselves, the cheerleaders who interrupt make out sessions to pray, and the outcst misfits that make up the heart of Glee.
First, let me say that there is flat out no way that I will ever believe that Lea Michele, who plays Rachel Berry, would ever be the unpopular girl. She is way way way too pretty for that, and this is about high school where beauty counts more than anything. Other than that, I really liked this cast. I hasten to add that I think Lea has one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard and that I think she's doing a great job, I just don't believe that she'd be the outcast hat she is portrayed as.
The core cast is diverse, one white guy jock, one white guy nerd that I suspect is being set up to be gay, one white guy in a wheelchair, one white girl (although Rachel's parentage is unknown), one Asian girl and one black girl. One of the featured cheerleaders (Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez) is Latino, I think.
This is also like my high school experience. Although I grew up in the south, I grew up in a town with a lot of industry and a large military base, so we had a lot of diversity, more than most high schools in my town, and I would hazard a guess that we had more than a lot of high schools in the US.
I find the set up for character arcs fascinating. I love the dynamic between Glee teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) and cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). As a member of band, I saw these sorts of teacher rivalries first hand. Plus, I think Jane Lynch is brilliant and has the potential to bring a lot to that role. The scene at the end where she and two of the cheerleaders are looking down at Glee with ominous intent is one of my favorite moments.
I also love the love square? parallelogram? whatever? between Will, his wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig), the germophobe and socially awkward guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) - and how ironic is that choice?! - and football coach Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher), who is clearly friends with Will even as he feels a bit betrayed by him.
The weird love dynamic there intrigues me. I've seen several people comment that Tanaka is inappropriate in his advances towards Emma, and I agree that's true. I haven't seen anyone comment that Emma's behavior towards Will is inappropriate, and I think that it is. His marriage might not be solid, but he is married and she is clearly not separating her feelings for him from her actions towards him. I imagine that Terri will be most displeased when she realizes this - and there is no way she won't realize it. It's glaringly obvious.
Terri and Will have a strained relationship as well, but the way he spoke about her makes me think that he truly did love her at one point, and maybe still does. I'm interested to see how that plays out.
Finally, while I have only minimal interest in the relationship between Rachel and Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith), who is another amazing singer, I am intrigued by Finn's relationship with his best friend Noah "Puck" Puckerman (Mark Salling). Puck not only cared about Finn missing practice unexpectedly, he sensed that Finn was lying and looked it up (Chick don't have prostates. I looked it up!). The confrontation with the paint gun was somewhat amusing, but the ending of the episode, where Puck is watching Finn from the doorway, is just downright interesting. I want to know what he was thinking in the worst way.
So, this show can go two ways. It has the potential to be awesome, and I do mean awesome. Or it has the potential to be just like every other cliched and boring high school drama ever on tv, only with music.
And speaking of the music, I cannot fail to mention it. More than anything, the closing number hooked me. Journey’s "Don’t Stop Believin’" is one of my favorite songs anyway, and their version took my breath away. I stalked iTunes until it was available.
So, I will tune in next week with bated breath - and I will be hoping that the show delivers what it promised and not something cheesy, hackneyed, and so stereotypical that it looses the brilliant razor edge of ironic commentary that this show has.
For fun, I will leave you with the songs from the show.
"Rehab" by Amy Winehouse, as performed by rival glee club:
And, Journey's "Don't Stop Beleivin":
What do you guys think?
My high school was a lot like the one depicted in this show. We had clicks like mad - the jocks (and among that class, football was GOD), the socialites (can I say that I went to a Junior League Coming Out Ball without getting laughed at???), the brains (I was in this group), the grunge, the druggies, and of course, band (also a member of this group).
I think part of the appeal of the show is watching people navigate those tricky waters. While the show is definitely pushing the characterizations to the borderline of the cliched absurd, I don't think they've crossed it yet. And if they can naviagate that line - close enough to be an ironic commentary without crossing into farce - I will be *hooked* like whoa
I don't think the setting is in the Southern USA - there were none of the usual indicators, including accents - but watching it feels like being back in high school again, except without actually being back in high school.
I also really like that the characters are all flawed. None of them are perfect, not even the teachers, who in varying degrees are drug addicts, royal bitches, socially awkward and not above lying and blackmail to get what they want. They seem actually human - so long as they don't become caricatures of themselves.
Then comes the cast of teenagers. The football jock bullies who torture others less fortunate than themselves, the cheerleaders who interrupt make out sessions to pray, and the outcst misfits that make up the heart of Glee.
First, let me say that there is flat out no way that I will ever believe that Lea Michele, who plays Rachel Berry, would ever be the unpopular girl. She is way way way too pretty for that, and this is about high school where beauty counts more than anything. Other than that, I really liked this cast. I hasten to add that I think Lea has one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard and that I think she's doing a great job, I just don't believe that she'd be the outcast hat she is portrayed as.
The core cast is diverse, one white guy jock, one white guy nerd that I suspect is being set up to be gay, one white guy in a wheelchair, one white girl (although Rachel's parentage is unknown), one Asian girl and one black girl. One of the featured cheerleaders (Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez) is Latino, I think.
This is also like my high school experience. Although I grew up in the south, I grew up in a town with a lot of industry and a large military base, so we had a lot of diversity, more than most high schools in my town, and I would hazard a guess that we had more than a lot of high schools in the US.
I find the set up for character arcs fascinating. I love the dynamic between Glee teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) and cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). As a member of band, I saw these sorts of teacher rivalries first hand. Plus, I think Jane Lynch is brilliant and has the potential to bring a lot to that role. The scene at the end where she and two of the cheerleaders are looking down at Glee with ominous intent is one of my favorite moments.
I also love the love square? parallelogram? whatever? between Will, his wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig), the germophobe and socially awkward guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) - and how ironic is that choice?! - and football coach Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher), who is clearly friends with Will even as he feels a bit betrayed by him.
The weird love dynamic there intrigues me. I've seen several people comment that Tanaka is inappropriate in his advances towards Emma, and I agree that's true. I haven't seen anyone comment that Emma's behavior towards Will is inappropriate, and I think that it is. His marriage might not be solid, but he is married and she is clearly not separating her feelings for him from her actions towards him. I imagine that Terri will be most displeased when she realizes this - and there is no way she won't realize it. It's glaringly obvious.
Terri and Will have a strained relationship as well, but the way he spoke about her makes me think that he truly did love her at one point, and maybe still does. I'm interested to see how that plays out.
Finally, while I have only minimal interest in the relationship between Rachel and Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith), who is another amazing singer, I am intrigued by Finn's relationship with his best friend Noah "Puck" Puckerman (Mark Salling). Puck not only cared about Finn missing practice unexpectedly, he sensed that Finn was lying and looked it up (Chick don't have prostates. I looked it up!). The confrontation with the paint gun was somewhat amusing, but the ending of the episode, where Puck is watching Finn from the doorway, is just downright interesting. I want to know what he was thinking in the worst way.
So, this show can go two ways. It has the potential to be awesome, and I do mean awesome. Or it has the potential to be just like every other cliched and boring high school drama ever on tv, only with music.
And speaking of the music, I cannot fail to mention it. More than anything, the closing number hooked me. Journey’s "Don’t Stop Believin’" is one of my favorite songs anyway, and their version took my breath away. I stalked iTunes until it was available.
So, I will tune in next week with bated breath - and I will be hoping that the show delivers what it promised and not something cheesy, hackneyed, and so stereotypical that it looses the brilliant razor edge of ironic commentary that this show has.
For fun, I will leave you with the songs from the show.
"Rehab" by Amy Winehouse, as performed by rival glee club:
And, Journey's "Don't Stop Beleivin":
What do you guys think?
