Glee season one review

FOX

Everybody should take teen drama seriously and Aerial Telly gets awfully cranky when programme makers don’t.  He has watched shows like My So-Called Life, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars and been terribly impressed with their achievements.  You can do great things in this subgenre and Fox’s Glee hopes to emulate its predecessors.  It’s a high school musical with cheerleaders, jocks, idealistic teachers and noble outsiders.  What will those heroes think of next?

Glee’s about love, it’s about music, it’s about not fitting it.  But most of all it’s about Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), Spanish teacher at McKinley High, stuck deep in the buttcrack of Hairslide Ohio.  Will is one of those guys who teaches at the school he attended as a pupil.  Back in the day, he was the star of the school’s (highly successful) Glee Club.  Now the club is a big crock of shit so he takes over from the possibly paedophile exiting director and resolves to turn his crew of renegades and misfits into a world-class singing dancing outfit for the ages as evil cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester  (Jane Lynch) punches his plans in the tits at every turn.  COULD WE GET ANY MORE STOKED?

“Amber Riley had better get used to playing sassy black divas because romantic leads and challenging character roles will be thin on the ground”

And it is a motley crew (not a Mötley Crüe – these guys actually have talent.¹)The club star is Rachel (Lea Michele). Gorgeous and gifted, Rachel should be the most popular girl in school but all she gets is shit from the cheerleading Cheerios and their meat headed football team borefriends.  Because this is high school and the Glee Club are at the bottom of the social shitpile.  That’s just how they do. BARF ME WITH A SPOON ALBERT!

Then we’ve got Artie (Kevin McHale), a wheelchair using paraplegic who sure plays mean guitar;  Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) an oriental goth with chunky thighs and a heart of gold; Kurt (Chris Colfer), a gigantic gay would stand out as gay even in Gay, the gay musical from The IT Crowd; Mercedes, a sassy black diva played by Amber Riley who had better get used to playing sassy black divas because romantic leads and challenging character roles will be thin on the ground (sorry kid, that’s Hollywood); and then there’s Finn (Cory Monteith), the football team’s star quarterback who has to balance his jock leanings with his desire to be a big gay musical star. OH EM EFF GEE!

"Rachel loves Finn.  Finn Loves Rachel but is dating Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) even vacuous head of the Cheerios and leader of the celibacy club.  Mercedes loves Kurt but Kurt loves cock"

In a nutshell here are the romantic complications.  Rachel loves Finn.  Finn Loves Rachel but is dating Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) sinister, vacuous head of the Cheerios and leader of the celibacy club.  Mercedes loves Kurt but Kurt loves cock. Guidance counsellor Emma (Jayma Mays)  loves Will and will loves her right back but is married to a blonde sociopath Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig). Football team coach Ken loves Emma, but she ain’t trying to hear that.  Oh by the way remember that celibacy club girl?  Pregnant by her boyfriend’s best friend.  SHUT UP!

“You’d have to be a miserable beggar not to fall for the goofy Glee Club members and long for them to triumph over evil jock cheerleader tormentors.”

Look shitbirds, I like this.  It’s engaging, funny and tightly scripted.  The characters are stock and the morality simplistic but you’d have to be a miserable beggar not to fall for the goofy Glee Club members and long for them to triumph over evil jock cheerleader tormentors.  The choreography is sparky, the human snarky and the critique of the high school caste system is subtle and enjoyable.  It radiates positive energy at a time where many TV shows are self-consciously bleak. There is always room for such cleverly crafted escapism.

The best thing about it: The musical numbers.

The worst thing about it: It’s generally going to be predictable

The verdict on Glee: Best TV musical since Dr Horrible.

Marks out of 10: 8

 

¹And don’t give me none of this revisionist horseshit that Crue "had a couple of decent tunes" or that any metal band from any era ever was ever anything other than miserable motherless conservative shit cake baking because I know that’s all lies