‘Don’t Stop Believing’ in ‘Glee’
by John P. HanlonWhen the new Fox show “Glee” (Fox Wednesdays at 9/8 c) had a special sneak preview premiere in the spring, many television critics loved it. It had a unique and exciting premise, quirky characters and a spirit of fun and outlandishness that is often missing in contemporary comedy shows. With its musical interludes, it also seemed like a great addition to the Fox schedule that will soon, once again, include the hit reality show “American Idol.” Unfortunately, the first three new episodes of “Glee” that have aired this fall have not lived up to the high expectations that the outstanding sneak preview premiere created for the show, causing some disappointment. However, “Glee,” even with its faults, is still a fun and unique comedy with a great cast and an engaging premise.
As can be expected from the title, the show is about a high school glee club. The show began with a high school teacher Will Schuester (the immensely likable Matthew Morrison) realizing how much he loved performing in his own glee club and wanting to inspire a new glee club of students. The show revolves around that ragtag group of singers as they work together under the leadership of Schuester.
The show itself is bursting with quirky and fun characters including the deliciously conniving cheer-leading coach Sue Sylvester (played by Jane Lynch) who plots to destroy the glee club and Schuester’s well-meaning but manipulative wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig) . In addition to Sylvester and Terri Schuester, the supporting cast is full of such unique secondary characters that it rivals shows like “The Office” for its strong ensemble cast. When the show had its sneak preview in the spring, critics applauded it. Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker wrote the following about the show in May: “Has there ever been a TV show more aptly named than Glee? It both embodies and inspires exactly that quality.” A Boston.com article in that same month noted that “the dominant note in ‘Glee’ is comedy, the production numbers are vibrant, and the cast is consistently winning. If Murphy can make the rest of the series as persuasive as the pilot, he may have a lot of people feeling ‘Glee’ in the fall.”
Several months later, the show has been a bit disappointing in its newest episodes that have aired this fall. Variety.com writer Brian Lowry recently wrote the following about such disappointment:
The promise and energy associated with the debut of “Glee” last spring largely evaporates in previewing two additional hours, where the musical numbers — generally less infectious and buoyant than the first time out — can’t compensate for overly broad characterizations and absurdly soapy situations…
Put simply, “Glee” strikes too many sour notes for a series with precious little margin for error.
I can completely understand Lowry’s analysis about the show and I agree that the spring episode of the show stands high above the recent episodes of the program in terms of quality. After hitting a high note in its spring episode, the show has admittedly suffered. Now, it seems to be struggling to find its full unique identity.
However, call me an idealist but I do continue to support the show in spite of its weaknesses. The show has a strong cast, which includes a sensational villain in Jane Lynch’s Sylvester and a great premise that can carry it through its rough early episodes. The show continues to be humorous and unique in its exploration of the formation of the glee club and I am looking forward to see more of it in the coming weeks.
Although the show is not as funny as it was in its sneak preview, it is still a hysterical show that TV Guide’s Matt Roush recently described as “that rarest of rarities in network prime time: an absolute original, an authentic musical comedy that’s as outrageously funny as it is irresistibly tuneful.”
At the conclusion of the preview episode of “Glee,” after the teacher leading the glee club leaves his post, the group of glee club students sing “Don’t Stop Believing” onstage as a newly formed team. Unsurprisingly, at the end of the song, the teacher returns to the team ready to believe in the glee club and their mission once again.
Despite its faults, “Glee” (the show, like the club itself) remains something that is worth believing in.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Tips & Feedback
37 Comments
[...] News Sources wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWhen the new Fox show “Glee” (Fox Wednesdays at 9/8 c) had a special sneak preview premiere in the spring, many television critics loved it. It had a unique and exciting premise, quirky characters and a spirit of fun and outlandishness that is often missing in contemporary comedy shows. With its musical interludes, it also seemed like a great addition to the Fox schedule that will soon, once again, include the hit reality show “American Idol.” Unfortunately, the first three new episodes of “Gle [...]
Last week's episode was much stronger than the previous weeks' offerings.
I was really excited for the show, and watched the premiere sneak preview. However, the first episode this fall was so heavy into the sexual content that I didn't feel comfortable watching it or recording it with teens in the house. I know not everyone has my 'blush factor', but the show has been promoted with ads during Am. Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, which are pretty family friendly shows with audiences who might not want a PG 13 show.
The show has a clever premise, i hope it doesn't fall into the easy road of the teen sex romp. If it does it will lose me and i would guess many others as viewers.
Breaking Video
The Furer/Obama reacts to Glenn Beck killing a frog
http://mycityblog.net/2009/09/25/lizard-lounge-fr...
Please. I beg you. We must ban the word 'quirky' from the English language. Not only will it make conversation more intelligent and rid us of unfunny shows like '30 Rock' that think being 'zany' is being funny, it will also handily dispose of Zooey Deschanel.
I thank you.
Yeah, I watched an episode of this the other night- I wasn't impressed. I think I was just reallyed POed by the wife "faking" a pregnancy by wearing a fake belly. Good God, how does her husband not know? As someone who is currenntly acctually pregnant, I found it insulting. And then she's going to try and "claim" the prego teen's baby? Oh my God………………
I actually love 30 Rock, although I agree 'zany," along with 'edgy' and 'thinking outside the box' need to be retired from the lexicon for good.. I'm enjoying "Glee" quite a bit, although I can't see how they can keep it up for long–it looks expensive with all those singers, dancers & song clearances. Lynnae, I sympathize with you–a friend had the same problem with "Ugly Betty" in its first season. But it is unique & creative. Hope it at least lasts a full season.
I DVR'd it, tried to watch it tonight – yeah, not so much. Sorta sucked. Sorta. Didn't watch the whole thing.
I watched the first two episodes. The characters aren't so much quirky as annoying and stereotypical. The cheerleaders weren't quite stereotypical, as, instead of being portrayed as sluts, many of them belong to some abstinence club that involves ridiculous demonstrations of using a balloon to help boys and girls remember how much space to leave between each other when smooching! The focus of the club we learn from the cheerleaders is for the good Christian girls to exercise TEASING (because that's what abstinent girls are, teases). But then, during the coed session, our obnoxious hero Glee Girl (forgot her name) pipes up and teaches the club members that expecting high school kids to remain abstinent is unrealistic! Stupid cheerleaders. Stupid Christian/religious/moral people. Poor unpopular Glee Girl is later rewarded for sharing her opinion (opinion as opposed to fact, the kind of thing that would tell you how condoms don't do a great job of preventing the spread of chlamydia, herpes, HPV, etc.) when head stupid cheerleader's BF tells Glee Girl that he thought what she said was "cool," and kisses her.
What a great lesson. Thanks, Glee. I needed to be demeaned on television.
I like a lot of Glee but I could do without the conservative and Christian bashing and mocking of abstinence. On the other hand, I could see liberals being annoyed by how they play on stereotypes of women and gays, it's mockery of things like affirmative action, and the cheerleader rejecting abortion out-of-hand. Basically, it's skirting a line of being offensive to just about everyone, which doesn't bode well for it's survival.
The wife is definitely the worst character on the show. Way too over the top and nothing to make her likable. They've been humanizing the cheerleaders and football players but she remains a nut. I hope they have an exit strategy for that character if the show survives.
I think that's a real mistake. The show is so overt with the sex that it's not something I suspect most parents would feel comfortable watching with their children and vice versa.
Me and my roommate love. And she's not gay or a man, Old Tom. And as for mocking of abstinence, QANJ, aren't all the members of glee abstinent? They just don't wear it on their sleeves.
What weaknesses?? This has been the cleverest show I've seen in years. It's laugh-out-loud funny and the writing is fantastic.
I love Glee! It's Arrested Development meets High School Musical and like Arrested Development has many outrageous premises (like the fake pregnancy). Jane Lynch is brilliant and the dancing football players from this past week had me ROFL.
I like Glee. It's very original and I like the music. I wish it wasn't so on the nose at times, though. But it's a fun show.
I real plastic crunchy frog.
A real plastic crunchy frog.
I like it. The pilot was really kind of a rip-off of "Election" (1999 Reese Witherspoon Mathew Broderick) but different enough and well done. My fear is that they are going down the stereotypical high school storyline path–We already have a pregnant cheerleader.
It may still hit its stride and live up to its promise because it is a great premise. I just hope if it does, it doesn't meet the same fate as "Pushing Daises" which was in my opinion an extraordinary show. You could watch it with kids and enjoy the obvious gags and really enjoy the multiple examples of double entendre that would go over the kids heads.
I have a love/hate relationship with the show. Sticking with it to see how it pans out. I like most of the music and most of the show is fun to watch.
My main complaint is with the over-sexual pieces and with the Rachel character (which tend to go together a lot, but my issue with her is different). They break up the fun part of the show. The worst of the anti-abstinence part is when the young man took the hot tub pregnancy at face value. Most would question that and not take the girl at her word, so I'm guessing it's the writers' way of saying kids who believe in abstinence are idiots and completely unaware of biology. As if people who promote abstinence don't believe in teaching kids basic biology.
Yes, that's exactly the problem I have with it as well. It's a shame, because the parts of the show that have nothing to do with sexuality are still pretty amusing, and the cast is really likeable. If it doesn't start to clean up a little bit, I'm going to have to stop watching it. I love the musical numbers, but I can just continue to get those off iTunes without having to watch the filth.
I have a 13 yo daughter and thought this might be fun to watch together. We watched the debut and when the season started we were ready to enjoy a nice family type show (for once). Teens talking about sex, having sex and ridiculing anyone who is not having sex seemed to be the main theme of the show. Thought it was gonna be about glee club, instead it turned out to be more of the same. I'm far from a prude, my daughter and I have talked about sex regularly since she started asking "where do babies come from?", but, it has become all sex all the time on network TV. Isn't there any other subject of interest to teenagers that can be turned into a series?
Mr. Hanlon –
I watched the much-heralded "sneak preview premiere" of Glee expecting to enjoy the show, but frankly I thought it sucked. For me the characters, the way they were both written and acted, ranged from really irritating to vaguely unlikeable. And the music wasn't all that good. I don't mean this to be in any way disrespectful, but if I were a gay man reliving my own high school days I'd have probably found much more in it to like. This probably explains the critics' response.
Kind of a death sentence there for a musical comedy. I haven't bothered to watch the new episodes.
I agree with a lot of you. Glee was a show I had high hopes for but it's now treading ground in areas that could sink it. Hopefully the creatives saw this and were able to correct the shows' heading. I guess we'll see in the coming weeks. I'm giving it my support for a while longer.
Especially with actors showing their faces like Jane Lynch, Stephen Tobolowsky, and next week for one episode only unfortunately – Kristin Chenoweth. The kids are fun to watch, for the most part. I know there's some great stories that could be mined from this. There should be less sex, and more fun! It could still get pretty crazy.
The writers have credits for 21 episodes on imdb, and the actors are up around 12. So there's potential there for good stuff to come.
i am a fan. the lead Glee girl is fantastic and has many wonderful things in her future.
the mohawk kid bugs the crap aout of me, and i think would be much more intersting if his exploits were more more braggadoccio than real.
some of the players haven't really had much to do, but it is early yet.
it is a fun show with lots of potential.
and it will probably be on when the Presiden has his next "Game Changing" speech to the nation.
Double plus good, that.
Man, I hated "Pushing Daisies".
I'm seeing a trend here: all the shows I don't like get cancelled early. Didn't realize I had that kind of power; I'll try to use it for good.
I saw the preview and absolutely hated it. More teen shitte.
I agree big time AC, My word to ban is "screamingly" as in "screamingly funny".
I read that phrase and know immediately that the writer is a leftie.
It's used constantly by PBS and NPR to described such laughfests as Garrison Keillors A PRARIE HOME COMPANION and the writings of the late Molly Ivins.
Fair enough. We'll let the people decide. I give it 11 weeks tops.
By the way, lots of women like gay stuff. Look at "Sex in the City"…
Well, while there's some stuff I do enjoy on NPR, nothing makes me run 'screamingly' to change the station like Keillor's treacly-oh-so-folksy-glop.
Exactly what I thought. He'll be there during the birth, why wouldn't he? Does she seriously think she can fake deliver at the right time and the get the hospital to pull some girl's baby out like it's hers? And the teen girl, so mercenary that she claims the baby belongs to the kid she think will make more money, absolutely makes me sick. 18+ years of ponying up for a kid that isn't his is not funny at all.
It bothers me the way they portray abstinence. The girls in the group all dress in their little tiny skirts and think it's funny to tease. That isn't the way most kids who are abstinent behave. Of all the kids I knew in high school and college who chose not to have sex (and I knew alot of them), none formed little clubs and made a big deal of it. They believed that waiting til marriage was right, and they behaved with decorum, not wearing slutty clothes or trying to push the envelope and tease each other. The ones that mean what they say don't behave like that.
I loved the pilot! I thought the show was original and offered something different. However, I was very disappointed with how perverted it got in the season premiere…I watched with my 17 year old daughter and I had to keep saying to her.."Now, you know that is wrong behavior…." The show does not need the sexual content…it is funnier without it. Those sexual parts are not even funny and they bring the show down. The weird "Abstinence Dance" was totally offensive…and the club should be "chastity club", not "celibacy club." Celibacy is taking a vow never to have sex…chastity is waiting till marriage. I am sure the shows are already filmed for the season…but I think we should write the producers!!
Some folks are also hitting on my points, but it's worth elaboration.
Let's see, the two biggest villains include a hypocritical Christian girl and an overly-right-wing fanatic cheerleading coach.
The main character? Oh, he refers the Christian girl to Planned Parenthood. Nice touch, that.
I've still been tuning in, but eventually the tired anti-conservative shtick wears thin. It won't be long before I'm over it.
And yes, it's not as entertaining as it promised to be with the pilot. I think the show's weakness rests in not knowing whether to keep up a fast comedic pace or to drag out its dramatic storylines. Caught in between, it becomes quite uneven.
Would've made a better feature length film–something along the lines of Dodgeball?
It's quite a complex showif you stop and think about it. A comedy with mutiple characters and plot strands plus msuical numbers. That's a lot of balls to keep juggling in mid-air. I also appreciate the fact that the gay teenager is played by an actual gay teenager — which I comment on HERE!
Less Christian-bashing and more Kristen Chenowith- she was fantastic!
You must be logged in to post a comment.