5/20: What did you think of “Glee”?
Fox has high hopes for a “High School Musical”-esque show called “Glee.” In an unusual strategy, the network aired the pilot after the “American Idol” performance finale show last night. But it won’t air another episode for four months.
It hopes to gain buzz online and through other marketing strategies for a big fall splash.
I think the show has potential. It has some good laughs and is well written. Matthew Morrison, who plays well-meaning Spanish teacher Will Shuester with charm and warmth, wants to revive the once vaunted glee club, now considered less cool than the chess club. He’s married to an annoying spendaholic while guidance counselor Emma (played with wide-eyed sweetness by Jayma Mays from “Ugly Betty”) secretly longs for him.
Loading ...The breakout star, though, is Jane Lynch (think “Best in Show” and 8,000 guest roles on various TV shows). She plays the head of the cheerleading squad with a snobbishness becoming of being top dog-ess. And she’s simply hilarious no matter what she says.
The actors playing the students aren’t as good as the characters they play. The quarterback guy Finn (Cory Monteith), for instance, reminds me a bit of Chris Klein from “American Pie,” minus the goofy charisma. And the “I wanna be a star” glee club gal Rachel (Lea Michele) lacks an inherent feeling of desperation given that she seems too pretty to be scorned by the usual “mean girl” cheerleaders.
The end of the episode, when Will quits the glee club after his wife gets preggers, is predictable. Emma shows him a YouTube video of him in glee club 16 years earlier and convinces him that fixing the current version would fill a gap in his soul (a gap she can’t fill in one sense because he’s married.).
The over-used Journey song “Don’t Stop Believing” ends the show and no, not in a “Sopranos” way. The club performs the song with exuberant “glee,” and Will show up to say he’s staying after all.
btw—This is not “High School Musical” in one sense because people do NOT break out in song when they aren’t supposed to. That’s a good thing.
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11 comments Add your comment
Daniel
May 20th, 2009
11:44 am
I thought this was more like Nickelodeon’s “Spectacular” rather than Disney’s “High School Musical”. The “I wanna be a star” girl is straight of Broadway’s “Spring Awakening” and she’s scorned by the cheerleaders b/c it shows she doesn’t really fit in anywhere.
Jane
May 20th, 2009
2:01 pm
Loved it. I was in Chorus in HS and it was truly one of the best times of my life. BTW: I have moved on.
Doofy
May 20th, 2009
2:42 pm
What’s with the guy in the wheelchair? Oh yeah…..political correctness….
RBSAtlanta
May 20th, 2009
4:06 pm
I thought it was great – laughed several times and the singing, while cheesy, is fun.
Skeptic
May 20th, 2009
7:43 pm
I don’t know if it was Fox 5 or Comcast, but the audio was about 20dB down from other channels and programs. I had a hard time hearing the dialog even with the TV turned up all the way. I had to ride gain quickly whenever I switched back to the Braves game.
The show reminded me of “Fame”, the program about a high school of the arts in New York. The old show was more realistic. I mean, really, do glee clubs perform fully choreographed, costumed production numbers?
Daniel
May 21st, 2009
11:13 am
Showchoirs perform fully choreographed, costumed numbers. That’s where it’s different. This “glee club” is actually a show choir.
Hooper
May 21st, 2009
4:00 pm
Argh. Was it intentional that almost every single major character was totally unlikable to the point of being unwatchable? The wife was a horrid psychopath, the horrid psychopath stalker colleague was a horrid psychopath, the I’M GONNA BE FAMOUS girl was a horrid psychopath, the cheerleading coach was entertaining, but a horrid psychopath, etc. etc. etc. The main teacher was moderately likable, if obvious and boring, and Johnny Football Hero is trying too hard to be earnest.
The supporting cast is a panoply of cliches (bitchy religious freak, closeted jerkwad jocks, geek, bossy overweight black girl, and they borrowed the funky-yet-still-cute asian nerd from “Chuck”) I suppose they’re making some kind of enlightened deep statement about how everyoen in high school is actually a freakish weirdo on the inside, but mostly it comes across as a bunch of characters I actively don’t like doing things I only vaguely care about.
Patrick
May 23rd, 2009
12:13 am
Politically correct disaster, meet the ratings ruthlessness of a hundred OTHER things to watch on at the same time.
rid0617
May 23rd, 2009
2:53 am
IT SUCKED
BklynBabyBoomer
May 26th, 2009
11:17 am
I had looked forward to this. Thought it would be a newer hipper version of FAME , but this was more like LAME. I will n.t be watching.
BklynBabyBoomer
May 26th, 2009
11:17 am
I had looked forward to this. Thought it would be a newer hipper version of FAME , but this was more like LAME. I will not be watching.