Celebrating Gleekdom

Sue Sylvester sounds off -- Picture courtesy of FOX

by blogSpotter
When I watched Glee’s first season episodes (2009-2010), I wrote it off as a silly teen soap opera -- an improbable mix of student and staff with a big musical backdrop. Then during season two, I noticed that my Tuesday night channel surfing would always land me on FOX TV, glued to a Sue Slyvester diatribe or a spirited new rendering of an 80’s rock song. When a TV show pulls people in magnetically, whatever their stated preferences may be, that show has great potential. I first viewed Glee as a guilty pleasure, best not shared with the world at large but then my feeling changed …

I asked a close friend who is a self-dubbed TV critic, master of arts and letters (not :-)). He said that they “ruined” Glee in the second season by focusing on celebrity guests (eg. Carol Burnett, John Stamos and Gwyneth Paltrow) and elaborate dance numbers. He thought they should return to the reasoned situations and sincere dialog of season one. OK -- I think season one was a corny, overly dramatic creation still finding its way. There are several ways it could’ve gone from there. Season two is admittedly over-the-top and extremely campy. Sue Sylvester as the Grinch? John Stamos as a dentist who appears in dreams? The Rocky Horror Halloween special? What I have to say is that this show gained tremendous altitude when it decided to push the envelope in every way possible. The wackadoo situations, guest stars and non sequitur dialog are the crux of Glee’s success.

In days of yore, I thought that humor always had to “make sense” and that silverware should always match at a place setting. OMG -- don’t spoil the tone or break into a fantasy sequence. I've since come to realize that maestros can and frequently do break the rules. (I’m not a maestro in any sense -- just saying). Am reminded of Madonna on her Truth or Dare tour telling her choreographers, “Break all the rules”. She added, “If you run out of rules to break, make up some new ones and break those”. She surely had her tongue in cheek, but the point was received. Novices need to observe the rules to learn basic tempo and structure. But people who stay too close to a rule book will give you a bland, vanilla article that fails to inspire anything but a yawn and a click to the next channel. The spirit has to soar beyond the gravity of “what would really happen” or "what would my college film instructor think?".

So is Glee totally insane? Of course it is. How many high schools do you know of that have a Hollywood caliber dance troupe and orchestra that can break into ebullient musical extravaganzas? How many schools have a Sue Sylvester much less a Coach Beiste? I think there is a lot of relevant human communication that shows through all the glibness and gloss. The students’ lives are fraught with all the baggage one might expect in teens -- bullying, sex, sexual identity, fidelity, love, honesty, physical adequacy, etc. There is some “real” dialog after all and it carries a great impact.

I’m not really doing justice to this excellent show and its cast. Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer have been nominated for various Globe, Emmy and SAG awards. Chris Colfer won Best Supporting Actor at the recent Globes -- many other accolades have been given. If you have an hour to give over to joyful escapism, tune in to Glee. It won’t be dark or violent like so many other TV shows, and that’s also a good thing.

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