Friday, March 18, 2011

Original Sing

Glee is one of those shows that, if I'm home and there's nothing else on, I sometimes check out.  I keep thinking I should like it more (I like musicals and I once sold a script set in a high school), but outside the occasional number or joke, it never amounts to much.  It's impossible to take the characters seriously since, even from my occasional viewership, I can see they change on a dime.  In fact, the whole set-up--an amazingly talented glee club that wins awards, and is half-composed of football players and cheerleaders, are the school lepers--is ridiculous.  I know the show requires a certain suspension of disbelief, but they have stories that ask for emotional investment, which becomes impossible under the circumstance.  Even those old musicals, which had the silliest of plots, made more sense.

This week's episode was advertised as a turning point, since Glee usually covers hit songs, while this one introduced originals (in fact, that was the title).  Seemed like a bad idea to me--like how they sing some great tunes on American Idol, but end the competition with some awful number written specifically for the show, in the hopes of creating a hit single.  But all in all, it was surprisingly painless. The songs the Glee club did weren't too bad--even the big anthem (about being a loser, of course) at Regionals.  Still, probably a bad trend.

Kurt was also at Regionals, but not with the regular group.  He left the high school and joined some Stepford boys school.  Does moving him away from the main action make sense?  (Reminds me of taking Hiro in Heroes out of the action and into 17th century Japan.) Actually, I don't particularly like the character (though he's an audience favorite) and it's fine with me that he's gone, but they keep spending so much time with him.  He even got to sing a Beatles song this episode.  Has Glee done that before?  He also got to kiss his boyfriend.  It's a sign of how things have changed that, as far as I can tell, this was met with a collective shrug.

What did get attention was Kathy Griffin as a Tea Party member on the judges' panel.  Maybe Ryan Murphy, who wrote the episode, thought that would be enough, since the jokes were amazingly lame and stale. (Fans seem to agree.) Worse, though, just like last year, the judges weren't judging by any rational standard.  Who cares if the group wins awards when the competition is a joke.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Denver Guy said...

I have been following Glee, but I'm flagging. I haven't watched an episode since the Valentines Day episode (though I have them recorded).

I think the writers are making a big mistake if they think the audience wants to care about the characters. We want songs, lots of them, in rapid succession. The Valentines day show felt like it had three numbers total (I didn't actually count).

personally, I like the episodes with ridiculous situations - because it relives me of taking any characters seriously. My favorite is still the episode where the football team wins a game by "playing" to Beyonce's "Put a Ring on It."

I'll get around to watching the rest o fthe season, and I buty the CDs (I usually like their covers of hit songs). But the show is falling fast from my "Must See" list.

7:53 AM, March 18, 2011  
Blogger LAGuy said...

That's funny because a friend of mine watched only one episode ever--your "favorite" where the football teams wins because of a Beyonce song--and thought that proved the show was so silly it wasn't worth watching.

9:47 AM, March 18, 2011  
Anonymous Denver Guy said...

That's sort of my point - I enjoy it as musical farce. The second it starts becoming a soap opera or standard "90210" fare, I lose interest. That's also why I can tolerate the characters changing on a dime.

11:20 AM, March 18, 2011  
Blogger QueensGuy said...

I'm with DG on this one. My daughter and I watch it every week, and our enjoyment of any particular episode strongly correlates with the number of songs. The show is at its best when it directs the action toward tying to a particularly well arranged and performe cover -- e.g. Poker Face or Blackbird.

9:45 AM, March 20, 2011  

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