Earlier last month, we started watching Glee from the pilot. I’ve caught Glee various times on TV, but have not watched it religiously. It’s entertaining enough in a fan-of-music type way that I was willing to watch the entire series.
Halfway through the pilot, I had a sinking feeling that Glee was not actually that great – but surprisingly, it redeemed itself by the end of the episode. I think it was because there was a strong positive message that tied up the character introductions. But as I am watching through the rest of the season now, I’m growing to become ambivalent about the show. Perhaps one reason is that without the artificial delay of weekly telecasts, you end up suffering from an overload of Glee (and it’s not like we watch a lot, just an episode a day).
In the first few episodes, many of the characters exhibited odd quirks; but I think as the season wore on, this werid moments lessened and the themes became mainstream again. This helped to lessen the appeal, if it’s just a high school drama I can watch 90210! Second, the music is too varied. I don’t really have an interest in Broadway, so after the 5th Broadway number it just feels like wasted time. Same for a lot of other songs I haven’t heard about or enjoy. Then, beyond the initial appeal of random teenagers dancing and singing to a song you know, I end up only being interested in some of the performances (and isn’t watching Glee mostly about hearing them sing?)
(Is it bad that two of my favorite Glee clips are washed-up early 90s boyband-esqe artists?)
Finally I get the most fed up with the fact that most of the time when they sing, there have these goofy smiles on their faces. Granted, it might be a show choir requirement to wear a smile mask; but seeing them do this in every song, even when rehearsing in their classroom, makes it a farce. Are we supposed to imagine that music solves all problems? Or only that this opportunity to sing in the classroom is the one moment of absolute joy for the Glee kids?
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