Glee

I am not a Gwyneth Paltrow fan at all, but I thought she looked really hot in a couple of those numbers.

I enjoy the show. It's funny and over the top with a lot of neat touches that you don't often see on TV.

 

What's happening to Glee, at least in the eyes of people who think it's not as good as it used to be, is what happens to virtually every high school dramady that's well written. It feels fresh and fabulous and ground-breaking in the beginning, and then the box that it's constructed in (which is part of the reason it seemed so awesome in the first place) suddenly feels like a burden. And so when plots feel reheated, people say "It's lost the magic of what made it great in the beginning." I saw the exact same thing happen with The O.C., which was really a very good show that had a lot in common with Glee. It was smarter than its genre, it burst onto the scene and was a huge hit, and then as soon as its creative momentum no longer felt fresh (because how many crazy scenarios can you really put high school kids in) people said "This show sucks."

What exactly made the first season so great that no longer exists? The dramatic arch of making it to, and winning, regionals? The establishing of characters back stories? Well, those two things can't really happy exactly the same way again, can they? The first season was a 13 episode order, and then they had several months to put together the back nine. I don't really think it was that much better in Season 1 than it is now. It just doesn't feel as fresh. You don't want Glee to recapture its magic. You want to watch Glee again for the first time, and have it feel fresh like it did when it first came on. In fact, I'd argue the show is richer in many respects now because we're working on a much larger palette. Santana and Brittney are two of the funniest characters right now, and they weren't even regulars in Season 1.

High school shows have a short shelf life unless they reinvent themselves. There is only so many times Mr. Schuster can say "Guys, we have to come up with a setlist for sectionals!" or have a plot line that is essentially "Sue is trying to destroy the Glee club and get Will fired!"

To be honest, working within those confines, I think it's still doing fairly well. I guess I just don't view it as groundbreaking television and instead feel like it's just straight up escapism. I'm sure that sounds weird coming from me, since I take my television as seriously as anyone on this site, but I don't really know what it's supposed to be. A 24 episode season is a long one. There are going to be flawed episodes, especially with a universe that really can't really justify having all the kids leave the school together and go on some adventure that also involves singing.

BYH, no one hates Gwyneth Paltrow more than me. No one. I even hate Coldplay by proxy. I really, really wanted to hate her episode. But I thought the "Forget You" C-Low song was actually fun in a campy way. Just the goofy facial expressions of the kids during the number was worth it, and Brittney's dancing never fails to make me chuckle. I disliked the Chicago song immensely, but overall, I didn't think that episode was nearly as bad as I feared it would be.

 

True confession time: I never liked The O.C. Tried a bunch of times. Never got into it.

I know this probably blows everybody's mind, but it's the truth.

 

Yes but you watched them out or order and in syndication or whatever and not on DVD so I factor that into your bad call. Had you started from episode one and watched them in order that way it would have been different.

 

It seems that the main problem people have with Glee is that the show isn't what they want to be.

The always essential AV Club recaps and critiques TV shows and Todd VanDerWerff has been keeping up with Glee.

He argues that Glee is in essence three shows since the show has three lead writers and they have wildly diverging styles. This is a point I generally agree with as the show seems to be a dramedy one week, an after school special the next and then a wildly over-the-top campy production.

If the show was truly a complex, well-plotted out dramedy all the time, it would have been canceled last season but TV critics tend to favor shows that are complex because they can then a) praise the show for being too smart for its time — Rubicon — b) slam the network for pulling the plug on such brilliant TV then giving the viewer another hour of reality slop — Freaks and Geeks or c) grumble to themselves that the viewers aren't as smart as they think they are.

In essence Glee's different styles is what is keeping the show on that and the fact the producers are making huge money off the music sales.

All that is compounded as the show doesn't follow a strict script bible, plot lines start, stop and pick back up again depending on the writer.

So you might have Kurt's dad in a coma and on death's door one episode. And then two weeks later he's getting married and doesn't seem to have any health concerns.

And with this week's show. It was mostly fine, but as she said when it was over. "We didn't get any Sue and that's a problem."

They've also essentially made Kurt the lead.

 

VanDerWerff is becoming one of my favorite TV critics. He made a joke on Twitter the other day that The Warblers were The Others of Glee, and that he expected them to begin kidnapping members of the New Directions one at a time. I laughed.

 

It sets up the rest of the season very well.

BTW. This is a show The Abbott's watch as a family. It's an evening for us. We have a family dinner, we DVR the show, dishes and homework gets done and around 8:30ish we all watch it together, FF thru the commericals. It's great entertainment and slightly subversive humor.

If Brittany and Santana did Waiting for Godot, I'd buy tickets. Heather Morris needs a Best Supporting Actress Emmy.

 

Yes. They've basically said that they are doing episodes in threes: one "normal" episode (usually written by Brad Falchuk or Ian Brennan), one "tribute" episode (usually written by Ryan Murphy) and one "deep" episode written by Brad). It's why I think there is so little continuity. (I also think they desperately need a female writer, since all of the girls seem reprehensible.)

When Monty Python had multiple writers, it didn't matter because the show was supposed to be all madcap and not make much sense from one scene to the next. But with a show that is a dramedy or sitcom or in a format similar to that, it's just odd and sometimes makes one scratch your head.

 

December 2, 2010, 1:54 pm
Katie Couric to Fox? Yes, for an Episode of ‘Glee’
By BRIAN STELTER
She may not sing, but the “CBS Evening News” anchor, Katie Couric, will at least make a cameo on Fox’s special episode of “Glee” after the Super Bowl on Feb. 6.

A spokesman for Ms. Couric confirmed Thursday that she had been booked by the show but shared no further information. The studio that produces “Glee,” 20th Century Fox, declined to comment.

Ms. Couric’s network news counterpart at NBC, Brian Williams, has made a number of cameos on programs on his own network but it’s unusual for an anchor to appear on a competitor.

Ms. Couric also happens to be interviewing one of the stars of “Glee,” Matthew Morrison http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/katie-couric-to-fox-yes-for-an-episode-of-glee/

 

Why the hell would anyone want to watch Katie Couric? Unless she starts crunking, I'm not interested.

 

OMG you should write for Glee!!! They get a female writer, we get Couric crunking. Win win!

 

The Katie Couric thing intrigues me. I remember how many hoops Neil Patrick Harris had to jump through to guest-star on Glee since he has a contract with CBS for HIMYM.