The Glee Monster Revisisted

Glee is everywhere, its music is among the bestselling anywhere and the show's ratings have never been higher. While I have ranted against it previously (and plan to do some more of it in a bit), I do genuinely respect one aspect of it's conception, and that is the bravery and sheer balls it took to make it a musical. The strength of musicals has always been that they are able to simply and directly convey the inner thoughts of a character, that which is so easy to describe on page but so difficult on stage and on film. Musicals have long been an interest of mine; I count some of them as all-time favorites (Singin' in the Rain, Love Songs, and  Top Hat), and a great many others as disappointments... should have beens.

Freaks, Geeks, and Glee: Highschool and Groupthink

I recently began watching Glee after reading several positive articles. I was intrigued by the possibility of a show which could channel the genre-bending of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the high school social critique of Freaks and Geeks. I made it to episode 3 before I had to stop. The show certainly has a lot going for it: some well executed melodrama, talented performers, and well executed musical numbers (even though they aren't really my thing, its easy to see that, for what they are, they're extremely well done). Glee, though, is not without its faults, and it isn't the hammy acting or the forced heavy handed messages that turned me off. It's the way that the show fails to really respect the fringes of society in the way that numerous other TV shows and movies have in the past.