Wednesday, May 26, 2010

glum

Still missing LOST, I surfed the channels last night and ended on Glee. I've tried to watch this show quite a few times before. I love that Broadway divas like Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth stop by. I was excited to see how they would do Gaga last night. But the damn show is so affected. If only the kids would shut the hell up and just sing. The plotting and camera-work is horrific and the characters are frankly, pretty annoying. That excludes Jane Lynch, who can do no wrong. But so far she is not enough to make me get over the queasiness I feel every time I watch this show.


The two examples which stand out the most from last night are:

1. The speech by the dad of the young gay kid. I'm sorry, although I like this actor and his characterization, I cannot remember the names of any of these people. They just don't make an impact. Anyway, the dad made a wonderful speech to the dumb jock about how he loves his gay son and that anyone who can't deal with him and the way he is better hit the highway. A great sentiment. I can overlook that most folks don't speak so eloquently. What left a sightly uncomfortable feeling after his dad/love speech was the fact that even though the show may have its heart in the right place, by making such a big (preachy) deal about the fact that the kid is gay, they may also be making him more of a stereotype. I'm not sure. But I loved the room he decorated and the enthusiasm with how he presented it. I just felt that the actor and the character are more comfortable with who they are supposed to be than the scriptwriters.

2. The main girl (Rachel?) discovers that her mother is Idina Menzel and they do a duet to Lady Gaga's Pokerface. They can both sing and the song is great. The arrangement was a little weird, but I went with it. But to have the mother and daughter crooning to each other about their "muffin" and "glue-gunning" - give me a break already. This show is trying too damn hard. Trying too hard to be hip or quirky. It's one thing for Lady Gaga to sing those lines, but it just made the song and the show seem silly to have these two gals do it. Something that could have been easily fixed with repeating the chorus.

I'm sure I may flip past this show again if they are covering some songs by an artist that I like, but I doubt I will become a regular viewer, and certainly not devoted. And by the way, the KISS costumed number was the pits. They should have called in Glambert.
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2 comments:

Audrey Brown said...

Interestingly enough, I feel very similar. I watched the pilot and was ecstatic about it. But the show changed very quickly thereafter into something a lot more contrived, a lot dirtier and it started hashing out almost soap-opera like plot lines that felt forced and silly. After the episode where the main teacher committed what I considered to be domestic abuse against his wife (to which most people responded that she deserved it because her character lied, no seriously...) I quit watching completely. What started out as a great concept devolved almost instantly. Which is a huge shame, because I'm a huge musical theater fan. I think you might have to be a teen to be able to stick with this one.

xoxoxo said...

I agree. But I also find it disturbing that all the ho-ishness and bad plotting is what teens will take away with them as "cool" television. Get off my lawn you Gleeks!

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