Glee Review

     "Don't Stop Believin'!!!!!!!".  With these iconic words, Glee planted itself into America's hearts.  It was not the first time a musical television show had been attempted. (See Cop Rock and Viva Laughlin).  But it was the first one that worked, the first one that people enjoyed and actually watched.  Featuring a cast of zany and over-the-top characters, and heart meltingly fantastic covers of a wide range of songs, mixed in with a bizarre sense of humor, made Glee the perfect recipe for success.

Created by Ryan Murphy, the mastermind behind the hit medical dreama Nip/Tuck, Glee centers around the  the lives and performances of the William McKinley High School Glee Club.  The club is under the leadership of Spanish teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) who is a former member of the Glee Club and helped to lead it to a national championship.  Central Glee Club members include; Finn (Cory Monteith), the football player turned Glee Clubber who is the subject of numerous romantic perils, Puck (Mark Salling) a fellow football player turned Glee Clubber who is the resident "bad boy", Kurt (Chris Coifer) the sassy homosexual fashionable singer who struggles with identity, Mercedes (Amber Riley) the plus sized singer with an incredible soulful voice, wheelchair-bound Artie (Kevin McHale),  and the breakout star of the show Rachel (Lea Michele) the obnoxious and overbearing and unofficial "leader" of the Glee Club who also happens to be their best singer.  Their rival is sinister cheerleading coach Sue Sylvster (Jane Lynch) who tries to thwarts the Glee Club's progress every step of the way.  These and other similarly cartooned characters populate this rich and creative show.
    This show succeeds for two reasons: the incredible cover songs, and Jane Lynch's performance. Even when Glee verges into cheesy and bland territory, Jane Lynch never does. She keeps this show grounded, and Glee is worth watching to see her deliver line and hilarious line.  One of my favorites is "We're dealing with children, they need to be terrified, it's like mothers milk to them - without it their bones won't grow properly".  Classic.  
    Glee has the potential to be the best show on television.  It could be great, but right now it's just good.  Glee is very gimmicky; it likes to have a "theme of the week" that the whole episode is built around, including the songs.  Sometimes this works out well (Dream On), other times not so much (Funk).  What the Glee writers need to focus on next season is letting the story flow naturally, instead of forcing these plotlines for our characters that don't match what their personalities.  Right now it's very stunted.  It'll be great one week, mediocre the next week.  They need to learn to build on episodes and build momentum.  Another thing that could be improved is the quality of the stories.  Really Glee?  An entire half season about FAKING a pregnancy?  We get that it's a show about musical theater, but even that was a bit much.  The best thing for the writers to do in the upcoming second season is to craft more plausible storylines that feel more organic and less artificial.  If they can do that, the show will take care of itself.  The music is beyond phenomenal, and it is very rare that they produce a bad song.  The cast is certainly talented enough to handle more sophisticated writing, and I feel they are up to the task.

    Glee has hit the world by storm. It's ratings have GROWN over the course of the season, it's songs have sold more then 1.6 million copies on Itunes, the cast have gone on tour to sold out shows, and it dominated the Emmy Awards, scoring 19 nominations, including Best Comedy, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, which Jane Lynch is a guaranteed.  Whether Glee will continue to enchant us in the upcoming seasons remain to be seen.  But there is one thing that everyone who watches Glee can agree upon, and that is the shows originality.  It truly is wonderful to see a show so unique on network television, and if Glee helps to usher in more original work like this, then it will have been worth it.