Monday, December 14, 2009

Something To Be 'Glee'ful About

Will: "I need to provide for my family."
Emma: "But provide what exactly? The understanding that money is the most important thing or the idea that the only life worth living is one that you're really passionate about."

That's a good question to ask - what is important - doing something that is neccessary for your family's survival or something you love? Is being a high school teacher suddenly going to put Will Scheuster (Matthew Morrison) in a bad predicament financially now that fatherhood is immiment for him? No and it's not likely that's he's going to be father any time soon. Bad Terri.

Glee has been one of those shows that's been hyped to the rafters for the past couple of months now. When something is usually hyped to the point of excession, it can be worrying as to whether or not it's deserving of the acclaim it's generating. However if this opening episode is anything to go by, then the hype is deserving. And given that Nip/Tuck is no longer the show it was, it's nice to see Ryan Murphy back on form.

Will Schuester is a Spanish teacher who wants to his school's Glee club off the ground, despite the odds being stacked against. The members that are there are limited, the rest of the kids are uninterested in joining. Finn himself is literally blackmailed into signing on before actually coming to the decision to do both Glee club and football and virtually every faculty member, except Emma (who isn't particularly subtle about her Will crush) is also opposed to it. Especially tough as nails coach Sue, played delightfully by Jane Lynch. Even Will's wife, Terri seems to be pretending that she's pregnant in order to get him to ditch teaching for an accountant job. We can thank Emma for him sticking with the Glee club.

As for the kid, Finn's the jock turned good, Kurt's the gay kid who we'll see give Beyonce a run for her money in later episodes, Mercedes is a bit of a loud mouth but funny and Rachel seems to be the one who really wants superstardom, making her a prime target of bitchy cheerleaders, including Finn's girlfriend.

Glee is one of those undeniably feelgood and pleasant type of shows. The songs are catchy (can't wait to see their version of Halo properly), the characters are likeable (if on the cliched end of things) and from January 11th 9pm on E4, you can catch the whole series. If the first episode alone is any indicator, this show will be worth turning into all season.

Videos: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=glee&search_type=&aq=f

4 comments:

Nat said...

Yay!! So glad you liked it, though I had a feeling you would!!

Glee has been getting a lot of praise over the last few months (and a lot from me, I know!) and whilst sometimes it doesn't always live up to the hype, it mostly does deserve the praise it gets.

Any favourites re songs from the pilot??

shawnlunn2002 said...

Pilot wise, that version of Rehab from the rival school and Don't Stop Believing stood out the most. There's an excellent cast and I'll be tuning in January for the rest of the season.

Billie Doux has someone doing regular reviews for the series on her blog, have you read any of them?

Nat said...

Same songs for me and pretty much everyone else who watches the show!! They're the ones available on Amazon/itunes as well atm. I also love Rachel's version of On My Own from Les Mis which she sang for her audition, but that one was a bit of a grower.

I read some of Billies reviews but not all since they usually fall on my blog list by the time I watch the episode on the weekend! They're enjoyable though. I've taken more to reading TVSquad's reviews and comments though I often disagree with whats written!

shawnlunn2002 said...

I watched the My Life Would Suck Without You on your blog, brilliant. The song choices work well. Gold Digger I checked on YouTube.