Saturday, May 23, 2009

Glee!

Keeping up with my tradition of reviewing the obscure, I will now go ahead and talk about something that has the potential of either fading into obscurity or becoming the next best thing television has seen in a while. I kind of knew that the pilot was going to be awesome when I watched this trailer before the show premiered, and was quite excited about it.


Before I start gushing, I must confess two facts that can be potentially used against me in the future. But, my last post was on the Gmail Fox and I think I have kind of lost all my sense of shame after that. So, I shall go right ahead and confess:
  1. I love musicals. No, I unironically love them all. I even liked the movie version of Rent. This is how shameful my love for musicals is.
  2. I also love Journey, you know the band, Journey. What can I say? It all stems from my teenage love for power ballads. I promise to get over these songs one day, but I suspect that day is not going to come very soon.
The pilot of this show has somehow miraculously ended up involving both the points listed above, and there was no just no way that I was going to end up not liking this show after that. The show is a kind of mash up between Bring It On meets Election meets Mean Girls meets High School Musical meets Fame. Considering how amazing each of these films are, the show has not only a lot to live up to, but also a big possibility of becoming into some of the other not-very-good high school films that are out there, and believe me there plenty of those around.

The American high-school move genre is a very precarious one to invest into because 95% of the films it generates are simply awful. However, if well made, and mind you decent movies in this genre are extremely rare, the films have a potential of becoming into something special. There is a very thin line between the high-school films that are good and the ones that are not. Of course, you are going to make fun of me because I watch high-school films, but I do, and I love the good ones. I mean, how can you not? They are not just chick flicks; I like to look at them as a plethora of wit that give us a deep insight into American popular culture. Regardless for my blind love for this genre, I have to admit that the bad ones are simply painful to sit through. However much I would like to continue and point out the differences between gems like Clueless and the awful ones like The Prince and Me, I am well aware that I am digressing from the initial subject of my conversation.

Glee is not a high-school film. No, it is much more than that. It is a high school television show, which makes it pretty unique from everything else that is out there. What I mean by unique is that the show does well in trying to distance itself from other high school dramas that are currently airing like Gossip Girl or 90210. Plus it markets itself as a musical comedy, and not one of those musicals where people talking suddenly burst out into song and dance routines, but a musical where the music numbers actually make sense and are limited.

The premise of the show is pretty simple, it revolves around a teacher who is trying to train a bunch of high school misfits to participate in a national competition, which involves singing and dancing. To top it off, there are evil blond cheerleaders, evil dim-witted football players, rival schools and a whole set of quirky teachers (who are fit for everything else apart from teaching) involved in trying to make the lives of these six teenagers as hard as possible. All the want to do is perform on stage, dammit! Why should this be so hard?

Since it has the pretty conventional high-school plot, the show will probably have to do a lot in the future to make sure it remains quirky and witty, which is going to be hard. They also have a lot of expectations to live up to in terms of the music, epsecially after the amazing rendition of Rehab performed by a rival school and Don't Stop Believing that were used in the pilot. All this gushing aside, the pilot was not perfect. Few high school films are perfect, and I have yet to watch a high school show that is perfect. There were a few parts that made you go meh along with the traditional stereotypes of high school characters complete with thin, blond cheerleaders and a fat African American girl who wants to be Beyoncé.

The pilot was just a preview and the show is going to start airing later this year in September/October. I thought the pilot was pretty decent, and good enough to make me continue watching it for a while, but pilots rarely tell you all there is to know about a tv show. If the epic failure of Kings (which I thought started out as quite well, by the way) is to be taken as an indication, all we know is that audiences are fickle and unpredictable. I loved Glee, but I love Journey and watch all my television shows online, so my demographics and opinions don't really count in the big scheme of things.

PS: The lead actress has an amazing voice and I love her character so hard. She puts gold stars next to her name every time she signs it somewhere. How could you possibly not love this girl?

7 comments:

ash said...

"The show is a kind of mash up between Bring It On meets Election meets Mean Girls" - If you'd have stopped right there I'd have been sold. Instead, the show that I want to watch gets mated with an abomination...

Also watched the Rehab video and it was...interesting. I'd have preferred the dance number to be related to the song - some mimed heroin injections for example! And when you're watching a *filmed* stage show, it's pretty easy to get everything right. To be honest, with all the quick cuts in that video, you get no real sense of the actual performance, and it's pretty disorientating.


I can't believe I'm critiquing a musical. I need to go watch some sports now.

Panacea said...

I find the need to be slightly defensive about High School Musical. Its one of those, 'its so bad its kind of almost good' kind of films (you know like, Dirty Dancing 2 and OMG, I can't believe I'm admitting to liking and watching Dirty Dancing 2 [ahem, multiple times]). Also, the music numbers are catchy and Zac Efron is good eye candy, if you are into that sort of thing.

That was a strangely umm...detailed and well thought about critique, which had me nodding through the whole thing without quite having anything to say in defense. All I'm saying is, watch the pilot! Its not perfect, but its great all at the same time.

PS: I'M DONE WITH BSG, and oh my god, I really love that show so much!!

ash said...

Just read another recommendation for the show from someone I would never expect to like it...this is weird.

As for my well "thought about critique", I figured that was better than just saying "That's soooo gay!".

About BSG, what did you think of the finale?

Panacea said...

This other person and I clearly have good taste! I can't wait for them to start airing it this autumn. I think i was probably trying to say 'that's sooooooo gay' in a politer way by telling you that you are paying way too much attention to the camera cuts :)

See, the thing about BSG is that I am in two minds. On one hand, I love all the happiness, cylon intermingling and love that was going at the end of the show, and yet a side of me can't help being a bit cynical. The finale seemed too convenient and easy. It was a good way to end the show. Everyone seemed to have more or less a happy ending (APART FROM THE TWO CHARACTERES IN THE ENTIRE SHOW WHO DESERVED LIFELONG HAPPINESS. I'M AN ADAMA/ROSLIN SHIPPER FOR LIFE!) Yet, I never saw BSG as a show that could have such an upbeat ending. I expected something a bit more darker and some more conflict. The build up was amazing and yet the finale seemed a bit flat even though I wasn't particularly disappointed or anything about it. What did you think? God, this is a long comment!

ash said...

I meant that the show was gay, not my critique!

The BSG finale was pretty disappointing for me, I agree with the whole 'flat' feeling. What the hell was Starbuck so supposed to be? Way to dodge the question!

The whole 'God' explanation was kind of a huge double-bluff in that everyone assumed it was something else from the very beginning, even though Six kept on saying "It's God's plan". Pretty blondes in red dresses just aren't very trustworthy.

And Adama/Roslin wasn't satisfying, I agree, mainly because I don't know why Adama would want to go live on his own - it makes sens for Chief but why would Adama not care about his son, for example?

Argh, too many niggling annoyances!

Panacea said...

The show and your critique both are very gay, Ash!

See, I didn't mind the Starbuck mystery left unsolved as much as I minded the whole lack of resolution about why the Cylons decided to eradicate humanity.

Also, I wish they had gone a bit more into the God thing and importance of Hera. The whole of S4 kept saying how Hera was soooo important, but I didn't understand why she was so important even though she is revealed to be our common ancestor. The whole Opera house vision had such a lame end to it. In fact, the whole build up of the final battle scene was so much more amazing than the battle itself which was kind of disappointing. Cavil so conveniently kills himself, they all find Earth and live happily ever after. It was all a bit weird.

PS: If I had a son like Lee Adama, I'd totally want to live alone and not have anything to do with him any more. So don't be too hard on Adama.

ash said...

I agree with most of that, except that Starbuck thing really annoyed me - no explanation about her ship or what she was, it was just one big Deus Ex machina for the entire series!
I never really questioned the Cyclon's motives though - at the end I just figured it was Cavil's revenge and he'd convinced the others, through religious BS, to go along with it.

Don't be too hard on Lee either! I didn't have a problem with him. I suppose the really unrealistic thing was that Adama would go off on his own without saying goodbye to Tigh! They're like the drunk JD and Turk of BSG!

PS Pan, do you have a facebook account? Because I keep forgetting to come back and check the comments here until you make a new blog post!