For some time now I have maintained an intense love-hate relationship with the critically acclaimed Fox dramedy Glee. Admittedly, the set up of the show itself is quite innovative for a television series, given it succeeds at maintaining a musical genre format in its weekly hour-long episodes. Although employing the tactics of a musical can often be successful in a single episode within an entire straight-acting series, few television shows have managed to stay on air when they attempt the musical genre consistently. Glee can maintain the sensibilities of a musical because it centers itself on a high school show choir as they sing popular songs with complex choreography.
Unlike a real musical, however, Glee autotunes all of their singers, which knocks out both the musical imperfections and personality of each performer. Sadly, our society seems to have grown completely comfortable with this overproduced sound. One of the most lucrative aspects of this franchise has become the sales of the Glee CDs, which use a number of the songs recorded specially for show in the brassy autotune style.
Throughout the course of the show, the plot has varied from the very trivial (girl likes boy, but boy likes other girl dilemmas) to the more substantive (the struggles of a young gay man coming out to his father; a girl getting kicked out of her home for getting pregnant, etc.). The show tackles these issues very directly and makes special use of dialogue to explore these issues, leaving the musical numbers as further extensions of the already expressed emotions.
This past week’s episode again chose to focus on a more serious societal problem. At the onset of the episode, the show choir star Rachel asks her female colleagues within the glee club what she should do now that her new boyfriend is pressuring her into having sex. Laden with irony, one of the cheerleaders, Santana, responds that she always agrees, stating “What’s the worse that can happen… Oh, sorry Quin.” (Quin used to be the head cheerleader until she got knocked up and kicked off the squad). The conversation continued to move away from the specifics of males dominating discussions and decisions about sex to evolve to the greater power that the guys tend to hold over the girls. At the close of the scene, Quin stresses the importance of this issue as she leaves the classroom declaring, “The fact is, women still earn 70 cents to every dollar that a man does for doing that same job. That attitude starts in high school.”
The rest of the episode uses Madonna as a model for the girls to find strength, independence, confidence, and a sense of equality beside their male peers. Yes it is corny, but through exploring Madonna songs, the girls realize how powerful they can be and how they should not stand for the guy’s arrogance. By the end of the episode, the guys realize that they cannot treat the girls as if they are something below them.
Unfortunately, this understanding and recognition does not always surface in high school, let alone later in life. Leave it to TV to provide such wish-fulfillment. But I guess that’s what keeps us watching.
arieljadler Said:
on April 26, 2010 at 1:00 pm
It is shows like GLEE that make me dislike a lot of what TV has to offer these days. Not only does the show feel the need to tackle huge social problems that have already been highlighted in TV over the past several years (such as teenage pregnancy, homosexuality, etc.), but it feels the need to employ the pretentious musical genre.
Although many disagree, I see an extreme lack of originality in the shows content and form. While the show may be combining the musical and high school social problem genre for the first time (which seems like it is the appeal of the show), it seems as if this very combination is simply a high production value, network television version of what one could see on a Saturday night at their local theater.
cagutos Said:
on April 28, 2010 at 7:37 am
You got me, I’m a gleek. But who isn’t?
I do like the show, not for its obvious musical cheese, but for its general theme and shock element that diverges from everything else you see on TV. In itself the show, which champions high school’s underdogs and society’s unconventional heroes, is already making a social statement.
Though I totally don’t agree or disagree with Murphy’s execution of hitting hard issues like teen pregnancy, coming out of the closet, financial woes, etc. I do think by bringing them to a mainstream platform such as Glee, which is commanding massive audiences, it is doing a service to the underrepresented themes/issues/people.
I tend to disagree with the comment above. Glee’s musical flair doesn’t comprise its ability to attack important issues while still being entertaining.
In fact, “Glee” avoids the flowery clichés people generally associate a musical show to follow and instead goes for more taboo issues, tackling them head-on.
The music is an important part in translating that message as well. Though most times light and fluffy, the music behind “Glee” serves as a reminder of the show’s more evocative themes. Whether it’s the ironic teen pregnancy of celibacy club president and ex-cheer captain Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) or the coming out process of the flamboyant, designer-donning Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), neither the show nor the music even consider playing it safe. That’s where it wins in originality. “Glee”’s instant charm and appeal to the masses can be attributed to its daring nature to be different.
Touching on variances of race, sexual orientation and disability, “Glee” sensitively celebrates society’s differences without losing any of its punch or humor. Plus you can’t knock the show for trying to make a buck.
Tracy Michele Said:
on May 1, 2010 at 2:27 pm
ABC Family’s shows are well, family oriented. I think it’s very appropriate that the shows, including Glee, show realistic situations with more of an ideal twist to set a good example for the viewers (so many of whom are not socially developed and actually learn from shows like these). So maybe that actually could happen with some more influential plots. I don’t know about Madonna though…they might have missed the point with that one.
Alexandra Gibson Said:
on December 1, 2010 at 4:34 pm
i am a certified Gleek and i really love the TV Show GLEE. Diana is very pretty ‘”`