Glee’s Jolly Attitude is Off-Putting For Real, Angsty Teensreeks

Friends and reviewers alike loved Glee, so why shouldn’t I?

Being a musical theater kid, I was somewhat excited about the new show featuring musical theater kids. I went into Glee thinking, “This is going to rise above the stereotypes glorified by the High School Musical franchise.” I hoped that it would provide well-rounded portrayals of high school stars, divas, techies, directors, chorus members, etc. Sadly, all of my hopes about the show were completely crushed by the second episode. The show wasn’t what I thought it would be, but I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of my enjoyment. Friends and reviewers alike loved Glee, so why shouldn’t I?

To start, I was bothered by the concept. While Glee feels like a parody of High School Musical, it is not about musicals. It is about an up-and-coming club devoted to choreographed song and dance numbers. It is A Chorus Line consisting of 3-5 members depending on who quits and or joins at any given moment of any given episode. The director of the club, who we’re told is a Spanish teacher despite the fact that he doesn’t seem to spend any screen time in a classroom or grading papers or speaking Spanish, is trying to live his dream of being a professional song & dance troupe member through the students in his glee club. Meanwhile, the evil cheerleading coach is trying to bring down the glee club because… well, she’s evil.

I gave Glee four chances to win my affection and adoration. Four times it only earned my indignation and exasperation. I needed to assess the situation. Why when others feel admiration, I feel nothing but confusion? I have whittled my reasoning to two protestations: Glee has unlikable, uninteresting, superficial characters and reeks of bad satire.

Glee has more than its share of nauseatingly cheesy moments. The verification of this is that the show is making fun of High School Musical and 80’s style high school movies in general. At first, I was okay with this premise but, as the show progressed, a fatal flaw in the show’s methodology revealed itself, making the cheese inedible. For every stupidly corny moment, Glee has a gravely serious moment. These stylistically incongruous events often intersect, putting the show at an awkward spot between family drama and comedy. Glee doesn’t know if it’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide or The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I am left wondering whether or not I should be laughing at or crying for the stereotypical African-American girl who had her heart broken by the stereotypical gay guy.

The second big issue I have with Glee is its uninspired and depthless characters. I can count two and a half male characters that the writers deemed bio-worthy. There’s the jock-turned-singer, the teacher/director of the glee club and the jock-turned-singer that likes to bang old ladies. The female side of the graph is pretty bare too. All other characters are a cavalcade of stereotypes. There’s the aforementioned African-American girl and gay guy and there’s also the bitchy cheerleader and her bitchy squad of cheerleader bitches, the cripple, the gang of mean-spirited football hooligans, the thrifty principal, the germaphobic school counselor, the wife that desperately wants a baby. All this and more presented with no thought, no depth and no foresight. Even High School Musical’s characters are more multifaceted than those of Glee. The issue with this is that we are supposed to care about these stereotypes. At the end of the third episode the stereotypical gay guy has a teary-eyed confession that he is gay and says that he hasn’t told anyone before. That’s because you don’t need NASA’s Gaydar to tell. Excuse me for not caring about the coming out of a soprano who dresses like David Bowie and has the facial structure of Senator Lindsey Graham.

Proponents of Glee might say, “Give the show a chance, the characters have no back story because they need more time to develop!” To that I say, “Bull. Shit.” On a good show that came out this fall, Community, all of the main characters, of which there are seven, were given something to base their actions off of and something to give the audience a reason to care about them. Community did, in 25 minutes and 18 seconds, what Glee might take an entire season to do.
To me, Glee is a reverse cult show. Here’s why: Most cult shows are underappreciated by the masses, but have a devoted fan base. Glee is the exact opposite: those who love it are enormous in number. It has caught the spotlight and will remain there for a while. However, acclaim is not unanimous. There is a minority that, for one reason or another, hates it. I am obviously a member of that minority.

If anything, Glee has given me a sense of empathy for those who hate shows that I love, like Lost. Now being in the minority, when I am told that Lost sucks, I will turn the other cheek and respect their opinion.

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• Glee