Tuesday, November 3, 2009

TV Confession

Okay, people, I have one hell of a confession to make with you all.

I like Glee. There, I said it.



And the thing is...I have no idea why. Seriously, I don't know any of the characters' names, nor why I should care about their Glee Club and their obnoxious rival Grown-Up-Cheerleader-Bitch-Who-Grew Up-Into-A Bitch who-now Coaches Cheerleaders.

But I think I do know why: It seems to be a Stealth Parody of other dumb dramas that have come by Fox and other networks. Everything about that show seems to intentionally BEG for Fox to cancel it, yet it's not going anywhere anytime soon. It's, well, a drama, but a comedy. The songs are current, so are probably notoriously expensive to license...and then horribly auto-tune the hell out of them. But perhaps the over-usage of the auto-tune is also intentional, as a parody of stuff like "High School Musical" and the like to have crappy singer massacre crappy songs and have the T-Pain Machine™ "fix" the problems away.

Then there's the characters themselves. Like I mentioned up there, I honestly have no idea what any of those characters in that picture are named. All I see are Old Bitchy Cheerleader, Young Bitchy Cheerleader, Sassy Black Chick, Guy Who's in Charge of Glee Club (who definitely reminds me of Michael Bluth), Asian Girl, Preppy Girl, Protagonist Girl, the Big Eyed Girl From Heroes, the Guy Jock who got Preppy Girl Pregnant, The Gay Kid, The Gay Kid That Came Out in Episode 2, and a Nerd in a Wheelchair. This is all some sort of parody on the quote/unquote "diversity" that shows up in these kind of shows. They are only defined by their archetypes and that's all they got going for them, and rarely do they have names worth remembering other than by the stereotypical roles I just mentioned. TV Tropes defines this as a "Five Token Band."

THERE'S A NERD. IN. A WHEELCHAIR. A character detail ignored by everyone except "Old Bitchy Cheerleader." That has to be some sort of satire.

Also, the show is shown in letterbox form, and is scripted. What does this all mean?

I really miss Pushing Daises.

2 comments:

kristiane said...

I haven't yet watched glee, but I think I might have to start. Apparently everyone loves it.

Domo said...

The funny thing about Glee is I love the show, but I sometimes feel like I am watching a new version of High School Musical geared towards an older audience. In the end though, I enjoy the show enough that I have all of the episodes plus several of the songs downloaded to my phone. Best episode so far - "Preggers" where Kurt (The Gay Kid) plays on the football team.