Why I lovehate Glee.
Dirty confession time. I was in show choir, in Ohio. I competed. I didn't grow up in Lima, but I remember seeing the choirs from the tundra bound towns and the shocking level of professionality they tended to display. In particular, I remember an invitational at Coshocton and being floored that the choir there had a stage that they didn't have to share with the basketball team, cheerleading squad and the gym class. We couldn't even field a band to back us up, because the first-chair trumpet player was on the football team and was auditioning against me for solos. My school was too damn small and backward.
So, when I see these generally morally reprehensible characters on Glee busting out Broadway level Billy Joel tunes between product placements while pretending to be high school students I'm struck with the most chest exploding sense of irony. Look, most show choirs suck. It's a lot of marginally talented and poorly rehearsed kids doing poorly chosen numbers. Two words - Amy Grant.
But, I knew about mashups, (we didn't call them mashups, they are medleys) back in high school. There was the Starship / Jefferson Airplane thing we did that was great. It's just tragic that a non-funded group of stereotypes always has a flawless, perfectly rehearsed, studio band at their beck and call. Hell - we didn't even have that level of talent in college. (And evidently, my college was a pretty kick-ass musical theater school.) So... suspension of disbelief is the problem. I simply can't jump that far.
The music is the excuse for the whole show, and is the show's only redeeming factor. Everyone wants to think they can be a star for three to five minutes an episode and it resonates in the same way that karaoke and Rock Band do.
I just wish the characters were better people.
So, when I see these generally morally reprehensible characters on Glee busting out Broadway level Billy Joel tunes between product placements while pretending to be high school students I'm struck with the most chest exploding sense of irony. Look, most show choirs suck. It's a lot of marginally talented and poorly rehearsed kids doing poorly chosen numbers. Two words - Amy Grant.
But, I knew about mashups, (we didn't call them mashups, they are medleys) back in high school. There was the Starship / Jefferson Airplane thing we did that was great. It's just tragic that a non-funded group of stereotypes always has a flawless, perfectly rehearsed, studio band at their beck and call. Hell - we didn't even have that level of talent in college. (And evidently, my college was a pretty kick-ass musical theater school.) So... suspension of disbelief is the problem. I simply can't jump that far.
The music is the excuse for the whole show, and is the show's only redeeming factor. Everyone wants to think they can be a star for three to five minutes an episode and it resonates in the same way that karaoke and Rock Band do.
I just wish the characters were better people.
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