Bless me Breesus, for I have sinned: I can’t stand the juvenile, drama-filled TV show you watch with Brittany and Baylen every week, otherwise known as “Glee.”
I know, I know – only the evil Cheerios’ coach Sue Sylvester could hate “Glee.” The first season’s rave reviews render it one of the “untouchables” of pop culture, free from critique and reproach. I’m supposed to find it addicting and irresistible.
“Glee” received numerous Emmy nominations this year, though few actual wins – and rightfully so, because it is some of the worst acting and singing you’ll ever experience in your life.
Of course, the performance quality is secondary. “Glee” depends on the theatrics and feel-good effects of its musical numbers (and the attractive, typecast stars) for its popularity.
The show’s impact on the music industry is undeniable: Episodes of “Glee” and their accompanying soundtracks dominate iTunes’ top downloads.
“Glee’s” main men have been hired to host just about everything these days.
It’s even spawned a new word, as “Gleek” (a fan of the show) regularly finds its way into the collegiate vocabulary.
“Glee” is redefining pop culture. You know you’ve arrived as a music legend when your songs are butchered on one of the episodes.
Classic hits get a pop makeover, and even pop songs reach a new low – their melodies are mangled, tempos quicken a few beats, and the vocals reach a much higher pitch.
People our age can’t appreciate good musicals (or good music) anymore because this “High School Musical” caliber of production is all we’re given.
The obsession with “Glee” also reveals this generation’s priorities and thirst for drama. Last semester, a fire forced us to evacuate our dorm for hours. But most residents weren’t worried about their belongings getting scorched or interrupted study sessions – they were pissed about missing an episode of “Glee.”
Hardly a day goes by without overhearing students gush about how much they hate drama. And yet, every Tuesday night they’ll gladly settle down to enjoy the latest episode of “Glee,” immersing themselves in the clichéd, overdone high school soap opera.
“Glee” is fine – if you’re an adolescent misfit dying to escape the cruel reality of your daily life. Watching lets us relive the hell of high school through others portraying the same ordeal – except they burst into song when it happens, and everything eventually falls into place the way it’s “supposed” to be.
It’s pathetic something this childish has caught on at the college level. “Glee” wouldn’t be so bad if its stereotypes and plotlines weren’t so fake. Then again, this superficiality is what makes it so high school.
But the glee club at middle-of-nowhere McKinley High is a horrible misrepresentation of the “low-budget school.” No average high school has this much drama or such a put-together show choir.
“Glee” supposedly makes a case for keeping music and performing arts education in schools &- a noble cause. But it does so on the premise that everyday show choirs can actually perform this way.
I hope I don’t need to tell you a standard high school show choir can’t afford the lip-syncing technology New Directions employs every week.
Aside from being Drew Brees’ guilty pleasure, “Glee’s” only redeeming characters are the pessimistic cheerleading coach and catty drama king, Kurt, played by Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer, respectively. Ironically, the two most stereotyped characters offer the most believable acting performances.
So Gleeks, you can have your Disney-fied Finn, bad boy Puck or whichever star of the show you idolize.
Feel free to indulge in the butchered ballads which have music purists everywhere clawing their ears out – just keep your playlists to yourself.