Glee Season 1

First off, yes, it's true. I watch Glee. I'd say about 90% of my interest in the show is the music. And that's after a season of watching the show. Call it a guilty pleasure, that I don't particularly feel all that guilty about.

I just finished watching the season finale of Glee and I have to say, I'm underwhelmed. Over the course of the season, I've let the show slide on a great many things, but there are certain areas where I draw the line. First off, that kid who plays Jesse REALLY needs to stop singing Queen songs. While he's technically proficient, the kid doesn't have any emotion to his singing. What should be a tour de force performance comes off as nothing more than a hollow copy, and to Bohemian Rhapsody, no less! I mean that's Queen's SIGNATURE song! I know that no one can replace Freddie Mercury, but a singer can at least TRY to sing with the emotional content the man put in his music. Music is not just about hitting notes, people. As a side note, syncing the last part of Bohemian Rhapsody with Quinn's birth was creepy. Brilliantly creative, but creepy.

Secondly, what's with the surprise shift in Sue Silvester? The last ep she comes back from being emotionally toyed with by Schuester, and now she's suddenly soft on Glee club? I'm sorry, but that's just too large a shift. I knew she was softening to them, it's been shown over the course of this season, but it's been a slow burn, and I LIKED that. Had this shift come in the middle or end of season 2, it would have been more believable. And then at the moment of her victory, to relent and allow the club another year? That's WAY TOO MUCH! It would have been better if they had kept to their guns and let Glee die out, and then in the beginning of season 2 find some loophole or manipulation to resurrect the choir. They could have even parodied a bit from Mission:Impossible where Schuester picks the Glee club members out of whatever drudgery they dealing with in class to get back into the choir.

As an alternate choice, they could have simply had the choir place second in Regionals, which would have placed the writers in an interesting position. They could have the choir join forces with Vocal Adrenaline against some other choir at Nationals, or have the choir redouble their efforts to beat VA in next year's Regionals. As it stands now, the choir goes on for another year, presumably under the same deal that they have to place at Regionals, and their main adversary is revealed to be a decent, caring person. Not exactly the stuff of great cliff hangers.

Overall, the first season of Glee was okay. There were the typical first season mistakes as they figured out what the characters could do, and how they should interact with each other as people. There was a steady increase in the ambitiousness of the musical numbers, and they managed to find, by the second half of the season, two key balances: the balance between music & story, AND the balance between current music & standard choir music. Speaking of which, they tapped on some great music. Their rendition of Gold Digger was great, I LOVED their version of "Imagine", but that's a song that's so great it's exceptionally difficult to screw up. The Madonna episode on the whole was good, as was their version of P-Funk's "Give Up The Funk". Their single greatest number however, was Safety Dance. No other number topped that. Which is ironic, considering that the song did NOT include the series' two main vocalists!

Predictions for season 2 of Glee:
-- A Micheal Jackson episode: The man has been in the music industry since he was like 5 years old. There should be a Glee tribute to him.

-- A Frank Sinatra/Rat Pack episode: The show did a very good job with "The Lady Is A Tramp" and I think they'd be able to handle what is essentially a show choir standard.

-- A 80's Music episode: They opened the door to this with the "Funk" episode. They've paid tributes to individual groups and artists, why not to a genre of music? Especially one that for some mysterious reason is so universally appealing.

-- A Classic Rock episode: In the "Theatricality" ep, Finn brings up the point that the choir seems to be lead by the decisions of the female members, and it seems to be true. A Classic Rock ep would be a fantastic equalizing force.

-- A "Weird Al" Yankovic episode: Personally, I think this would be fun. They already satire the whole "High School Musical" idea, why not pay tribute to the man who has been satirizing the music industry for at least 3 decades??