Glee

This show’s pilot really took me by surprise, because I was thinking that a show about a high school glee club would be too silly to be funny. It is definitely silly, but seems to be self aware enough that you feel like you’re in on the silliness. I think that’s how a lot of people were drawn into the show, the characters are over the top and yet easy to relate to. And the comedy, and frequent song and dance interludes, is absurd yet believable in it’s own little universe. This is like a serial musical, I’m not sure if there’s been another show like it. Another television series that’s at least half musical. It seemed so quirky and engrossing in the pilot that I decided to wait until the first season was over to watch any. Mostly I wanted to make sure that the show’s popularity would stick before I got involved, because Fox has a terrible habit of not realizing when they have great shows. Fox has betrayed my trust and broken my television heart too many times. But, the coast seems clear and I decided that I would watch the newest episode. Which appropriately enough was a tribute to Madonna, queen of all entertainment, at least as far as the show choir students are concerned.
All I’ve seen are the pilot and this episode, so I’m not sure on this, but I think this episode had the highest number of random musical interludes. Sometimes they’re jarring to me, since I’m not really used to musicals and people spontaneously breaking into song and dance. After a few times though, the feeling gets overpowered by the hilarity of the situations. Something about people randomly singing in groups in inherently cheerful. The choreography is cheesy, and often excessive, but always well done and vibrant. They’re just fun to watch, and them being interjected between the theatrics of the characters adds something unique to the show. Really good casting is another thing working well for this show, and everyone does a really good job acting out their parts. Several leads were previously on Broadway, and everyone is more than proficient at singing and dancing. The conversations between characters are witty and often abrupt, and they’re basically just trades of one-liners. I do quite enjoy one-liners, and I think making a comedy that’s easily quotable is important. Better to annoy friends with until they watch it and know what you’re talking about.

It was a good idea to start watching again on this episode. The awesomely frightening cheerleading coach, Sue (Jane Lynch), blackmails the principal into playing Madonna over the intercom all day every day, in order to inspire her “Cheerios” for their competition routine. Her obsession gets ugly when the show choir teacher, Will (Matthew Morrison), is also inspired and decides that Madonna is just what he needs to teach the guys in the club how not to be douche bags. They already hate each other big time, so their arguments are extra funny. Two of the members of the club, Mercedes (Amber Riley) and Kurt (Chris Colfer) try to make it up to Pam by giving her a make-over and lead in a music video tribute to vogue. Will decides to let Jesse join glee club, which causes the two that went to Sue to join the Cheerios. A subplot includes Emma (Jayma Mays), Rachel (Lea Michele), and Finn (Cory Monteith) having adventures with sexy times with varying results.

The magic of Madonna did inspire the cast to new and different things in the episode. The tributes were pretty great, lovingly mimicking her various styles. The messages behind a lot of her hits advanced the plot and character development. There are a lot of characters and they all have their own idiosyncrasies, which are often humorous and add a lot to the show. I’d really like to elaborate on them, because they truly make the show work, but it would take too long to include all the details. Now I can spend my random free hours catching up on old episodes, loving them, and feeling confident that the show will go on.