Glee was awarded a Golden Globe for Best TV Musical or Comedy. I am a big Glee fan. I paid money for both of the albums that the TV show spawned. I watch every week (admittedly usually on Hulu). I think it’s a stroke of marketing genius to take a piece of American Idol to create a show about high school misfits who sing and dance their way to friendship and life lessons. The show also does an incredible job on its musical numbers (according to this non-expert) and has found the funniest female actress on TV in Jane Lynch.
So, I don’t mind that Glee won a Golden Globe, especially since the Foreign Press is voting and the category is Comedy or Musical. I can understand that it has more appeal to foreigners than the much, much funnier Modern Family and 30 Rock. A smart, American audience is better served by those shows, especially Modern Family, which is the funniest show on television right now. But Glee needs to realize that it will quickly descend into mediocrity unless it hires some people who can write plots and develop characters. It’s well on its way to wasting the potential that it created with its pilot. Here’s what I suggest to avoid yet another Fox folly.
First of all, Fox has a history failing to capitalize on shows with huge potential. The epitome of this is Arrested Development, one of the wittiest comedies ever written. Who else would have Henry Winkler literally jump over a shark—again? The show was canceled after three seasons despite winning six Emmy Awards. Another example is Firefly, which had a strong cult following that Fox failed to figure out. Finally, there is House. House is still on, pretty much only because Hugh Laurie carries it on his shoulders, similar to how the music in Glee carries it. Clearly something is wrong at Fox.
Like most Fox shows, Glee has squandered it’s potential. It now relies too much on excellent song arrangements and performances and not enough on what sustains a great show: characters and their development. This is similar to House. Hugh Laurie plays a House, a dynamic, yet sarcastic genius, like nobody else could. (Sure, it was an obvious rip-off of Sherlock Holmes.) However, the writing staff proceeded to surround House with flat, soporific characters. And just as audiences watched just to see Laurie act, Glee audiences are pretty much just watching to see the Glee cast break into song. That’s when the show shines.
Glee aired its pilot in May of last year and then left the pilot on-line until the second episode aired in September. I watched it at least three times while waiting for the second episode. The pilot introduced characters that we could cheer and a story line that was ripe with drama, life lessons, and funny situations. Throw in phenomenally arranged and performed covers of familiar songs, and it seemed like easy money for Fox. But only some of those strengths were maintained throughout the season. The rest fell victim to bad writing.
The two elements that stayed relatively strong were the songs and the comedic element brought by Jane Lynch. I’m convinced Lynch could read the phonebook and elicit a laugh. Not every song sung by the cast is a hit for me, but enough of them are that they keep me watching. Rachel and Mercedes can sing, and the arrangers obviously know that. However, I’d like to hear a bit more from Artie and even Puck. While the music and Lynch are carrying Glee right now, there are many areas in need of improvement.
Glee’s characters have become flatter and flatter over the course of the season, despite the fact that they began with so much potential. I don’t mind them being archetypal. Have Finn be a dumb jock with a heart and voice of gold (even though it’s not, to my ear). Rachel can be over-enthusiastic to the point of nuttiness. They are the main characters and are supposed to be high schoolers, so I won’t get bent out of shape if they are a little one dimensional.
However, there are so many interesting supporting characters that the writers work with one week and completely ignore the rest of the time. Artie and Kirk are two of the losers that audiences were rooting for at the beginning of the season. Kirk’s interaction with his father, while possibly not that original, is one of the better moments for the writers. On the other hand, Artie’s episode of finally finding a friend in “Asian” is over the top and a bit boring. I don’t think they gave him the best solo that week either. Puck is nice one week and a jerk the next, as is Quinn. I think that these capricious moods are the writers’ attempts at giving the characters depth, but they are so uneven that it makes them un-relatable. Songs do take up some time, so it’s probably difficult to fit much development into a single show. But either tighten it up or make the characters flat and focus on the plot line.
The show plans on adding more characters next season. To me, that says they are having the same problem House did. The writers had written their supporting characters, House’s staff, into a yawn-worthy corner. So, they basically got rid of them and hired a bunch of new ones. I’m sure Glee won’t jettison its current cast, but if it’s already adding more to an already large cast that includes “Asian” and “Asian 2”, I’m not sure what they are hoping to accomplish. I hope it is interesting and not disappointing, like the plot has become.
The story of the season is a bit over the top, which is fine. The whole show is a little bit high school drama club-like: overly dramatic. The problem is that the plot points are so uneven. One week, there will be a bunch of major plot point scenes without much music. The next week, they will reverse the ratio. And even the scenes in which they reveal plot points are a bit forced and obvious. Obvious is fine, but bad story tempo is not. It’s like being in the ring with a good boxer: you’re just bouncing around, listening to the great songs, when WHAM!, a plot point punches you in the face. I know the plot has to be moved along, but it does so quite ungracefully. Figure it out, Glee.
Glee will make it a few seasons at least, but if it wants to become a great show and not go the way of Arrested Development, House, or Firefly, it has to improve its writing. For everybody’s sake, I hope it does. I think it still has some potential.
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