ViewGuide

Created Sep 07, 2009 01:54AM PST • Edited Sep 26, 2009 02:17AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   TFB, tremendously entertaining, provocatively insightful, plus it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it: TV gets no better than Glee. The pilot begs the same question from me as from every other critic: Can they keep this up? ‘Cause they’re cruising at a very high level right from the outset. Maintain this altitude and Fox has a huge hit on their hands. Glee indeed.

   Think Juno crossed with High School Musical: smart, funny, irreverent, yet with great song and dance numbers. Now that’s entertainment.
   -—-
   Season 1 Episodes

   1. Pilot – Jam packed introduction, intense from the get go. Might come on too strong for some, at least until the musical numbers kick in, after which it’s tough not to smile.
   2. Shomance – Altitude maintained albeit pleasantly less forced than the Pilot. Most of the unusually large and talented cast get chances to shine. Every clique and demo gets skewered: weak husbands who don’t stand up to their self-pitying, narcissistic & conniving wives, cheerleaders & coaches, phony he-men. Plus power & gender politics play out amongst adults and teens alike: winners and losers being the oh-so-high-school subtext of the show.
      
      Plus several great song & dance numbers. Lea Michele’s Rachel Berry torches terrific girl-been-done-wrong number Take a Bow, while the Cheerios tart up Burt Bacharach & Hal David’s I Say a Little Prayer, sweet vocals not by Dionne Warwick but by Dianna Agron. Dancing by the Cheerios, who’ve been on Fox Sports Net as their dangerously adrenalized coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch’s diabolical creation) rarely fails to remind. Oh and Kanye’s Gold Digger will send every parent ’round the bend just as it brings the McKinley High kids shooting out of their seats.
   3. Acafellas – Unbeknownst to him, Will’s marriage troubles deepen as Teri prolongs her selfish secret, humping her sap of a husband to keep him sated. Six karaoke numbers + Josh Groban in a funny turn – “cute as a buttermilk biscuit”. Warning: The songs – including I Wanna Sex You Up and Bust Your Windows – aren’t exactly family friendly, just supremely well executed. Tough to sit still while they’re going. We also see more of Sue Sylvester’s “Napalm in the morning” leadership style. It’s enough to make a grown man puke, a sight she’d take as a complement.
      
      Several heretofore talking characters get their turns to sing and dance. Of course they nail it. Hell, the show’s got so many singer-dancers they can introduce a huge Broadway star like Victor Garber and so far only let him talk. Warning: The show’s relentless “hotness” puts off some and wears on all from time to time. Oh, and Kurt Hummel comes out of the locker, as if with a name like that he could ever be straight.

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   ¹ TFB – Totally F-ing Brilliant

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   Bunch of stars are coming out of this cast. Details later.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Perfect 5.0

    Funny as hell, good values win out, and some really great songs get sung. Real American Idol stuff.

    All about winners and losers, the latter denoted by the L gesture, American high school’s one notable contribution to modern – cough, cough – culture.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Perfect 5.0

13. Music Perfect 5.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.6

    All in all a family show. Pushes the envelope less than many TV shows have over the years, plus it does it with panache, which counts for a lot.

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

    Considerable unrequited passion gets exercised.

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

    Jocks stuff weaklings in dumpsters.

19. Rudeness Polite 1.5

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    CircoReality just this side of Surreal, as high school seems/seemed for many.

    Me, I loved high school and this show makes me remember kinda why.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.9

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0