There's the shallow craving entertainment by wasting my life on tv way. But there's also a deeper admiration.
See, most tv shows now a days are pretty much the same thing with different actors. They're all either medical shows, csi shows, blowing stuff up secret agent style shows, or obnoxiously crude humor shows. There's honestly not much else on. And even then, most of the medical and csi ones aren't about the science at all. They're all about the drama and intrigue of the romantic lives of the doctors or scientists, or whoever. So yeah, like I said. It's all the same, and it's all boring.
There are officially three shows I watch that still run. (As in I watch the Cosby show and I love Lucy, too, but those are old. They don't fit into the tv show realm anymore.) Admittedly, I watch Bones. It's just too well written to not. They always introduce such and interesting puzzle before the opening credits even happen, and I'm stuck. That and the fact that most of the romantic drama and intrigue isn't annoying and stressful like in other shows I've watched. It's actually cute most of the time.
I also watch the Simpsons. Because they are geniuses of the spoof. Brilliant. Most people today like Family Guy a lot. Admittedly the writers of it are very clever. There are some things about Family Guy that are so hilarious. But it's just so full of unnecessary gross (and not funny) crap that it's just not worth watching. Not for me. I mean it could potentially be the best show ever made, but they ruin it. The Simpson's, though, at least has a limit. So the Simpson's are the reigning champions there. 21 years and still plugging. And they generally have decent messages in the episodes. Like Homer discovers his family really is the most important thing to him, or Lisa discovers that she doesn't hate her brother after all. Cheesy, yet poignant. And so very clever.
And then there's Glee. Like I said, there are levels.
First, the shallow bit.
I LOVE that Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel have both been on this show. Two of my favorite people EVER. I love every song Kristen's sung so far on it, and I can't wait to see what Idina will sing. Because you just can't cast her as a glee club coach in a show and not have her sing. There will be rioting in the streets unless she does.
I also LOVE Matthew Morrison's singing voice. It's now competition with Ewan McGregor for me. Which is impressive. I don't care as much about his character on the show, but he sings gorgeously.
Mercedes and Kurt are my favorite characters. Ever. Kurt is gay, and that makes him hilarious. But sometimes I wish he wasn't, because I've been dying to have him hook up with Mercedes since the first episode. That is a power team. However, he wouldn't be Kurt if that were the case. I shall have to live my life unfulfilled.
I also like that they pick lots of really good songs and don't slaughter them. Most of the time covers just don't cut it. But there's been a few on Glee where I decided that I like the cover better than the original.
Glee is funny. They have great songs, and great singers for the songs. And the dialogue is always witty. Watch this clip. If you don't watch glee, and haven't seen this, it will change your life forever. I cried laughing when I first saw this. I apologize I couldn't find a better video of it. They took some of them down.
So yeah, Glee makes my life happy and funny. But there are better reasons for liking it, too. And that's because it doesn't fall into the general demographic of tv shows.
First of all, it's not a show about popular people. It's not the people in high school who are on the top of the social ladder. And it's not the people who have great well paying careers like doctors, lawyers, or politicians. In fact, it goes in the other direction. It's about a group of kids in a high school who don't fit in socially, no matter how great they do in their activities. That's a hard place to be, and so many people ARE in that place, and are finally getting to relate to something.
Second, relating very much to the first thing, the show addresses a lot of very real things that people face. Granted there was one episode that turned out to be a little racy. It was the first one after the pilot. But as a rule, every episode has addressed something and shown many of the characters growing and learning from it. Even if it's a little thing, like being positive. Being your own self. Not being afraid to be in charge of your life, and not give in to peer pressure. There are a lot of messages about doing the right thing. Being nice to people, or accepting differences, or being a little more humble. Teamwork. Honesty. I could go on and on.
Third, Music is powerful. Very powerful. And Glee uses a very well crafted combination of songs to relate their important messages. Some of the songs are just for fun. And that's totally ok. But some of them are also there to remind people of what's important. For example, this one. The video of it is really powerful, but it's the most recent episode out, so I don't have access to it. I just have the song. Therefore the video part is just a random pic of Mercedes and Kurt. But listen to the song. It's amazing.
The context is that Mercedes and Kurt have finally been given somewhat of a chance to fit in. They're on the cheer squad to add some vocals. And at first it goes really well, but then they start to be affected by the pressure to be perfect. They succumb to the losing weight to be beautiful and fit in drama. Mercedes has a revelatory moment where she understands that she doesn't need all that to be awesome. So she walks into the pep rally, and instead of doing their planned cheer routine, she sings this for the school. You really should just watch the episode. It's number 16 I think. Called "Home".
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