I predict that Puck is closeted. He will think that Finn is gay, because Finn is in glee club. There will be an awkward and unfortunate incident at a sleep-over: he will make a move on Finn, and Finn will reject him. (Or, more interesting, Finn will go along with it, but the next day decide "never again, dude, I'm not gay.") Puck will fall into shame and sadness and self-loathing, and he will kill himself.
By the same token, it will turn out that Kurt is not gay, not at all, despite his playing to all the stereotypes.
@DeltaGuy: No, no, the 2/3 is "single, hot, sane." Straight men are allowed to like Bravo and Glee. However, I'm not sure if they're still allowed to watch Project Runway on Lifetime.
My best friend, who is straight, will have to be the litmus on this one.
This show is, in fact, terrible. And I say this as someone who was in EVERY SINGLE play and musical my school put on during my ENTIRE 4 years in high school. It's just like, I don't even understand the kind of bland self-involved person you would have to be to find this anything close to amusing. No offense!
@DavidWatts: Sadly, I have to agree -- it's a mixture of high-school cliches and the kind of misanthropism that makes "Nip/Tuck" so annoying. And yet the actors are appealing and the music is fun. Well, that's what TiVo fast-forward is for.
@DavidWatts: Huh. Well, color me bland and self-involved, I guess. I mean, I'm not sure how you're doing the math on that, but I enjoyed the pilot, although in fact I'm not wild about this number, because I am an old, and reserve the right to harumph about it.
I agree that the show's not breaking new ground in a lot of ways, but I guess I don't expect that much from TV. Appealing actors and fun music is more than a lot of TV has to offer, and I'll take it gladly.
I'm not saying you're wrong, mind you, although I do question the characteristics you're attributing to people who have different taste than you do. I think you probably feel the same way about this show that I do about "Desperate Housewives" -- the idea that it was somehow daring in its portrayal of the dark underside of suburbia used to annoy me, given that Douglas Sirk did it better 50 years ago.
@TedSez: I'd agree with you if the misanthropy were unmitigated, but the show manages, for example, to love the success-obsessed female character while still making fun of her flaws, and to allow her male counterpart some real nobility. Again, I don't think it's opening a new epoch in television entertainment, but I liked it.
@TedSez: Right behind you. What is it with Ryan Murphy and his basic disdain for humanity? I find his stuff unwatchable because of it. And he/they couldn't have subverted ONE cliche? Like, oh, I don't know, how about making the awesome African American girl (above) who has the REAL voice the LEAD? Crazy talk, I know.
@DavidWatts: agreed. normally I would be so on board with this kind of thing, and I really wanted to be, but it left me feeling...cold somehow. I admit that this clip is ridiculously better than the pilot, but what does that prove?
@MissNormaDesmond: Hmmm... to me, they took an incredibly pretty and talented girl (well, woman, since like most of the high-schoolers she looks well over 20) and made her a cartoonishly annoying overachiever just so the other characters would hate her. But maybe that's my own dark underside talking.
@TedSez: To me it feels more even-handed, as if they're both showing why she's annoying to other kids but also why she's so driven. It's sort of a vicious cycle -- the more she's hated by her peers, the more desperately she needs to invest in her dreams of fame and her frantic self-promotion, the more her peers pick on her in ways that are clearly shown to be cruel and hurtful. I felt for her and laughed at her at the same time. I also identified with her a bit.
But hey, potayto potahto. I'm not saying you're wrong. I guess I'm trying to acquit myself of being bland and self-involved. Wait, maybe I am a cartoonishly annoying overachieving Gawker commenter! Please don't hurl fruit drinks at me.
Blurg. Not quite what I was hoping for. Don't get me wrong--she's got a fantastic voice--but I feel like I just sat through the exact type of music video that used to make me change the channel back when MTV actually played them. The bit at the end was cute though.
@DahlELama: Yeah, I was with them up 'til the anonymous black stage and SUV with spinners.
I'm wondering though...does this mean those two characters will have a thing? Will he not be gay? Probably more of an unrequited love thing on her part.
@TubOfTaft: Past a second season? I'll be surprised if it even makes it to a second season. Hell, I'll be ecstatic if it makes it past its second episode.
I think this show has a great chance, actually. Besides being utterly delightful, it has the potential to appeal to a wide audience--from High School Musical-loving tweens to people looking for a more quirky Freaks and Geeks-esque show. The music is infectious, the writing is great, and the production quality is wonderful. Plus, FOX has been promoting the hell out of it, and thus seems to really want it to succeed. I think it was a genius move to preview it before the actual season starts, thereby giving it time to generate buzz all summer long (without having to suffer through the slow growth of ratings for the first episodes as it does so). If it were a mediocre pilot, it could easily be forgotten during that time, but it was a solid episode that ended with an emotional, catchy and show-stopping final number that people will be watching over and over on Hulu and YouTube (not that I would know anything about that).
I really hope this isn't all just wishful thinking, because I'm in love with this show already.
This show reportedly costs over $3 mil per episode to produce, which is HUGE! That's almost 4-7 times the amount of most sitcoms. And by comparison, ABC lost their shit with Pushing Daisies b/c episodes were coming in over $1 mil. If this show does not explode in ratings, I don't see Fox not pulling the plug quickly.
@ae38: Fuck. It had disappointing retention out of American Idol, as well. I'm starting to worry that we won't even get 13 episodes of this, before a cancellation order (and don't forget, even with the episodes paid for and produced, FOX would save a lot of money in music licensing rights if it did not air the episodes).
Ugh. The last thing we need is another gay fantasia that seems to show people that they, too, could dig themselves out of their unsavory social pigeon holes and become something special. Let me know when someone develops a series about a few high school guys who do half-day tech school, smoke too much pot to function, and always end up with nasty, leatherfaced nit-wits.
I was pretty entertained by it, to my surprise. I don't understand why networks don't premier more shows in the summer time while other networks are on re-runs.
Part of the O.C. (sadly, I watched the first season) success was that it launched in the summer when nothing else was on T.V.
Maybe it's because the advertising buys aren't as high in the summer? I just don't understand that formula of networks saving the good stuff for the fall!
@IShouldBeFamous: For every summertime success like The OC (which actually only began in August), there are a number of failures. See: Swingtown, Windfall, and Mental (which will be premiering on Fox next Tuesday).
I was moved by what I saw and heard, and I look forward to what this show seems to have in store. How many of us have exchanged risky visions of creative fulfillment for perfunctory employment?
Will’s wife goes right for the jugular with her accusation: "It’s your way of recapturing your glory days." Material comfort and the mechanism of shame make a persuasive argument to let creative instruments gather dust in the attic. For those of us whose creative pursuits have faded into memory, this show gives at least the vicarious thrill of hope for renewal. The real-life difficulties are present in Glee, among them the problems of less pay, longer hours, and marital stress. The sweetness of song, however, may inspire us to find in ourselves what we lack: will. In that regard, there is much in the name of the protagonist, as there is much promise in the name of the show.
Music makes the final scene beyond effective. How else could a predictable ending to a conventional narrative make me feel so exhilarated, so full of hope and—I have to say it—glee? It is thanks to the fantastic arrangement of "Don’t Stop Believin’" and to Lea Michelle’s interpretation in her solo at the beginning. (Not being a musical theater buff, I did not know who she is! Sorry!) It feels so awesome at the beginning of that number, because she makes her voice soar in a melody that most of would have to strain to sing. When you hear a voice do that—make it so easy and agile and light—there is a vicarious thrill: it’s like knowing how to body-board and then watching a professional surfer flying through a massive tube.
I'm going to respectfully disagree, but judging by the number of myspace and fox sports net references contained within, it will probably be on forever, because all is well if your network's corporate parent is getting theirs. watch out next season, when rupert murdoch is crowned prom queen and the kids compete to intern at the Weekly Standard.
@obloquy: I'm kind of worried about the departure of Peter Liguori from Fox. He was the executive in charge of FX when Ryan Murphy brought aboard Nip/Tuck. I feel like he was a driving force behind getting this show on air. At least Kevin Reilly, also from FX, also responsible for developing and programming Nip/Tuck, is still President of Entertainment at FOX.
I've heard all these great things about it, but I just don't like the idea of constantly turning to high school for entertainment. Or college. Or The Office. Or that Charlie Sheen abortion that America loves. Or reality TV.
Can someone please make a show that makes it look like adults have fun every once in awhile? Lost is going away and I constantly fear for 30 Rock to be taken from me.
@Richard Lawson: I know we don't but if there's a fantasy scenario I can strive to achieve, then I won't grow stagnant and atrophy and die in middle management.
@xhack: Friends reruns every hour of the day if you really need a fix of adults not working yet living in ridiculously large apartments, and spending their lives not in college, the office, with Charlie Sheen, or doing anything real or interesting.
P.S. Wait, you think the people in Lost are having fun?
@kimsama: Friends had to drag me through Ross and Racheal for far too long. Maybe I'm just picky (I'm picky).
I was in love with the Simpsons about a dozen years ago, Newsradio and Arrested Development hit the ball out of the park for me. And Seinfeld is probably the funniest thing I've seen on TV.
And the people in Lost look like they're doing more interesting things than I'm doing right now.
@xhack: How I Met Your Mother fulfills that adults having fun and drinking ALL the time without appearing like binge drinking college alcoholics pretty well. oh and who doesn't like neil patrick harris?
@xhack: You should consider starting up your Philadelphia watching, Season 4 rivaled 30 Rock in funniness.
If you're interested in British Television, I'd strongly recommend Hotel Babylon (!) and Hustle (and maybe Being Human, actually, if you like something a little less conventional).
07/29/09
By the same token, it will turn out that Kurt is not gay, not at all, despite his playing to all the stereotypes.
07/28/09
Of course, I do spend an inordinate amount of time on Bravo...
07/28/09
I feel like singing "one of these things is not like the others." Seriously, you get to pick two, any two, of the above traits.
07/29/09
My best friend, who is straight, will have to be the litmus on this one.
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
I agree that the show's not breaking new ground in a lot of ways, but I guess I don't expect that much from TV. Appealing actors and fun music is more than a lot of TV has to offer, and I'll take it gladly.
I'm not saying you're wrong, mind you, although I do question the characteristics you're attributing to people who have different taste than you do. I think you probably feel the same way about this show that I do about "Desperate Housewives" -- the idea that it was somehow daring in its portrayal of the dark underside of suburbia used to annoy me, given that Douglas Sirk did it better 50 years ago.
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/29/09
07/30/09
But hey, potayto potahto. I'm not saying you're wrong. I guess I'm trying to acquit myself of being bland and self-involved. Wait, maybe I am a cartoonishly annoying overachieving Gawker commenter! Please don't hurl fruit drinks at me.
07/28/09
07/28/09
I'm wondering though...does this mean those two characters will have a thing? Will he not be gay? Probably more of an unrequited love thing on her part.
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
05/20/09
I really hope this isn't all just wishful thinking, because I'm in love with this show already.
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
HILARIOUS!
05/20/09
Part of the O.C. (sadly, I watched the first season) success was that it launched in the summer when nothing else was on T.V.
Maybe it's because the advertising buys aren't as high in the summer? I just don't understand that formula of networks saving the good stuff for the fall!
05/20/09
05/20/09
Will’s wife goes right for the jugular with her accusation: "It’s your way of recapturing your glory days." Material comfort and the mechanism of shame make a persuasive argument to let creative instruments gather dust in the attic. For those of us whose creative pursuits have faded into memory, this show gives at least the vicarious thrill of hope for renewal. The real-life difficulties are present in Glee, among them the problems of less pay, longer hours, and marital stress. The sweetness of song, however, may inspire us to find in ourselves what we lack: will. In that regard, there is much in the name of the protagonist, as there is much promise in the name of the show.
Music makes the final scene beyond effective. How else could a predictable ending to a conventional narrative make me feel so exhilarated, so full of hope and—I have to say it—glee? It is thanks to the fantastic arrangement of "Don’t Stop Believin’" and to Lea Michelle’s interpretation in her solo at the beginning. (Not being a musical theater buff, I did not know who she is! Sorry!) It feels so awesome at the beginning of that number, because she makes her voice soar in a melody that most of would have to strain to sing. When you hear a voice do that—make it so easy and agile and light—there is a vicarious thrill: it’s like knowing how to body-board and then watching a professional surfer flying through a massive tube.
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
Can someone please make a show that makes it look like adults have fun every once in awhile? Lost is going away and I constantly fear for 30 Rock to be taken from me.
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
P.S. Wait, you think the people in Lost are having fun?
05/20/09
I was in love with the Simpsons about a dozen years ago, Newsradio and Arrested Development hit the ball out of the park for me. And Seinfeld is probably the funniest thing I've seen on TV.
And the people in Lost look like they're doing more interesting things than I'm doing right now.
05/20/09
And agreed: I'd rather be enmeshed in any sort of island-based existential danger than be at work.
05/20/09
05/20/09
@DahlELama: On eternal Frasier love: yes.
05/20/09
05/20/09
@Brawndo: For some reason or antoher, I dropped off of my Philadelphia watching. Not sure why, though, that show is fantastic.
05/20/09
If you're interested in British Television, I'd strongly recommend Hotel Babylon (!) and Hustle (and maybe Being Human, actually, if you like something a little less conventional).