Whenever something becomes hugely popular,
I have to fight a strong aversion to following the
crowd that instantly makes me want to dislike
whatever the latest fad is. However, I have been
unable to deny that the latest craze to hit the
small screen, Fox’s new series Glee is deserving of
the hype that has surrounded it.
The show focuses on a set of niches or
cliques that fight for control of a high school.
These cliques consist of cheerleaders, nerds,
jocks, and even subsets of various teacher
stereotypes. Not that original then. So how
creative are the makers of Glee?
A friend recently argued that it is the least
original show on television: all it does is cover
old songs and follow the trend started by High
School Musical and Simon Cowell’s string of
talent TV reality shows. I’d like to think that there
is slightly more to the show than that. Glee gives
us social truths mixed with humour, frivolity and
camp over-the-top melodrama – if this was the
late Victorian era we’d be mistaking the series for
an Oscar Wilde play (after we’d got over the shock
of that bit of hocus-pocus we call the invention of
the television).
Glee as recession-buster?
OK, so maybe that is a bit of an over-statement
but I do think Glee deserves credit for its
combination of sharp mockery of high school
stereotypes and modern culture on the one
hand, and the hugely entertaining, cheesy song
and dance numbers on the other. Glee provides
the perfect level of light-hearted optimism to
allow us to momentarily escape the doom and
gloom of the recession, plus, unlike some other
high school dramas (*cough* 90210 *cough* )
and talent-focused television shows (Britain’s
Got Talent anyone?), it is intelligent enough
that we don’t have to feel embarrassed that
we enjoy it. Media buffs will be well aware that
the musical genre itself surged in popularity
following the Wall Street Crash in 1929, when
stars such as Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and
Busby Berkeley helped to deliver a muchneeded
morale boost to audiences during the
depression of the 1930s. Now, during the longest
UK economic recession since records began,
audiences are turning to the same brand of
fantasy and escapism.
The producers of Glee could not have
anticipated the phenomenal success that the
series enjoys. Although the show was mostly
targeted at teenage girls and gay people, it has
captured a wider audience through its use of
dark humour and intelligent witticisms, mainly
focused on the character of Sue Sylvester. Glee
does address real personal and social issues
throughout; one episode revolves around Kurt’s
homosexuality and the personal conflict he faces
when he almost pulls out of a show to spare
his father from homophobic abuse. However,
these topics are always balanced out by upbeat
humour and energetic performances, never
dwelling on serious issues for too long – unlike
many UK teen offerings.
Gleeful music?
It also employs a broad range of popular
music, ranging from the 60s to the current charts.
The unlikely ‘mash-up’ that is Beyoncé’s ‘Halo’
combined with Katrina and the Wave’s ‘Walking
on Sunshine’ helped to transfer the TV show’s
success to the music charts, with the release of
the first Glee album. There are now two albums
on release, which at the present time are the
No.1 albums in both the UK and America.
The Glee club itself is all about creativity; the
club is assigned a different theme each week,
often celebrating figures of creative music talent,
as in the Madonna episode; and the teams are
encouraged to use their own experience to create
the winning performance. The result usually is
temporarily to unite the various high school
cliques through the spirit of putting on a good
show, excepting of course the Glee club’s arch
nemesis Sue Sylvester who, despite her mission
to shut the club down, fails to stifle the students’
creativity.
The talented cast embrace (rather than deny)
their cardboard cut-out characters to deliver pithy lines such as
What you call insanity, I call inspiration
Sue Sylvester
and close-to-the-mark observations on
modern culture:
being anonymous is worse than being poor.
Fame is the most important thing in our
culture now
Rachel Berry
Personally, I feel that this cocktail of clever
comedy and entertainment makes Glee more
than just another teenage TV drama.
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