Since we are discussing pop culture as of late, I thought I would chime in on my own recent interest in one of FOX’s new hits, GLEE. This is a show based on a high school glee club, but it has a whole lot of charm. The glee club teacher has this wholesome and way-too-good-looking-to-be-a-high-school-teacher thing going on. His wife is a manipulative person that makes you wish he wasn’t always giving her the benefit of the doubt. And you cannot help but to feel for the OCD single teacher who supports him faithfully and abides secretly in her love for him. 

The love triangle between glee club singing sensation (and subsequently, glee club geek) Rachel, Finn (the all-star-jock with a great voice) and his cheerleader captain girlfriend, Quinn, reminds many viewers of our darker school days when we suffered through our own crush on that one popular person. The plotting coach of the Cheerios (cheerleaders), Sue Sylvester, makes you cheer even harder for the glee club to succeed in spite of her schemes. 

One cannot help but to emotionally feel for the singers themselves as they go through their own teenage trials in the glee club that looks more like a line-up of the Bad News Bears than a group that can sing their tails off. And while last week’s “Single Ladies” dance routine in the football game playbook may have been a bit of overkill, I am pretty sure that anyone who was watching the scene was laughing along with me. 

The show, in only three episodes, has already been signed for a full season. Kevin O’Reilly, the President of Entertainment for FOX Broadcasting Corporation recently stated that, “The response we’ve received to GLEE has been remarkable. It’s already got the makings of a cultural phenomenon.” 

So what makes a show about, let’s face it, one of the geekiest activities in high school, so successful? Great music, talented actors, and humorous screenwriting certainly don’t hurt. But perhaps the voice that we all have, the one that secretly wishes to sing out and dance without any retribution to our reputation, is able to live a little through this kind of glee.

Tags: Finn, FOX Broadcasting Corporation, GLEE, glee club, Kevin O’Reilly, Quinn, Rachel, Single Ladies, Sue Sylvester, the Cheerios

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.