What is it about Glee? I have a hard time putting a finger on why I like it so much. There's an awful lot not to like - it's on Fox, it's on broadcast TV with commercials, it has a penchant for maudlin ballads, every character is a stereotype, and it's about high school. But, there's something about it that slays me. I love Jane Lynch and her every snarky line. I love the rivalry between the jocks and the glee club. I love the crazy big suspension of belief production numbers, even when I hate the music. And I love that it's about kids who love music and who love to perform. It's witty and satirical and sweet, all at the same time.
Last week, I got a copy of the just released 7-DVD "Gleek Edition" of the whole first season - thanks to the publicists at Fox. Yeah, it's got all 22 of the episodes, but it also has a lot of fun extras: karaoke, interviews with the stars, some behind the scenes stuff, a dance lesson, and best of all, a video jukebox of lots of the big songs. The jukebox lets you watch just a song, without trying to find it in an episode - and includes both the costumed, dance-filled production numbers and the plot embedded smaller songs (like Piano Man sung by two guys in a bar, and Poker Face sung as a ballad between mother and child). I watched through a bunch of them with the six year old - who loved Vogue ("that's Sam on iCarly's mother!"), and Bad Romance ("I just love Lady Gaga!"), and Fire ("It's Bruce!") and got up to dance to the big production numbers (like Ice Ice Baby and Safety Dance).
I was kind of disappointed that the football team's goofy dance to All the Single Ladies is missing from the jukebox - it'll be in the episode, but that's so tedious to find (or I'm so lazy). And the song clips are just clipped out of the episodes, so sometimes they end kind of abruptly.
Anyway. Are you a Gleek? Do you need a copy of this DVD set for your very own self? Leave me a comment (with an email address!) telling me why you love Glee so by Monday 9/27 at noon EST - I'll do a random pick and the Fox folks will send out a copy to the winner. While you're holding your breath, watch this - it's sweet:
Disclosure: No one paid me to write about Glee. Fox did provide me with a review copy of the DVD set, and will be sending another DVD set to the winner.
Who I Am
- Magpie
- It's a journal, a scrapbook, a record of my kid growing up. It's about food, it's about the pleasures of gardening. It's where I wear my heart on my sleeve, play with words and rail at the world. It's where I muse, and where I indulge my inner magpie. I have one delightful lonely cat and not enough time to read. If you'd like, you can email me at magpiemusing AT gmail DOT com.
20 comments:
I am going to watch it tonight for the first time evah. Because everyone keeps telling me I should!
ARgh. I just got into it this summer, but I don't have the end of season one, since Blockbuster only had the first two DVDs. Le sigh. But tonight, ah yes, tonight, I will be graduating to a regular Glee devotee. Like you, I think there there are so many things not to like, and yet it keeps pulling me in. I like the hokiness of it, in a way, and it's nice to see really talented teens have a place to shine in a drama.
I've become so indoctrinated that I'm not sure Glee even counts as a guilty pleasure anymore -- it's just a straight-up pleasure. Love the over-the-top high school angst, the soap opera drama among the adults, and of course Sue. Running off to make sure the DVR is set...
ack! i LOVE glee. must. have. box set. I wrote about it last fall:
http://paintedmaypole.blogspot.com/2009/11/gleeful-daily-gratitude-12.html
One of the MANY things I love about the show is the juxtoposition of the completely ridiculous (like Sue Sylvester) and the extraordinarily honest and heartfelt (pretty much anything that involves Kurt and his dad) moments. I'm laughing and crying within seconds.
and yes, I do have to wonder how the same network that brings us Fox News can also bring us something so fabulous as glee (and The Simpsons, and family guy... their shows and their news seem so at odds with each other. I guess it's all about making a buck)
Are you kidding? What's not to love? I just saw this set in the store yesterday. Took willpower to walk away without putting it in my cart.
What do I love about Glee? Without it, I'd have no clue who Lady Gaga is. I like that it gets me listening, even briefly, to music that would never pop up in Pandora for me. I'm amused by the juxtaposition of the totally overthetop unrealistic nature of some of the plot lines with some totally emotionally dead-on attention to relationships. And I love Jane Lynch.
There's much not to like: I'm hoping the show gets a better clue about disability issues in the coming year.
But Jane Lynch! She's a reason to watch, for sure.
YAY! It's back! I loves me some Glee! Started watching a little late in the 1st season. I downloaded some episodes to my itouch and watched while pumping breast milk when I went back to work.
Want. Extras. Please. :-)!!!!
We are a house full of Gleeks. Well, my 17-year old son would deny it with his last breath, but he doesn't leave the room!
Tonight? I'm running to set the TV to record. I love Glee because I grew up doing show choirs and musical theater and it reminds me of some of my most favorite parts of my childhood. I think you have my email already.
I have never seen it. Perhaps someday I will get it off of Netflix, but their idea of music is Beyonce and Brittany and I can't help wishing that they'd use the show as a bully pulpit for some REAL music occasionally.
(I don't watch it, but I know what goes on. Part of being a media savvy librarian, and all :D )
What I adore is "The Choir"-- on BBC America, about a real life English choir master who looks rather like David Tennant(Dr Who's) younger brother. He goes to various places--an all boys school, a down and out community, etc and creates the most amazing choir groups, really touching people's lives in unexpected ways. It's great TV. And it's on tonight as well.
Whatev. You're totally crushin' on Puck.
;-)
I haven't watched a single episode yet, but I would like to know what all the fuss is about, so yes! Please put my name in the hat!
LOVE Glee! Why? I don't know...maybe it's the songs I love to sing in the car or the shower...maybe it's that many of the songs are from when I was in school...maybe it's because it spans a few generations - my daughter (12) loves it too!
shoot - my email is kwr221@aol.com
I'm a two percenter. A rainy day, too-tired-for-a-walk, dinner's early and the dishes are finished Gleek. I do love it when I watch it and yes, the gym lady is THE best character on TV today.
I Netflixed the first episodes, and I want to see the rest! Listening to "Don't Stop Believing" . . .
I totally <3 Glee. I love what a dope Will can be, I love how strong and fragile and smart Emma is and how she moved on, I love Britney and Santana (OMG LESBIAN CHEERLEADERS), I love Sue and her sister and the fact that underneath all of it, Sue has a heart that will grow Grinchly sizes (IT WILL), but most of all--
I WOULD TOTALLY TAKE PUCK TO COUGARTOWN.
I TOTALLY WOULD.
And baby, I would never question his badassness.
I'd also forgotten how much that particular song made me BAWL. Thank you. *Sniff.*
I do love Glee, but I hate the term gleek, since it is a method of spitting and I always wonder why anyone would have adopted that particular term.
I love Glee although I haven't had a chance to watch the new episode yet! I have a soft spot for musicals of all kinds.
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