Repackaging Rebellion: “Glee”
The first 13 episodes of the TV show “Glee” are out on DVD. When you watch them (they’re additively easy to watch) you see all kinds of things you don’t usually see on TV: acceptance of a gay character, the desire to do something meaningful with your life, the price one pays to be true to your inner self.
The show is about high school students in a Glee Club at an Ohio high school. It’s the most unpopular club in school. To be a member means to be -- as one character puts it -- in the “sub-basement” of the school’s hierarchy
The degradations Glee Club members live with every day include being thrown in dumpsters and being pummeled with slushy drinks. And there is a litany of gay jokes directed at athletes who want to join the club.
The show is a mixture of comedy and drama, but there is plenty of suburban “Desperate Housewives”-style satire. Many of the adult characters are the same kind of characters you’ve found in teen comedies since the 1980s. They are nitwits and caricatures. And there is a lot of clever satire to show that.
The adult that has the most dimensionality is the club’s director Will, who is in a declining marriage and finds himself attracted to a guidance counselor. He almost seems like a high school student himself sometimes – unaware of the implications of what he is doing.
But the show succeeds like no other show in recent TV history because it contains real emotion and even subversive messages you don’t usually see on network television. In its o
wn way it’s about rebellion. And where does rebellion begin?
Having the courage to be your real self, the show suggests. And that means fighting against the power structure. While that may sound cliché the battle to stay true to oneself begins in high school and stays with many of us through our lives. So it’s good to be reminded that our inner high student may have shaped us more than we realized.
“Glee” is also a celebration of being a misfit. Because being true to oneself usually means becoming an outcast. But we can’t do that alone, It shows what a deep yearning we have to find a group of people who accept us for who we truly are.
When the “Glee” members perform their songs (which include Broadway standards, classic rock and current pop) they aren’t doing an “American Idol”-style presentation. The songs are a joyful depiction of unity and the strength misfits have when they join together. And maybe on network TV there is no more message more subversive and rebellious than that.
The show is about high school students in a Glee Club at an Ohio high school. It’s the most unpopular club in school. To be a member means to be -- as one character puts it -- in the “sub-basement” of the school’s hierarchy
The degradations Glee Club members live with every day include being thrown in dumpsters and being pummeled with slushy drinks. And there is a litany of gay jokes directed at athletes who want to join the club.
The show is a mixture of comedy and drama, but there is plenty of suburban “Desperate Housewives”-style satire. Many of the adult characters are the same kind of characters you’ve found in teen comedies since the 1980s. They are nitwits and caricatures. And there is a lot of clever satire to show that.
The adult that has the most dimensionality is the club’s director Will, who is in a declining marriage and finds himself attracted to a guidance counselor. He almost seems like a high school student himself sometimes – unaware of the implications of what he is doing.
But the show succeeds like no other show in recent TV history because it contains real emotion and even subversive messages you don’t usually see on network television. In its o
wn way it’s about rebellion. And where does rebellion begin?Having the courage to be your real self, the show suggests. And that means fighting against the power structure. While that may sound cliché the battle to stay true to oneself begins in high school and stays with many of us through our lives. So it’s good to be reminded that our inner high student may have shaped us more than we realized.
“Glee” is also a celebration of being a misfit. Because being true to oneself usually means becoming an outcast. But we can’t do that alone, It shows what a deep yearning we have to find a group of people who accept us for who we truly are.
When the “Glee” members perform their songs (which include Broadway standards, classic rock and current pop) they aren’t doing an “American Idol”-style presentation. The songs are a joyful depiction of unity and the strength misfits have when they join together. And maybe on network TV there is no more message more subversive and rebellious than that.
Glee photo courtesy of Fox TV
