Skip to main content

Talk Back: Season Premiere of FOX's "Glee"

Just curious to see how many of you tuned in last night to watch the series premiere of FOX's musical dramedy Glee.

While you read my advance review of the series premiere ("Showmance"), now that the episode has aired, I'm curious what you thought of the episode. Did it live up to the hype? Did you enjoy the mix of music, comedy, and soapy shenanigans? Was it tonally balanced with a good mix of light and dark or did you find it inconsistent?

What did you think of the three big musical numbers: "Gold Digger," "Push It," and "Take a Bow"? (Were you as amazed as I was that Matthew Morrison could pull off Kanye West's "Gold Digger" with such aplomb?) Did you find the show endearingly cheerful and optimistic or frustratingly peppy?

And, most importantly, will you be tuning in again next week?

Talk back here.

Next week on Glee ("Acafellas"), Will forms the Acafellas, an all-male acapella singing group and gets a visit from Josh Groban; the glee club decides to hire a well-known choreographer to help coach them to Nationals; Mercedes suffers the sting of unrequited love.

Comments

Anonymous said…
"Glee" makes me go squee!
From the pilot, I was hooked and last night's episode did not disappoint. The wife is annoying and I can't wait for the whole 'fake baby' plot line to blow up in her face. I thought "Take a Bow" was just perfect and amazing.

Jane Lynch is the perfect baddie in this scenario and I cannot wait for the very obvious showdown between her character and Schuester.
Emma said…
It was awesome! Favorite show in a long time I was either cracking up or crying in basically every scene!
Anonymous said…
I was thoroughly unimpressed. All the characters are cartoons and there's no real, believable emotions. Things just don't make sense. If the cheerleaders really want to get rid of the choir, why join it and add members to meet the minimum participant requirement? Just let it die on its own.

Sure, the musical numbers are good, but "Push It"? Really? I didn't buy any of it for a second. By the time they got to "Take a Bow", I wanted the episode to be over and these characters off my television screen. (And I've seen with Morrison do far more impressive things. Not that he was bad, just that's just the tip of his talent.)

I really want this show to work, because it could be funny if I cared. It's just so tonally all over the map, I keep expecting Famke Jansen to walk through any moment and start trying to seduce an underage child.
ticknart said…
I had a lot of fun watching Glee last night. I think it's that mix of soap and comedy that does it the most for me because I found the overly polished nature of the singing at the rehearsals and assembly to be distracting. Although I thought "Take a Bow" worked perfectly.

So, I'll be there next week cheering for the club and singing along.
Anonymous said…
This show is not going to make it for a 2nd season.
JP
Anonymous said…
Think it's cheesy and stupid. No way will I watch again.
Amanda P. said…
I want to like Glee, but I have such a hard time with some of the basic conceits of the show - for example, why does Will stay with someone who has absolutely no positive - there's not even of sign of them ever loving each other (or anything in her worth loving). Even for a farce, there needs to be some believability to the character's relationships.

I have less of a problem with Jane Lynch, because you're supposed to hate her. Jessalyn Gilsig just has no redeeming value and it doesn't make sense in the context of the show.

Otherwise, the obvious lip synching was my only other quibble. I'll give it another shot.
Piper said…
Blech. I just don't understand the hype. I want to like this show but find the tone to be all over the place and the characters, for the most part, completely unlikeable. Might try one more episode and then I'm going to stop wasting my time.
Kerry said…
I want to like this quirky little show, but it is just not working for me. The first episode was like a carbon copy of Election. It was just too similar, it felt like a such rip off. That bugged me too much, but I did fall under the spell of "Don't Stop Believing" which got me to turn into episode two. Unfortunately, episode two did not make me like the show more. The lip synching is out of control and don't get me started on the ages of the actors who are playing these highschool students (I'm looking at you Puck).

I think that with the abundance of different talent shows on television today (American Idol, and SYTYCD just to name two) people have gotten more discriminatory over the talents of singers, dancers, and all performers. We expect more and I just don't think that Glee is giving it to us. I think that these actors are talented and I just wish they could find a way to showcase those talents better.
Unknown said…
I haven't laughed so much since Better Off Ted. "Later in life, you'll find that's a gift." BWAhahahahah. I'm not a fan of musicals, but I enjoyed the ones they did. Gold Digger was great. Yes, the singing is obviously done in a studio and overlaid, but if it weren't, it'd sound awful. Still, the sound mixer should do something to blend it better.
Anonymous said…
love love love this show. Nothing wrong with a little more song, dance and laughter in this world. Oh, and some unexpected drama too!
David Muir said…
I have watched two episodes now and, like some other commenters, I really want this show to succeed. Unfortunately it is simply not very good. The jokes are pretty funny when they come, but they are lost in very two-dimensional drama. As someone else pointed out, even in a musical dramedy, you need believability and far too many of the characters are cardboard cutouts of high school stereotypes.
Steve said…
I watched the first two episodes of Glee, and I like it a lot. It manages to walk a fine line between sweet and endearing, and snarky and dark...ideas that would be too cute (Will being inspired by videos of his '93 Glee victory) are counteracted by darkness (the "Divorce: Why Mom and Dad Don't Love You Anymore" brochure in the guidance office); a show that could be too dark (J effing C, is everyone in this town anti-Glee?) are undercut with genuinely heartwarming moments (the pilot's "Don't Stop Believing" finale). I love the heightened reality (the OCD-woman's polishing of each grape; the OMGz competition between Cheerios and Glee club). I think a lot of the jokes are really funny.

That said:

Will's wife is annoying. I'd like to see her show a more sympathetic side (so far she's been pure, unreasonable Stepford-wannabe), or possibly interact with other characters (so far the only person she interacts with is Will. It makes her feel limited.)

Also, my main concern is that, well, the stereotypes are too narrow. Evil Christians, ambitious woman/cheerleading coach who doesn't menstrate, geek in wheelchair, etc. etc. I'm also keeping an eye on the Token Minorities---if they're fleshed out, they'll be really interesting, but so far they've been put on backburner so we can watch the Pretty White Leads. I was slightly disturbed by the way that (a) the gay kid, (b) the Asian girl, (c) the wheelchair dude, and (d) the Sassy Black Girl ALL got sidelined for the sake of White Teacher, White Female Lead, and White Male Jock Lead in these pilot episodes. Especially since I find Will kind of bland.

I think GLEE can be something really great...or it could fizzle. I hope it turns out great. I'll be watching.

Popular posts from this blog

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj