Writers: Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuck, and Ian Brennan
Grade: A
This new pilot from Ryan Murphy (Popular, Nip/Tuck) was not without flaws, but I loved it anyway, so I’m going to get the negatives out of the way early.
What Didn’t Work
-A lot of the jokes fell flat for me. I usually love Jane Lynch, for example, but I didn’t think her one-liners were all that funny. I think the humor worked much better when it centered on the awkwardness of the kids. The more blatant one-liner approach with the adults felt dull to me.
-Schuester’s shrewish wife is problematic. For one thing, she’s impossible to genuinely like, which is a shame since I’ve liked Jessalyn Gilsig in everything else I’ve seen her in (and for that reason, I’m not going to lay the blame at her feet), but most notably because her un-likability makes the character seem like nothing more than an obstacle in the way of Will and Emma’s obviously-meant-to-be romance. I hate seeing a female character (and a fun actress) relegated to such a thankless role.
I get the feeling that Will was a bit of a geek in high school who somehow ended up dating a cheerleader. I can see him being insecure enough back then to think dating a cheerleader was important, but what’s weird is that he and Terri have only been married for five years. I think Will is supposed to be around 30, which means he dated this vapid, selfish trainwreck for about seven years before marrying her. If he’d married her right out of high school, it would make some sense—marrying the head cheerleader or whatever may have seemed like a big deal then. But nowadays, he seems like a relatively mature, decent guy who’s picked up some confidence since high school, so I’m really not sure how these two have made it this far, to the point where they’re considering having a baby together.
-The pacing felt a little wonky. Some of these kids made a season’s worth of progress, both personally and vocally, in this single episode. I mean, I’m kind of glad that Finn’s already hit the point where he can openly embrace his love of the glee club, because watching him struggle with that for half of the season would have been a little tired, but I could have handled it being dragged out for another episode or two.
And those kids put together an amazing number in a very short amount of time, without the slightest bit of help from their coach. What do they need him for, exactly? Okay, so their charmingly low-budget but passionate performance probably wouldn’t win them a championship against Carmel High School, but they were still pretty mind-blowingly amazing.
-Everyone is satirized except the two main male characters (who both also happen to be white). Maybe the writers think that building humor around Finn being a little dim counts as satire, but it comes off as an endearing trait more than a character flaw. If Finn were an asshole, or if he actually thought he was smart, it might seem more like a flaw (and more like satire), but he’s not and he doesn’t. Of course, in the end, I don’t really mind if Finn is a bit of a Mary Sue because the actor is incredibly charming in the role. I’m not sure how they could tarnish his halo now anyway (I’m sure there will be some vacillation between Quinn and Rachel, but he’ll probably still come out of it smelling likes roses), and it might be a little disheartening if he goes through a dark phase and starts acting like a dick. Finn works as a sort of “perfect” character that most viewers can like no matter what.
Will, on the other hand… I think they need to introduce a few more negative traits to the mix, because as a poster named nymphaea at TWoP pointed out, it comes off like we’re going to be watching the exploits of “yet another central white guy with his supporting cast of quirky/sassy! women and minorities.” There’s no edge to him yet, other than that he married his shallow high school sweetheart and encourages the guidance counselor’s crush on him. At present, he’s just a nice guy doing a nice thing, which is kind of hard to make fun of. He needs some hubris, or some kind of character flaw besides marrying the wrong woman.
- Here’s something else: I like Will, but I don’t think I care about him as much as I’m supposed to. I care about his romantic life, but that’s simply because they gave him a horrid wife and an adorable forbidden love interest, and he seems like a nice enough fella, so why wouldn’t I wish him better in that department? But as far as the core of Will as a person and his hopes and dreams, I don’t care yet. Of course, this is only a pilot (and a condensed one at that—the director’s cut version clocks in at 55 minutes), so there’s plenty of room for Will to develop further.
-The peripheral teen characters all feel like cardboard stereotypes as the moment. The snarky gay fashionista, the sassy black girl, the disabled kid, the (possibly lesbian) Asian goth girl, the bullying jock. Part of the problem may be that Rachel and Finn were getting most of the attention in this episode. Those characters are just as cliché in many ways, but viewers got to spend a lot more time warming up to the actors, both of whom I found appealing enough to overcome my reservations. And of course I’m now thoroughly attached to the both of them (and their silly little romance), but I want to care about everyone. I hope the writers can delve a little deeper with the rest of the kids, because they shouldn’t feel like politically correct window dressing.
Everything Else
At the beginning of the episode, we get a close-up of a tribute plaque to the school’s most beloved Glee club teacher, and according to her, “By its very definition, Glee is about opening yourself up to joy.” I think this pilot conveyed that concept wonderfully. I didn’t start to really love it until halfway through, but Glee definitely got its hooks into me. By the end of the episode, I was invested in the four characters who were showcased the most (Will, Emma, Rachel, and Finn). I can’t wait for the other characters to get fleshed out a bit more, too.
Emma’s crush on Will is so obvious that I simply can’t accept that he doesn’t suspect it at all. I get the impression he actually encourages her because it gives him a little self-esteem boost. I don’t really have a problem with it if that’s the case—it’s a pretty common and often harmless behavior, and I doubt he has a clue about the true depth of her feelings. He probably just thinks it’s a harmless attraction.
Emma isn’t particularly well-developed so far, but Jayma Mays is so quirky and adorable that I love her at this point in the story. I’m usually not a big fan of anime eyes and helium voice, but it completely works in her favor. I like Emma’s snappy wardrobe, her precise mannerisms, her passive-aggressive snark, but I can recognize that I’m loving the flashy surface trappings at this point, so like Will, I hope they give her a little more depth.
They did make it clear that she’s a great guidance counselor, though. All of her advice to Will was sound, and finding the old vid of his HS performance was particularly sweet. Obviously she wants him to stick around because she’s crushing on him hard, but she still went to a lot of effort and gave him great advice.
The two teen leads are actually more fleshed-out than the adults. Rachel Berry, with her gold stars and obsession with fame, could have been easy to hate, but Lea Michele also does a fantastic job with Rachel’s vulnerability and sincerity (despite the abundance of satire, there seems to be a lot of sincerity in this show). I completely adore her and want her to have everything she dreams of, as long as she doesn’t do too much damage along the way. Her scene on the bleachers with Will and her hallway scene with Finn were particular standouts for me.
I knew some people like Rachel in high school, and the nastiness lobbed in her direction feels pretty accurate. (The “Please get sterilized” comment on her MySpace page was sadly perfect—some random jerk would absolutely make that comment to someone like Rachel in real life.) One thing that went over my head at first was Finn’s girlfriend (hilariously named “Quinn”) calling Rachel “RuPaul.” I was like, in what universe does Rachel/Lea Michele look like a man in drag? Her nose is a little awkward, but the big brown doe eyes and beautiful smile more than make up for it. Then I realized the insult referred to her “two gay dads” and obsession with performance arts, not her looks.
Finn is interesting more for what he’s not than for what he is. Murphy could have started the show off with Finn as an arrogant bully who slowly softens and becomes a better person, but instead, he’s a pretty nice guy from the start. When we first meet Finn, he lets fashionista Kurt remove his new Marc Jacobs jacket before the other football goons toss him in the dumpster (there is a later reference to Finn and the football goons bullying Kurt on other occasions, but I imagine Finn participated with the same lack of enthusiasm he showed here). Not only does this clue viewers in to the fact that Finn probably isn’t the usual “crude jock” stereotype, it’s also funny because Finn is so ambivalent about his life at this point that he’s even a half-assed bully. I loved the contrast between him listlessly reciting the Spanish phrases in class, and his sincere and passionate "This is terrifying, but I love doing it anyway" singing, especially at the beginning of the Grease song.
(The scene in which Will blackmails Finn into joining the Glee club is a highlight of the episode, but they may have dumbed Finn down a little too much there, because I don’t buy him believing he could go to jail for possessing that tiny amount of pot. He seems like a pretty squeaky clean kid, but is he really that innocent?)
It also seems that they’re setting up Will/Terri and Finn/Quinn as parallels—Will’s marriage is a peek at Finn’s future if he sticks to the contents of his “We’re all losers” speech. Both ladies are/were cheerleaders, and they both have strange hobbies (Terri like crafts, Quinn likes… Christ). Of course, the fact their names rhyme is a big neon clue that Finn and Quinn are not going to remain together—the QB and the head cheerleader getting married is creepy and pathetic enough without the cutesy rhyme scheme!
The Grease musical number was fabulous from start to finish. After realizing that Finn can sing, Rachel starts vamping it up and dancing her way across the stage to him, even grabbing Tina’s boobs along the way. Finn looks uncomfortable singing onstage, and he’s even more freaked out by Rachel’s aggressive performance. There’s a moment when Finn leans back behind everyone else to see what Rachel is doing—his face is all, “Is she coming for me? Oh God, she is.”—then quickly moves back into place. It’s only a split-second, but it was funny enough to make me snort soda up my nose. Actually, everything Lea Michele and Cory Monteith do in that scene is funny.
Rachel and Finn are absolutely not a perfect match in terms of talent—Rachel could probably come close to winning American Idol, whereas Finn wouldn’t even make it onto the show. The thing is, it’s not entirely unrealistic that Will wouldn’t be able to find a truly perfect match for Rachel. This earnest, slightly awkward quarterback was the best Will could do, and since Finn can sing pretty decently and he happens to be cute, it’s good enough for Rachel. I feel the same way about the vast height difference between he and Rachel, too—weird and noticeable (seriously, according to the cast bios, he’s over a foot taller than her), but also endearing and not outside the realm of possibility. If the guy with the best voice happened to be ridiculously tall, you'd probably make it work! I hope there are a few jokes about it within the show.
The entire cast is absolutely amazing, and the actors all have great chemistry with each other (they seem like a lot of fun, too). Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele are already Broadway stars, Jane Lynch needs no introduction, and Jayma Mays has turned in charming and memorable performances on Heroes and Pushing Daisies, among other things.
These people were already stars, or at least on my radar, so the real find for me was Cory Monteith as Finn. The last time I saw this guy, he was getting dragged out of a tent and eaten by a wendigo in the opening teaser of a Supernatural episode a few years ago, and now he’s doing this?! It really goes to show what a crapshoot Hollywood can be, because his performance is hitting all the right notes here. His comedic timing and delivery are near-perfect, probably because he’s underselling the comedy a bit, which really highlights the character’s sincerity and creates a sort of gentle humor around it. Even his awkward but earnest stage presence works in the character’s favor, because of course this gawky football player would be awkward belting out show tunes and power ballads while attempting to dance.
Chris Colfer as Kurt may be one to watch, too. Apparently he didn’t fit any of the roles at the auditions, but Murphy liked the kid so much that he created Kurt just to put the actor in the show.
Another point in the show’s favor is that no one in the cast so far is ridiculously “Hollywood beautiful,” or even “Hollywood’s idea of ugly.” These people, both the adults and the “teens,” look like real people. Lea Michele is very pretty, but it’s still believable that she’s not pretty enough to be instantly popular, and is instead an awkward social outcast. Cory Monteith is definitely cute, but he’s cute in a “he could have gone to my high school” way. Matthew Morrison and Jayma Mays are both attractive, too, but quirkily so rather than traditionally. I also believe these 20-something actors as teens, with the exception of Mark Salling as Puck, who looks about 30 to me (I have no idea how old the guy really is—his IMDb entry only has 4 credits, and there’s no bio info at all).
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