Thursday, September 23, 2010

Glee Episode 1

Okay, so having gushed over Glee, I obviously can't let the first episode go by without comment.  I'm sure 200 people at least have gone through the episode in detail somewhere on the web.  I, however, did not sit there watching with a notebook.  I watch for fun, its not a job.  Therefore, I couldn't possibly tell you what happened in most of the show.  I can tell you the hilarious and not hilarious, as determined by me.  Also, quotes may not be perfect.  I watched it once two days ago.  If I remember an approximation of a quote it means it was either very good or very bad

Hilarious.  
The opening bit.  I was a little slow on the uptake and so I was a little like, huh, what are they doing? when the dweeb started interviewing them and I realized he was actually bringing up things said on the fan forums.  The plea from fans not to have Will do any more rapping is the one I most whole-heartedly agree with.  And Will's reaction, People don't like to see me rap?  Awesome.
Now, I didn't hear the whole Kurt one, but there was definitely reference to autotune, which seems like a pretty personal jab at Chris himself so I'm surprised they'd go there.  That said, I love and adore with hearts coming off the end Chris Colfer and would be irrationally protective of him if someone said he gave another person a splinter.
Kurt 'I don't suppose you could just cut out that last bit.'
Finn 'That was out loud, wasn't it?'

     On a side note: I wonder what those slushies are made of because the cast doesn't flinch when one is coming at them.  Its good because then we don't know its happening until its already happened, not realistic, but who cares about that, clearly not what the show is about so moving on. (Kurt got slushied by the way, if for some bizarre reason you didn't watch the show.)

Empire State of Mind. Yay! great number.  Showed off Quinn, Santana, and Brittany's dancing skills (I know the dancing skills belong to the actresses, but I don't remember Santana's name, so for the sake of equality I'll use the characters' names.  Naya or something?) Thank god they left Rachel out of the dancing.  'Bad Romance' made it clear that Lea Michele's dancing abilities ain't with her costars.  Def better to have her stick to singing where she is obviously awesome.  Loved Kurt's hair all ruffled and sticking up, so used to seeing it shelacked down.  In general the cast seemed to be having so much fun with this one, so awesome

Finn's spazzy dancing at Cheerios' tryouts

'The Bieber cut has got to go.'  I don't even know who got to say that, but it is SOOOO true and totally hilarious to throw that in there.  (Tom Brady, you listening? If above 13 this haircut is wrong)  Hopefully the blonde newbie will be given a new haircut soon.

Mike has a personality, and he's dating Tina! And they fell in love at Asian camp! Awesome

Not so hilarious
the beast, however its spelled.  She just messes up the dynamic between Will and Sue.  We all knew Will would cave and couldn't be mean for an entire episode.  The character could be kind of interesting I guess, so maybe I should reserve judgement.  Just, nothing about her was particularly funny or touching.

Honestly, the balls in the mouth line.  I realize that this should be funny.  However, its not up to glee standards.  Here's why.  Kurt (auditioning for the role of kicker), Brittany (cat's reading my diary) and Puck (Call the Vatican...) especially all have great one-liners.  There isn't really a buildup, their lines just come out of nowhere and crack you up.  Obviously there's a setup often, but you don't notice it.  This line was obvious in its set-up.  I mean, where else are you gonna go with a character saying 'You're mouth is huge, how many tennis balls can you fit in there?' Actually, that line left alone would be a good glee line.  It would just make you go, huh? did they go there? but they had to go the obvious route and spell out the humor.  Not necessary! Glee fans are smart, we can figure it out ourselves!

I am hating spoilers at this moment too.  If I hadn't heard from all over the place that newbie (that's what I'm calling him until I can actually remember his name) is going to be a love interest for Kurt, would I have noticed the absence of Kurt when the rest of the boys listened to him sing?  Probably not.  I at least would not have spent that musical number thinking, "Hmmm, the writers must have in mind a specific way for Kurt and newbie to meet, so it makes an impact, that wouldn't happen if Kurt was here watching this song. So, does that mean the crush will be immediate?...." Its also possible that the song just wasn't that interesting and didn't hold my interest, but maybe it was good? I won't know until I watch it again.


So not hilarious
This Charice girl.  So, I have no idea who she is.  Given that she seems to go by one name I assume that I am unusual in having no idea who she is.  If I cared I'd google her.  Generally Glee's guest stars have been great (Neil Patrick Harris at his best, but I kinda od'ed on Kristen Chenoweth).  This one was a disaster and I sincerely hope she never shows up again.  She had, like, anti-charisma.  I mean, the glee kids are basically annoying but manage to come off endearing in spite of it.  Since everyone is off in the world of over the top characters and a certain level of obnoxious its all funny.  That Charice girl made McKinley High seem the like the wacko place it is, but not in a good way.  She was a normal person entering wacky land.  I guess you could say she wasn't given enough character to work with, but please, an actor builds that.  In her interactions with Rachel, it was like Lea Michele decided to double her craziness to make up for the zapping of it that Charice was doing, and therefore Rachel seemed like a total maniac.  Classic glee stuff like the exchange student joke and the Asian community finding out just were not funny.  On top of that, when she actually sang her song, it, um, was, nothing special

Special Added Note: In hindsight that looks kinda harsh.  I'm sure she is very good at what she actually does, which I assume is singing.  I just think she is not a good fit as a Glee guest star

In addition to the spoiler and guest star thing, I wish I didn't know about Britney, and I hope that's not a trainwreck.  And I'm also not keen on knowing there's a Rocky Horror Picture show episode, but psyched to hear its directed by Adam Shankman who years of watching sytycd has made me want to hug.
I guess I was so actively spoiler-free last season that I'm a little overwhelmed now that my ears are open. Why can't we just have the show without knowing everything about it ahead of time?

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