Glee – The Hit Show Finally Shakes Its Moneymaker

Written on September 24, 2009 by Marc Eastman in Television

Despite having only four episodes under its belt, Glee has been acquiring fanatical devotion for several months. The move to air the pilot months before audiences would get anything more has proven a good idea in this instance, despite how it may have made many scratch their heads. The fun and surprisingly enticing play on High School caricature run wild has so far served up a brilliant mix of storylines, dance routines, and an emotional display that somehow manages to drill to curious depths by way of something almost like a bland and trivial straight-forwardness.

GLEE: Chris Colfer as Kurt on GLEE, the new one-hour comedy musical series premieres Wednesday, Sept. 9 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Matthias Clamer/FOX

That FOX made a good call on the whole preview idea, probably stems from the relative strength and weakness of the first three episodes. Hold on to your poison pens Glee fans, but I’m going to have to say that episodes two and three were pretty weak by comparison. That may only be because the pilot works so well, and in so many ways, but I suspect that if we didn’t have those months of chomping at the bit backing up the show, our numbers by week three might not have been all that great.

Be that as it may, in an episode that calls serious attention to giving everyone a chance to be in the spotlight, Glee finally does right by its own secret Glee Glue, Chris Colfer. Yes, Kurt.

Sure, there’s that ridiculously hen-pecked teacher who tries so hard, and the rather attractive, yet near-fatally dopey quarterback, and a singing nerd girl who gets picked on. It’s hard not to love the vaguely solipsistic Nazi of a cheer coach, mainly because you know her, and not liking the clean freak is akin to kicking a puppy. There are other people here and there as well, but they’re largely filler no matter how much we put them in the spotlight.

But, Kurt… that’s a different story.

GLEE: Kurt (Chris Colfer) joins the football team in the "Preggers" episode of GLEE airing Wednesday, Sept. 23 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Carin Baer/FOX

He may not have stood front and center all that much, but you’ve got to tip your hat to a show that really pays attention to what’s going on in the shot a smidge to the side of focus. It’s not hard to put together a group of teens working Kanye with their unbearably white teacher taking the lead, and trying to get some moves out of the equally color-challenged football player is likely to play well and provide some fun, but if you underestimate the power and value of a well-placed, highly-effeminate hand gesture in the background, you’re making a serious mistake.

To be frank, the whole scene, and the whole show, just breaks down altogether without it.

In the most recent episode, “Preggers,” not only does Kurt finally get a serious amount of time as the lead force, events in general come to a boil for everyone.

Both of these play wonderfully to the show’s main strength, which is the near reckless portrayal of both people as stereotypes and vice versa. In the one case, the show can go places that are in a sense impossible to go for anything trying to portray “real people,” despite the fact that these characters may well be the realest people on television. In the other case (and in some sense it is perhaps the same case), the show gets to incorporate a character so flamboyantly gay he would be the rallying point of protests if the show overall were brought to you differently.

GLEE: Chris Colfer as Kurt on GLEE, the new comedy premiering Wednesday, Sept. 9 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2009 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Patrick Ecclesine/FOX

What might be escaping detection for many people, perhaps especially in the case of the biggest fans, is just how daring Glee really is. It’s a dangerous play at breaking the rules that takes a far stronger writing and direction team than might be apparent… because, if it goes a little wrong you’re making fun of homosexuals, people in wheelchairs, and who knows what else. One false move and you’re an apology-writing campaign.

Where it really gets clever is that the show deconstructs everything it does and puts it together in an almost Nietzchean acceptance of the stereotypes it uses and displays. Stereotypes, as un-PC as the entire thought might be, are around for a reason. Instead of trying to quash them, let’s lay them out, stop denying whatever truths they may hold, and turn them around on themselves. The result is a stronger, more positive, more real gay character than you’ve seen (or could see) on TV before. And the kicker is that it isn’t just because we’re making fun of making fun of him, but because we’re also making fun of him.

It’s equality turned on its head. It’s negative speech made hollow by acceptance. “You’re a gay nerd!” “Yes, I am. Hear me roar.”

In the end, Glee reminds me of an art teacher I once had, who said, “You learn every kind of rule of art, and burn them into your brain, so that you know how art works. That way, if you’re an artist, you know how to break them… just so.” I have no idea if that was original, so don’t write me about it, but it fits so well here, because Glee breaks all the rules, and the ones that no one dares break… and it does it just so.

Catch up below, and be sure and watch the opening to last night’s episode.