A fun bit from Mother’s Day was agreeing with my mom, on the phone, about the intense and comical excellence that is Glee, the FOX-TV musical teen melodrama. The melodrama is hugely repetitive, but still very rude and pomo, but the music is often simply breath-taking.
There is this: They harmonize the voices, so everyone sings with perfect pitch in a slightly mechanical tone. But the song choices — coupled with the dancing, the meta-melodrama, and the incredible quantity of incredible vocalists — serve to deliver the aural equivalent of a Broadway musical every week.
But that’s not right: I hate Broadway musicals, and I love Glee. The whole thing just works. I make time for it somewhere in my week, every week.
Here’s a fun contrast, playing off of last week’s episode. First up is Total Eclipse of the Heart, as recorded by Bonnie Tyler. This song was written by Jim Steinman, who wrote all of Meatloaf’s hits. The tune has melodrama of its own to spare, but it’s still a totally killer rock ballad, maybe the last chapter in the story of The Seventies.
Glee took this song and wove it into its plot — not without consequences. Take this, for example, from the original lyrics:
Once upon a time, there was light in my life.
Now there’s only love in the dark.*
That’s painfully simple, but it works as poetry because it’s so excruciatingly full of pain. But to make Total Eclipse work in the context of the Glee story arc, that lyric was cut.
Not cool. But still… This is a searing cover of the song. When Rachel soars upward on her second time through the chorus, I’m ready to take flight with her.
Sadly, my mother doesn’t love South Park, my other weekly TV obsession. But if you will give Glee a chance, it could be you’ll see why so many seemingly sane people are raving about it.
*She sings it right in this video. A mystery…
Teri Lussier says:
I think Glee works for those who typically don’t like musicals because it has two things missing in many musicals: Very very sharp wit, and an unrepentantly evil villain.
Remember the Wizard of Oz? It would have sucked without the Wicked Witch and her Flying Monkeys. Glee has its witch and her coterie of monkeys and they have all the best lines.
The singing is awesome, the dance sequences are okay, but it’s Sue that breathes life into that show. Without her we are watching (a more talented) High School Musical, or a nerdy version of Beach Blanket Bingo. I like both, btw- I’m all for campy fun- but I doubt you could sit through either. It’s not the music, or singing, or beautiful people. It’s the delicious villain that makes that show watchable.
May 14, 2010 — 10:45 am
Michelle DeRepentigny says:
Glee is a family “must watch” in our house. It has sparked conversations about loss of arts funding in schools, politics, teen pregancy, and weight discrimation with the 2 twenty-two year old future educators who still live at home with us.
I love musicals, so I really didn’t need an excuse to glue myself uncharacteristally to the tv on a weekly basis, but the evil witch 🙂 makes it much more bearable for my less musically inlined husband to view.
May 14, 2010 — 10:24 pm
Joe says:
After reading this post, we’ll give Glee a shot. As a family we seem to camp out on a couple shows each week, and since American Idol is about to expire, we need a replacement. Yup, we like AI.
May 15, 2010 — 3:25 pm