Glee

I started binge watching this show everybody was talking about only a few weeks ago and grew to love it, for the music, dancing and humor... Santana was really cruelly funny, Brittany a hell of a dancer, Rachel and Mercedes have an amazing voice, Kurt is your bff... They lost me early in season 4 with the new (some of them flat boring) characters but the "older" cast were never far away so the pill ended up easy to swallow. It's a great show, you just feel like shaking it and dancing all the time while watching... It's just so sad to know that some of the lead actors are no more...

What I really liked about "Glee" in its first two seasons was that the characters and their situations were so easy to relate to, especially for someone like me (and many others, naturally) who went to a conservative, small-town school and never seemed to fit in. Despite the odd ridiculous moment or some bland covers of already bland songs, "Glee" became a true guilty pleasure, and I put the emphasis more on pleasure than on guilty. However, the whole premise of it involving a group of pupils at a high school would mean that it was never meant to last that long, and I do think it should have stopped once the main characters had left the school. Now the ridiculousness has become more and more pronounced, and I've stopped paying attention to the series. Sorry.

Even though it has lost its spark, Glee did something huge: it changed the way people see TV. With music, well written characters and a simple storyline, Glee changed the game. This show made people talk and made people sing. It could've been a mess from the beginning, but Ryan Murphy did a pretty good job until the last three seasons. I would like to remember Glee as a TV series that helped others in a way no other TV show could at that moment. We have to be honest, even if you hated it or liked it: before Glee there were no other show as open minded as this one. Glee, at the end of the day, is an optimistic, happy, and simple show. It doesn't try to be more than what it is, but as far as Glee can go, it had a pretty good run.

OK...so the plot line of the new Fox TV series "Glee" leaves a lot to be desired. In many instances, plot points from earlier episodes are ignored entirely in later episodes (like the mandate that all songs be about God or balloons after the club put on a sexed-up routine to "Push It" at a pep rally) and the story seems to be based more on recurring themes than a cohesive plot line. But who cares?! The real magic of the show lies in its two strong points: the characters and the music.

The characters are hilarious, and obviously a masterful fusion of great acting and clever writing. They are over the top, extreme, and purposefully cliché. Whenever any of the characters gets a section of internal dialogue in the show, it usually leaves me breathless with laughter.

The music is brilliant. Kudos to Fox for their continued clever use of iTunes that they started with American Idol. The cast covers songs from all genres and are unerringly original and 100% fun. I'm seriously impressed with all members of the cast. (Especially as it becomes apparent that ALL of the cast can sing, as Emma revealed in last week's episode). It makes me wish fervently that there had been a glee club in my high school.

So the plot is lacking...I really can't bring myself to care.

Glee is a great drama/comedy show to binge. Seasons 1-3 were really fun to watch and kept me interested, but 4-6 really went downhill. It was still a fun watch, just not the same quality and character development. Still worth a watch for the first 3 seasons and the great music!