The following admission is probably about to mark me out as being terminally uncool: at this moment, instead of watching the most recent episode of ‘Glee’ on E4 I’m sitting in my bedroom listening to the Velvet Underground and blogging, having decided to watch the last episode of ‘Being Human’ on BBC iPlayer as soon as I’m done here. And while I’m putting the nails in the coffin of respectability and hipness, I suppose I might as well get my Aidan Turner fixation off my chest. There. Ugh.
So, if I haven’t undermined my right to have an opinion on ‘Glee’ by openly admitting to watching a programme about werewolves, vampires and ghosts, here’s the question that’s been bothering me for the last month or so:
“Isn’t ‘Glee’ just a slightly less shaming version of High School Musical, that, by fact of it not being High School Musical, is socially acceptable to admit to watching?”
If I’m going to put my high-and-mighty opinionated hat on, the answer is ‘Yes’.
What pushed me over the edge wasn’t Mr Schuester’s awful rapping, the ridiculously bad miming to the musical numbers or the fact that Puck’s haircut resembles the landing strip of a bikini wax, but the fact that after watching the damn programme every week I go hyperglycemic. (I’m not even going to start on the fact that ‘Thong Song’ featured prominently the other week. Dear God, it was bad enough the first time around, and now kids watching ‘Glee’ are downloading it off iTunes and listening to it on their iPods? Yes, everyone has the right to choose whether or not they wear dental floss instead of underwear, but I don’t want it cropping up in my music).
‘Glee’ is just too much for this particular Rip Van Winkle. For one, there are just too many characters for the narrative to sustain any kind of pace — every week my flatmate and I play ‘spot the members of Glee club who have suddenly appeared, and yet somehow remain completely anonymous’, a riveting and satisfying past-time. Added to that, some of the songs have me running screaming for the nearest open window (yes, ‘Thong Song’…I’m talking about you) and there’s more sugar oozing from every episode than you’d find in a vat of Slushy.
I’m British, for goodness sake. I don’t want dewy-skinned American teens singing with their mouths disturbingly wide open, looking at each other doe-eyed and then spontaneously bursting into song; I want rain, sexual frustration, excruciating social awkwardness and a side helping of Joy Division.
But that would never sell, would it?
So I’ll stick to watching ‘Glee’.
…After all, isn’t the soul tormenting feeling of ‘loving to hate and hating to love’ something pretty much the definition of a guilty pleasure?
- Sue. The best thing about ‘Glee’. I love an angry woman. Actually, if there was a picture for how I look right now – up on my soap box, though not wearing sweats – this would definitely be it.
