First: I still have a couple Dreamwidth invite codes, FYI

Second: So I was really excited when I first heard about Glee, because it looked like basically High School Musical but all the time and more show-tunesy. Also it took me like three seconds to develop a crush on the lead actress <3

Having watched the pilot...I kinda wish I hadn't. Because there are so many problems in just the 43 minutes I watched even the super-awesome right-up-my-alley choir-ized "Rehab" and "Don't Stop Believin'" aren't enough.

The two main glee club kids are, of course, straight and white, but the rest of the club is populated with tokens. There's cardboard stereotype sassy black girl, cardboard stereotype effeminate fashion-obsessed boy (who's probably meant to be gay), boy in a wheelchair whose only two jobs in the pilot are to a) be mediocre so the straight white male lead can replace him and b) serve as a prop to prove how Righteous and Noble the same guy is, and the Asian girl who has no concept of inappropriate behavior and apparently has no talent ("Do you have any talents?" [beat] [beat] "...we'll find you something") (I was going to say "talent beyond singing" since, ostensibly, all the glee kids can sing, but her audition was meant to be laughable, not good, and I got the impression she made it because of the lack of interest).

Female lead has gay fathers, and all we know about them is they pushed her hard into singing and dancing (I'm not sure if we're *meant* to get the impression they're aggressive "pageant dads" of the "Toddlers & Tiaras" ilk, but it's the impression I *got*); the Indian principal is a money-hungry Plot Device, the lead teacher's wife is a materialistic nag.

It left me with a seriously bad taste in my mouth. I love my show tunes (especially show-tuney pop/rock songs <3), I'd marry Jane Lynch in an instant, and I totally have a ladyboner for the lead glee girl's voice (and her ridiculous character, idk)...but I shouldn't be sitting here trying to figure out how a show can combine all those things and still leave me wondering if I wanna give it another chance.

This entry was originally posted at http://hector-rashbaum.dreamwidth.org/228078.html. Please comment there using OpenID.