If you have seen Fox’s Glee at least once, I suspect that I am the person that might have popped into your head as your friend-most-likely-to-be-watching-and-enjoying-this-show-regularly.
You would be right.
Let me tell you, though, Glee and I have a strange, love/hate relationship:
Love: The music. The mixing is fantastic, the arrangements are (on the whole) really good. It’s fresh and catchy and downloadable.
Hate: The promotion of the stereotypes. This reinforces the concept that queens, freaks, misfits, and homosexuals are the only ones who belong in a high school choir or drama program. This just isn’t the case. I know a lot of normal, heterosexual people who enjoyed drama and choir in high school. They also ran track or played basketball or did cross country. Yes, there were some like me who insisted on doing choir, drama and band – and yes we’re the ones responsible for the stereotypes seen on this show – but I just want Choir or Drama to be cool enough where it’s not such a big deal if a football player, like Finn, can also be in the choir. It’s not outside of the realm of possibility. After all, very few high school football players actually ever amount to anything anyways go on to college or professional football.
Love: Sue Sylvester!
This is quite possibly the best character to hit the small screen in recent memory. She is dirty and clean. Sinister and righteous. Holy and evil. She is right and she knows it. She is up even when she’s down. She isn’t afraid to kill to get what she wants, but can do it with a smug smile and wink. I love love love Sue Sylvester. It is absolutely worth suffering through the campy parts of Glee just to see her grace the screen.
A few of her best quotes:
This is what we call a total disaster, ladies. I’m going to have to ask you to smell your arm pits… That’s the smell of failure. And it’s stinking up my office!
You think this is hard? Try being waterboarded, that’s hard!
It is my strong suggestion these two students be hobbled.
Let me be the one to break the silence. That was the most offensive thing I have seen in 20 years of teaching and that includes an elementary school production of “Hair.”
I’ll often yell at homeless people: ‘Hey, how is that homelessness working out for you? Try not being homeless for once.
Schuester! Yeah? I’ll need to see that set list for Sectionals after all, and I want it on my desk, warm from the laminator at 5:00 p.m. And if it is one minute late, I will go to the animal shelter and get you a kitty cat. I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat, and then, on some dark, cold night, I will steal away into your home and punch you in the face.
I have reasonable confidence that you will be adding revenge to the list of things you’re no good at — right next to having a marriage; running a glee club; and finding a hairstyle that doesn’t make you look like a lesbian.
Never let anything distract you from winning. Ever.
In case you didn’t hear me laughing my butt off all through those quotes, let me make it perfectly clear: WhiteEyebrows seriously hearts Sue Sylvester!
Hate: The writing. Well, more specifically I hated the way the writers completely threw away all the conflict and suspense they had built through the whole first season. Any conflict that can be resolved with one scene, or worse, a few lines of dialogue wasn’t done right. They had the chance to make something of Will’s divorce, Quin’s pregnancy, Sue’s Cheerios, Will’s job, the wedding – but too quickly wrapped everything up in a nice little bow in under 1/2 an episode. It just didn’t have the proportional wind-down that justified the season long wind-up.
Bottom line: I’ll probably get sucked into season 2 of this mess. Sorry everyone, I’m now outed as a Glee fan. But this doesn’t in anyway change our friendship, right?
I’m with you. There are SO many issues with it (overproducing the musical numbers to the point that everyone sounds like Britney Spears, much?) but I still love it. I still go back every week. I still HOPE they’ll get a handle on the writing and give the actors (who are not bad actors) something to WORK WITH.
We can definitely still be friends. But I doubt that surprises you.
I have not seen this show, but the ads for this show give me the heebee geebies. I will still claim you as my brother though.
Are you kidding? We can be best friends! I am having Glee withdrawals…seriously, Ask Micah. I LOVED THE FIRST SEASON! There will be times when I hear one of the songs on the radio or see something and it reminds me of Glee, and I get sad that I have to wait so long for season 2. Yeah, I’m pretty much a weirdo, but I’m proud of it. I totally agree with you about the music being fresh, catchy, and downloadable. Micah did the downloading part of it already. Yep! We both love it! I don’t know about the whole Sue Sylvester thing though…she drives me crazy! I do agree that her character is shocking, funny, and unique. About the writing, I do think its interesting how much they revealed in that last 30 minutes. Though I am still extremely interested to see how things actually play out, and not just the initial drama of the whole baby thing and the Divorce/Emmma thing. So yeah, they definitely still have me sucked in, cuz I wanna know what kind of decisions the characters will finally make. I admit I’m a fan and I’ll be a “faithful” for season 2…
Ok so I have to admit I have watched. I love the writing/lines for Sue Sylvester too. She’s a great actress too in delivering a character like that.
The thing I hate about the show… you touched on it… the over dramatization of the caste system. What cheerleaders wear their uniform every single day? But the Cheerios wear only the uniform. It’s stupid. I also hope the exwife is out of the show totally cause she is INCREDIBLY annoying.
Ha ha-I figured you would be watching this show, my hubby has been dying to watch it but with school he hasn’t had the time so we are waiting to see if they put season 1 out on DVD so he can have a matathon “Glee” night and be all caught up. As for me-not really my cup of tea, I did watch a few episodes, but I still love ya!
I could read Sue Sylvester Quotes all month.
where I disagree: The idea that only freaks & geeks are in drama club in my experience has been very TRUE until I moved to Nevada (I grew up in Michigan and GLEE takes place in Ohio). The idea that you’re either in sports or you’re gay is very alive and very well in a huge percent of the country between the coasts.
In the midwest you seriously run the risk of being taunted (or beat up)like crazy for being in anything that even relates to theater. I remember being shocked to find a football player even TALKING to a drama kid when I moved to Nevada. My wife who grew up in Utah watches glee and asks “are people really that mean to theater kids??” and I have to tell her “YES! that’s the NORM!”
This is why The Brauns watch TV with WE and AA. I heart Glee. A lot.
XOXO
Actually, that was not the season finale, only a mid-season break. What just started back up is the second half of Season 1.
But I totally agree that they wrapped up too many things too quickly. And Sue is awesome.
I *totally* agree about them wrapping them with so *many* situations too quickly *BUT* it’s still an awesome show. OMG Sue Sylvester is the most evil, decieving character on the show. THAT’S WHY I FREAKING LOVE HER! haha.
If I may, here are some other Sue Sylvesters quotes I ABSOULTELY love…..
Sylvester:We all know how devoted you are to that *dying* language.
Schuester: Dying?
Welcome to Sue Sylvester Express. Destination:HORROR.
LONG LIVE SUE SYLVESTER! haha 🙂