(S01E10) "What does a heart attack feel like?" - Finn, in a panicky call to Kurt after facing Quinn's parents at dinner
The subject of this episode of Glee was ballads. It was learned that the club must perform a ballad at sectionals in a few weeks, and the writers managed to weave the soulful songs into every storyline. The first was "Endless Love," sung by Will and Rachel. It set the tone for one of the storylines -- her crush on the teacher. In fact, the episode was filled with odd-couple pairings, thanks to a hat-draw for ballad partners.
(S01E08) In what might be one of the best episodes of Glee since the premiere, Matthew Morrison was given a true showcase. There was also no Will family drama. Hmm ... is that a coincidence? I don't think so. I clearly have more interest in what Will's doing at McKinley High with the singing and dancing then his marriage.
Mash-ups were on the top of the to-do list. Emma and Ken asked Will for a wedding song mash-up, which was easier said than done when the two songs they wanted were "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady and Sisqo's "The Thong Song." Fortunately, Will didn't sing the former, just the latter.
(S01E07) "I don't trust a man with curly hair..." - Sue
I'll just say right off the bat -- I was a little bored by this episode. I think because it centered on the bickering and manipulations of Sue and Will. It was annoying and sort of made me want to turn the channel.
But I stuck with it because, of course, I had this review to write, but also because of the musical numbers scattered throughout the show. It clarified for me what I love about Glee:
Musical numbers.
Kurt. Much more Kurt is needed.
Any storylines with Jayma Mays (Emma Pillsbury), particularly those involving Matthew Morrison (Will).
After the jump, more about this episode and what I don't love about Glee.
(S01E05) "Oh, Bambi, I cried so hard when they shot your mom." - A drunken Kurt to Emma
Ok, after hitting it out of the park since the debut (for me anyway), this episode sort of flatlined for me. At least, it didn't grab me as much as, say, last week's episode with the Beyonce song and the football team dancing on the field. I couldn't wait to get on here and right about that episode, but this week? Not so much. Maybe it's because there was not enough Kurt in this episode. Need.More.Kurt. Need more of Kurt saying lines like, "Glee Club has just been rocked with its first scandal..."
Steven Spielberg (via Dreamworks TV) and Showtime are in talks for a new scripted series chronicling the production of a new as yet untitled Broadway show. One of the composers for the show is Marc Shaiman, who worked on the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut so I view that as a plus.
A similar casting concept has been done as reality television a few times already for various musicals including Grease, The Sound of Music. and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Much as I don't like the genre, this concept sounds better as a reality television show, possibly on Bravo.
On the other hand, cable is the bolt-hole for scripted television nowadays. Perhaps this is the chance for Spielberg and Showtime to prove that scripted TV is the superior type. I'm secretly hoping that the show they choose is Dracula the Puppet Musical, unlikely as that may be.
We're three episodes into Glee, and we continue to learn more about the characters' angst, drama, dreams and passion. Kurt told Mercedes he'd never said those words out loud, but -- like the rest of us (excluding Mercedes) -- he must have realized he was gay. I mean, come on, the kid is clearly gay.
There were a lot of great lines in this episode, but Kurt had some of the best, including this one about his car: "My dad got it for me for my 16th birthday if I swore to stop wearing form-fitting sweaters that stop at the knee. What he doesn't know won't hurt him." (He's wearing a red form-fitting sweater that stops at the knee.)
(S01E02) After the terrific premiere episode of Glee last May, it was probably inevitable that the second episode would have a hard time recapturing that euphoria. For the first few minutes, however, Glee had succeeded. As Will made his entrance into McKinley High, high on the joy that the New Directions had brought back to his life and seeing it reflected in the lives of the students in the club, I related to the euphoria. I love that euphoria.
As the music to Dean Martin's "Ain't That A Kick in the Head" played (sans vocal) in the background, it seemed that Glee was sailing. More on the rest of the show after the jump.
Last year, all the citizens of Transsexual, Transylvania felt a collective disturbance in their fandom force. MTV had announced that they were going to do a remake of the classic cult film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Not only would this be completely unnecessary, but it actually kind of hurt every Rocky fan's soul to hear it. Rocky Horror needs no remake because it never becomes dated. It's so far removed from, well, everything ever, it still holds up perfectly, happily doing the Time Warp again and again in its own little universe.
Well, maybe MTV got lazy or maybe they got freaked out about the insane amount of Internet sad-chatter against the idea of the new version, but MTV's Rocky Horror remake is on hold. Rejoice and prod a gold underwear-clad Adonis with a standing candelabra.
Gleek isn't an alien language or the newest cast member of The Real World. (Though it was the monkey sidekick on Super Friends). It's a geeky fan of Glee, FOX's musical dramedy series. Glee + geek = Gleek.
This works with other shows, too. If you're a geek about Lost, you're a Glost. If you're a geek about Chuck, then you're a Ghuck. If you're a geek about Greek, then you're a...Grreek? OK, so it doesn't always work.
(S05E12) "...you guys have been getting divorced for like eight years. Isn't it time you took that old dog into the woods and put one in it's head?" - Lou
Considering who he's starting to hang around with again, is Lou even qualified to give advice like that? If anyone should be wary of getting back in bed with someone, it's him. At least Tommy knows that Sheila and Janet aren't going to rob him blind ... well, at least not for as much as Candy took from Lou.
We're starting to see the effects of what 22 episodes has done to Rescue Me (in a good way). After last week's first musical number featuring the comatose Sean, "Disease" featured more moments that, while not completely out of place, certainly seem to be a result from the extra breathing room.
(S05E11) "Tom, would you be able to join us for one of our little fire thingies?" - Needles, after discovering Tommy and Janet having sex in a car in front of the 62 house
We're half-way through season five now and we've reached a point that's going to polarize a lot of fans of this show. Creatively, last night's episode of Rescue Me introduced two things that both have the potential to really turn off certain fans, depending, of course, on what they like about the show and more importantly, what they expect from Rescue Me in future episodes.
She dreamed a dream, but Susan Boyle's rags to riches attempt to win the top prize on Britain's Got Talent came up just short this weekend.
Diversity, a dance troupe, edged out the Scot on the season's climactic episode. Her seemingly tragic and unjust end seems almost poetically concocted as Boyle sang "I Dream a Dream" for her final number on the show (the same song that stunned audiences the night she appeared on the scene).
But, Boyle was gracious in defeat, offering a nod to the young performers who beat her out: "They're very entertaining. Lads, I wish you all the best."
Her defeat comes after a week of controversy as Boyle allegedly laid into multiple reported victims with expletive laced tirades. Her behavior offered the British tabloid press the perfect opportunity to claim she was cracking under the pressure and was out of her depth as a performer. No one will ever know for sure if that bad press cost her the crown.
If you heard about Fox's new musical drama/comedy Glee and thought it's probably going to be something like Disney's High School Musical, you're wrong. Gleefully wrong. Glee is one of the best entertainments I've seen on television in a long, long time.
Writer/producer/director Ryan Murphy describes the show as a hybrid, and he's right. It is. For me, I saw elements of the movie Election, plus Fame and Friday Night Lights, with a bit of The Wonder Years thrown in, only it's not nostalgia. Glee is all the best parts of all the above, plus music and dancing and great characters and really witty material.
When you write about the television business, one of the little perks is receiving the press kit for a new or returning program. Occasionally, some little trinket will be included -- Kona got a whistle for Sit Down, Shut Up, there was a tee-shirt with My Boys -- but for the most part, the thing you remember about a press kit ultimately is the show.
When the press kit for Glee arrived, it made me laugh. The package was like a long, CD box (remember those?), all in red and looking like a typical high school locker. It even had a combination lock, which gave me the willies as I recalled the apprehension I had that first day in school when I wasn't sure I'd remember the combination in time to make it to home room! There was also a small mirror on the left side -- which I guess qualifies as a trinket -- and it caught my smile in its reflection.
As a kid, my parents were totally cool with my television viewing habits, as long as it never became excessive or kept my face from being kissed by the light of day every once in a while. Not that they had anything to be worried about, of course, considering that all I was watching was Nickelodeon.
While my fellow prepubescents were slowly but surely migrating to more grown-up programming on MTV (and Playboy, if you had a cable box), I spent the bulk of my time between 1992 and 1996 fully devoted to Roundhouse, a 30-minute sketch show sandwiched between the more popular Clarissa Explains It All and Are You Afraid Of The Dark? on SNICK, Nickelodeon's Saturday night programming block.
(S01E07) "I don't trust a man with curly hair..." - Sue
Steven Spielberg (via Dreamworks TV) and Showtime are in talks 
She dreamed a dream, but Susan Boyle's rags to riches attempt to win the top prize on Britain's Got Talent came up just short this weekend.
If you heard about Fox's new musical drama/comedy 
As a kid, my parents were totally cool with my television viewing habits, as long as it never became excessive or kept my face from being kissed by the light of day every once in a while. Not that they had anything to be worried about, of course, considering that all I was watching was 
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