The Guilty Pleasure that is "Glee"

Jocks, goths, “Cheerios” (a/k/a cheerleaders), geeks, freaks and the popular kids are cliques in most high schools. None of which however, are as exaggerated as the television show “Glee” makes them out to be...hopefully.

High school can be tough, but it is rarely as tough as it is portrayed on FOX’s “Glee”, which is about, among other things, a group of students from various cliques coping with the ridicule that goes with being in such an “uncool” club as glee club is.

Will Schuester, played by Matthew Morrison, is a Spanish teacher turned glee club coach/teacher. Schuester is a former glee club member of the fictitious McKinley High School, and wants to return the club to its glory days when he was a part of it.

“Glee’s” antagonist, and Schuester’s nemesis, is Sue Sylvester, played by the always hilarious Jane Lynch (“40-yr-old Virgin”, “Two and a Half Men”, “Role Models”). Sylvester is a type-A, no nonsense, my way or the highway personality. The words “feelings” and “sensitive” are not in her vocabulary.

Sylvester is the coach of the high schools golden nugget of sorts, the national champion cheerleading squad, whose team members are called “Cheerios”. The Cheerios house all the popular kids, even though they are mostly illiterate. To use an SAT reference, the Cheerios are to glee club what motorcycles are to scooters. This comparison works perfectly because scooters, or Vespas have been becoming increasingly popular, just as glee club and “Glee” has.

Sylvester does whatever she can to make glee club suffer and/or disappear, even by sending some of her precious Cheerios to infiltrate.

Among the students, there is an interesting slew to say the least, with every stereotype imaginable. The quarterback jock who is also one of the key members of glee club, the most hated and unpopular girl who finds solace in glee, the popular shallow cheerleader who is pregnant, a fashion forward gay kid that at first look (and second, third and forth look for that matter)is hard to distinguish as a male or female, a wheelchair bound kid, a stuttering asian girl, and a portly black girl with tons of glam and attitude among others.

The characters and stereotypes are sensationalized for entertainment purposes, and to shed light on what some kids go through. “Glee” is a smart, funny, entertaining show that teaches lessons at the same time. It exploits stereotypes in an attempt to break them down.

On the most recent episode entitled “Wheels”, the glee club cannot afford to get a wheelchair accessible bus to nationals for Artie, the wheelchair bound member. After a lack of empathy for Artie by the rest of his glee-mates, Schuester tells them they need to raise the money for the appropriate bus or no one is going. To add to that, Schuester makes them ride around in wheelchairs at school and informs them a wheelchair number is being added to their performance.
A show famous, or infamous depending on how you look at it, for breaking out randomly into song and dance numbers like a musical, it never seems forced. After the lack of support from his glee-mates, Artie has a solo song and dance number singing “Dancing With Myself”.

“Glee” has multiple story lines going on and arching throughout the season, and touching on each would make this review twice as long.

It is an interesting show loaded with laughs and entertainment. Be warned, some of the laughs and topics can be offensive to the sensitive and politically correct. And if you like music, this show provides plenty. It is a little corny, but good fun and exposes stereotypes in an inventive way.