"Glee" - Discussion

Don't you just love the word (and the concept, even) of "demographics"

? I remember the year that I slipped out of that esteemed *18-34* checkpoint. I gotta be honest, too: I was devastated ! How dare time play such a mean trick? Drat. My inclusion in things no longer mattered to the numbers crunchers. I was pretty much ready to pack my bags and head off to The Daisy Hill Puppy Farm (Geriatric Ward), or some such thing. I'm kinda thinking that "Glee" will catch on nicely, AND across-the-board, once it starts clicking without labels, and all that, attached. Is it a possibility that we "Puppy Farmers (Geriatric Destination)" (

) types like it better, right now, than the younger audience might? There's a good bit of 'unflattering' in the way it treats its characters, especially the youngsters. Mean sneaky cheerleaders? Unflinchingly doofus-y high school athletes? Geeky outsiders who think that a little Beyonce makes for a good idea on a football field? Yikes. So the younger audience might (likely) have a wee problem, or six, with how the show represents their generation. But, on the other hand, the 'oldsters' aren't shown as being very exceptional either, if one ponders it. Otherwise sensible teachers who buy into that that lump in his wife's blouse is an embryo ... when it's in fact a gradually rearranged pillow? An on-the-verge of psychotic coach of (mostly misguided) cheerleaders? The program seems to have no boundaries in how it [good-naturedly, really] pokes fun at every age bracket. I think once folks stop reading about it (the hype IS rather large) and get to watching? They'll realize it's not an artistic statement about anything "important". It's just fun! And it certainly isn't Shakespeaeran on any level. "Glee" seems to be in that slippery area between the high melodrama that people seem to like and the wild brainlessness that people seem to like just as much. It has a sensibilty to it that doesn't quite knock with the heretofore "marketable genres". Luckily, I'm reading that the music from it is selling like hotcakes on an early Sunday before church

! That's a mighty good thing, isn't it? Money, money, money! If it can keep going well that way? Maybe ratings won't matter so much. For now, anyway?

But the big news, as for we Gleeks and/or casual fans? This week's episode gives the (so far) rather background-ish Artie the front part of the stage. Yay! Even though I couldn't seem to watch the 'sneak peek' (it wouldn't load, darn it

), he even gets to do some jazzy wheelchair maneuvers and does a snappy version of "Dancing With Myself". Might disabled people feel somehow offended by such a story line? Probably, some will. Might just as many other disabled people feel empowered to see him "dance" that way? I'm pretty sure that'll happen, too.

The idea, then? The hope? Get them all watching, eh? After they do that (and the ratings start establishing solidly) all the way from Puppy Farms to junior high schools, "Glee" will be just fine. And might last more than only a year or two. Or so I hope, hope, hope.

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I'm about to projectile express myself all over your Hush Puppies ..." -- Sue Sylvester, from the television series "Glee"