Why "Glee" Pisses Me Off

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm not much for television. I recently got cable for the World Cup, but I still spend most weeks without ever turning it on. Every so often, though, a show comes around that is such a cultural phenomenon and that commands so much chatter from my friends and associates that I'm forced to take notice. This year's un-ignorable show? Glee.

Glee is the new apple pie. To not love it is sacrilege. As my Twitter and Facebook streams finally stopped buzzing about Lost, they lit up even brighter for Glee, as if there was some sort of subliminal messaging in the show that creates an overwhelming urge to post "OMG I <3 GLEE SO MUCH" everywhere one can. People love this show.

There are plenty of reasons to love it, too. The concept is a refreshing spin on the classic high school drama and manages to ensure that all of your stereotypes are represented, giving everyone a character they can identify with. The cast is diverse and interesting, from the hilariously villainous Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) to the hunky director, and favorite of the ladies, Will Schuster (Matthew Morrison).

Morrison's last gig was playing Link Larkin in Hairspray, on Broadway. In fact, show creator Ryan Murphy spent three months cruising Broadway looking for talent for the show. The sheer amount of talent that Morrison and the rest of the cast brings to the table is exactly what makes my gripe about the show so tragic.

If ever a show should appeal to me, it would be one that plays heavily on creating and celebrating music and using it to amplify the emotional impact of the plot. Glee could do that, but I just don't believe it. You can tell a great deal of money and effort is spent on making everything sound "radio ready" (and iTunes ready -- there have been over 7 million digital sales), but this destroys the show. While supposedly featuring a glee club just finding their feet and sometimes rehearsing new material for the first time, every time a character opens their mouth to let out a note, it unleashes a flurry of gratuitous overproduction, embellishment and unbelievable polish. You see none of the group's development of their material, nor any of the awkward process that culminates in that grand emotional performance. The accompaniment is excessive from the get-go, too, yet we're to believe it just comes out that way when they practice.

As a result of this overproduction, the audience is robbed of the ability to invest in the journey to the final result.

So why do they do this? Maybe every episode needs a shiny downloadable new song to sell. More likely, though, is that the producers have so little confidence in their audience that they think we will only stand for it if it sounds like our Top 40 station. As a group of outcasts with tremendous ability finding their place, wouldn't the vulnerability of developing a song, making mistakes and journeying through them be more compelling than listening to what could just as well be some pop group with heavy doses of AutoTune?

That's the worst part: this is a waste of a talented cast that could have (and has) performed this material live. Musicians of this talent would be more compelling if every moment of their performance wasn't sanitized in the studio and lip-synced over. Wouldn't we be privileged to hear them?

Each episode reportedly costs over $3 million to produce, yet I'd find it so much more appealing if they just set up a camera and let these artists do their thing. The cast has the chops, but the curse of overproduction leaves the whole thing coming off like a Britney Spears album. With the show increasingly relying on celebrity appearances and gimmicks, it seems it is quickly losing its way, but it failed to reach its potential from the beginning.

Still, the show continues to gain popularity. Maybe the producers were right about us as a viewing public. Maybe we should be offended by how unsophisticated they think we are. In any case, I'm sitting this one out.

Oh, and I promise to never blog about TV again!