You may have seen over 75,000 posters for tonight's new episode of Glee, or watched the TV ads calling Fox's show "the most loved comedy" of the season. Because 30 Rock we just respect, right? With its clever scripts, incredible characters, and un-condescending tone? Meanwhile, Glee, with its predictable plots, stock characters, and iTunes-ready playlist, is "lovable" because it tends to our last-picked-for-Dodgeball inner child. It just sings! It's the new "Seasons of Love"! How do you measure, measure a year? Hopefully not by setting your clock to this show. Because it's actually embarrassing. An offensive, awkward song clip after the jump.
Here's the cast's rendition of "Gold Digger," which doesn't sound like a casual glee club rehearsal. In fact, it sounds like they're in a recording studio and abandoning the show's homespun vibe entirely. It also sounds like they forgot to mention the word that Kanye rhymed with "digger." Context clues indicate it doesn't strike the right note for "feel good comedy." Get down, white teacher, go on, get down!
This is sad. And that "rendition of "Don't Stop Believin'" was just as cloying and Raffi-fied, though less offensive. The main problem with Glee is that in trying to be more than the series version of High School Musical, it goes to strange, not entirely successful lengths to supersede its obvious ancestor. Reviving four-year-old rap hits with racial slurs omitted? A gym teacher who might molest kids? If Glee is going to live up to the hype it claims it gets, the show needs more than Barney-the-Dinosaur re-recordings of radio singles and jarring character turns. It needs to be funny. Based on the pilot that aired in May, even Jane Lynch isn't providing laughs.