Thankfully critical reviews and ratings don't always (or perhaps even usually) sync up, so we're still looking forward to seeing how Glee's season premiere does...
Talk about one-hit wonders. The promise and energy associated with the debut of "Glee" last spring largely evaporates in previewing two additional hours, where the musical numbers -- generally less infectious and buoyant than the first time out -- can’t compensate for overly broad characterizations and absurdly soapy situations. A few genuinely human moments emerge, but the series too often undermines the likability quotient of its cast, leaving the audience relatively little to latch onto. Put simply, "Glee" strikes too many sour notes for a series with precious little margin for error.
Am I missing something? Isn’t this the first season for Glee?
nope. with the pilot airing last season and so much promotion, it just seemed like the second season to me…
They played one episode last season, which was replayed last week. This should still be counted as the first season.
I really didn’t like the pilot. It seemed like a cheesy movie to me. It gave me really nothing to anticipate. Towards the end of the show the Glee Club was totally organized and had a performance together all on their own with no help from the instructor.
the episode that has been aired repeatedly is considered the preview/pilot
the official first season begins on Wednesday September 9th at 9pm
I wasn’t a big fan of the pilot either, but I heard that the second episode is a huge improvement. I guess we’ll see.
I think Glee could end up being a victim of its own hype. There are a lot of high expectations for the show because of good pr, fawning critics, and the released pilot, and failing to live up to those expectations could be fatal for the show.
Guys
The pilot was Cheesy, Melodramatic, ridiculously written and in parts nonsensical, and I’m sorry to say as a straight man over 40 I thought it was great with a fantastic feel good ending (admittedly the following day I felt used, I now know how women must feel after the one night stand has gone back to his wife).
I suspect it’ll be hard for them to maintain that for a season though IMHO.
p.s. Remember to watch Defying Gravity tonight, by far the best episode so far.
Having seen the pilot a couple of times I’m glad to see someone else feeling the way I did. Bottom line, they tried to make a genuinely sweet show out of excessively farcical characters, and that just doesn’t work. If the show doesn’t fix that identity crisis – and Variety seems to think it didn’t – the show will go down in flames.
I don’t know! To me, the fact that this show looks like a cheep movie is the most appealing part! It simply enjoys me and that’s all I need to watch it…
Finally. I am so tired of all this praise for the show just because it’s from the guy behind Nip/Tuck. The concept is garbage, the acting is atrocious and this is just such a bad show. Finally somebody has seen the light and is willing to actually write the truth as opposed to what they think their readers want (I’m talking about Variety, not the great folks here at TVByTheNumbers).
Bottom line, they tried to make a genuinely sweet show out of excessively farcical characters, and that just doesn’t work.**
Worked for 2 seasons on the WB’s POPULAR (Ryan Murphy’s first series and easily his template for this)
Personally I think the show is sweet in tone but extremely bitter and plays the characters are slightly mean-spirited. In a way I think that might put people off, but I think it makes the show work. Either way, so long as Jane Lynch is there week in/week out I’m up.
Now if only Ryan can recruit some of the Popular alum to make appearances… maybe Mary Cherry can pop in as a rival Glee club head.
mayorofsmpleton, ‘Mary Cherry’ is too busy playing the guidance counselor on 10 Things I Hate About You, the best and most underrated summer show of this year that sadly may not get renewed. But I’d like to see Tammy Lynn Michaels on the show.
I think if you liked Popular, you’ll like Glee; otherwise you won’t warm up to it. To me the whole Glee pilot seemed EXACTLY like Popular, only with a different background premise. But the characters and tone of it is exactly like Popular – 2 basic camps of the have and the have not kids who have to co-survive and come together eventually to achieve something, over-the-top teachers dealing with high school politics, unrequited crushes, quirky storylines and so on. All Ryan Murphy has done has adapt his Popular template for this show. Popular could pull it off because it was on the WB, the most tolerant network of ratings-challenged shows. Glee won’t be so lucky. I predict ratings will take a huge tumble this week and the show will be gone after 3 more episodes.
@Shelley
I think you’re wrong about a ratings tumble causing the show to fail that fast, Fox will certainly have ‘backended’ deals so that songs appearing on the show will be released on ITunes et al that week giving a potentially large boost to the revenue stream. If you’re not willing to give Fox a cut of the revenue your tune won’t be in the show.
I’ll even go so far as to offer you an over/under bet the show will make at least 8 episodes aired.
I would like to represent the people of the world who hate musicals and wish to deprive everyone of them just so that we won’t stumble upon them flipping through channels.
craiguk, I think you have that a bit backwards. The network pays the artist/record company to have the song on the air, not the other way around. Now, the artist/company may give Fox a better deal because they expect iTunes sales, but they aren’t going to pay Fox a dime.
I thought the pilot was okay. It was cute but really, really cliched. I didn’t even “take” to any of the characters, either, and usually after a pilot I have interest in at least one or two people. I also didn’t think the writing was very fun or witty. It was mostly average or below.
It has potential, though, and I’ll give it some more time.
@Holly
I don’t have it backwards, Fox will be getting paid for songs appearing on the show. I agree that the production itself will be paying the licence to use the song in the show which is why the payment will be a backend deal, after all it’s the shows cast who’ll be covering the song.
Record companies will be queuing up to get their songs on the show and the following article talks about the number of downloads from ITunes after the initial pilot showing.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20090810/ai_n32431114/
According to the NYT, Fox is paying licensing fees. If you have any reports saying that FOX is getting paid instead, please link to it.
Fox is certainly sparing no expense with “Glee,” either in the marketing or in the cost of production. Episodes of “Glee” are said by people close to the production to cost more than $3 million each… Part of that cost can be traced to the fees paid for music rights…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/arts/television/17wyat.html?_r=1 (second page)
@Holly
Did you even read what I said?
I already stated that the show would be paying the licence fee.
The revenue that comes into Fox will be a backend deal, do you know what a backend deal is?
For example as it’s the cast who are covering the song it’ll be either Fox or a Fox subsidiary or a Fox partner who are the song publisher as far as that version goes, the publisher will get the revenue from the sales on ITunes and either all or a proportion goes back to Fox.
As the rights holders will be getting paid (usually a record company) they’ll be queuing up to get their songs on the show so that they get the rights fee (notice rights fee, not publisher revenue), as a result there will be some ‘sweetheart’ deals done by those rights holders.
This is boiler plate business practice in the media business’s.