Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Review: Glee Season 1

I just watched the season finale of Glee. How can I describe my feelings for this show? In many ways it is a mess, the structure is lopsided, plot holes abound, sub-plots have sub-plots and there are secondary protagonists galore all vying for attention. Yet I am addicted. Even though the writers tried to cram too much into their first season, most of what they crammed was really high quality, the more realistic and uplifting version of High School Musical, many have equated it to. There is also something incredibly moving about the show. It's silly, and sometimes the musical numbers are bit too deliberate, but out of that comes passages that are beautiful. A few weeks ago when New Directions sang "Imagine" with the deaf choir? Suddenly tears were dripping down my face and I felt like a moron. They have also perfected the significant musical montage.
Music has a highly emotional affect on people. It's why we have "break up songs," why we create soundtracks for our lives. Films depend on that, soundtracks are used to heighten emotion, essentially manipulating the audience to have certain feelings on certain cues. So, is Glee manipulating us? Yes, and I love it. The final song, "My Life Would Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson meshes perfectly, over scenes of Will going to stop Emma from leaving and profess his feelings to her. It was a little melodramatic, but sometimes that's not so bad.
How long until next season?
What are your thoughts on this phenomenon?

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