I’m jumping off the topic of great fiction in book form to talk about TV, specifically a show that’s a genius in casting, character and humor.

Glee.

If you haven’t jumped on the Glee bandwagon, I’m here to grab hold of you and pull you aboard. The writers have done something very clever in that, on the surface, nearly every character in the cast begins as unlikeable.

The episodes follow a high school show choir, and the teenage mantra is–naturally–it’s all about me. (Trust me, I know this. I have two of them.) So the attitude of the young characters is both believable and interesting. In this world, though, the adults act the same way…

The show is a marvel of writing from specifics points of view, as every character acts in his or her’s own self-interest. This happens constantly, every scene, every character. There are sweet moments of sacrifice, but they’re generally few and far between, making them all the more poignant. There are cliches that work. There are despicable–yet hilarious–characters played by Jane Lynch (cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester) and Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri Schuester, wife of the glee club director). There are guest stars–Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked) and Josh Groban (“cute as a buttermilk biscuit”) being the best.

The resulting show is farcical at its core, but also real and powerful and wildly entertaining.

And I haven’t even gotten started on the the music. Broadway, pop, early rap, rock, cheesy-80‘s-that-have-become-classics (hello, Journey!). Plus a male soprano (played by the amazing Chris Colfer) who can believably sing Defying Gravity. It’s hard not to find something you’ll enjoy and possibly even love more than the original.

The single funniest thing I’ve seen in years is the episode where Kurt and supporting female cast perform Beyonce’s All the Single Ladies into his mini cam.

With all the stress and uncertainty in the world today, Glee does exactly what all of us in romance fiction strive to do–create an escape, relish a sweet moment, create the unexpected.

New episodes start April 13th, so you still have time to buy the DVD and catch up to the hilarity.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Wendy Etherington. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.