At a time when LGBT characters show
up less dependably on the big screen, and then often in dime store budget
underground movies, shown only in selected cities – and surprisingly enough the
Bay Area often gets left off the these informal theatrical circuits – old
fashioned over-the-air TV has spun out a couple of jewels.
Glee: The Complete First Season: All the
advance buzz did nothing to prevent my instant addiction to this spectacularly
original, clever and absurdly entertaining fixture on FOX TV’s Tuesday night
schedule. If it was an animated series it would surely surpass the longevity of
The Simpsons.
Originally conceived by its
creator, Ian Brennan, as stand alone movie, the script languished on industry
slush piles until a fortuitous series of events brought it to FOX where a smart
producer suggested it be transformed into a TV series. FOX was an obvious home
due to their mega hit American Idol and to the network’s history as
perhaps the most creative and daring home for original comedy shows since NBC
crashed out of the business in the wake of Seinfeld and Friends.
The best way to enjoy the Glee DVD
is to hit the play all episodes tab and just take the ride. Since the show
unfolds as one continuous story over the first twenty-two episode season don’t
be impatient that it takes until about episode number eight for our gay boy,
Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), to tell his painful and at times painfully funny
back story. Living with a macho, widowed dad Kurt divides his energies between
trying to market his own personal perfume product, trying to avoid his almost
daily dumpster dumping by the football jocks, indulging his secret crush on
football captain Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) and finally, almost by accident,
finding himself part of the Lima, Ohio high school’s beleaguered Glee club.
Each facet of Kurt’s character dilemmas are handled with wit and sensitivity,
several, of course, quasi-paralleling recent headline stories about gay teen
depression and cyber bullying. But Kurt, as played by the winsome Colfer), is
much more than the sum of his depressing parts and probably represents the best
young male gay role in recent small screen history, certainly the top effort
since Dawson Creek’s uber butch Jack.
As for the rest of Glee, the
sassy plots zig-zag between Desperate Housewives relationship pratfalls
and at times Seinfeld worthy character beats. The main foils are the
Justin Timberlake handsome choir teacher Will Schuester (the terribly talented
Matthew Morrison) and his weekly battles with his arch foe the scheming head of
the school’s cheerleader squad, The Cheerios, Sue Sylvester -- a devilish adult
mean girl spin from Christopher Guest veteran Jane Lynch, for whom this role
has becoming a major professional coming out party. Lynch drolly plays her
character’s bottomless lust for revenge against the Gleeks in a style that
begins with a touch of Betty White’s “Happy Homewrecker” from The Mary Tyler
Moore Show to every variation you’ve seen on the hyper masculine female gym
teacher. The result is not a travesty but a original social parody – at one
point Sue assumes a conservative blogger slot on the local TV channel that is a
terrific send-up to all the howling right wing meanies on the other FOX.
The scripts are wickedly funny –
skewering topics ranging from high school celibacy clubs, to pill dispensing
school nurses, to germ phobic, man starved female guidance counselors to
penny-pinching, Indian born school principals. The production numbers are
Broadway quality – not surprisingly the songs and albums released by the Glee
cast have enjoyed Beatle like chart sales.
Intended as a postmodern musical,
modeled on Chicago, Glee is less geeky than FOX’s earlier loser parody Undeclared
and less irritatingly queer (for a mainstream audience) than Todd Graff’s
brave 2003 gay musical Camp, to which it bares more than passing
resemblance. It’s also a great pit stop for those in American Idol recovery.
Features: Over two hours including but not limited to: Glee
Sing-Along Karaoke & Glee Music Jukebox! Also included: full
length audition pieces – dress like your favorite Gleek – making of a show
stopper.
Modern Family: The Complete First Season: I
have to confess that in comparison to Glee this rambunctious ABC-TV
series (Wednesdays at 9pm) pales in sheer entertainment value and despite its
larger queer content is more suited to fans desiring a spoof of the
over-attentive parent syndrome.
Each week the half hour sitcom –
thankfully sans laugh track – whipsaws between three family clusters: the old
nuclear style clan undergoing a slight meltdown with bratty kids, an overly
sensitive dad and slightly peevish reworking of the old Donna Reed style super
mom; an older man with his Columbian trophy bride and her precocious
ten-year-old son; and finally a queer couple who solve their relationship’s bed
death by adopting a Vietnamese baby girl and by frequent trips to COSCO. The gay
couple: the snobby Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and the uber queeny Cameron
(Eric Storestreet) often steal the episodes with their ongoing tug of war
between Cameron’s desire to publicly display his inner girl and Mitchell’s
propensity for slipping anonymously into the growing womb of gay suburban
dad-hood. Not surprisingly FOX veteran Ed O’Neill (Married With Children) occasionally
upstages the queer couple with his sublime underplaying of a shrewd, if
self-absorbed aging small business guy struggling to appear cooler than he
really is, while devoting as much of his time as possible to the pleasure of
his considerably younger, pepper pot bride. I like this one, but am not
addicted. It would be nice to see some alternative examples of gay male couples.
Special features include: The making of Modern Family;
deleted family interviews plus deleted, extended and alternate scenes.