Glee-out!

Glee premiered last Spring with its first episode after American Idol. I’ve heard a lot of good reviews about this show, but never had the time to watch it. Its premise always appealed to me as it focuses on a typical mid-West high school’s glee club/singing choir. Again, it’s high school so you’re dealing with stereotypes mixed with awesome singing of old show tunes and current chart toppers. Ryan Murphy created this series, and I feel indebted to his creativity as he helped create Popular and Nip/Tuck.

I watched the first episode before the season premieres and I was laughing hysterically. The characters are so deranged as they interact with each other in far-out situations. Pure gold. The glee club is led by teacher Will Schuster (Matthew Morrison) to bring the glee to it’s former glory. The club comprises a bunch of misfits including the jock that just wants to sing (Cory Monteith). Their enemies? The football team and the cheerleaders (or cheerios), of course. The cheerleader coach is played by Jane Lynch (best remember from 40-Year-Old Virgin) and she‘s one of the main reasons to watch, if you will. And after watching the first episode, you’ll be belting out to Journey and Amy Winehouse again. Only this time to Glee-style. I won’t be able to watch it every Wednesday night, but I’ll be sure to search for it every Thursday morning.

Saved By The Bell Reunites!

It’s been 20 years, but the Saved By The Bell cast has finally reunited, minus Screech. There’s been rumor that he either declined or that he wasn’t invited to the reunion in light of his upcoming tell-all book. But who cares, really. Jimmy Fallon has been pleading for a reunion, but the cast finally did it on the cover of People Magazine. It’s a very short article promising hookups, meltdowns, and animosity resulting with nothing satisfying. But hey, it is People Magazine with not much depth or comprehension. But the pictures are well worth it as the cast looks damn good in their mid-30s. Now please, cast of the Saved by the Bell, do a made-for-TV movie!

Old ‘89 School Pic:

Faves:

Queer As Folk Is Fabulous.

Showtime’s Queer As Folk is absolutely captivating. It’s arguably conceived a landmark in television history. Besides being risqué, and possibly THE show to take precedence in full graphic gay sex, the show fully realized it’s potential with modern day depictions of the gay community. Sure, some critics say that it’s over-the-top and deemed unrealistically fabulous, but this is television for Christ’s sake. First and foremost, the show was about a group of gay friends living in the metropolitan city  during the new millennium.

With a whooping 22 episodes, the first season is essential viewing. From my first impression, I didn’t think the show was great: extremely outdated (2000?), forced stereotypes, shallow and annoying characters, mediocre cliché plots. But what kept me going was it’s reputation and the queer underground scene: drugs, sex, boys, social issues, more sex. After the first three episodes, the show was vastly improving and proved to be an unstoppable force in melodramatic television. There wasn’t authentic personalities like this on Friends for a boy growing gay. The characters popped out of the screen. The underaged twinkie Justin (Randy Harrison) had his coming of age from social issues like coming out to loss of virginity to homophobia. Shameless and proud Emmett (Peter Paige) and self-conscious Ted (Scott Lowell) dealt with identity issues such as religious conversion, AIDS, and drug use. But my two favorite characters became Michael (Hal Sparks) and Brian (Gale Harold). Michael was the most relatable character because of his boy-next-door charms, his unrequited love for Brian, and the way he tackles commitment and unfaithfulness. It was his narrative, so the audience followed along. Brian was the most intriguing and complex character because he’s a bastard by nature, and yet god’s gift to gay men. He treated everyone like crap and screwed everyone (physically and emotionally), but his underlying contradictions came through with his friendship with Michael and his burgeoning relationship with Justin.

But no matter what happened, the show was always about sex. It was everywhere with all the hot boys as almost voyeuristic of this underground lifestyle: shallow, sex-obsessed, superficial. There’s no denying you wanted to join in with some of the best energetic dance and house music of its time. I liked the show because it never preached because while it is fun to see the glossy and liberating scenes, many did not stay away from the ugly and the loneliness. The first season finale brought the show to an astounding climax as we saw the high points in Brian’s and Justin’s relationship, the sad end to Michael’s and David’s picture-perfect relationship, and the ugly side of the gay world with a baseball bat at the end. By the end of the first season, the characters will sink into your heart like old friends.

Queer as Folk is a great show, and I give accolades for being the first show in LBGT history. It’s groundbreaking, fabulous, heartbreaking, real, vapid, sexual, entertaining, well-written, beautiful, humanly flawed, honest, raunchy, empowering, intelligent, and  funny all at the same time. And F.Y.I., “it’s all about sex.”

My Rating: A