Characters:
Will Schuester (center)- Glee club coach meets Justin Timberlake- loves hair gel and hates Sue Sylvester- tries to relive high school through his students
Sue Sylvester (center)- head coach of cheerleading squad, “Cheerios” - Hates Glee club and Will Schuester's gelled hair
Emma Pilsbury (not pictured)- school’s guidance counselor- secretly loves Will
Terri Schuester (not pictured)- Will's high school sweetheart turned wife turned ex-wife, slightly crazy
Rachel Berry (bottom right)- Glee club star - constantly bullied by cheerios and football team, overachiever / know it all, daughter of two flamboyantly gay dads
Finn Hudson (top left)- star quarterback of the football team, eventually joins glee club despite his ridiculing football teammates
Mercedes Jones (center left)- diva who resents having to always sing back ups to Rachel, crushes on Kurt until she realizes he is gay
Kurt Hummell (bottom center)- (My personal favorite) gay with a soprano voice, male diva of the group, crushes on Fin
Artie Arbrams (center right)- in a wheelchair and dates Tina
Tina Cohen-Chang (bottom left)- Asian American student with speech impediment
Puck (top right)- Football teammate of Finn at first disapproves of him joining glee but then joins himself
Quinn Fabray (top center)- Finns cheerleader girlfriend, gets pregnant by puck, joins the glee club
Series Recap:
Will Schuester, the glee club coach, tries to encourage the misfits of the high school to realize their star talent. Although everyone is against his dreams for the glee club, he desires to prove them all wrong. The Glee Club performs for the first time in front of the school. Quinn realizes that Rachel has feelings for her boyfriend, Finn, and does everything in her power to keep this relationship from happening, along with making Rachel’s already sad life a living hell.
Mr. Schuester’s wife informs her husband that they will be having a baby, which forces him have to find ways make ends meet. Will forms the Acafellas (the all male vocal group) and due to the recent news, spends more time trying to reclaim his own self-worth than he does on the Glee Club. While he is mentally and emotionally absent, the glee club tries to hire another choreographer in order to help them win nationals. Mercedes falls in love with Kurt, only to find out he is gay and will not reciprocate her feelings. Kurt, still trying to convince his father that he is straight, tries out for the football team. He surprises everyone after singing and dancing up to the ball to be the team’s promising new kicker.
Quinn and Finn’s relationship goes sour after they find out she is pregnant with what Finn thinks is his baby. However, they only kissed, making Finn to get a little too excited in the hot tub. Being a naive teen, Finn believes this got Quinn pregnant. However, we find out that Puck is the real father.
After struggles within the glee club, Will tries to give the group more of an edge. He finds a former classmate and glee club member, April Rhodes, to inspire the students. Things go well until he realizes April is an alcoholic and is a bad influence. Mr. Schuester then tries another route by forming a competition between the boys and girls. In addition to the rest of Will’s troubles, Sue tries to bring down the Glee Club and makes a deal with the blackmailed principal to have the club cut if they do not win their competitions throughout the year.
Mrs. Schuester gets wind, from Sue, that her marriage might be in danger. So, she decides to take the nursing position at the high school to keep an eye on her husband and Emma, the guidance councilor. Finn, eventually becomes ill from being so stressed about the baby and overworked from football, school, and the glee club, and finds himself in the nurses office under Will's wife's uneducated nursing direction. Mrs. Schuester gives him, and eventually the rest of the glee club, sudafed, making them bounce off the walls, but allowing them to perform with every ounce of energy and pizzazz. Quinn also gets an offer from Mrs. Schuester, who we find out is not pregnant after all, to give her baby up so that Will won’t find out about her lies. This gets her fired and a divorce from Will.
If you aren’t hooked yet, siting on the edge of your seat just taking in every word and waiting to know what happens next, well, you may have issues! But, as I am sure many of you are now more interested, you can catch up on Glee’s website and watch for the season finale this week!
For me, Glee is the perfect TV show. Every week the audience gets to view a drama and comedy that breaks into popular songs throughout the episode. The writers do a wonderful job of connecting you to the characters, bringing you back to high school days along with the struggles of its rough caste system, and relating you to the trials and tribulations that come along with friendships, romantic relationships, and enmities. I understand that a show with random bursts of singing and dancing might not be for everyone. However, I really believe Glee is so brilliantly written and cast, that given the chance, it will create a connection with any and every viewer.
AND if you are still not convinced that you will like Glee's musical theatricality, check out the list of a few of this season's ever popular songs... I bet you will find a ton that you've either grown up listening to or that you have on your ipod now!
Total Eclipse of the Heart
You Can't Touch This
Delicious
Beautiful
Like a Prayer
Like a Virgin
Vogue
Gives You Hell
Highway to Hell
Bohemian Rhapsody
Don't Stop Belivin'
Bad Romance
Poker Face
Loser
Another One Bites the Dust
We Want the Funk
Jessie's Girl
Ice, Ice, Baby
Single Ladies
One of the things that I love the most about Glee is that the plot is COMPLETELY irrelevant. They throw just enough of a storyline in so that it actually qualifies as a dramedy and then proceed to ignore it as much as they possibly can to focus on the singing.
ReplyDeleteAnd even the quality of the singing itself is not especially important (yes, they are incredibly talented, but you only need to watch one episode to know that) - it's the general feel of the show (the sets and costumes create a plastic-y, happy feel) as well as the song choices. They perfectly blend today's pop as well as the pop music of the late 80s/early 90s in a way that means the show appeals equally to a wide age range. My favorite episode is the one where Will Schuester sings the Color Me Badd song because I remember when it was popular when I was in middle school!