Glee is ruining my stubborn resolve to not support musicals.
The very first scene that endeared me to the series was when the brunette broke out into song when the boy she kissed went back to his cheerleader girlfriend and pretended that they didn't share the single most emotionally-charged moment in their short teenage lives.
I've always turned my nose up at musicals mainly because acting that replaces spoken words with dramatic belting with exaggerated facial expressions, but after a surprisingly enjoyable night of Mamma Mia thanks to the Bestie, and secretly watching snippets of the Wicked musical on youtube after getting the Wicked soundtrack from the Sis...
Anyway. If you're not watching Glee yet, you should get started. It's friggin' awesome! I'm almost embarrassed by my enthusiasm for a musical tv series about high school kids, but it's nothing like High School Musical (yech). No blinding-white cheesy smiles and OTT theatrics; They don't make up cheesy songs with lyrics that rhyme (so tacky) and mould the scene into the song, they actually use familiar songs that we listen nowadays and just give it a musical twist, but totally relevant to the scene.
The actors and actresses are so real that even when they start belting out songs in the middle of a car wash it looks totally believable; at least it looks like how it SHOULD look like if people can express their inner soundtrack outwardly with contemporary songs that has the EXACT lyrics to describe the very situation/emotion they're feeling. I know I've listened to a song lyric or two that felt like it was written just for me at that particular time,
and fantasize about singing it out loud to release it all out.
I absolutely love that about the series. Such a cathartic release. Ahh... And the choreography is stunning.
So far, my favorite musical scenes are: (yes, I've started a list. Is that too fanatic?)
1. When the brunette started singing Take A Bow by Rihanna after the jock kissed her and pretended -ok I explained this scene earlier
2. When the glee club sang Don't Stop Believing, which is their main original song in the first episode
3. When the black girl started singing Bust Your Windows by Jazmine Sullivan after she um, busted the car windows of her fellow glee club member, who she had a crush on but is actually gay, "You bust my windows!" "Well. You bust my heart." HOW POIGNANT IS THAT?!
4. When the club performed Gold Digger by Kanye West in the second (I think) episode
5. When a rival choir called Vocal Adrenaline (very apt name) performed Rehab by Amy Winehouse and totally blew the audience away
I realize I haven't commented much on the show's content, because frankly the storyline's not WTF-worthy like Nip/Tuck or scandalicious like Gossip Girls, but the issues they touch on is so everyday-life and real that you just kinda take it into stride, and save your shock quota for their shockamazing musical bits.
I have the entire soundtrack album, if anyone's interested. Heh. =P
Oh juz watch it~!
