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The Cast of Glee Are Hitting All the Right Notes
by Nadya Vlassoff
 Fox’s
Glee has quickly become one of the year’s breakout
hits, with a fantastic cast and even better soundtrack,
and continues to climb the television ratings
with each new episode. Glee, based on the resurrection
of a high school glee club by Spanish teacher
Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), is a smart
look at how music really has no boundaries. Will’s
arch-nemisis is Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), the
cheerleading coach and adamant protestor of everything
the glee club represents who deviously infiltrates
the club with her own squad of talented cheerleaders.
While Glee plays into several high school stereotypes,
like the jock, Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith), the
overly ambitious glee club star Rachel Berry (Lea
Michele), the diva-in-training with pipes to match
Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), and the head cheerleader
with the seemingly perfect life, Quinn Fabray
(Diana Agron), each Glee character proves to have
more depth than one might initially think.
Unlike some comparisons to the High School Musical franchise, Glee is a witty repertoire of personal strife interspersed with well choreographed musical numbers in a high school setting. There are no luxurious penthouses filled with society’s upper class teenagers sipping martinis as they discuss high-priced fashion and business acquisitions. Glee is a much more accessible expression of every teenager’s angst and worries over everyday issues.
Since its debut, Glee has been so successful that the series is already set to release its first soundtrack. Glee: The Music, Volume 1, is slated for release by Columbia Records and Twentieth Century Fox television and will feature many of the performances from the show, including the Queen cover "Somebody to Love". After the hit Fox show received a full season order in September, Glee has only continued to live up to its hype. Producers of Glee took a gamble when they premiered the pilot after the American Idol final performance episode in May. Since then Glee continued to build on positive word of mouth over the summer and when the pilot was re-aired on September 2nd, it still produced impressive numbers.
 With
its ratings success, Glee has created much more
than a cult following. Scores of music artists
are now ready and willing to have their songs
featured on the show after musical numbers from
Billy Joel, Nelly, Usher, and Rihanna. Choreographed
by Zach Woodlee, each Glee episode now features
a score worthy of a mini Broadway musical. From
ballads to club hits, Glee blends an eclectic
mix of songs with the weekly trials and tribulations
of its cast.
With a cast that features the former Broadway stars Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison, and Jenna Ushkowitz, there is plenty of musical talent within Glee. It’s hard to pinpoint what the most entertaining part of Glee is, whether it’s the dysfunctional relationship between Matthew and his fake pregnant wife, Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig), the weekly battle of the sexes between the guys and girls in glee club, or television’s newest villain/ingénue, Sue Sylvester, on one of her weekly rampages to put an end to the glee club once and for all.
But Glee wouldn’t be enjoying such sleeper success without the clever writing from the series creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. Although Glee is loosely based on co- creator Ian Brennan’s own experience in a high school glee club, the initial concept of Glee was originally intended for the big screen as a film. But after some changes, Glee was scaled back into a TV pilot and was picked up by Fox in less than a day after it was pitched.
 Now
that word has come down the TV news pike that
Buffy, Firefly and Dollhouse creator, Joss Whedon,
has been tapped to direct an episode of Glee,
there’s plenty more to look forward to on Fox.
Known for his cleverly humorous writing and
fantastic character development, Whedon has
a lot of talent to choose from. In fact, an
angry Sue Sylvester might even be more terrifying
than any monster Whedon has yet to create.
It is hard to categorize Glee into one genre of television. Comedy, music, drama, Glee is the proverbial melting pot of television’s trifecta, which allows for a range of issues to be tackled, from sexuality to race in a light-hearted manner. Most importantly, Glee doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is the perfect form of escapism that Ryan Murphy intended it to be.
Catch Glee on Fox, Wednesday at 9pm.
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