To “Glee” or not to “Glee” that is the question!
Well, we certainly have two strong camps on “Glee” these days. The Facebook and Twitter comments after this week’s episode would have you believe (a) the second coming had just occurred or (b) a crime against humanity had just been committed.
To whit:
example of (a)
example of (b)
Whether it be an episodic TV show, and film, or a theatre piece, the goal is to tell a coherent story. My gripe with Glee isn’t that it uses songs as part of the story-telling, I love musicals!
My problem is that Glee isn’t very good at integrating songs into the story, and it’s losing steam in the story-telling department, period. It is incredibly difficult to tell a good story and Glee started strong in the first season, introducing us to each character, defining the “rules” of story-telling, mixing up the students’ and teachers’ stories, etc.
But after that, it’s been a chaotic mix of story-telling devices, repetitious themes, odd uses of song to tell (or in many cases to NOT tell) a story, and an imbalance in the focus of each episode.
The show works best when there is a balance between the worlds of the teachers and students and how those worlds interconnect in each episode.
Whether you are an actor, director, writer, or viewer, the main goal is the consistency of the STORY. Get clear on the story and make sure every element is conspiring to tell that story clearly and concisely.
This is vitally important when song and dance are being used as devices to convey story. Generally in life, we don’t break out into song and dance to explain our feelings, concerns, like, and dislikes. So when these conventions are used, the method of getting into and and out of a song is crucial to keep an audience engaged. Especially so if the audience is not partial to musicals!
So – to Glee or not to Glee? Tell a clear story and I’ll be there!
Let me know what you think!
sending...