GLEE: Season 2

Dear Glee,

I mean everything I am about to say to you with love. Your third season begins this evening and I have high hopes for the changes you've made. You've branched out your writing staff and have sworn to focus more on longer story arcs instead of one-off theme episodes. You've also decided to reduce the number of songs per episode, so as not to come across like an iTunes jukebox each week. It's not that I don't like to hear all the talented members of New Directions belt them out so often but storytelling has been taking a seat in the back of the choir room for quite some time now.

I've just finished watching your second season on blu-ray. I have to admit, it wasn't as uneven as I remember but if you don't fix some of your problems soon, you will start to lose your audience. That said, there were some fantastic additions to the GLEE lexicon in the second season. Highlights for me include Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holiday. I wish Paltrow wasn't such a big movie star because she would make a perfect regular on your program. Not only is she hilarious but she can also hold a note or two. Next up, the introduction of Blaine (Darren Criss) and the Warblers. It was about time the New Directions got some real competition. And of course, having Blaine around allowed for the best gay kiss I've ever witnessed on television. There was no hype for it; it simply just happened. My mouth fell to the floor when I saw it because I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to see such a romantic and honest moment between two male television characters. I'm not going to lie; I wished I was Kurt (Chris Colfer) in that moment.

You are often criticized for being too gay, whatever that means. I don't think that's true; I just think you spend more time developing Kurt's troubles than anyone else's. In the entire season, only Kurt's bullying storyline felt true to me. It is an important subject and one that I think you tackled sensitively and thoroughly. Unfortunately, with all your energy placed there, the rest of the cast was left to bounce back and forth between random couplings that often seemed like they had no basis in any reality whatsoever. It's hard for me to care about characters when they don't seem to really matter to you either. Oh and, please, give Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) something to do this year. Her once ferocious character is now just a flat joke (who honestly should have been arrested by now considering how many students she flings down stairs).

I miss how much you used to shock me, GLEE. Lately it seems you just lull me into a state of acceptance instead. Your sophomore year is now behind you. You let your junior year success go to your head and just rested on your laurels all the way through last year. It's time to get serious though; it's your senior year. If you don't find your focus again, I'm not convinced you'll graduate at the end of the year.

Gleefully yours,
joseph.

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GLEE: THE 3D CONCERT MOVIE

Directed by Kevin Tancharoen

Starring Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a big gleek. In fact, anyone who has known me for a long time, thinks I could have easily been on the hit Fox series - y'know, if I was about ten years younger and had any acting ability whatsoever, which I don't. I am the first to admit that GLEE has never been as good as it was in the first half of the first season but I still tune in every week to see the spunky little kids at McKinley High belt out my favourite pop and show tunes. Usually, I am belting them out right along with them, much to the dismay of my neighbours, I'm sure. Even with all that gleekiness surging through my veins though, I still found GLEE: THE 3D CONCERT MOVIE to be consistently off key.

I saw the GLEE show live a couple of months ago in Toronto with another gleeky friend of mine. The pair of us were on our feet the entire time and doing a fair amount of screaming for our favourite New Directions members, from Rachel (Lea Michele) and Finn (Cory Monteith) to Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Mercedes (Amber Riley). I remember being extremely impressed with their ability to sing live and overwhelmed by the energy and level of appreciation coming from the crowd. The singing made it into the movie, or at least most of it did anyway, but the energy must have ended up on the cutting room floor (along with Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester, who was filmed for the project but ultimately not included). I can see the fans applauding; I can hear them going on and on about how GLEE changed their lives but I couldn't feel any of that love coming off the screen (with the exception of one tiny little Asian Warblers fan - that kid had the moves!). And that's despite the attempt to cram it down our face in 3D. Like GLEE itself all too often last season, this new movie just felt too perfectly manufactured at times and lacking the spirit the show once knew.

Director, Kevin Tancharoen (FAME), cuts back and forth between edited concert performances, fan footage at the shows, backstage access to the cast and three distinct gleek success stories designed to show how GLEE promotes diversity and acceptance. A little person finds her way to the head of the cheerleaders, a teenager is forcefully outed and learns that being gay is OK and a girl with asperger's syndrome finds a way to let people in. They are all touching stories to some extent but they take away from the backstage antics of the cast that this gleek wanted more of. As it is, the cast is still in character behind the scenes so the film doesn't actually offer up any inkling of what it was like for them to tour together. This was the perfect chance to get more intimate with the fans they seemed to be celebrating in the film but alas, it was wasted. Instead, I felt as though their lovely voices lured me in but once they knew they had me, they took my money and quickly rushed me out.

Regardless, I'm still on board to return to school in the fall and get my gleek back on good and proper.

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