A Statement About Glee

If you're going to name a show Glee, it had better live up to its name.

There can be nothing downer about it; even when you tackle serious issues (Hello, teen pregnancy and homosexuality! How are you today?) you've got to do it with the snap-crackle-pop lightness that your title implies, and you've got to do something to ensure that people leave feeling, well gleeful.

So far, so good.

Glee is possibly the riskiest proposition of the new television season: a musical set in a high school, on FOX, nonetheless. But this is no tweenie High School Musical redux; this is a sharp satire with even sharper characters, who happen to sing some of the kick-assest covers in recent memory.

According to "those in the know" the portrayal of school politics is spot-on, from Jane Lynch's gutting cheerleading coach to the idealistic glee coach cum Spanish prof who is forced to pay for the club out of his own pocket.

All of the stock characters are there for political correctness-- the feisty black girl, the jock, the kid in the wheelchair, the newly un-closeted fashionista, the bitch with the well-intentioned heart of gold. In any other hands these characters could be cliche (or at worst, offensive), but they all manage to shine and bounce off of each other with sparky repertoire that is anything but boring, and man can they sing.

Mr. Schuester's (aforementioned Glee/Spanish honcho) love life is a mess; he's trapped in a marriage to his high school sweetheart, a faux-pregnant trainwreck of highly codependent proportions. His real love, neurotic guidance counselor Emma, has just accepted what is essentially a marriage-in-name-only proposal from gym teacher Ken Tanaka. Coming back from all of that Jim-and-Pam loveliness, I'm not sure how much patience I'll have if the writers make it their life mission to keep Will and Emma apart, but so far so only mildly irritating.

It certainly has a lot to live up to, especially in the long term. But for the moment, Glee is fulfilling the quick-witted, happy without being saccharine void left by the late great Arrested Development.

To quote Emma, "YAY GLEE! GLEE KIDS HOORAY!"