I don't have the time to answer the way I want right now, but let me say that this post finally allowed me to put into words my biggest conundrum about myself and Glee, which is why I am so obsessed with the characters in a show in which I actively have to ask if a line is a joke or an actual moment of character insight, where I find myself parsing each line and giving more weight to some than to others because character continuity is not a given in the writing, where who a person is can be ignored for a laugh or a set-up.
I read something once that said that while Glee is completely fantastical and works very little like high school in its practicalities, what it is extremely good at is presenting what high school feels like. People don't burst into teary ballads in the hallways when times are hard (much) in real high schools, but it feels so intense that they could.
What you're talking about here is what appeals to me, too, I think. The emotional premise of the show and the emotional arcs of the characters are what drive me. Not the details of the show choir championships, not the quirky way that college acceptances come in after graduation, not the skipped or misaligned steps of plot or narrative arcs, not even every moment of every character, because sometimes their roles are to move the plot instead of to live the plot. But the emotion of the show grabs me and never lets go, not about the characters I love, not in the gestalt of the big picture. The show can be exceptionally good at emotion and at using music and emotion together, and the way it sacrifices certain character moments - which I'd hate in almost any other setting - can't dull the glory of what it does well.
Interesting comment! I loved this post, but for me, Glee has never represented what high school feels like at all. (Friday Night Lights was my HS experience, almost to the letter.) But I completely relate to your method of watching the show. That's my method, too.
Oh, goodness, well... I suppose this makes sense, in a way, because the converse is true. FNL feels nothing at ALL like my high school experience, as much as I know it is real. FNL makes me feel constricted and claustrophobic... and kind of hopeless, actually.
My own high school experience was all talented, quirky kids with big dreams (not all in theater, though) across the social spectrum trying too hard and caring too much and assuming way too much of their future life trajectory would come from one important moment/test/competition/performance/part. Everything mattered. Every day was a stage on which to shine.
And we did occasionally break out into song in the middle of the hallway.
FNL makes me feel constricted and claustrophobic... and kind of hopeless, actually.
Yes -- which is part of why it's so accurate (speaking as someone who grew up in the same kind of town, just a few hours' drive from the town Dillon is based on). It's why the adult characters in that show matter so much, and why I love them so much.
Your high school experience sounds pretty cool, though unimaginable to me in a high school context. College was more like that -- it's why I wanted to go to college, actually, and especially to go out of state: to find people who would try and care and commit and act like things mattered. And then it was better than I imagined!
Oh, yes, I have a good friend who grew up in that area as well, and we've talked about how spot-on it feels. I LOVE the show, but it's like visiting a foreign country I really don't want to live in.
I went to a private high school (not quite Dalton, but we did have a zero-tolerance bullying policy, and the members of the a capella group were in fact like rock stars), so it was rather a lot like college.
I'm so glad you were able to get out of your own "Dillon" to college! <3
I think it's a little of both, for me. FNL is a much better representation of my high school milieu, and of course the fact that it's based on a town much like the one in which I grew up and was shot an hour from where I lived contributed to that effect. I knew those kids. I grew up with those signs on lawns, those slogans on restaurants and churches. I was friends with, not the main characters, but the guys in Landry's band.
But I do think that Glee captures some of what it feels like to be a teenager, at least the kind of teenager who makes sense of emotions through music; I was that kid, too, transcribing song lyrics into my journal and writing them on my shoes, communicating with friends through mix tapes. So that aspect of the show resonates with me in a way that has nothing to do with how realistically it represents high school (which is to say, not at all).
I read something once that said that while Glee is completely fantastical and works very little like high school in its practicalities, what it is extremely good at is presenting what high school feels like.
I tend to agree, at least when the show is at its best. From a literary genre point of view, the show is a romance rather than a novel -- a romance in the sense that Hawthorne talked about: concerned less with realism than with "the truth of the human heart." Of course, that's exactly why I get so frustrated on those occasions when the show ignores or sells out the emotional truths that it has previously established.
Music has always been the fast track to my heart, and the show often uses music really well -- and even when the music isn't to my personal taste (which is fairly often), it frequently manages to sell me on the idea that the music means something to the characters, and that's usually enough for me, narratively speaking. The music itself matters less than the role that music plays in their lives. I don't much care which songs Kurt and Blaine sing to each other in the car; what matters to me is that that's something they do. ♥
...though I also have thoughts about Glee and genre and how I wish it were actually more of a traditional musical than it is. But that is a separate post. :D
I read something once that said that while Glee is completely fantastical and works very little like high school in its practicalities, what it is extremely good at is presenting what high school feels like. People don't burst into teary ballads in the hallways when times are hard (much) in real high schools, but it feels so intense that they could.
What you're talking about here is what appeals to me, too, I think. The emotional premise of the show and the emotional arcs of the characters are what drive me. Not the details of the show choir championships, not the quirky way that college acceptances come in after graduation, not the skipped or misaligned steps of plot or narrative arcs, not even every moment of every character, because sometimes their roles are to move the plot instead of to live the plot. But the emotion of the show grabs me and never lets go, not about the characters I love, not in the gestalt of the big picture. The show can be exceptionally good at emotion and at using music and emotion together, and the way it sacrifices certain character moments - which I'd hate in almost any other setting - can't dull the glory of what it does well.
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My own high school experience was all talented, quirky kids with big dreams (not all in theater, though) across the social spectrum trying too hard and caring too much and assuming way too much of their future life trajectory would come from one important moment/test/competition/performance/part. Everything mattered. Every day was a stage on which to shine.
And we did occasionally break out into song in the middle of the hallway.
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Yes -- which is part of why it's so accurate (speaking as someone who grew up in the same kind of town, just a few hours' drive from the town Dillon is based on). It's why the adult characters in that show matter so much, and why I love them so much.
Your high school experience sounds pretty cool, though unimaginable to me in a high school context. College was more like that -- it's why I wanted to go to college, actually, and especially to go out of state: to find people who would try and care and commit and act like things mattered. And then it was better than I imagined!
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I went to a private high school (not quite Dalton, but we did have a zero-tolerance bullying policy, and the members of the a capella group were in fact like rock stars), so it was rather a lot like college.
I'm so glad you were able to get out of your own "Dillon" to college! <3
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But I do think that Glee captures some of what it feels like to be a teenager, at least the kind of teenager who makes sense of emotions through music; I was that kid, too, transcribing song lyrics into my journal and writing them on my shoes, communicating with friends through mix tapes. So that aspect of the show resonates with me in a way that has nothing to do with how realistically it represents high school (which is to say, not at all).
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I tend to agree, at least when the show is at its best. From a literary genre point of view, the show is a romance rather than a novel -- a romance in the sense that Hawthorne talked about: concerned less with realism than with "the truth of the human heart." Of course, that's exactly why I get so frustrated on those occasions when the show ignores or sells out the emotional truths that it has previously established.
Music has always been the fast track to my heart, and the show often uses music really well -- and even when the music isn't to my personal taste (which is fairly often), it frequently manages to sell me on the idea that the music means something to the characters, and that's usually enough for me, narratively speaking. The music itself matters less than the role that music plays in their lives. I don't much care which songs Kurt and Blaine sing to each other in the car; what matters to me is that that's something they do. ♥
...though I also have thoughts about Glee and genre and how I wish it were actually more of a traditional musical than it is. But that is a separate post. :D
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