can someone explain what the fuss is about Glee?

[pellucid]

Some weeks ago, I caught about five minutes of the Glee premiere before turning it off when the choir director's wife (I don't know anyone's names) made me want to attack her with a sharp, pointy object. Ah well, I figured, I didn't need another show anyway. But then all manner of my acquaintances, fannish and otherwise, have exploded with love for

Comments

[pellucid]

I've seen so little of it that it's hard to say, but I suspect cofax may be on to something in the comment below when she notes that it's an oddly misanthropic show, and especially for something centered around a show choir, which you'd think would inspire silly, sappy, and fun. Perhaps it's the dissonance of those two aspects that is causing such strong reactions, both for and against? But obviously I'm basing this--and all my comments--on having seen very little of the show, and I may well be off-base. I am glad to hear that you think it's improving; that's always a good sign with any show.

As for your second set of questions/comments, I think I'd muse that of course there's great value in shows that are pure, un-thinky entertainment. I mean, for me this is the year of the silly cop show, so obviously you're not going to find me insisting that all shows should have some deep, thinky agenda.

But I also don't believe "it's just good fun" is a valid pass for problematic portrayals of women, or people of color, or anyone else. A show may have no deeper purpose than entertaining its audience for 45 minutes, and that's great, but I'd still like to see it doing so in an un-sketchy way. I, at least, am far more entertained when I am not cringing at the way certain characters are portrayed. Different people have different handwaving thresholds where this sort of thing is concerned, I think. TV is so full of racism and sexism and other forms of sketchiness that it would be hard to enjoy any of it if you had no capacity to handwave problematic thing X for the sake of enjoyment, but the question of where the problems start to outweigh the enjoyment is going to be different for everyone--and I suspect you and I have a different threshold for Glee, and that's absolutely fine!