Welcome to the show folks...
It's old news by now, but I thought I should bring up my thoughts about Glee.
Now I'm no expert on the show, I've only seen a couple of episodes, but I do know that it's going great guns in the ratings right now and is considered a very hot property.
However, despite the show's success I'm not sure it was a smart move for the Fox Network to renew it for a third season before it even finished its first.
Here's why:
When you literally explode on the TV scene the way Glee did the real test comes not in the first season, but in the second season. That's the real test to see if a show has legs. Because those who religiously watched the show in the first season, may tune out completely in the second.
That's because there's nothing as dangerous to a showbiz career as instant fame, and it gets worse when that fame is as hype heavy as Glee's. It's like a fad, one minute you're considered the essential core of popular culture. The next minute you're considered a joke, and only talked about in snarky cable shows with titles like "Those Wacky 2010s."
You don't want to be the equivalent of acid washed jeans, or one of the actors from Twilight once the franchise is finished.
Then there's the show's other little landmine, a dangerous booby trap that lies at the heart of Glee, and threatens to blast it to smithereens.
It's a high school show.
Not only that, the high school setting is essential to the show. It's about a high school teacher running a high school club. What are they going to do when the student characters graduate? Somehow contrive a college teaching position for their teacher?
And let's not forget that the actors playing the students are all in their mid-20s. The window of passing as a high school student is closing fast for them, and no one wants it ending up like past TV shows with casts that are closer to senior citizen than senior class.
So unless the producers plan to start recruiting replacement characters in the second season, and graduate the current favorites, the show could break that suspension of disbelief that makes their position as a musical show work. But even that has its risks, as those who were fans of the original students may leave the show with their faves.
If the worst happens then Fox is stuck with a show that they either have to buy out in order to cancel, which can be costly, or leave on the air to run out the clock, which could cost just as much.
Which is why I would have held off on green-lighting Season 3 until I knew it had survived the hump of Season 2.
But that's just me.
It's old news by now, but I thought I should bring up my thoughts about Glee.
Now I'm no expert on the show, I've only seen a couple of episodes, but I do know that it's going great guns in the ratings right now and is considered a very hot property.
However, despite the show's success I'm not sure it was a smart move for the Fox Network to renew it for a third season before it even finished its first.
Here's why:
When you literally explode on the TV scene the way Glee did the real test comes not in the first season, but in the second season. That's the real test to see if a show has legs. Because those who religiously watched the show in the first season, may tune out completely in the second.That's because there's nothing as dangerous to a showbiz career as instant fame, and it gets worse when that fame is as hype heavy as Glee's. It's like a fad, one minute you're considered the essential core of popular culture. The next minute you're considered a joke, and only talked about in snarky cable shows with titles like "Those Wacky 2010s."
You don't want to be the equivalent of acid washed jeans, or one of the actors from Twilight once the franchise is finished.
Then there's the show's other little landmine, a dangerous booby trap that lies at the heart of Glee, and threatens to blast it to smithereens.
It's a high school show.
Not only that, the high school setting is essential to the show. It's about a high school teacher running a high school club. What are they going to do when the student characters graduate? Somehow contrive a college teaching position for their teacher?
And let's not forget that the actors playing the students are all in their mid-20s. The window of passing as a high school student is closing fast for them, and no one wants it ending up like past TV shows with casts that are closer to senior citizen than senior class.
So unless the producers plan to start recruiting replacement characters in the second season, and graduate the current favorites, the show could break that suspension of disbelief that makes their position as a musical show work. But even that has its risks, as those who were fans of the original students may leave the show with their faves.
If the worst happens then Fox is stuck with a show that they either have to buy out in order to cancel, which can be costly, or leave on the air to run out the clock, which could cost just as much.
Which is why I would have held off on green-lighting Season 3 until I knew it had survived the hump of Season 2.
But that's just me.
I think Glee will share the same fate as FACTS of LIFE, where whent he kids got older the writers contrived ways to keep Mrs. Garrett and the girls together. When the graduated Eastman why all went to a nearby college and worked at Edna's Edibles.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have a show take Smallville or Buffy which is not centered about High School but about who happen to be at HS, then you can still follow them about then they graduate and then move on.
Glee is just going to tunr into that HS grad who peaked in 10th grade and spends the rest of their life tyring to relive that glory. There is nothing more pathetic than that.