Reviews

Glee, the one of Fox's newest shows, has been described as "High School Musical meets Election with Fame tossed in". Though I haven't seen HSM (eww), the gist of show is about a Glee Club set in high school, with musical numbers in every episode. As you can imagine, there is so much creative freedom (and thus, entertainment) the show can get away with.

Matthew Morrison does a good job playing hard-working, diplomatic Glee Club teacher, Will Schuester, and is the one people sympathize with most. His rival, Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) the coach authoritative of the cheerleading team, is out to destroy his hopes of establishing the Glee club. Lynch's lines are by far the funniest on the show, delivered with so much humor that she steals every scene she is in.

And of course the music! The show does a truly fantastic job at updating older songs ("Don't Stop Believing" by Journey is an excellent example) sung by the group as well as more recent hits (Amy Winehouse's "Rehab"). In addition, I almost had an orgasm when I heard an a capella version of Golliwog's Cakewalk by Debussy sung in the background. Wonderful stuff.

The downfall of Glee is the story lines and characters. After two episodes, the two main plot lines are Will Schuester's wife, Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig), and her fake pregnancy. While it might be somewhat entertaining, Terri's character comes off as selfish and almost immature, leaving audiences to wonder what Will sees in her (Terri demands to have a "grand foyer" in the new house because she believes she deserves it).

The other plot involves the familiar "Unpopular girl likes hot jock but he's with hot popular chick" -- Finn + Rachel + Quinn. Though the shows seems to want us to root for the Finn + Rachel equation (portraying Quinn as conniving and manipulative), and while they have good chemistry together, I can't help but wonder -- do we care? Rachel almost comes off as insane in the Pilot, asking teacher Schuester to find her a male lead or she's out and when Finn arrives, she is a little too friendly with him (I guess she's happy there's someone she can sing with?). Likewise, Finn is almost the stereotypical, dumb, straight jock -- except he can sing and surprisingly cares for Glee.

Speaking of stereotypes, the other characters in the club aren't presented thoroughly enough, leaving them as high school stereotypes; the flamboyant gay guy, the black chick who can SING but has issues with being in the background, an Asian girl who can also sing but know nothing about, and the nerd with glasses (who is also in a wheelchair). Perhaps it is the point of the show, to showcase stereotypes we are all familiar with. However, as of two episodes, these characters don't have the chance to be relate-able or really do anything besides sing and dance. I don't know about the rest of the world, but stereotypes only work when used for humor or satirical purposes; otherwise, I'd rather see real, different, characters.

Though still too early to give a final verdict, Glee is a decent show. Scenes with Jane Lynch will make you laugh out loud, and the music numbers are certainly entertaining and pleasing -- both definitely good reasons to tune in. Hopefully by the end of the season, each of the characters will be explored further, which will leave viewers with a stronger sense of Glee and be more attached to the show. All in all, a decent, imaginative new show that deserves at least an "A" for effort -- and at least viewing one episode.

I recently saw this at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival to an almost packed house. Tru Loved is the story of a teenage girl named Tru (short for Gertrude) who goes to a new school. Of course, she doesn't fit in at first, mainly because she is labeled as a "freak" by the popular crowd (ie. about 3 or 4 people) when she looks quite average actually. The twist here is that her she has two sets of parents -- two moms and two dads, of which they're all gay. This element proves to be refreshing and comedic at times.

However, when dealing with teenage themes, there are always going to be stereotypes and clichéd situations, especially when it comes to gay-themed films (ie. conservative parents, the anti-gay jocks). What set Juno apart from most other teenage films was the interesting and colourful characters. Tru, as the protagonist, first comes across as possibly interesting, but falls behind other major characters who have bigger problems than her.

In the beginning, she fantasizes about outlandish scenarios, which, instead of adding her to character, only seem like something the writer added in the hopes of making her interesting when it in fact strangely clashes with her somewhat bland personality. She meets and befriends Lo, who turns out to be gay, and is reluctantly becomes his "girlfriend". This and other events happen TO her, and after a while, it is clear she doesn't have any particular goal but merely follows other subplots and guides people, which was frustrating at times. In fact, the entire film felt more like Lo's story rather than hers.

This isn't to say that the film wasn't entertaining. A few great punchlines kept the audience roaring with laughter (as much as I want to, I can't repeat it. Go see it for yourself). The acting decent, the direction alright, the budget noticeably small but overlooked, Tru Loved is a good second film from Stewart Wade, but don't take it too seriously as real life.