First, read this: Listen Up, Nerds! – Glee | Kathleen Quinlan’s online portfolio.

This link isn’t actually a blog post, but a pdf of an article published somewhere. It makes several points — many of which make me wonder if the writer has ever actually watched Glee.

First, she brings up the “Kurt is a big gay stereotype” line, but with a proviso. It was only offensive when he pretended to be straight and dressed like his dad. Of course, we all know Kurt wasn’t exactly pretending to be straight. He was trying to be more like his father, so his dad would take as much of an interest in him as he was taking in Finn, the quarterback. Straight (or at least interested in women) was a part of it, but not the point. But then, we watch the show.

The other old line she uses is that the show is inconsistent and unrealistic. It’s a musical. If you spent the entirety of Miss Saigon picking apart the unrealistic parts (mostly, the whole show), you probably wouldn’t enjoy it very much either. I love musicals and that’s one big reason I love Glee. I spent a lot of my high school years with my friends, at the piano, singing show tunes and pop music. We even wrote our own songs and performed them too. I didn’t sound like Lea Michele, no. But in our heads we did.

I would agree on one thing, however. She mentions that Finn felt he needed a scholarship and now magically doesn’t. Well, it wasn’t magic exactly. His mother married Burt Hummel who does seem to be far better off than the Hudsons were. But, it would be nice if every single character didn’t seem to have unlimited money. It’s fun reading fan fiction where the authors struggle to explain Kurt’s incredibly expensive designer wardrobe.

And while she moans about the level of music performance, she forgets that she wants it to be realistic. I’ve seen interviews where the cast laugh and say themselves “We’re not a Glee club.” They’re actors. They sing and they dance, but they’re not all professional singers. And that’s ok. The show is a musical but it is also character driven. They’re also reputed to be the hardest working TV actors around. Not only do they have lines, but they have choreography to learn and tracks to record before a show is ready to air.

More shows should do as well as Glee has at failing miserably.