Seriously, GLEE is UGLY BETTY with singing.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been trying to understand and accept the craze over FOX's newest show, GLEE--a show centered around a high school show choir. Now I was a member of a show choir in high school and those were some of the greatest moments of my high school career. Most of my show choir friends are embracing the show with open jazz hands...but I just can't muster up the same enthusiasm. Like most shows today, they are trying to appeal to too many markets. They want to please the gays because they know a gay fanbase is incredibly loyal, so they added gay characters that resemble people I've never met in my entire life as a butt-plugger. Then of course there's the black girl who can 'Sang.' It's episode three and they've already referred to her as Effie White (of 'Dreamgirls' fame). She finally got a full solo, and it dealt with vandalism brought on by her broken-heart. Mind you, her heart was broken by her gay friend who doesn't love her. This gay character, again, is so gay he shines brighter than Rudolph's puckered cherry. So, apparently the black girl is also gullible. Let me also mention that the only other gay character with screen-time was fired from his teaching position for lewd conduct with students. Classy as ever, FOX. There's a throw-away character in both the Asian girl, and a handicap young man in a wheelchair. They're there, of course, to fulfill the stock needs of the show--not mention to meet the "we're offensively edgy" quota of jokes the show tends to favor. The show does, however, focus on the choir coach, a handsome white man, and two high school students, also good-looking and white. They did throw us ethnic folk a bone by making them brunettes, however, so let me give credit where credit is supposedly due. After perusing Google, I found that the female character is actually of Spanish-Italian descent. Not a lick of Caucasian. You'd never know the way she's portrayed in the show. I guess a Latina would've tipped the scales a bit too much. The buttercream frosting on top is the fact that several of the songs in their repertoire range from hip-hop to R&B. Quite a wide-range, I know. What bugs me about this is, who gets to cover these songs? The white characters. Call me crazy, but it's this millennia's minstrel show. I'm not saying that one ethnic group owns any particular kind of music...it's all in the execution. Seriously, all they're missing is black face. They did manage to sing the karaoke-anthem, "Don't Stop Believin," by none other than Journey, which I'm sure just puts the cherry on top for suburban middle-agers recounting their heyday in the 80's. All in all, everyone can in fact sing. Some are stronger than others, and stock or not the characters are fun but embody the depth of a koi pond. My hope is that the show stops trying so hard. The material is there, so why on earth muck it up? With 'Glee,' you have every high school stereotype smothered in hip gravy. It's 'High School Musical' for psuedo-edgy people. It's so broad it doesn't need shoulder pads--but it wears them anyway. White suburban kids singing R&B songs just isn't cool. Doesn't anyone understand that? Justin Timberlake was an accident.