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The William McKinley High School glee club, New Directions, has come to DVD and Blu-ray.
There are two distinct parts of the show’s first season, since the last nine episodes were shot after the network picked up the series. The first 13 episodes show Will Schuester’s (Matthew Morrison) efforts to make his band of misfit losers into a functioning show choir. He makes a deal with the principal (Iqbal Theba) that glee club must win or place in competition or lose its funding for good. Schuester is opposed by cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), who does whatever she can to derail him.
The last nine episodes continue Sue’s campaign to get rid of the glee club, but they’re more focused on the glee club’s preparation for a big showdown with their rivals. The second part definitely focuses on the show part of show choir. The sets are bigger—even a mall is used—the number of costumes is expanded and more elaborate, and the overall difficulty of the choreography is increased. It also seems like there are more songs and longer performances in the second part of the season.
This is truly an ensemble cast, and listing them here would take up too much space. But the casting department has done a good job of finding new fresh talent, a task made more difficult because of the need for many to sing, dance, and act—the elusive triple threat.
Lea Michele comes closest to that triple threat. Ms. Michele’s Rachel Berry is almost believable as a teenager until she opens her mouth to sing. It’s hard to believe that Rachel is a sophomore, since she sings like an accomplished performer. Her best numbers are from Broadway: “I Dreamed a Dream,” from Les Miserables, sung as a duet with special guest Idina Menzel, and “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from Funny Girl. The producers do a really good job of giving Ms. Michele songs that showcase her talents—something that could be said of all of the show’s individual performances.
Some have complained about the quality of writing for this show—so much so that the cast is always commenting on the exceptional quality of the writing. I will simply say this: the writing serves as a bridge to the next performance. It almost seems like the creators picked the music then wrote a script around the music and a few broad plotlines.
But it’s the music and dancing that makes Glee a hit. The glee club covers almost every type of popular music available. Broadway classics, U2, The Police, John Lennon, KISS, and even American Idols Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood all get their chance to be sung by the glee club—and songwriters everywhere are seeing new life for their work.
A cautionary note here: Glee is not for every audience. Sure, the music and dancing are great, but this is scripted television, and some of the storylines are definitely not for everyone. There’s no subtlety—so if you have well-defined views on the social issues of the day or would rather not think about the culture war while trying to relax after work, Glee may not be for you.
Season 1 Highlights:
If you’re going to watch only one episode of Glee, watch episode 15, “The Power of Madonna.” Almost all of the singers in the group sing a song. The costumes are fun (watch for the montage of Madonna music video costumes). And there’s a whole host of set changes, along with a choreographed dance number of “Express Yourself” that, combined with the costumes and light show, will remind viewers of classic Madonna.
Other highlights include the choir singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” with a deaf choir (episode 11, “Hairography”). Just when you think you’ve seen it all, “Imagine” is a quiet, powerful performance. Another memorable performance is “Lean on Me,” sung to a couple of choir members who are having a particularly difficult school year.
Season 1 Lowlight:
This is going to seem petty, but there aren’t enough people given credit for their work. Glee is not an a capella choir. Every performance has the assistance of members of the WMHS Jazz Ensemble and a variety of others during the season, but none of these performers has a credit. The gentleman who plays the piano is Brad Ellis. He has a credit at the very end of the credit screen, but it goes by very fast, and you’d have to watch the entire list of credits to find his name.
Blu-ray Review:
The Blu-ray version does not contain any sort of episode guide, so the only way to tell what’s on the disc is to load it into the player. All extras, with the exception of the cast commentary of the pilot, are on disc four.
The Blu-ray contains a cast commentary of the pilot, along with the usual get-to-know-the-cast features, a feature with the costume department, and another with the choreographers showing some of the dance steps for one of the numbers in the pilot episode. These are relatively short—and, unless you choose to watch them all together, they’re quite enjoyable.
Must-see features include the casting special from FX, the Madonna episode feature, and the Showstopper feature detailing what it took to make the “Bohemenian Rhapsody” that’s seen in the season finale. There are also some karaoke numbers, but there are only a few and most are really short. The only really funny feature is the eighth-grade orientation video for incoming freshmen by WMHS Principal Figgins.
The crown jewel of the special features is the ability to watch just the song and dance numbers. Each episode is broken down individually, or you can choose to watch all of the videos in order or shuffled up. If you watch Glee for the music and the videos, this feature alone is worth the price.
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