Glee

Ahhhh School! Those were the days, right? Do you remember hanging out in the refectory, sharing dilemmas and personal issues and not knowing how to deal with them? And do you also remember quelling such problems by engaging your friends in song, whilst other students that you've never even met before, usually with some kind of handicap, hold your hand and therefore teach you a valuable lesson about life, which you think is ironic being as every other lesson you learn at school is nowhere near as inspiring?
No, nor me!
I suppose if it happened in England, you'd face some sort of assault charge for just being near anyone's hand, shortly before being stabbed in the face for allegedly acting 'gay'. Maybe this kind of thing only happens in America where everyone is eerily flamboyant and annoyingly talented all of the sodding time, like the folk in Glee (E4).
From the outset, Glee shines with youthful innocence and glamour like an overly cheery passenger screaming out the side of the High School Musical band wagon. It adopts all the same characteristics, from the unlikley love interests between the geek and football twat stereotypes, to the drop-everything-I-feel-a-song-coming-on outbursts, that seem to happen every five minutes. The show centres around an achingly forgiving yet inspiring high school teacher who attempts the almost impossible task of re-igniting the spirit of the schools Glee Club by prancing around with a 'down with the kids' attitude, that finds you smashing a mug into you face simply out of boredom. Of course, he must win over the students who need to 'find themselves', and eventually encourages them to join the club, where they finally 'find themselves' thanks to his influential teaching.
However, there's a hidden charm to the show as it tries to keep up with this standard musical teen show genre, but manages to get away with so much blatant discrimination and general evil as the story unfolds. In any given episode the characters struggle to deal with your usual high school worries, like teen pregnancy, sexuality and oddly forced speech impediments, and then learn to overcome their whiny problems by just being themselves. But that's just it. The show seems to be telling us that each character has to first recognize that they do have an obvious disability before they can get on with life. But they must be themselves at all times and remember that they are DISABLED. And remember that being DISABLED isn't a bad thing and a DISABLED individual shouldn't be judged because of their DISABILITY, but don't forget that they are DISABLED. The show manages to encourage the viewer to see past a persons handicap and treat them equally, whilst somehow highlighting the handicap in the process, making it an issue.
Although, saying that, the show does tend to subconsciously know that it is doing this, and in places almost parody itself by piling on jokes to both distract you and genuinely make you laugh out loud. In fact, its the shows ability to balance so precariously on the fine line between safe social commentary and basically pointing at someone in a wheel chair that makes it hugley compelling and definitely unmissable. Unmissable, purely through the slightly pornographic thrill of seeing which side of the line they fall week upon week.
Glee leaves you smiling, either through a euphoric joy, or glee (No, please stop throwing things, how could you not see that coming!) of seeing the kids achieve self enlightenment, or because you've just finished manically laughing at the sharp wit that strives to keep things barley legal. Something to sing about i guess..................................