Leah Wilson - Filled with Glee: The Unauthorized Glee Companion

Table of Contents

Other Smart Pop Titles

Taking the Red Pill
Seven Seasons of Buffy
Five Seasons of Angel
What Would Sipowicz Do?
Stepping through the Stargate
The Anthology at the End of the Universe
Finding Serenity
The War of the Worlds
Alias Assumed
Navigating the Golden Compass
Farscape Forever!
Flirting with Pride and Prejudice
Revisiting Narnia
Totally Charmed
King Kong Is Back!
Mapping the World of the Sorcerers Apprentice
The Unauthorized X-Men
The Man from Krypton
Welcome to Wisteria Lane
Star Wars on Trial
The Battle for Azeroth
Boarding the Enterprise
Getting Lost
James Bond in the 21stCentury
So Say We All
Investigating CSI
Webslinger
Halo Effect
Neptune Noir
Coffee at Lukes
Perfectly Plum
Greys Anatomy 101
Serenity Found
House Unauthorized
Batman Unauthorized
In the Hunt
Ardeur
A Taste of True Blood
Inside Joss Dollhouse
A Visitors Guide to Mystic Falls

INTRODUCTION

Glee isnt perfect.

... which seems like a strange way to begin the introduction to an anthology celebrating the show, but stick with me.

I love Glee. Very little lifts my mood like the clip of the McKinley football players dancing to Beyonc. Theres no show I get more excited to watch. But Glee doesnt always live up to my (deservedly) high expectations. In those rare moments where I find myself frustrated with the show, its usually because Glee has too much going on: Too many subplots to devote the deserved amount of time to any one of them. Too many characters to let us get to know them the way we want to.

Glee packs a lot into a small space. The show pulls songs from more than half a dozen decades and a surprising number of musical genres. The comedy and drama are packed shoulder to shoulder, jockeying for position. Sometimes things tip over too far one way or the other: Certain scenes are so heartwarming as to feel saccharine. Others are so over-the-top that they no longer ring as true and lose their satirical power. Occasionally these two things happen in the same subplot.

But when Glee workswhen the show hits exactly the right balance and all the various notes come together perfectly? To exploit the opportunity for a good musical pun: it sings. When Glee harmonizes its sharp tongue and earnest heart, it has a power like nothing else to touch, to inspire, to entertain.

Thats the Glee millions of viewers have fallen in love with, and thats the Glee at the heart of this book: One thats multidimensional and surprising, entertaining and inspirational, outrageously implausible and yet in many ways more real than anything else on television. One that transforms both its characters and its audience on a weekly basis.

But the Glee that doesnt always get it right is of interest here, too. Not explicitlyif youre looking for negativity or nitpicking, youre in the wrong placebut implicitly. Because if I had to use just a single word to describe Glee, that word would be inclusive. The show advocates valuing people for who they are, flaws and all. Because those flawsthe things others judge or look down on, the things that make others uncomfortablecan also be a source of strength and worth.

Glee lauds the outsider: the talented outcast, the ostracized cheerleader, the underdog high school teacher-turned-mentor. Will Schuester is, unsurprisingly, a fitting poster child for Glee. Hes a Spanish teacher in an area of the country with a low Hispanic population, which marks him as a bit of an outsider himself (he teaches a subject many other educators consider secondaryor even, as Sue suggested with her trademark bluntness, worthless). But it also marks him as someone who has devoted his career to reaching out and communicating with those who are different from him.

Hes also a perfect illustration of the power of pursuing your passion. Will isnt perfect. He makes mistakes. When we first meet him, hes miserablehes let himself become someone he doesnt recognize. But he remembers who he always wanted to be, and he goes after it: he takes over the glee club, and he changes not just his own life, but his students as well. He rediscovers what makes him happywhat makes him Willand hes willing to face resistance and ridicule to hold on to it.

Glee is all about that kind of authenticity. It rewards it in its characters and encourages it in its viewers. More than that, it practices what it preaches. Because whatever else Glee may be, it is always, totally and completely, itself: quirky, passionate, and larger than life.

Glee may not be perfect, but neither are we. And thats the point. Being perfectfitting into that Cheerios costume, winning that trophyisnt the goal. Being yourselffinding what makes you happy and doing it, whether thats singing Barbra Streisand or playing quarterback (or both)is.

One thing that makes the writers whose pieces youre about to read happy is Gleewatching it, and talking about it. Here, they take on topics as diverse as Wills disastrous love life, Puck and Finns improbable friendship, and how Glee changed television, all with the same kind of passion that drives the characters we love to watch onscreen.

Get new perspectives on characters like Rachel, Kurt, and Sue. Revisit particular episodes with our episode guide, and use the song lists to find sheet music or track down other versions of your favorites. Learn a few things even the biggest Gleek may not know. Even find tips for creating a show choir of your own, no matter how old you are. (Writing the piece even inspired its author to get back in action!)

Weve also included true stories from Glee fans, submitted to our Share Your Glee contest, about how the show has affected their lives. Because thats really this books goal: to share what we see when we watch Glee and, hopefully, to encourage you to share what you see, too. If Glee has shown us anything, its that the more voices we hear, the richer the song.

Your voice doesnt have to be perfect. It just has to be yours.

Leah Wilson

BEV KATZ ROSENBAUM

YEAH, SURE, we all know the show choir at William McKinley High School is filled with nerds. The original members of New Directions fit the usual definition of the word: theyre interested in things that are unusual for their age (e.g., Rachel Berry and Barbra Streisand), are physically or socially awkward (e.g., all of them), and are routinely excluded from more conventional activities (ditto). But heres the thing: the popular kids at McKinley are just as messed up, lonely, and marginalized as their showbiz-lovin counterparts. Consider Finn Hudson, the confused, fatherless football player with the impressive pipes who still mourns the loss of his single moms mullet-headed, power-ballad-rockin lawn-painter boyfriend. Then theres Quinn Fabray, the pregnant cheerleader who got kicked off her beloved cheerleading team by nasty coach Sue Sylvester, and then out of the house by her mortified parents. Or Noah Puck Puckerman, whose family celebrates Jewish holidays by parking themselves in front of the TV. The adults on the show who were once popular (Will and Terri Schuester, April Rhodes) seem pretty dang messed up, too.