Mass media.
Feb. 8th, 2011 08:21 pmAs the other person in the common dining area put up some fuss when she came back to the room to find I'd turned the TV off, and seeing as she was having a hard time of things and not wanting to make it worse, I stayed quiet and remained in the room for the first twenty minutes of one episode of Glee.
I still can't figure out the appeal. Beyond knowing other people enjoy it while I don't, I can't see where the appeal is to begin with. I'm well informed it's there, given the number of people watching it when I left the room, but I think this is yet another case where I need someone to translate.
I keep saying that my high school years are most accurately reflected in fiction with Freaks and Geeks, in no small part due to the fact that it managed to grab onto the simple truth that high school isn't worth glamorizing. Paying attention to the drama of others isn't worth the effort, and the level of pettiness to the politics simply proves that Sayre's Law is alive and well. That there are characters in Glee doing their best to grasp at the slivers of power alloted to them by popularity seems to me a failing on the part of the show's design: for a piece focused on a small band of misfits, whose organization gives the show its title and framework, there seems to be a deep focus on characters outside of that social sphere, to the point where they're major players in the general conflicts. For characters to focus on the gains of high school - while failing to fully comprihend the transient nature of such pretty accomplishments - does little to endear them to me, and only serves to confuse. The seeming naivite on part of the characters without any counterbalance leaves me without any comprihension or sense of drama. But perhaps that's the intention, to create a farce. Yet if that's the case, there are still greater distances to cover to fully communicate the message of such a work.
Perhaps the show's creators had happier high school periods than I. Which seems to be the case with the majority of creators of shows about high school.
I still can't figure out the appeal. Beyond knowing other people enjoy it while I don't, I can't see where the appeal is to begin with. I'm well informed it's there, given the number of people watching it when I left the room, but I think this is yet another case where I need someone to translate.
I keep saying that my high school years are most accurately reflected in fiction with Freaks and Geeks, in no small part due to the fact that it managed to grab onto the simple truth that high school isn't worth glamorizing. Paying attention to the drama of others isn't worth the effort, and the level of pettiness to the politics simply proves that Sayre's Law is alive and well. That there are characters in Glee doing their best to grasp at the slivers of power alloted to them by popularity seems to me a failing on the part of the show's design: for a piece focused on a small band of misfits, whose organization gives the show its title and framework, there seems to be a deep focus on characters outside of that social sphere, to the point where they're major players in the general conflicts. For characters to focus on the gains of high school - while failing to fully comprihend the transient nature of such pretty accomplishments - does little to endear them to me, and only serves to confuse. The seeming naivite on part of the characters without any counterbalance leaves me without any comprihension or sense of drama. But perhaps that's the intention, to create a farce. Yet if that's the case, there are still greater distances to cover to fully communicate the message of such a work.
Perhaps the show's creators had happier high school periods than I. Which seems to be the case with the majority of creators of shows about high school.
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