It's a question my favorite Time magazine writer recently asked in a column you can read right here. In a piece she called "The Gospel of Glee," Nancy Gibbs challenged parents not to dismiss the show outright but to use its rich themes as teachable moments.Yep, there are kids behaving badly in the show. But, frankly, the grownups behave worse. The main characters are a bunch of social misfits. Just the kind of folks you'd expect Jesus to hang with. In the story line, cheaters never prosper, tolerance and honesty are valued and hypocrisy is satirized with razor precision. It is true the show's biggest hypocrites are the Christian parents of a teen aged girl who gets pregnant. But isn't it also true that if there was one thing Jesus could not abide, it was a religious hypocrite?
Take it from a high school misfit...what Glee exposes is raw and real. Once, just once, see high school social structure turned on its head. I watch very little television. This is one show I can't seem to miss.
Again, I really think I need to start watching this show on a regular basis. I wish I wouldn't have missed so many episodes already.
ReplyDeleteI love the underlying parts of the show. Tolerance, honesty, team building. While the content can be questionable for younger kids, it speaks to the age bracket it needs to. Older teens and young adults (cough...and you) love the show because it is very real.
ReplyDeleteI can watch the show and pick out each person from my choir days and place them as a character in the show, they are those people.
Trish - I saw your story on your blog at about the time I was finally getting my head around blogging too. Very nice stuff. Mine is a bit simpler.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your views on Glee - we actually agree, though from different angles.
http://dailydummy.blogspot.com/2009/12/imagine-my-glee.html
http://dailydummy.blogspot.com/2009/12/too-obvious.html