Glee creator gets reprieve

It’s no secret that fans were unhappy. After a fresh, fun, and, dare I say, ground-breaking first season, Glee got caught up in its own press.  Big name stars admitted they were Gleeks and asked to appear or share their music. 

Suddenly, every second episode had a musical theme or a very special guest star.

Worse yet, Glee creator, Ryan Murphy was quoted attacking performers who didn’t want their songs Glee-ified.  Like a Broadway-bound George W., Murphy tweeted daily, claiming that anyone who wasn’t with us must be against us.

Now I will admit that Gwyneth Paltrow’s portrayal of Holly Holliday deserved the Emmy.  And I could never turn my back on pint-sized Kristin Chenoweth’s supersized voice. 

But Britney Spears was only funny when Britney S. Pierce bemoaned the burden of her famous name.  John Stamos was underutilized. 

Carol Burnett’s comedic genius was lost.  Josh Groban’s and Olivia Newton-John’s presence just made no sense.
While it’s fun to add star power, Murphy seemed to think it was the only thing bringing fans back each week.  Not true.
It was the characters. We loved the naïve Finn who thought he’d impregnated his girlfriend by getting excited in a hot tub. 

We found it amusing that the straight-laced teacher would blackmail a football player with medicinal grade marijuana to force him to join glee club.

They were awkward (see Finn try to sing and move his feet at the same time), and overbearing (see Rachel do, well, anything), and glorious caricatures of typical students – so sure of what they know and yet, totally clueless.  And in showing the teachers’ oddities and failings too, we often wondered how we survived high school, ourselves. 

Unfortunately, by the end of Season Two, Murphy was changing the kids from caricatures to Archie comics.  The bad guys plotted and the good guys suffered through it. But in my experience, high ¬scho¬olers don’t have the complicated-sting-operation gene required to wreak the havoc that Murphy wrote. No, they’re pretty much limited to the Slushie.
So I was this close to giving up. Then …Episode Three. 

Brittany got a killer song and dance number.  Mike Chang became much more than a back-up dancer.  Mercedes reacted appropriately to two years of playing second-fiddle to Rachel.  And Emma just broke our hearts. 

No stars.  No convoluted plots.  Just kids trying to find some way to shine amid a sea of other kids trying to do the same.
According to Social Power Rankings, it worked.  Viewers cried.  And it’s been a while since we were emotionally invested in these kids. 

So not only did Murphy deliver, but he also got a reprieve.  Now, the question remains: What is he going to do with it?