Imma Gleek!!

Every year there is a TV series that has everyone talking. For the last year, the teenagers of Upper East Side have been taking the cake with the very sexy and spicy Gossip Girl. A story revolving around a group of students who's lives are constantly in public eye thanks to an anonymous blogger titled Gossip Girl. The first two season were huge hits amongst the TV watchers. But this year, Gossip Girl has taken a back seat to the FOX newcomer Glee.

The story revolves around a group of teenagers, most of them who happen to be under-dogs in their high school's social scene. Really not belonging to any particular group as nobody wants them, are collected under the banner of their school's Glee Club, titled New Directions.

Their director is an ex-glee club member himself from the Class of 1993, William Schuester( Played by Matthew Morrison). The student initially is made up of the melodramatic vocal talent Rachael Berry( Played by Lea Michele), the flamboyant soprano Kurt Hummel(Played by Chris Colfer), the sassy plus-sized 'Beyonce' Mercedes Jones( Played by Amber Riley), the shy introvert Tina Cohen-Chang( Played by Jenna Ushkowitz) and the paraplegic guitar player, also my favorite of the bunch Artie Abrams( Played by Kevin McHale).

They are later joined by the football Quarterback Finn Hudson( Played by Cory Monteith). His joining throws the school's social status quo out of the window. Glee club gets another surprising entry when the head cheer-leader, Quinn Fabray( Played by Dianna Agron) who is protecting her best interests(Read; Love Interest). The last important member to join the Glee Club is the proud and cocky, Noah 'Puck' Puckerman (Played by Mark Sallings), not the best singer of the group by he's my favorite male character in the series.

Other characters include the Head Coach for the Cheer Leaders Sue Sylverster (Played by Jane Lynch), the hygiene obsessed school counselor Emma Pillsbury (Played by Jayma Mays; On a very personal note, she's freak'in adorable) who has feelings for Will Schue and Will's nagging wife Terri Schuester (Played by Jessalyn Gilsig). Although I have tagged this post with the label Musicals, the last three characters really don't have any singing opportunities except for Emma who sings once during an episode and is seen lip-syncing to a tearful track in her car at certain point in the series and Sue who's shown dancing.

The cast though very cliche has extremely powerful chemistry. I can pin-point very similar characters from other TV Series floating over various network. The only fresh characters I fail to identify anywhere else are Mercedes and Artie, both who happen to be my favorite characters. Also something relatively new I experienced is that the female lead - Rachael Berry is sometimes annoying which can't be said for most female leads. Kurt is another favorite of mine, but reminds me alot of Marc St. James (Played by Michael Urie) from Ugly Betty. I know this can be a very generic remark given both characters are gay and flamboyant, but truly speaking they do seem alot alike.

Being a musical, there have been numerous moments where the cast collectively or solo has burst into singing and dancing. The song selection is remarkable and the character's vocal ability is much to be praised. Some of my favorite are Don't Stop Believing, Bust Your Windows by Amber Riley, Maybe This Time by Rachael Berry and Kristin Chenoweth (Guest starring).

One of my favorite moments during the entire season was the football team breaking down into a very cool song mid-game. I'm not telling you the song but I will tell you to watch the video here and put your hands up!

The ninth episode titled Wheels has been my favorite episode so far. Because it gave deeper insight to the characters of Artie, Tina and Sue. Also the Rachael and Kurt duet on Defying Gravity is simply amazing. The other two songs performed on the episode are also really good, especially the entire cast performing Proud Mary and the Artie going solo on Dancing With Myself. Do check these out!

The first season ends on December 9th at after a total of thirteen episodes. A second season has been confirmed and will premiere sometime around fall next year, hopefully compromising 24 episodes. Get Gleeked!!

Copyright © Saad Khan 2009 (Karachi, Pakistan; saadkhalidkhan@gmail.com)