"Glee" recap 1.2: "Showmance"

Warning, spoilers ahead! Read no further if you don't want to know what happened on last night's episode of Glee.

I'll admit, I'm one of the people who finished watching the Glee pilot feeling a bit wary. The characters were overly broad for my tastes -- including tired, cliched characterizations like the witty, fashion-conscious gay guy, the butch, authoritative female coach and the sassy, overweight African-American. Still, I had hopes there would be more to Glee if given the chance. Ryan Murphy's previous high school series, Popular took a little while to fully find its voice and Glee showed potential with Rachel comments about the necessity of finding online fame.

But with the second episode, "Showmance", I'm feeling hopeful Glee will find its voice quickly. "Showmance" offered some hilarious barbs at conservative pressures in schools thanks to screen time devoted to queen bee cheerleader Quinn, who just might be the Mary Cherry of William McKinley High School.

"I'll let you put your hand under my shirt...over the bra."

Our first glimpse of Quinn in "Showmance" sees her negotiation how many bases she'll let her football boyfriend Finn pass if he would only quit the glee club. Quinn, we further learn, leads the schools' Celibacy Club where she advises other girls to live up to misogynistic stereotypes of using sexuality to bag a man ("It's all about the teasing and not about the pleasing.") before having the boys and girls get together to practice maintaining a respectable distance while grinding on the dance floor (aka "The Immaculate Affection").

"If the balloon pops, the noise makes the angels cry."

Rachel smartly sees an opportunity after witnessing the horror of the celibacy club and arranges for the glee club to perform a sexually charged "Push It" at the pep assembly. The song turns out to be a crowd-pleaser but it brings down the wrath of outraged parents and leaves the glee club restricted to a list of "family friendly" songs. There's plenty of powerful comedy potential to taking on the culture wars and, happily, Glee looks like it's going there full blast.