Ask the Flying Monkey! (October 26, 2009)

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Send it to aftereltonflyingmonkey@yahoo.com! (Please include your city and state and/or country.)

Q: OK, I'm a Gleek -- I love the show. But is it only me or are the "adults" on this show really, really annoying (and stupid)? The whole fake pregnancy thing between Mr. Shue and his wife? WTF? How can a reasonably intelligent man live with, and presumably share a bed with the same women night after night and not catch on? There are definitely some storylines that just detract from the greatness of this show, and most of them (except for Jane Lynch) just need to go away. What are your thoughts? -- Brian B. North Hollywood, CA

Glee's main adult cast members: Matthew Morrison,
Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays and Jessalyn Gilsig

A: Truthfully, I haven’t quite drunk the Glee Kool-Aid. There are some things I like about the show – and, like you, many of them involve Jane Lynch. I also like the kids and much of the music. And I really appreciate how different the show is from (a) everything else on TV, and (b) especially all the other high school shows, like Gossip Girl, with their nonsense teenage characters.

But if there was ever a show that’s hit-and-miss for me, Glee is it. I understand that it’s supposed to be over-the-top, but sometimes it’s as if the show isn’t even trying to make sense: the principle whose character seems wildly inconsistent, Emma agreeing to marry a man she openly despises (for reasons I can’t begin to understand – she can’t find anyone else in the whole town to marry in order to get over Will?), and, yes, Will’s wife, whose whole character I find unbelievable anyway, being able to hide a pregnancy from the man she’s sleeping with. And I thought the whole storyline about 41-year-old Kristin Chenoweth returning to high school as a student was just stupid.

I agree with you that the kids’ storylines are far more successful, but the perfectly-choreographed first run-through rehearsals are really starting to bug me. I know it’s a fantasy, but unlike the old show Fame (which was also a fantasy), there doesn’t seem to be even the slightest nod to the idea that performance actually involves, you know, work?

The kids launch into yet another perfectly orchestrated
and choreographed impromptu performance

Now all this said, we’re still in the first thirteen episodes of the very first season. I think about how bad some of my other favorite shows were in their first season or two. But I must confess that there have been a couple of times that I’ve been so annoyed with Glee that, if I wasn’t writing for AfterElton.com, I might have turned the episode off.

Next page! An update on the U.S. version of Skins. Plus, is it time to find a new food guru?