So I’ve watched a couple of episodes of Glee.  Mainly because it has been seriously hyped by the entertainment media and the blogosphere.  I understand why.  It’s ever so slightly different than most of what you’ve got on network TV now.  And it was created by Ryan Murphy, whose previous series Nip/Tuck strikes people as buzzworthy.  This is all good - I like different.

The idea is amusing, though maybe not as original as everyone thinks.  A group of high school misfits (including a teacher) band together to show their peers (including teachers) that they are capable of doing great things.  In this case the vehicle is a Glee Club.  The first strike against the show is that there really is no way that they are going to outright fail.  Because that would be really painful.  So the interesting part has to be how they get to success.  So far that plotting is pretty predictable.

You could argue that the fun is in the musical numbers, which have sort of a kitschy charm.  But that’s only going to carry the show so far.  A glee club version of Don’t Stop Believin’ is amusing in the pilot, but if it turns into the cheesy 70s or 80s song of the week show, it is going to get old fast.

OK, I’m about to go negative here.  I do it with tough love.  Because I do want shows like this to survive.   I have some very specific problems with the show that are going to prevent me from becoming a true fan and so consider this an intervention.

First of all, a show about music should never take a wrong step on pop culture.  That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.  And yet Glee blows it twice in the second episode alone.   I get that the male lead is supposed to be a dumb football player, but to have him not know Justin Timberlake is stupid writing.  Do the writers really think there is any high school kid in America who doesn’t know who Justin Timberlake is?  They might not all like him, but between his music and Dick in a Box, that’s a little odd to assert.

Then, a major plot point in this same episode is that the teacher wants them to do a disco song at the assembly.  The kids want to do something a little more recent and less embarrassing.  Not a bad storyline.  The kids decide to defy the teacher and come up with their own routine.  And what recent song do they choose?  Push It by Salt n Pepa.  Huh?  The song is from 1987.   None of these kids were even born yet.  And I’m supposed to believe that that song got the high school assembly on their feet and on the Glee Club’s side?  To make matters worse, earlier in the episode the teacher himself pulls out a Kanye West song for them to do, which just drives home how far off the writers were on the Salt n Pepa song.

How about the character development?  More wrong notes abound.  The aforementioned football player and the nerdy girl who loves him are unfortunate cliches.  Other roles are caricatures rather than characters, such as the teacher’s wife who is such an unlikeable shrew that you can’t quite understand why this perfect teacher (another cliche) ever married her.  (Which is too bad, because the actress playing the wife, Jessalyn Gilsig, was really good in Heroes when given a small, but real, role.)  Honestly, the only characters who seem fully developed right now are Jane Lynch’s rival coach, but it could be that she is just fun to watch no matter what she does, and Iqbal Theba’s Principal, who has a great slow burn delivery.

OK, OK, it has only been two episodes.  Give them a chance on building characters, right?

Which brings me to the most egregious wrong note.  So, this is a show about the misfit kids in a ragtag glee club.  They’ve built the prerequite Hollywood PC collection of kids.  Jock who wants to sing (who is white).  Nerd who wants to be noticed (who is white).  Sassy African-American girl.  Quiter Asian-American girl.  Kid in wheelchair.  Gay guy.  I can just see the studio exec standing in the back of the first screening, smugly checking off all the affirmative action boxes on his list.

This might be alright if they had given these kids anything to do. Instead, in two episodes, the only characters that have been given storylines beyond singing with the group are white, straight and walking around on two good legs.  Seriously.  The writers on this show have not given any of these other characters hardly a line of dialogue outside of the group singing scenes.  There is something painfully wrong about that.  There is a hint that the gay kid is going to have a subplot about trying out for the football team, but the other three seem to be nothing more than diversity window dressing.

Look, I’m not about to call out Jesse Jackson for a march, but why bother having an interesting collection of kids, if it is clear that the people in charge of the show don’t find them worth writing for.  Glee has a large ensemble.  And big shows like that are only good when every single character in the show is real and interesting, no matter how small the role.  That is not happening at all now with Glee.

But, like I said, I’m pulling for this show.  It’s the plucky underdog in a sea of cop, doctor and lawyer shows (and it’s not out there enough to hang with the serialized sci-fi dramas either).  Its only real friend is Ugly Betty (which it should start watching because that show has done a really good job of making every character into a real believable person without losing its quirkiness).

So gather around, Glee.  Here’s what you’ve gotta do.  Start putting in the effort.  ‘Cause no one’s gonna help you out here.  Live up to your potential.  Be aggressive.  B-E aggressive.  Don’t let them throw you in the dumpster.  Believe in yourself and the world will rally behind you.

Oh yeah.  And how about writing some better episodes.