The Emmys are Full of Glee…Unfortunately

Glee (Airs on Fox)

I love mind-numbing and/or trashy TV. I could watch Maury Povich pronounce, “you are not! the father” for 24 hours straight. And as far as Teen Dramas go, not only did I grow up with the kids from Degrassi High and The OC, but 90210 and Gossip Girl are still on the radar. I am the lowest common denominator of the TV generation. But even I have my limits, and Glee just passed over that by one pregnant belly.

The idea for the show in and of itself is brilliant. American Idol makes millions hand over fist with nameless faces performing other people’s music, so why not apply a script and serialize it? Result:  Five Satellite Awards, one Artios, one AFI, a People’s Choice Award, a Peabody, and a Golden Globe alongside several nominations. Past that, in just one season, they’ve managed to pump out 5 albums, all managing to maintain dominance in top ranking spots across the Billboard Charts. The latest, “Journey to Regionals“, debuted at number 1 selling 154,000 albums. And just this month, Glee received 19 Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

But with all great series, that ramp before the shark is always just a few episodes away. Zac and friends start their college years, Lorelia elopes with Christopher, Pam and Jim get married, and a gaggle of unwed pregnant teenagers express their oppression and degradation in society by swirling their bellies in circles around each other.

Let me get us all on the same page on that last one. The cast of Glee is given an assignment each week to express themselves via song. In season 1 episode 21, the gang finds themselves in a funk about performing against their rivals. To get out of their depressed state, they are to perform funk numbers in an expression of their own plight in life. The very pregnant Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) decides she is going to sing about her discrimination in society through a James Brown song. And scene:

Now let me give you a few minutes to gather yourself. Go on, you know you need it. The cognitive dissonance that has just occurred from sampling such an affair has obviously opened up a series of questions inside of you, most likely among those being:

1. First and foremost, WTF?
2. Did the chorus of that song really consist of a series of Lamaze exercises?
3. Did they really just pull in that many underage preggos from one high school?
4. Pelvic thrusts and sensual ground movements…really ladies?  Isn’t that what got you knocked up in the first place?
5. Seriously, WTF!?!

Unwed Mothership Connection from Glee

And to further scramble any coupling of reality to screen, in the next scene, Quinn and fellow glee member Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley) have a heart to heart as Mercedes concedes that the two can finally relate to each other because Quinn has seen the discrimination and oppression that Mercedes has had to deal with all her life. Oh, did you not know? Mercedes is black. Yup, that’s right. The discrimination that the blonde-haired blue-eyed upper-class head-cheerleader has experienced from getting pregnant is right on par with the displacement of African American’s in our current culture. Cause, you know, not getting to lead the cheerleading squad is akin to the repercussions of a couple hundred years of slavery. I mean, the Country Club may take one look at Quinn Fabray and not let her on the golf range for 9 months, but they ain’t ever letting in Mercedes Jones.

Maybe this is why one of those nineteen Emmy Nominations is for Best Comedy Series, because is anyone taking this seriously?