The Glist...

Alright Glee, I have a bone to pick with you...

That's right, after month and months of watching and waiting for the show that knocked my socks off to come back I've suddenly found that (surprise, surprise) it's not all I have wanted it to be. They promised us bigger musical numbers, surprises, more drama, more fleshing out of some of the secondary characters. And while I've seen some of that occurring, I've found that a great deal for what was promised is being isolated to a few key players and we're just ending up dropping a lot of promising storylines.

And so I've come up with a Glist of my own, the top fifteen reasons why I'm still watching, but I'm getting increasingly impatient.

15. Will Shuester has become a simpering, narcisistic ass-hat in the last few episodes. He's consuistently mistreating the women in his life and to be honest, is more and more turning out to not be the best educator. And I know a lot of educators.
14. Terri Shuester was supposed to get more airtime this season. They were going to develop her character. What happened to that?
13. Why is Ken being nice to Will Shuester now? He hasn't shown maturity in the past and Emma broke his heart for Will so when will's treating her badly why isn't Ken trying to smash his face in instead of giving him advice?
12. Molly Shannon.
11. Are Puck and Quinn together? I see them walking together, I could have sworn I saw them holding hands in the background the other day. If they are, why hasn't it been addressed? It certainly would have made Rachel's attempted seduction of Puck a little more sinister in the last episode. And does anyone remember when Quinn said she was going to "do this on my own"? When did that plan go out the window?
10. Why did they drag Kurt back into the "loving Finn" trap when we thought he had moved on from that? If he's decided that he wants him to be his brother that's one thing but the parent relationship storyline almost seems like a throw away reason to have Kurt looking sad and angsty. Love Kurt, don't love that storyline.
9. Tartie needs more airtime. Five seconds of "Yes let's be the minority couple and kiss to seal the deal," isn't enough. They're also both great characters in their own right. I want to know more.
8. Why was the music in the fourth episode SOOOOOOO bad?! I get that the theme was bad music but why couldn't they have chosen bad music that could actually be saved? Wasn't that supposed to be the point? If they thought they saved it, they're sorely mistaken.
7. Santana and Brittany need to be a little less fleshed out. I really want them to stay on the periphery because they're soooo good on the outside. Brittany's one liners are amazing.
6. As much as I love KChen...what was her purpose in that episode? And what fully grown man comes onto a woman by placing the back of his hand on her chest?
5. The fact that Rachel and Finn were "together" when the show came back made no sense whatsoever. Even Rachel isn't that stupid. It's like they're taking her two steps forward and ten steps back.
4. Sue's personality is getting a little spastic. I like that they're giving her layers and a chance to show that while on the outside she's all business, she's really just the dorky teenager who never got past her compatriots teasing her but they need to be careful about it. She can't just turn on a dime, it needs to make sense...even if it's just meant to be funny.
3. Finn actually liking Rachel in a real way also doesn't make sense. She's done nothing to deserve it other than liking him too much. If it's about missing the attention she was giving him I get that but if that's the case they need to make it more clear.
2. Where is Quinn living? And how is she affording to live there cause she's not getting money from Terri anymore...
1. The Glist was a bad reveal...it felt a little like a sad attempt to remind us about Quinn. Hint guys: I never forgot so can you please ANSWER MY PREVIOUS QUESTIONS!?

It just seems to me that the producers and writers are dropping a lot of great storylines in favour of the quick sell. And I'm getting increasingly annoyed with Rachel's lack of capacity to change. C'mon guys! I want my favourite show back!

**Please note: in spite of all this....THE MADONNA EPISODE ROCKED!!!!**

Get ready...

...for more glee!

Standout TV from this year...

It's that time of year again. The time when baking deserts and drinking too much becomes your paramount concern and the only way to keep new content on your blog is to resort to lists (Heaven forbid)! And so without further ado, my breakouts to watch for the coming post-holiday season (even if at least one of them doesn't return until April, once again reminding me why Fox is my nemesis).

Glee (http://www.fox.com/glee)
While Fox may be my nemesis when it comes to making it difficult for me to watch my favourite shows they certainly delivered with this smart, original and comedic musical series. With catchy tunes and a marketing machine that seems to run itself, Glee has become one of the most talked about new shows in recent years. Though it has been suggested that the momentum the show has now can't keep up for too much longer and while I think that it is often true that breakouts don't stay strong forever (see Grey's Anatomy), the value of "where do we go from here" is often overlooked and can sometimes be an even greater, albeit slower pay off. If you haven't had a chance to catch an episode, have a look see. At the very least you will get some great one liners out of Jane Lynch's Coach Sylvester.

Better off Ted (http://abc.go.com/shows/better-off-ted)
This series actually premiered March 2009 but I'm just getting around to watching it now and with the second season just gearing up it seems like as good a time as any to extol the virtues of the team at Veridian Dynamic. The series follows Ted, a middle management type, as he navigates the corporate environment and the everyday ups and downs of working with an overbearing boss (played to exquisite perfection by Portia DeRossi), a team of sometimes slow on the uptake genius product developers and a very pretty co-worker/love interest. With a corporate entity that literally steals the show (through cleverly played commercial inserts) and manages to be a secondary character to the whole mess, Better off Ted is a standout comedic series.

Cougar Town (http://abc.go.com/shows/cougar-town)
Courtney Cox is back and she's better than ever as newly divorced forty-something Jules in this new family comedy on ABC. Although ABC trying to convince us that Courtney is a typical woman in her forties who's been thrown back into the dating pool is a little stale (any promo shot will immediately disprove all the things Jules is constantly saying about her body). The cast of secondary characters and sounding boards from which Jules' neuroses rebound are really the crowning achievement on this show since even though Courtney is working it as hard as she can she's always been about the team effort. There are a lot of great jokes in this one for the ladies so if you're bored and want a few laughs and drama-lite (no heavy stuff here folks) then tune it. It's worth a try.

I know it's a little heavy on the comedies but that's what I seem to have been into of late. Maybe it's an economic crisis thing but I haven't had the heart to sit down and enjoy Damages, The Wire, Flash Forward or any of the other shows that everyone's been raving about. If you have a show that you absolutely adored this season (whether it's new or old) post it, I'm always on the lookout for a decent show I can pull an all nighter with.

To that end, these returning gems deserve a nod:
Californication
30 Rock
The Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
In Plain Sight
Mad Men
The Mentalist
Supernatural
True Blood
Ugly Betty (has finally rallied! Check out the last episode!)

And the award for best marketing plan goes to...

I-- along with a good portion of the continental United States-- have been obsessed with Glee since FOX aired the pilot to tease the upcoming September premier (which has now been pushed up one week to September 9th). Apparently those lucky enough to attend Comic Con and make it to the Glee panel were treated to a preview of the second episode, but cyberspace has lucked out with this clip of Amber Riley working "Bust your windows" by Jazmine Sullivan.

It's a testament to the shows popularity (before actually being on the air) that there has even been a term coined for those fans of the show, a la "twi-hards" and "chucksters". The new term for those who lie in wait for episodes and new tidbits to be released have been dubbed: "gleeks".

Enjoy.