Agreeing to disa-‘Glee’

SINCE IT started telecasting a couple of years ago, “Glee” has earned top marks for dramatizing the lives of “losers” who become winners, and for underscoring the importance of the arts in the lives of students and other young people.

Medium

From time to time, however, the trend-setting “musi-com” has gotten flak due to some “racy” initiatives that some people feel have no place on a general-audience and child-accessible medium like television.

Some months ago, the show got into hot water when it had some of its young actors pose in a sexy pictorial in which they dared and bared in abridged versions of their school clothes. And, more recently, “Glee” has been pelted with critical stink bombs for some scenes depicting actors engaging in male-to-male osculation (translation: kissing), lesbian foreplay and teen, uh, exhibitionism.

What is going on?

Some cast members defend the “heating up” of their show as a natural progression of its basic focus on the odd-people-out of society, including gays, ethnics, the obese, the physically and mentally handicapped, etc.

They argue that it isn’t enough to nobly declare that these heretofore disenfranchised losers can become winners if they assert themselves and defend their lifestyles—the show has to depict those lifestyles believably for the “winning” plot turns to be credible and empathetic. Hence, the gay kissing, lesbian foreplay, etc.

Instructive

It’s instructive to note, however, that not all of the show’s cast members concur with that liberal and liberated observation. A couple of them have gone on record to admit that, TV being a very public medium that’s watched by kids, “Glee” shouldn’t go into such graphic detail in depicting “unusual” lifestyles, because young viewers could get confused or otherwise be negatively affected.

But, their more liberal cast-mates point out, those “graphic” scenes are depicted in the media all the time, so why should “Glee” be singled out for scathing criticism and opprobium?

To which the tit-for-tat riposte is: Precisely because “Glee” is so popular and is specifically focused on the lives of young students.

What do you think? Perhaps the solution is for everyone to—agree to disa-“Glee”?!

This new controversy is of concern to some local fans, because it’s been announced that “our own” Sunshine Corazon (Charice) will soon return to the show’s second season.

Musical rivalry

But, not to worry, folks, it isn’t likely that Charice will be made to engage in anything remotely edgy, since her plot participation pretty much revolves around her musical rivalry with Lea Michele’s character.

We hope, too, that Charice will be given more screen exposure in the show than during her first outing, which turned out to be too abridged to be “star-making.” Will twice be the spice to make Charice’s participation in “Glee” a real winner? Nice.