Series premiere: Glee debuts at 9 p.m. ET on the nose

Series name
Glee

Debuts
Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox and Global

Regularly airs
Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox and Global

Premise
Nerdy teacher attempts to reclaim his mojo by taking charge of McKinley High’s glee club, attracts odd cast of characters. Some singing, dancing and eye-rolling.

Primary cast and crew
Matt Morrison (A Light in the Piazza and other stage productions, guest roles on Law and Order: Criminal Intent, CSI: Miami) is Will Schuester, alumni of the Glee club and now head of the club and convinced his new crew can make it to the nationals.
Lea Michele (Spring Awakening and other stage work, Third Watch) is Rachel Berry. She’s gonna be a stah!
Cory Monteith (Kyle XY, Final Destination 3) is Finn Hudson, star QB with a good voice, an unintimidating IQ and a heart of gold.
Dianna Agron (Veronica Mars, guest on numerous shows including Numb3rs, Close to Home) is Quinn Fabray, cheerleader and — of course — girlfriend to the QB. NOT in the Glee club.
Jane Lynch (Two and a Half Men, 40-Year-Old Virgin, Julie and Julia) as Sue Sylvester, cheerleading coach with acid in her soul. Give this woman more scenes. Now.
Jayma Mays (Ugly Betty, Red Eye, Flags of Our Fathers) is Emma Pillsbury, germphobe teacher who is in love with Will.
Chris Colfer (community and regional theatre ace) is Kurt Hummel, soprano with a strong fashion sense and a personal scent he’d like to market worldwide. Called Hummel, of course.
Kevin McHale (True Blood, The Office) as Artie Abrams, wheelchairist, guitaristand member of glee club.
Mark Salling (guitar player, songwriter) is Puck, bully. Not gleeful.
Amber Riley (numerous stage productions) is Mercedes Jones, she’s the diva of the glee club.
Jessalyn Gilsig (Nip/Tuck, Heroes) is Terri Schuester, Will’s wacko wife, who is addicted to Pottery Barn.

Jenna Ushkowitz (Spring Awakening and other stage work) is Tina, a glee member who desperately wants to lose her stutter.
Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck), Brad Falchuk (Nip/Tuck) and Ian Brennan are creators, writers and exec producers.

Buzz buzz
Is there any buzz left in the world or has this show eaten it all up? Annoying already.

But what do I know anyway? After having seen the pilot I predict…
Well, we’ve all seen the spring pilot, haven’t we (and if you haven’t click here to watch online). Tonight is the premiere, in which: “The Glee Club performs in front of the school for the first time and surprises everyone in the audience. When Rachel realizes her feelings for Finn, Quinn goes to great lengths to keep her man. Meanwhile, Mr. Schuester’s wife reveals some surprising news, leaving Will to figure out a new way to make ends meet.”

But not everyone is sold. Bob — he’s a friend of mine and not a Professional TV Critic (TM) — he says this show is lame and it will not rise to any greatness. I say he’s wrong and that it’s a perfect mix of sweet, old-fashioned “Let’s put on a SHOW”-type appeal and dark comedy. We have a bet. If I lose, I have to write an essay on why my critical skills suck, detailing past missteps. If I win — he has promised, and he is an honorable sort, to give it three episodes before passing his verdict — and he finds  himself enjoying it (come on Jane Lynch!), he must give me a half day of clay-sculpture lessons. And please note that this is about quality and not ratings. This show’s buzz will inflate its ratings for a few episodes, even if it fails. Stay tuned.

Other reviews
Metacritic did the homework for us, showing a rating of 77 out of 100 by professional critics and 7.4 out of 10 by civilians. The range covers Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker giving it 100 to David Zurawik at the Baltimore who gave it a 50, saying the music almost makes up for the  “stereotypes and lame humor”.

Official website
Some promo videos (which we can see up here in hick Canada), and full episodes (which we cannot). Some photos. Song page with links to iTunes. Not a lot else. I guess they were too busy stoking the hype machine. The Global site also has Gleeworld, in which other Glee-type school videos are rounded up. Inspiring?

Twitter
There are several character accounts and an official show account, but I recommend Sue Sylvester’s strange tweets, like: “Thinking of getting my hips replaced. My hips are fine, but I’ll be one step closer to becoming a machine.”

Can’t wait for the next new-series preview?
Melrose Place, coming up.

Wondering when the other new series and returning series are kicking off?
Click here for my select list of fall 2009 premieres and other important dates. Who am I to tell you what to do, but you could consider bookmarking it…

– Denise Duguay

TV on DVD: Eccentric, essential Fringe with Anna Torv and Joshua Jackson

Many shows have potential, although it is rare in this era of network executive with attention-deficit-disorder that enough time is granted. Fringe, presumably by virtue of the pedigree of creator J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, Felicity), was given the time and, despite some early season meandering, grew in leaps and bounds.
For those already fearing the void that Lost will leave and even those among us who are still pining for the glory days of X-Files, to which this series owes much, Fringe is the heir apparent (although new series Flash Forward is a comer, or so I’m reading).
Fringe started out with only potential. Many loved the premiere, in which we meet FBI agent Olivia (Anna Torv); former visionary scientist Walter (John Noble), pulled from his cell in a psychiatric hospital; and his estranged son Peter (Joshua Jackson), who is charged with wrangling Walter out of his institutional stupor to save the world.
Many loved it but, while I loved Walter and Peter’s tentative reunion, I found the elder’s eccentricities (he pees himself, he shoves “crazy” non sequiturs into every pause longer than three seconds) distracting, and I found Torv’s portrayal to be robotic and flat. There was no denying the story and structure had potential, but the alternating freak-of-the-week bizarre science (it starts with the arrival of a plane full of disintegrated corpses) and grand conspiracy (What is the Pattern? Who is behind Massive Dynamic and are they evil?) was ripped right from the scripts of X-Files.
Even so, I took off my X-Files watch and started giving it a chance and by the excellent finale, I was hooked by the drama behind Olivia’s cool exterior (evil stepfather, dependent sister and nephew), by Blair Brown and then Leonard Nimoy as the heads of the is-it-evil-or-is-it-not mega-corporation called Massive Dynamic. Even Walter’s eccentricities grew on me. And there is believable warmth among Peter, his father and Olivia.
Is it over the top? Of course, but, to hark back to the X-Files, I want to believe in this show and so I do believe in a series that now straddles two worlds connected by a portal, the fear of a grim future and the small band of wierdos who are trying to make it all right.
Season 1, available now on DVD and Blu-ray, comes a week before the Season 2 premiere. I consider it essential viewing. I command you: Go out and buy or rent, as I will, to fill in the blanks on what is to come. I am particularly looking forward to the extra called Deciphering the Scene on a number of episodes. If you know your way around the web, watch at least the finale to set up what is to come on Sept. 17 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.
Other extras: gag reel, Roberto Orci’s production diary, a featurette on Gene the cow, the other member of the investigative team.
Here is the promo for Season 2.

Here are some other releases of TV on DVD this week.
Worst Week: The Complete Series
The Office: Season 5 (DVD and Blu-ray)
Criminal Minds: Season 4
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
Harper’s Island: The DVD Edition
Adventures of Robin Hood: The Complete Fourth Season
Wiseguy: The Complete First Season
Smallville: The Complete Season 1-8
One Foot in the Grave: The 1996 and 1997 Christmas Specials and The Complete Series
Mr. Belvedere: Season 3
Meteor (TV movie)
Dog the Bounty Hunter: The Best of Season 5
Important Things with Demetri Martin: Season 1

– Denise Duguay