Wednesdays are becoming happy days for me. They fill me with Glee.
Indeed I’m on the Glee bandwagon. This show is so blissfully ridiculous, entertaining, and clever. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend you do so. The pilot won me over when the cast belted out a rendition of “Don’t Stop Believin’” that made me like a song that — don’t stone me! — previously made me cringe with loathing. I was officially hooked in episode 2 when they explicitly bumped and grinded their way through Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It.” You go, girls and boys.
One of the show’s more charming qualities is that it seems a hell of a lot more self-aware than that other high school musical (no offense to the others, this one just hits the spot). It also goes there in a very Degrassi-esque fashion. It’s not squeaky clean, and yet retains just the right amount of cheesiness a musical should have. They’ve managed to brilliantly capture the conflicting feelings that high school elicits in their core group of characters, each trying assert their identity while in the midst of figuring out who they are. And the adults of the show barely have it more together than the kids, which is funny and also true to life. And while I wondered early on if Jane Lynch was miscast as the head of the Cheerios, she is too damn funny not to like in this role.
Long story short, musicals are fun. Any expression of life made through singing and dancing makes viewers happy. Especially when it’s set in high school. If my high school years had played out like a musical, it would have been a lot more enjoyable. Even the sad, painful moments. Because at least I’d be able to let out all those extreme hormonal emotions through music.
A Little Trip Down Memory Lane
All this reminded of another group of singing high school kids who sang their way into my heart. They were from the fictional St. Francis High in San Francisco. They weren’t the most refined bunch, but their world was opened up when they were challenged by a faux-nun to be all that they can be and sing all they could sing.
Yes, I’m talking about Sister Act 2.
I hereby dedicate “Oh Happy Day” to Wednesdays. (The happy part moreso than the Jesus part.)
Enjoy the throwback:
