'Glee' on FOX HD

I'm 39, my wife is 39, we've never watched a minute of "American Idol" and we are lamenting the fact that there won't be another episode of "Glee" until September. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Funny, biting and a bit sentimental. Oh and Jane Lynch. God do we love Jane Lynch.

We loved the line about "And you think water boarding is hard?"

I have already put this show in the record cue on the DVR. This is a winner. It has winner written all over it.

My wife and I watched it as well. She liked it a lot better than I did. It's basically a tv version of any number of movies featuring the same plot: the underdogs...in this case a glee club....must work hard and somehow beat the "good" school......combined with the teacher who nearly gives up on them....combined with the "popular kid" who must decide whether to follow his heart (glee club) or popularity (football team). Throw in the cliche b1tchy cheerleaders/popular girls, the super-mean jocks, and the over-the-top nerds/unpopular kids.

I thought the whole thing was very cliche and had a nearly complete "been there, done that" feel to the entire show.

However, I tend to despise those types of "underdog" movies, so having a drawn out TV series revolving around the same old tired themes doesn't appeal to me anyways, so I'm pretty biased.

That being said, there were a couple funny parts in it, but not enough to make me interested in continuiing to watch it. My wife is though.

The pilot reminded me of Election that starred Matthew Broderick in a similar role as the teacher on this show. That movie was a bit more subversive than this show. I did not laugh out loud a lot, but I did like the dynamic of the show.

My wife and I really enjoyed it. Like pappy, I quickly caught the Heroes folks all over the place (although I missed the cheerleader.) Victor Garber (Alias, Eli Stone) and Kristen Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies) will have recurring roles in the series so I'm looking forward to that as well. I certainly had the common "underdog" plot, like mproper and spid said, but it was completely watchable, and the music was great.

I also caught the similarities to "Election", especially with the way they gave introspectives on each of the character's home lives.

Did anyone else catch the fact that Stephen Tobolowsky's character's last name was "Ryerson"? Can't hardly be a coincidence.

my wife and i liked it. it has alot of potential and is definitly very good for a pilot. the actors looked like they werent completly imersed(sp) in there roles yet so this show can only get better.

Plus the songs were good and i heard a Queen song in the background!!! lol

+1 i liked it too, will continue to watch during fall

As a former National Runner-Up Glee Clubber myself, I can relate to this show on a different level. My high school experience was pretty much dead on to these kids. I thought the show was fantastic, and can see the whole "Friday Night Lights/American Dreams" comparisons that media critics are giving it. I have a feeling this show is going to get word of mouth reviews going for it. I already know of about 20 people who have set Season Passes for it already. Can't wait until fall.

WOW - It's on the DVR - will watch this weekend.

It was pretty good, although I did find it a bit unrealistic that all these kids got so good so fast. Would have been kind of funnier if they mostly sucked and they really had to work at it and we saw them gradually improve over the season. On the first episode they're sounding/playing Journey just like off the record.

In any event I liked that there were a lot of comedians involved with the show too.

I'm surprised that Drumline hasn't been made into a series. That one I might watch having been a drummer and line instructor myself.

Yeah, with 11 years of marching band from Jr. High to college, I would watch a Drumline-based series too.

I liked it. It's good to see Ryan Murphy back in the high school setting. He did Popular many years ago which seesawed from absolutely dismal - those life lessons episodes ordered by the network executives - and absolutely unhinged, looney episodes (I still remember the episode about mullets). My main issue with the premiere of Glee is that it seemed highly compressed; everything develops too fast. I wouldn't be surprised if the shooting script and first cut was for a 90-120 minute pilot but plans changed later and they had to do some brutally efficient editing. They did a nice job under the circumstances but the cutting shows.

It's good to see some hard working Broadway actors like Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison on TV. I've seen both of them on stage - Michele in Spring Awakening, Morrison in South Pacific - and it's nice to see them find some TV success.

High School Musical redux, anyone? Doesn't it seem obvious that this show taps into the same vein, and hopes to capture the same audience demo?

Of course it's obvious, I don't think they tried to hide it. On the other hand, it does seem to be a little more, well Fox, and not as Disney, if you know what I mean. More subversive, a little more snarky.

Fame meets Mr. Holland's Opus... In a good way..

As long as the kids don't start running around the halls singing about every day life and their classmates fall in line behind them with a highly choreographed routine, I think I'll be ok. Keep the singing to the auditorium.

When Disney has a show that features a teacher who plants drugs on a student to blackmail him into an afterschool activity or plays for laughs a teacher who feels up pretty boy students, then I'll agree it resembles High School Musical. Until then, not so much.

Kids singing in school and trying to fit in was around long before Disney put its spin on it.

Oh and the Heroes connection is more apparent than real. Yes all those actors appeared on the show but if you dig, you see many of them have links to Glee's casting directors from other shows. Glee's casting directors also casts for nip/tuck and CSI (also Battlestar and Supernatural). Jessalyn Gilsig appeared on many episodes of nip as a memorable girlfriend, Stephen Tobolowsky and Dianna Agron both appeared on CSI before Heroes, Glee's principal also showed up on nip/tuck last year as a doctor. So the Heroes connection is more illusory, if anything there are nip/tuck and CSI connections.

Not if you're a High School Musical audience member (except for the, ahem, more adult fans) - it's all new and fresh to them. And this show is right in their wheelhouse.

I agree, good point.

It turns out the screener version sent out to reviewers is 55 minutes long, 15 minutes longer than the version that aired. I watched the long version and though there aren't major differences, the additional minutes do provide back story and motivation for many of the characters. Everyone is more realistic and less cartoonish. The sequence and time line of some events are also altered in the 55 min version.

Just saw this - highly recommended - one of the better shows on TV

As someone who has plenty of heavily serialized dramas to watch (a la Lost, 24, etc), I found this a refreshing and fun show. Never seen HSM and don't intend to, but from the reviews I've seen, the musical moments are done differently. In Glee, they aren't character thoughts put to music, from what I gather.

I watched the extended pilot on Hulu and am looking forward to this show starting up this week. Most intriguing early storylines: what is with the cheerleader sponsor and how will the football team react? Oh, and I hope Wil ditches his wife err the end...I already can't stand the way she manipulates him.

Watched this the other night based on all the hype and generally good reviews. Very disappointed. It seems formalistic and trite, with the marvelous Jane Lynch providing the only comic moments. But she can't carry the show on her own. When a teacher - the one we're supposed to admire and pull for no less - plants drug evidence and blackmails a student to join his glee club, it started careening off the rails for me and never recovered. Why not make the football player just a guy who also loves music and wants to sing? Too unbelievable? Okay, let's go with the blackmail plotline. And let's have the pretty, unpopular (those two rarely go together) girl keep getting drinks thrown in her face. This is high school? Ugh.

The characters' motivations, including the football player and afore-mentioned "hero", change 180 degrees and back for no discernible reason. It wasn't funny, it wasn't charming, it's all been done better before, and I won't be watching. Now, that said, I expect it to be a ratings smash and a huge success for FOX. Whatever. They gave us another season of 'Dollhouse' and if a show like this can provide some financial fodder to help carry a show like that, then I'm fine with it.

Was tonights episode slightly out of sync or just a local problem?