By Tom Comi
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How much toothpaste has to be squeezed out of the Glee tube before creator Ryan Murphy realizes he’s not going to be able to get it back in?
After a lackluster second season that was skewered by critics and fans alike, show enthusiasts tuned in for the season 3 premiere Tuesday night hoping that Murphy had gotten the message. Unfortunately, he didn’t.
A show that was at one point about singing took almost 15 minutes to get to its first musical number, which would be the equivalent of CSI taking the same amount of time to divulge its weekly murder. Show me a drama that doesn’t know where its bread is buttered, and I’ll show you a stale loaf of bread.
Instead of giving viewers what they want, Murphy insists on pursuing idiotic plots that involve Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) running for political office, Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) quitting the glee club to join a gang of misfits and a bunch of purple pianos scattered around campus in an attempt to lure more singers to the group.
By the time the show finally got to its first song in the school cafeteria, many viewers had to be wondering why they were still watching. Not that there were that many in the first place. Only 9.2 million people bothered to tune in for Tuesday’s premiere, which is four million less than a year ago.
There is no Band-Aid that can fix a program that is hemorrhaging so badly, so where does Murphy go from here? The first step is acknowledging the problem. Does he want to make a soap opera with occasional songs or go back to being a singing show with compelling storylines and characters? Regretfully, he is leaning toward the former, which explains why he has lost a third of his audience from this time last year.
There was a point when Glee filled a much-need void on television, and Murphy deserves a lot of credit for his original vision. Sadly, though, a show revolving around music can only hit so many wrong notes before people choose to tune it out.
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© 2011 Fox Broadcasting Co. Credit: Adam Rose
