Twostepcublog

It's time to kick off this week's five-part "chart sweeps" of the newest songs making their way on to the weekly music charts at Billboard magazine. They've done quite a revamp of a bunch of charts which I'll cover later on, but for now I'll start with the latest in the pop realm... On the big chart, the Hot 100 , which monitors airplay, sales, and streaming hits from all genres of music combined, Maroon 5 hang on to #1 for a fourth week with " One More Night ". For only the second time in chart history (both times this year), three songs make their debut all the way in the top-10. The big winner due to their fanatical fanbase grabbing up the song is British X Factor losers boyband superstars One Direction, with their latest single, "Live While We're Young", which previews their upcoming album Take Me Home . It actually comes in one notch higher than their breakthrough hit " What Makes You Beautiful " (which this...

First, I want to really thank everyone who has taken the time to come to my little corner of the web and read my little missives about a show I'm apparently disproportionately passionate about, and especially the kick-ass awesome pirates in the Glee Forum and Tumblr (which I'm now trying to figure out, I feel like an old man, I'm on as "twostepcub" there but I'm still trying to learn posting, following, and all). I really had no idea whatsoever who would be reading these things, it was more of a release for me, and it's really cool that a whole bunch of people could identify with it. And thank you to the guys and girls in the Kurtofsky "Pirate" forum, with whom I've been able to live out these past three seasons (more vocally lately) there. They are the most positive people considering what's been thrown at them form the show and other shippers....And everyone who's shared these on Tumblr, thank you so much for the love. It re...

It all started with a slushie. I want to preface this by saying that I'm not the kind of guy to invests himself in television characters. In fact, the majority of my boobtube viewing belongs to either the Maddow/Stewart/Colbert/formerly Olbermann pack, the Amazing Race (my only reality show vice), or adult cartoons like Family Guy, Archer, or South Park. With that there's not much of creative writing going on here. It was really a fluke that I even caught Glee . I think I didn't know about the pilot coming on until maybe a day or two beforehand. And when Glee started, I felt great affection and empathy for Chris Colfer's portrayal of Kurt Hummel, having growing up isolated as he was. Then there was Dave. Actually Dave's first couple of appearances didn't faze me, and his character was written in as first a bully to Finn, having Karofsky on the hockey team as rivals to Finn's football buddies, confronting Finn about his participation in the glee cl...

First, I want to really again thank everyone who's been following my lil' ol' space on the web. I sure appreciate the feedback, and I just do this for the love. I mean, if you all knew me a couple years ago, Glee was something I was rabid crazy about. Have every single from the first two seasons (and couldn't even wait the week before they went from iTunes to Amazon, and then bought them again on CD). But I guess as something I loved so passionately, I guess I can be as easily frustrated as passionately. Lord knows I'm no professional, and I can't claim to know all the answers to how to run a successful show. But I am a person who's faithful to a show and wants to see it succeed. I don't think I'm alone. So thanks for hearing out my rants. The reason season one of Glee was so cohesive was that Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan, and Brad Falchuk worked together on developing the stories for the season ahead of time, and collaborated in the interminglin...

At least Matt Rutherford got a 'eulogy'. When you're making a weekly scripted TV show, you can either be really good at one-off shows, like Seinfield , or carrying multi-character storylines over many episodes, like Dallas or Beverly Hills, 90120 . It's next to impossible to do both well. Lost did a good job of it, but then was that there was a mini-series type of storyboard to go on. The problem is, with Glee 's many different characters portraying both adults and kids, it's tough to keep the audience involved with the storylines unless you have good control of how the season will flow, given the limited amount of episodes. With a soap opera, which Glee in part resembles, there is the ability to carry on many stories even detached from another, because with the daily showing, the time allowed to take for each story is there. Of course with something like Glee that is almost physically and mentally impossible, even given the great resource of acting act...

Character. It's how you feel about a role. How that person carries themselves. Their moral standpoint. Their actions, whether consistent or evolving through the course of a piece, whether it be a movie, play, or TV serial. Then there's Sue Sylvester. Like Dick Cheney's buckshot on a rich friends face, The writing of Jane Lynch's Sue on Glee is so scattershot that it's a study on what to do if you feel like giving your audience whiplash. In the opening episodes of the show, Sue Sylvester was the sole nemesis for the glee club, and for teacher Mr. Shue. Written purely as an exaggerated stereotype of a loud, bullying, and conniving coach, Jane Lynch's comic timing scored so well that at times Sue was more revered than the Glee-sters themselves. Like most of the breakout Glee stars like Heather Morris, Max Adler, and Ashley Fink, Sylvester was originally cast as a temporary storyline character, but expanded from fan reaction, culminating in Lynch...

So what's the difference between this... ..and this.... Not much.  When Glee introduced Santana and Brittany to the world, they were simply henchmen to lead character Quinn Fabray as Sue Sylvester's Cheerios cheerleader spies. But as their popularity (aided by what awesome jobs the actors did) grew, the two were elevated to now series regulars. And by season three, lesbian lovers. I think. Let me explain. In first season 2009, Santana was perceived as the conniving "slut" of the ensemble, bedding down both Finn and Puck, as well as eventually "bearding" Dave Karofsky, though Brittany did pretty good on her own, as well, dating Artie and even playing clothed Twister with Kurt. However during the course of the first season, it was revealed that in fact the two of them were doing the Scissor Sister thing. Not as a relationship, but as a comic aside. Like the "in" joke that the two hottest girls in school would be doing the nasty toge...

Ryan Murphy in 2010: Though they collected the tryout videos, Murphy and Fox execs have since quietly agreed to kill the on-air competition after it became clear that working on the reality show would mean less time for planning season two (and the recently announced season three). Ryan Murphy in 2011: Riiiiight. If what was leaked in 2010 was real, Murphy should very well have kept his promise. One of the biggest draws of Glee was that it was a smart, original, yet youth-oriented show that wasn't a reality program. With the advent of that scourge, networks looking to fill their schedule with cheap, sensational colisseum-style entertainment were able to find tons of willing nobodies willing to do whatever crazy shit possible to get on TV. Strand yourself on an island for a month. Eat ridiculous things. Knock yourself up as a teenager. Don't clean your house for like ten years . Pretend to be a "housewife". You get the picture. And music? America...

Whitney. Rumours . Madonna. No. The writing of Glee , when it's at its best, is when the writers take the time to develop character development and a consistent plot progression. They did it well with Kurt's coming out story. They did it with his bullying story. They did it for a while with Quinn's pregnancy arc. But when it's at its worst, it when it lets the storyline go and fall prey to distractions. And the biggest distraction was the producers and writers using the gimmick of the "tribute" episode, where all plot and character development is tossed to co-opt whatever act or movie they felt could give them a ratings bump or a break in the tedium or iTunes sales or whatever. What they end up doing is being a timesuck and a clear pander, to most likely an older gayer audience, given the artists involved. In the first season, there was one of these episodes, the Madonna, episode, so it wasn't too much of a bad thing. But the signs were there. The b...

This is a story about how Glee turned into Kidz Bop . A long, long time ago in a plotline far, far away, a little show featuring unknown kids singing old songs and showtunes debuted on Fox. When Glee debuted back in 2009, the idea of spontaneous singing in a scripted serial show was laughed at. Every media source brought up the Cop Rock disaster, a show that had policemen and jury rooms break out into rock opera (it's as good as that sounds), and the more recent Viva Laughlin , which tried the same shtick with a casino that lasted eight episodes.  What they didn't get is the Glee wasn't aiming to be like that. If anything, it strove for the recent High School Musical ideal, which was huge (the soundtrack was one of the top 5 CDs of that year. It also gleaned the same themes - school kids brought together by performing, and the contrast between that and the school sports scene. With that premise, the introduction of musical interludes was much easier to swall...

Oh, man. First off, thanks to everyone who found their way here and spread the word via Tumblr, Twitter, and Gleeforum. You all are the best! Yesterday I took just one of the ways Glee has descended into madness and went from one of the most promising groundswell phenomenons to a pandering product Disney would be proud of. I feel once the initial ratings success came in, either from ambition of Ryan Murphy or pressure from Fox, episodes that once weaved storylines became shiny bright ratings-grabbers. And nothing signaled that more than the abuse of the "special guest". One of the biggest things that drew me to the show at first was its fresh and talented cast, with six young actors that not only could sing but could carry off witty scripts naturally. And while Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele had Broadway experience, they both were green to television. The only real big name of the cast was Jane Lynch, and even she was an inspired choice and had a underground fanbase...

When Glee debuted in May of 2009 as a pilot episode promo, I was enamored. Not having been exposed to the whole High School Musical phenomenon that obviously influenced the development of this show, Glee was a breath of fresh air in the stagnant studio-audience piffle that was passing as high entertainment (I'm looking at you, Two-And-A-Half Men ). About high-school-age kids, but clearly written for a more mature audience (especially given its constant TV14 rating), the show was the underdog just as much as the "kids" at McKinley High. It's easy to forget how pessimistic the entertainment media was about another show that featured actors breaking out into song (the whole Cop Rock stigma), but when the show aired, and first episode highlight "Don't Stop Believin'" became a US Top-5 record (going on to selling over a million singles), all bets were off, and by the time the show's first season opening came in September, Glee quickly went from...