Patrick – As someone who gets second-hand embarrassment watching musicals I was a little surprised I like Glee as much as I do. I’m not too picky about the songs, since they’re trying to build their fanbase right now & need songs that casual viewers will know. Hopefully we’ll get a wider range as the series progresses.
The leaps in logic are nothing new for me, since I also love 30 Rock & Arrested Development. Plus, it’s high school! That place made no sense, no sense at all. And from the creators of Nip/Tuck I’ll be surprised if the baby doesn’t have lobster hands or something. I’m not down with the voice-overs, though.
Since Emma teaches about self-confidence (through the wearing of sunglasses) she’s teacher enough for me! And clearly you’re still watching because you’re AWESOME. <3

Maria – I love acapella too! And it definitely takes a few episodes to hit its groove; good call.

The song you chose to highlight what’s good about Glee’s musical numbers – that Mercedes busting up Kurt’s windshield song – was really really cool. It throws verisimilitude into the wind and gives us a kick-ass little musical fantasy. And Mercedes’ voice is pretty stellar. I have also really been on board with all of Kristin Chenoweth’s tunes (holy shit, I miss Pushing Daisies) and Kurt’s “Single Ladies” dance spectacular.

But just about every other performance (especially Will’s raps – as you rightly note) embarrasses the hell out of me. And not because they’re mostly performing Top 40 horseshit – I’m gay enough to get over that. It’s the absurd way everything is produced. The massive compression and ubiquity of auto-tune destroy it all for me. It just feels like some schmuck in the engineer chair located the slider labeled “personality” and knocked the whole thing down to zero.

Oh and the less said about Aca-fellas, the better.

And then there are these grand leaps in logic – Will thinks his wife is pregsies when she’s clearly not; Sue Sylvester can become genuinely kind one second and reverts to evil the next; Emma and Ken’s marriage (Seriously? Seriously.)

Oh and the spotty use of voiceover – sometimes Will has it, sometimes Rachel, sometimes Sue, sometimes Fin, sometimes Puck, sometimes no one. It smacks of lazy writing.

But obviously still watching – what does that say about me?

Oh and (nickpick factor 11 here) Emma’s a guidance counseler, not a teacher.

Hooray for your first post, though!