Once More, With Feeling
It’s a question we’ve all asked ourselves at one point or another: if I were trapped on a desert island that magically had electricity and a television, but could only bring one TV series to watch, what would it be? I decided to take it a step further: what if I could only bring a single episode of a TV show?
In addition to being awesome, it would need to possess certain qualities:
- Satisfying to watch repeatedly
- Enough of a relationship to the rest of the show that hours of entertainment could be had by discussing (with yourself or your volleyball) the larger significance of the episode
- Not a cliffhanger. How evil would that be?
For me, the answer is, hands down, the Buffy musical episode, “Once More, With Feeling.”
For those of you who have seen it, I know that you know what I’m talking about. This is clearly the right choice.
For everyone else: First off, I can tell that you’re thinking, “A musical episode of a show about high school students who fight demons? How could that be good?”* Well, I’m not the only one who thinks so. It was nominated for an Emmy, and received rave reviews, like “‘Once More, with Feeling’ is rhapsodic, original, deeply affecting, and ultimately, transcendental. Quite simply, television at its best.” (The Toronto Star) Also, if you’re a fan of Glee, just think: wouldn’t Glee be even better with a few vampires and Joss Whedon’s writing?**
The basic premise is that a demon (a dancing demon…no, something isn’t right there) shows up in Sunnydale, and suddenly everyone is singing and dancing about anything and everything: dry cleaning, parking tickets, the difficulty of feeling connected to life when you’ve been brought back from the dead by your well-intentioned friends, secret plans for leaving town, bunny conspiracy theories. You know, the usual. It doesn’t sound too demonic until you realize that A) some people are dancing until they burst into flames and B) nobody has any control over what they’re singing, so they end up spilling their innermost secrets.
In terms of desert island appeal:
- Think of the weeks of entertainment that could be gained by learning all of the songs (if, um, one didn’t already know them) and the corresponding dance moves.
- The execution is brilliant; hours could be spent marveling over how well the songs move the action forward. The songs are a realistic (within the Buffyverse) way of having secrets come into the open all at once–how cool a premise is that?
- Because of that, there are many major plot points happening within this episode, so there’s tons of stuff to analyze. (To be fair, this would only be helpful if you had seen, at a minimum, the first part of the season.)
There are a number of jokes that are easy to miss the first time or five around, so it only gets better the more you watch.- Spike. (Swoon.)
- Perhaps most importantly, if you are stuck on an island watching a single episode of anything over and over again, you need an episode that will motivate you to get your butt in gear, build a raft and/or signal fire, and figure out how to get off the island already.*** Buffy’s struggle to reconnect with her own life should resonate with you and motivate you in your time of need.
So–if you had to pick only one hour of TV to bring to your island, what would it be?
*Technically, because this episode is in the 6th season, only Dawn is still a high school student. The others graduated in epic Sunnydale style at the end of Season 3. Speaking of which–Alyssa Rosenberg has an excellent post about graduation & after here.
**Yes.
***It seems like Lost or Survivor might also have episodes that would be good for this particular purpose. But do they have singing and dancing? No. No, they do not.
Emmy Award Nominations
Nominations for the 63rd Annual Emmy Awards were announced this morning, with HBO leading all other channels in nominations (104!). Modern Family was the most nominated sitcom, and my personal favorite, 30 Rock, was close behind them.
The Emmy’s are taking place this year on September 18th. Here are a few of the nominations that were announced this morning for the major categories:
–Nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series include 30 Rock, Modern Family, Glee, and the Office.
–Nominations for Outstanding Drama Series include Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, and The Good Wife.
–Nominations for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Series include The Colbert Report, SNL, and my two favorite late night shows, Conan and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
–Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series include Matt LeBlanc (he’s on TV again??), Steve Carell, Alec Baldwin (30 Rock!), and Jim Parsons, while Lead Actor in a Drama Series includes Jon Hamm, Hugh Laurie, and Steve Buscemi.
–As for Actress in a Comedy Series, Melissa McCarthy, Edie Falco, Amy Poehler, and Tina Fey were nominated. For Drama, Mariska Hargitay, Connie Britton, and Elisabeth Moss were among those nominated.
Did your favorites make the list?
‘Glee’ Does New York, and Your It List Loves It.
(OK, so we are slightly biased towards our own city.)
Glee’s sophomore season concluded on Tuesday with the much-anticipated finale, “New York.” It’s amazing what shooting on location does for a show. The NYC outdoor scenes just felt so free and BIG. (I’d like to see them try to film on Fifth Avenue during the holiday season.) Co-creator/exec producer/episode director Brad Falchuk told EW.com that they normally keep the camera very tight on the action, since they don’t want a stray SoCal palm tree wandering into the Ohio-set scenes. But during the “I Love New York/New York, New York” mash-up, we got to see New Directions use Times Square, Lincoln Center, Washington Square Park, and Central Park as their huge stages–and it was GREAT! Here are our favorite moments from the finale:
Rachel’s hair: Ms. Berry had a great hair episode. From the neat but not overly curled ponytail at Tiffany’s to her sweet low side knot during her date with Finn, New York did wonders for Rachel’s style.
Love the hair AND the flowers. (Photo from PacificCoastNews.com via EOnline.)
Puck on the accordion: Yes, the scene was cheesy, but hello, this is Glee. Rachel and Finn had just finished dinner at Sardi’s, met Patti LuPone, and were on their rom-com-worthy walk through the West Village (these kids travel all over town, and quickly). Thank you, Glee, for cutting the cutesy romance with the absurdity of Puck playing an accordion, and the guys singing “Bella Notte.” I still don’t know if they were meant to be surreal background music or actually there, stalking Finnchel on their date.
Puck, you are one talented guy. (Photo from daemonstv.com.)
Rachel and Kurt’s Wicked visit: These two are such cute friends, and their duet of “For Good” from Wicked was endearing and touching. It had much more weight than their first duet of “Defying Gravity”, and part of that was thanks to their being in the actual Gershwin Theatre! Yay for the gruff-but-indulgent security guard who let them have their 15 minutes on the Broadway musical’s stage. (If only all NYC tourists were so lucky as Rachel, Kurt, and Mr. Schue.) Listen to the studio version here–but I highly recommend watching the video clip (it adds so much more). [ETA: you can now watch it on Hulu; the Wicked scene starts at 15:24.]
Rachel and Kurt sing from Wicked again, this time "For Good."
Thank you for a great second season, Glee! Hope you get to Nationals again next year, and I can’t wait to hear more about how Kurt’s summer project goes: he’s writing Pip Pip Hooray, a musical about the world’s favorite maid of honor, Pippa Middleton.
Our Favor!te Things 2010: Stephanie Meyers
Favor!te Book: The Hunger Games series. (Yes, I am still 12 years old at heart.)
Favor!te Designer: Karen Millen, because of her stunning and uber-flattering and tantalizingly close-to-affordable dress collection.
Favor!te TV show: Fringe, Castle, and Boardwalk Empire are in the running, but… Glee. (See above, re: 12 years old.) 
Favor!te Blog/Website: Hyperbole and a Half. “This is why I’ll never be an adult” is a must read.
Favor!te Twitterer: Shameless author plug alert! @evilwylie (a.k.a. @andrewtshaffer)
Favor!te YouTube Video: OK Go!, This Too Shall Pass
What are you most excited about for 2011? Well, according to AstrologyZone, “Cancer, your career soon on fire. Best career aspects you’ve ever, ever seen.” So that sounds pretty good!
What do you want the most as a holiday gift? For everyone to buy The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas! Royalties go to a charitable cause, eternal glory goes to me.
What was Good…and Bad About the Britney Episode
Why Glee + Britney Spears = Best Thing Ever
1. Brittany and Santana FINALLY get to sing solos. Sure, they won’t be winning Grammys anytime soon, but they have enough skills to pull off Britney and Madonna.
2. Heather Morris is an insane dancer, and she finally gets to show us what she’s got in this episode. BTW, have you seen her do the Single Ladies dance with Beyonce?
3. When Rachel Berry wakes up from her hallucination at the dentist, she says: “is this real life?”, cleverly referencing the hilarious David After Dentist YouTube video.
4. All our favorite Britney Spears jams were packed into one episode (and there are a lot).
5. Even though Britney guest-starred on the episode, and the whole thing was clearly a tribute to the singer, they were not afraid to mention her less-than-flattering moments (“conflicts” with paparazzi, anyone?)
Why Glee + Britney Spears = Not the Best Thing Ever
1. Wait, is Glee on MTV 2 now? Why was this show a series of music videos? Can we at least pretend to have a plot?
2. John Stamos. In the Britney episode. Why?
3. While it was great to see Britney on the show, she didn’t really have enough of a part. We wanted to see her sing and dance alongside the Glee cast.
4. If Kurt was such a big fan of Britney Spears, why didn’t he get to do a Britney solo???
5. The character of Will Schuester is getting ridiculous. He used to be this cool teacher who wanted to help his students sing. Now he is this uptight attention-hog who stands front and center while his glee club performs Toxic? No. Teachers do not perform with students.
Overall, you’d probably enjoy this episode just as much if you simply download the Glee recordings of the songs on your iPod or watch the video clips on YouTube. What did you think??
Get Your Gleek On
Though Glee snagged only 2 of the 19 Emmys it was nominated for last night, a new clothing line based on the hit show will surely distract disappointed “Gleeksters”. Available exclusively at Macy’s, the line will feature tees and hoodies priced from $20-$35. Find it just in time for back to school shopping in the juniors section or online at Macys.com!
And if memorizing Glee songs and dances and donning clothes based on the show isn’t enough to satisfy your cravings, ShopGlee.com tracks down the exact make and model of the clothes worn on the show and features them alongside video clips of the characters wearing the items. For example, zip into the same track jackets worn by Sue Sylvester here, and pick up Will Schuester’s v-neck sweaters and collared shirts right here.
All this Glee talk makes me very excited for the Britney Spears episode airing in September! Which songs do you want them to sing???
“Get Your Gleek On”: Which Bands Should The Cast Of ‘Glee’ Cover Next?
I don’t know about you, but I was left speechless after last week’s episode of Glee. Partially, it was because stupid American Idol had cut off the last 10 minutes on my DVR but it was mostly because their homage to Madonna was completely off the chain, off the hook and off whatever-metal-object-you-can-imagine. According to Entertainment Weekly, the show already has a Lady Gaga-inspired episode in the can and there’s talk of taking on Britney Spears sometime soon.
With all these creative odes bursting off the small screen, I got to thinking. What if I was the music supervisor for Glee. Who would I have the cast tackle next? After a lot of playlist-scouring and soul-searching, I came up with the following picks: Bob Dylan, Death Cab For Cutie and Hole. I sure hope Sue Sylvester would approve!
BOB DYLAN: What Bob Dylan lacks in vocal dexterity (or coherence), he certainly makes up for in lyrical brilliance. After all, not only has the “Tambourine Man” penned some of most poignant songs of the 20th century, but he was even awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for creating “lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” A ’60s-inspired episode would be aces and I’d love to see Glee get all folky on our collective asses. Why, I can even hear Mr. Schuester serenading Ms. Pillbury with the classic crooner “Lay Lady Lay” before the firs time they do it™. Swoon.
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE: Sure, Death Cab For Cutie‘s songbook might lack the pomp and circumstance of Bob Dylan, but their catalog remains equally poignant because I can’t think of another band in the last 10 years who has successfully tapped into heartbreak and heartache quite like this group of indie-rockers. Last summer, I actually had the great pleasure of seeing DCFC perform at the Hollywood Bowl with the L.A. Philharmonic orchestra. It was so rad to hear them get the classical treatment and I can only imagine what their songs would sound like if they were put in the Glee blender. Personally, I think Mercedes could wail on “The Sound Of Settling” or “A Lack Of Color” could be turned into a tortuous duet between Finn and Rachel.
HOLE: This pick is definitely my dark horse—much like Courtney Love, herself. Some might think Hole is a totally o-v-e-r, but with the recent release of their long-awaited album Nobody’s Daughter, they’re just getting started… at least until they inevitably call it quits again in another year or two. The lineup might be different but the band’s goal remains the same: to pen rocktastic anthems that inspire and empower. Judging from new songs like “Samantha” and “Skinny Little Bitch,” I’d say mission accomplished. After Quinn finally pops out the bun in her oven, it’d be great to see her re-embrace her inner awesomeness with a rendition of “Miss World” or “Celebrity Skin.” Now that’s a study in demonology I’d love to see!
Wanna read more of my musings? Hoof it over to http://www.leslie-simon.com. Plus, if you’re not following me (@redpatterndress) on Twitter, what are you waiting for? I’m not scared to sic C. Love on your tush… and I don’t know if you’d live through that.
Glee on stage
photo by Tara Leigh Cook
Our love for Glee here at YIL is no secret. We love Sue Sylvester’s dirty mouth; we love Matthew Morrison’s boxers, we love the baby mama drama; and of course we love the camp musical numbers.
That’s why we’re pretty sure we’re gonna really love this event next Wednesday, January 20: cabaret singer Rakesh Satyal, accompanied by pianist Jesse Elder, sings songs from Glee (plus other odds and ends) at Don’t Tell Mama (343 W. 46th street, NYC). You can get tickets here, but be forewarned, ticket holders are subject to search before entering the show: for the performers’ safety, slushies will not be permitted on the premises.
Our Favor!te Things 2009: Alberto
Our latest Favor!te Things installment is courtesy of our publicity head honcho Alberto, who wondered if his faves were “too gay.” To that we say, “Have you been reading YIL, Alberto?” An Adam Lambert guest appearance on a Judy Garland-themed episode of Glee wouldn’t even be too gay for us!
Favor!te Film: We don’t go to movies much, but I heard 500 Days of Summer was good…we’ll rent it. We liked the Hannah Montana movie too!
Favor!te Album: I Dreamed a Dream by Susan Boyle. Super faggy, I know, but How Great Thou Art made me cry, Wild Horses made me smile, and her rendition of You’ll See is so much better that Madonna’s.
Favor!te Book: More is More Tony Duquette by Hutton Wilkinson, a truly superb account of Tony Duquette’s life and work
Favor!te Art Show: Bauhaus at the MoMA is pretty awesome
Favor!te Designer: Thom Browne is a god
Favor!te TV Show: Glee — brilliant, I can watch every episode forever and never get tired. Thinking of this also helps A LOT.
Favor!te Website: www.1stdibs.com
Favor!te Real Housewife: Michelle Obama
Favor!te Twitterer: Twitter is gay
Favor!te You Tube Video: the Fire Island Boys take the prize this year!
Bonus coverage:
What are you most excited about for 2010? RuPaul’s new book!
Who do you most want to smooch on New Year’s Eve? Brent
Sue Good to be True
Pam Cesarec, friend of YIL, and enemy of the capital letter, pays homage to the Season of Sue.
with the fall t.v. season coming to a close, viewers are left to pause, take stock, and reflect upon what we have to be thankful for from these past few months. the answer should come easily and can be summed up in a single name: sue.
2009 introduced us to two classy characters who share a first name: sue sylvester of the campy, but surprisingly good-natured “glee” and sue “rhymes with weenie” collini, of showtime’s surprisingly not so good-natured “californication.” played by golden globe nominee jane lynch and kathleen turner, respectively. these broads know how to deliver a line. (and i can’t, in good conscience, write this without an honorable mention. there’s a third sue– sue who’s always “so FRICKIN’ excited”. the baggy sweater-wearing super geek who can never contain herself when a surprise is a’brewin- played by the incomparable kristin wiig on SNL).
sue syl loves blackmailing, making ridiculously unseemly remarks to students and fellow faculty at her school, tucking the jacket of her adidas track suit into her pants, encouraging people to “cane” their children on the local news in order to toughen them up, and – on occasion – donning a zoot suit for some hardcore swing dancing.
collini has very different priorities- including, but not by any means limited to, having coke blown up her ass, throwing swinger parties in her sex toy-filled LA mansion, and engaging in incredibly aggressive and explicit sexual harassment at the workplace. she was neither afraid nor ashamed in the least to propose to her brand new employee charlie runkle that they “slip out of this business casual and see what kind of sodomy laws we can break.”
these sues are two classy ladies. i use the term “ladies” liberally here. very. at any rate, i’m relatively sure that the unflappable/wicked-cool jane lynch improvises a lot of her lines, but we gotta give kudos to the writers of “glee” for crafting her dialogue in such a fashion that she gets away with some remarkably whack stuff without getting banned by the censors. and if collini wasn’t on a pay channel, her character simply wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of even existing. that is one filthy, filthy post-menopausal woman. just imagining her growling “rrrrrunkle” in her, ahem, sexy, ahem, baritone gives me goosebumps… in a profoundly creepy way. 
(one observation that i feel compelled to mention here: kathleen turner has the second-deepest human voice i’ve heard, next to yao defen, aka the world’s tallest woman [look her up!]. when i read on IMDB that turner was born in 1954 and did that quick math in my head, i had to do further research because i felt it simply couldn’t be. weeks after this discovery, i still find myself disturbed that she’s only 55 years old.)
bottom line: at first, i was not a bit excited to see kathleen turner join the cast of “californication” but, man, now i can’t get enough. and i have no doubt that sue sylvester will go down in t.v. history as one of the crudest, rudest, most clever villains we’ll ever have the pleasure of gasping at. all right, ladies and gents, i could write for days on this topic but i shall leave you with some random sue/sue quotes. do enjoy. and please remember during this holiday season– sue: it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
“that was the most offensive thing i’ve seen in 20 years of teaching— and that includes an elementary school production of ‘hair.’” -sue sylvester
“i used to run lines with margot kidder before she went ape shit.” -sue collini
(really this was the only amusing thing collini said all season that was clean enough to quote.)
cesarec… out!
