After reading your comments, I decided to give Glee a try tonight. And I loved it. Maybe it's because they did two songs from my favorite movie, Singin' in The Rain (also my favorite sick-day movie), as well as a number from Chicago. Maybe it's because that singing teacher is awfully cute. Whatever. I'll be watching again. Everyone deserves a second chance!

I have to confess, and there must be others of you out there; I don’t like Glee. 

I love musicals. I’ll attend a stage musical any day of the week. In high school, I went to every local school’s production of whatever they were amateurly performing. I paid ridiculous amounts of money and used my daughter as an excuse to see Wicked twice. I know every word to every song in Gypsy, have seen Singin' in the Rain and American In Paris countless times, and have recently put my daughter through the five hour torture of Funny Girl closely followed by Funny Lady. I tune in to PBS performances of Les Miz, own the cast album of Chicago (the movie – I loved it), and still dance along with Rita Moreno in West Side Story. I know who Marni Nixon is.

So, I figured I’d love Glee. Glee would make me gleeful, and I could get a musical fix every week. I was introduced to it by my giggling teenage nieces and their mother (their mother doesn’t giggle, but she is one of the smartest people I know). They are a musical family, so it made sense that they liked it, and I trusted their judgment.

So I tried to watch it. I really tried. And I couldn’t stand it.

I couldn’t stand the story lines. I couldn’t stand the dialogue. I couldn’t stand how insipid and silly these people were, and I was disgusted by their behavior. I couldn’t stand (dare I say it?) Jane Lynch’s coach character (she’s really mean). It was a major disappointment that I couldn’t get past these issues to enjoy the musical stuff. I also discovered how inappropriate the story lines would be for my 11 year old, and therefore we would not be able to share in this glory called Glee. I was really looking forward to this fresh alternative to movie and stage musicals, to the memories it would trigger, to the joy it would bring me. It was exciting to think of participating in America rediscovering the musical format.

But I am not a part of it.  I am out of the loop. People talk about Glee, there are scandals and controversy about Glee, and I am clueless. It’s okay. I just nod and smile and stuff more peanut butter sandwich into my mouth around the lunch table, take another sip of wine at family get togethers. Then I go home and crank my Chicago album and do my Catherine Zeta Jones imitation in my pajamas.

I know what I like.