Enforced Glee-fulness

The Glee Project has been getting good reviews.

David Knowles, The Hollywood Reporter, said:

"Oxygen’s entertaining new spinoff reflects well on the blockbuster franchise and illuminates the pressures faced by talented kids on the brink of showbiz success."

"What makes The Glee Project feel organic, however, is that the people making the decision about who goes on to Glee are the ones most qualified to do so. Glee’s casting director Robert Ulrich, choreographer Zach Woodlee and vocal coach, arranger and songwriter Nikki Anders serve as mentors and bring a heft to each critique that goes beyond that found in such casting-call shows like American Idol."

"The brutal and seemingly arbitrary truth about show business is that, in the eyes of casting directors, you either have it or you don’t. While that realization doesn’t quite jibe with Glee’s thematic message of inclusion, it does turn out to make for rather compelling reality TV."

Hank Stuever, The Washington Post, said:

"The show is also refreshingly entertaining, even when it relies on familiar cliches of the singing-competition genre."

Jessica Shaw, Entertainment Weekly, said:

"Anyone else with me thinking that was so much better than you thought it would be?"

I'm a fan of The Sing-Off, The Voice and Project Runway, so I wanted to love it and I almost did (the contestants are talented and engaging - transplant them to another show and I'd happily watch them).  Maybe I chose the wrong episode to start with ("Vulnerability"), but I hated it.  I committed myself to watching the entire show and I cringed and counted the seconds until it was over.

The episode I watched, "Vulnerability" was about "using your own weaknesses to make your performance more real and relatable."  Contestants were asked to "publicly expose one of their deepest insecurities," "because Glee is all about acceptance."  The contestants were tasked with walking around Universal CityWalk with sandwich board signs displaying one word that represented their deepest and most private insecurity, examples of which included, "gay," "fat," "anorexic" and "used."

I wanted to leap through the screen, as I have wanted to do on other viewing occasions, and march in there and tell those young people not to buy into or put up with the copious amounts of emotionally-manipulative bullshit being piled on them, but then it occurred to me that the particular brass ring these people are after, a career in show biz, pretty much means they oughtta start getting use to that kind of smarmy, pseudo-psych exploitation now.  I just wish these Glee contestants were getting some qualified life coaching with their dancing and singing coaching.  Ya know, something along the lines of how to recognize and respond to malarky and manipulation, how to create and maintain boundaries, how to do a cost-benefit analysis with your self-esteem, emotional health and career goals.

Watching the show reminded me of the worst kind of Christian summer camps (yes, I do believe there are good kinds) where kids get carried away by the temporarily-manfuctured and glorified sense of isolated community and peer sharing in kumbaya circles led by attractive and influential twenty-year-olds.

It also reminded me of a Twilight generation, reality-TV version of A Chorus Line, which, if you've ever seen it, is sad.  The musical was excellent and won nine Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is one of the longest running musicals to ever come out of Broadway and it involves the stories of young performers making themselves vulnerable, so I'm sure the Glee people would love that comparison.  They'd probably also turn my discomfort into the clichéd compliment of "having at least made me feel something."

The sessions with the contestants are run like therapy sessions, only they are for entertainment and a commercial enterprise (don't get me started on Dr. Drew) and facilitated by people whose expertise is in entertainment, not therapy.  I'm sure they are all glad they "shared" though.  (Keep in mind they are all competing for a coveted spot on the mother show, Glee.)

What I saw was a singing coach tell one contestant that she didn't want to force her to talk about something she didn't want to talk about (wait a beat, feel the pressure, realize this is what the entire episode is about so what else are you going to talk about and go!)  and tell another contestant that "I think that feeling numb to life is destructive and dangerous."

What I saw was a director talk about "big issues" and "breakthroughs."

What I saw was a writer who wanted a character from the contestant rather than writing one himself.

I was amazed to see Cameron, a charming, earnest and talented young man who said that he had found growing up gay and different in Texas to be really difficult, declared too "perfect," "confident," "well-adjusted" (heavens!) and "comfortable with himself" (not that!) and nearly cut from the show because he wasn't troubled enough and didn't have enough "deep-rooted secrets."  Yes, the quotation marks indicate that I am using words straight from the show...just like this came straight from the show:  "I think it might be to Cameron's disadvantage that he's normal."  And this:  "I think the big issue is that he really doesn't have any big issues."  What was the writer to do with this actor?  Use his imagination?  Pfft!   And the director?  Help Cameron, the professional actor...act?   Pfft!   Cameron's word, by the way, was "misunderstood."

I thought the end-product music video was excellent, which may seem like an opportunity for a consequentialist justification, but while I recognized the poignancy and artistry of the video, I couldn't quite shake the context of the video.  My discomfort was fully crystallized at the end of the video when the contestants hold up signs that spell out "U R Not Alone" which brought to mind the "It Gets Better" campaign, a campaign that included celebrities presumably volunteering their time and heartfelt effort to a worthy cause.  These contestants chose to perform in this video, but they did not "volunteer."  Semantically a minimal difference, but emotionally and psychologically, I'd argue not small at all.

I'm not a professional vocalist, actor or director.  Maybe this kind of emotional roller coaster ride does make for good performances.  Maybe Winona Ryder reflects back on her days on the set of Dracula with fond gratitude thinking about how Francis Ford Coppola, Keanu Reeves and Gary Oldman harangued her into her performance as Mina Harker.  Maybe Martin Sheen has the same happy memories of Apocalypse Now.  Rumor has it Alan Rickman was extremely irritated by some "enforced method acting" sprung on him during the filming of Die Hard, but of course, that's just a rumor.  Maybe these contestants will replay the "Vulnerability" episode and sigh wistfully as they cash residual checks.  I don't know.

I do know Jackie Cooper did not appreciate being told his dog had been killed.  I also know there are some professional actors who would call this kind of stuff "bosh" and talk about the "craft" of acting...ya know, pretending to be another person with a different set of problems than your own.

Leonardo DiCaprio said:

"Don't think for a moment that I'm really like any of the characters I've played. I'm not. That's why it's called 'acting'."

Michael Leader said to Darren Aronofsky about Black Swan:

"In a way, I read the film as almost a criticism of Method acting, in the way that the character is pushed to make her personal emotions represented in the performance."

Darren Aronofsky said to Michael Leader:

"Well, I'm probably pretty critical of that. I used to think it was cool, like I think most young film people. But watching Ellen Burstyn and being around a few masters - I mean, everyone has their own process, but I think it's actually pretty selfish. It's just make-believe.


There's a fucking half a million dollar camera sitting there, and forty lights, and you've got to hit a technical mark. What is the Method when it's such a technical job? It's about make-believing, for a very, very short window.


Like, I think the Method could work when you're stage. Sure, when you walk off stage and you've got to stay in character and you've got to keep the adrenaline up. That makes sense to me.


But film is basically little bursts of acting. Twenty seconds here, 10 seconds there. Two seconds there. I mean, sure, in between takes you could stay there, but once the take's over, when you're in the make-up chair, come on. You can be thinking about what you've got to get done that day and be serious, but you don't have to be an asshole.


To me, it doesn't impress me, actors that do that. I think it's a lot of wasted energy."

George Burns said:

"Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

Links:
The Glee Project on Oxygen
'The Glee Project' ratings underwhelm. Why?
'Glee Project' post-mortem. Faves and hates?
The Glee Project: TV Review
‘The Glee Project’ recaptures the ‘gleekness’ we once loved
Leonardo DiCaprio quotes
Enforced Method Acting - Films