Sick Of Feds, Attorneys, and Crime in Your TV Shows - Cheer Up With Glee

Glee, the hit musical / comedy series on FOX, is currently in its 2nd season (with a third already in the queue) and has found an untapped (or at least unsaturated) niche in the TV market. With TV show top ten lists for the past ten years littered with the likes of HBO's The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men, West Wing, and more, Glee has filled a fun-loving escapist niche in evening entertainment - and it has filled it well.

Nearly all of the hit television series in the last ten years have revolved around cops, lawyers, politics, big business, crime, violence, sex, and... well, are you starting to see the pattern? Plenty of it results in great television, but sometimes you want to escape. You want a show that's light, cheerful, and fun... and true to its name, Glee delivers.

Encouraged by the unending success of the reality TV escapist behemoth, American Idol, Glee encourages viewers to take off their shoes, unwind, and just enjoy the entertainment. There's no heavy thinking necessary. Glee's character base is big, bold, and structured in a practically hyperbolic way guaranteeing that each character is almost typecast as a stereotype (or reverse stereotype) that you might find at your community high school. Occasionally they're casted with a slight twist, as exemplified by the school's new varsity football coach Shannon Beiste, but each character's true role in the show is in the end without doubt (again, as exemplified by Beiste, who's name is pronounced precisely as her role is envisioned - a Beast).

Perhaps the only other non-reality TV show to do this successfully in the last 10 years was The Office with Steve Carell, which is now in its 7th season and clearly having plenty of success. And while Glee could never be as cheap as The Office to shoot (think of all the musical outtakes!) it's currently getting more viewers than any season of The Office ever has (running at an average of 9.7 million viewers per show in season 1).

So, in a world of gloomy 24 hour news networks and reality TV that is not afraid to get trashier and trashier (how is 16 & Pregnant in its second season?), Glee is definitely a pleasant, bright, humorous boost to an otherwise weighty (if not depressing) line-up of evening entertainment. If you haven't already, grab a Glee DVD or Blu-ray and catch-up on the first season of Glee.