I write this response to highlight and draw attention to the most sublime television I have seen in over a decade.
Ryan Murphy is God. He has bestowed on us non-deserving but extremely needy humans a birth child by the name of Glee.
It may sound like I’m gushing. I don’t give a shit. I am. This product definitely deserves it.
In a world where reality TV, affairs, and who someone is screwing passes for TV entertainment and garners book deals, it is highly refreshing to view something that is thoughtful, poignant, and significant.
I watched three episodes back to back recently and thought I would lose my mind; finally, someone is telling the truth about gay talent, visibility, and parent and child interaction.
It is a refreshing pace from the queen as witty well-dressed sidekick whose only purpose is to serve the great star and draw even more attention to the fact that while blessed with adulation, popularity and great skin, he/she still could use lessons in both humanity and humility.
As a gay man himself, it is quite clear that Mr. Murphy has spent a great time in dealing with things as both insider and outsider. There is no way to successfully navigate and create these worlds if one has not had firsthand experience on a daily basis.
In the episode “Home,” the concept of having no place to go and constantly being at the mercy of powers and entities that determine your fate is examined, stared at, and shown for the extreme hardship it causes psychologically and emotionally. This was no “let’s add a song for a bit of levity or some comic relief” episode.
This was groundbreaking in that it exemplified a belief that activists and thinkers have held for years. That when one person is being hurt and or oppressed everybody gets to feel the pain.
Some may have access to tools that lessen, hide, or provide intrinsic denial but the pain and end result remains the same. Ever present always menacing and unrelenting. Watching this gruesome and heartbreaking episode, a great deal of internal bullshit began to melt and fall away.
These kids and adults, like me, have always had a place. Sometimes, we will make it ourselves. Sometimes we will create one and passionately await the arrival of like minded individuals seeking our minds and actions as salve for the wounds inflicted by well meaning, but ignorant and fearful assholes.
Either way, the talented, the ones who are reading Shakespeare at six and producing plays in the basement (that would be me) are no longer relegated to the space of other.
Ryan Murphy has created a weekly universe that is filled with joy, self love, celebration of life and the promise that no young person ever suffer from feelings of isolation, suicide, or doubt again.