Glee - Season 1 Volume 1: Road to Sectionals

In its pilot episode, Glee's main character, Rachel, angrily protests after one of her fellow glee club members suggests that irony might enhance the group's performance ― "there's nothing ironic about show choir." And until now, she was right. Glee, show choir ― no matter what you call it ― has always been the overtly earnest and square school activity reserved solely for those masochistic individuals hell bent on social suicide. But Glee, which proved to be the breakout hit of the fall television season, has single-handedly thrust show choir into the mainstream, injecting it with a healthy dose of warped black humour. As the title implies, the first half of season one follows William McKinley High School's glee club as they struggle to qualify and win the sectional competition. But the club's woes are generally only springboards for sub-plots that develop the characters of this 12-person ensemble cast. Chief amongst them are the revelation that head cheerleader Quinn is pregnant and that glee club teacher Will Schuster's wife Terri is not (although she's pretending she is). In between are inter-club romances, inter-staff romances and plenty of slurpees thrown in people's faces. Despite the large cast, one character shines brighter than any other: Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester, the sharp-tongued coach of the cheerleading squad, convinced that the ascent of the glee club will impede her "Cheerios'" success. Her one-liners ("your resentment is delicious") alone could carry the program. But the key to Glee's success is the way the show is able to walk the line between straight teen drama and subversive comedy. If viewers didn't buy the multitude of musical numbers, Glee would be dead in the water. The show's producers smartly play the singing and dancing straight. Instead, it's the song choice and context that they are placed in that provide the laughs ― picture a group of deaf kids singing "Imagine" or the glee club earnestly singing the "rolling down the river" chorus from "Proud Mary" while wheeling around in wheel chairs. DVD extras include a director's cut of the pilot episode, as well as an in-character audition and original casting session features.