Glee: The Complete First Season

Attention, Gleeks! The complete first season of Glee can now be yours. After the television show decided to make its debut in two acts, it's come together as one. Now you can see the transformation of "the misfits" over the course of a weekend as the Glee club team members at McKinley High in American Midwestern Ohio see their confidence boosted, but not until the finale. There's Rachel's crazy gold star obsessing, Finn's goofy posture and whining about peer pressure, Kurt's daddy issues and queer identity, Quinn's teen pregnancy and more ― drama, drama, drama. And there's plenty of that for the teachers as well, especially the hair jokes and stress lines between the club's academic head (Will Shuester) and angry cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester. Glee emerged as one of the most popular television shows in the past year, and Fox already has two more years planned, with tons of guest appearances (Britney Spears early in the second season). They handle issues such as sexuality, fear, accessibility, physical and mental disabilities and the high school mindset quite well. It's impressive, but the drama starts to overtake the copious amounts of singing about halfway through the season, when everyone becomes so overcome with their problems and insecurities. The big issue is how many obstacles the club goes through in order to stay afloat. It would make more sense if the show focused on the importance of art funding in high schools rather than how it takes money from the cheerleader's dry cleaning expenses. There are a few other plot holes, but nothing too big. The drama does appear more enticing than the singing, but, hey, it's Glee. They usually sing radio classics like Journey or more current pop fixations, which structure the episodes, so obviously it all goes hand-in-hand. But it will be exciting to see what comes in the future and to see how the characters evolve with music in their lives. The seven-disc-long set includes special features such as karaoke, song clips, a dance lesson, a featurette on the Madonna episode, another on dressing like a Gleek and much more.