Glee [Pilot]

Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker

This comedy from creator Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck) is so good--so funny, so bulging with vibrant characters--that it blasts past any defenses you might put up against it.

San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman

Glee is infectious and hilarious and oddly inspiring.

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

Glee, which marries popular music to unpopular kids, and will make its debut immediately after the season's penultimate episode of TV's most-watched show, probably has a better shot of breaking this cycle [of rich teens] than anything I've seen in a while.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

It's the music that makes Glee a gleeful delight.

Hollywood ReporterDaniel Carlson

The series is smart, fun and completely winning.

Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara

Glee is the first show in a long time that's just plain full-throttle, no guilty-pleasure-rationalizations-necessary fun.

Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm

Glee is a yes, yes, yes of a show. A lot of folks have their fingers crossed for this one.

The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley

It has a strong satiric pulse that doesn’t diminish the characters’ identities or dim the showmanship of a talented cast.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

The dominant note in Glee is comedy, the production numbers are vibrant, and the cast is consistently winning.

SalonHeather Havrilesky

Former show choir geeks, Broadway show tunes crooners, "American Idol" fans, cheerleading masochists and pretty much anyone who remembers the merciless absurdities of high school life a little more vividly than they'd like to will savor this very clever, very original new comedy.

New York PostLinda Stasi

Glee is part "High School Musical," part "Election" and part "Friday Night Lights," while retaining its own unique storyline--and it does so beautifully.

Slant MagazineJulie Leung

Glee nevertheless proves that a few good song-and-dance numbers can make up for a few unsightly bits of maudlin fluff.

Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan

So Glee works as a musical. Whether it will work as a satirical dramedy about the cutthroat social environment of high school is another matter.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

Glee has likable characters, a good sense of humor and a reasonably deft touch with music.

Washington PostHank Stuever

This is not to say it's a perfect show. Glee never passes up a serving of ham (or cheese, in the case of the musical numbers), and its frenetic pace will enthrall its hippest viewers and exhaust others. Well, they need to get with it. [But] Glee is certain to delight likeminded grown-ups.

Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall

The pilot is packed with musical numbers that are intended to be as vocally impressive as they are funny, but the jokes tend to wear thin quickly--particularly if you've seen snippets of the songs in Fox's nonstop promos for Glee over the past month.

VarietyBrian Lowry

Wisely drawing upon Broadway talent, these [musical] sequences represent the program's saving grace, but also it's most formidable challenge, inasmuch as producing a weekly musical--see "Cop Rock" (failed but good) or "Viva, Laughlin" (not)--can be a logistical nightmare.

Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik

The staging of that song by a group of misfit high school students in glee club near the end of the heavily promoted pilot is so elevating and inspirational that it almost redeems all the stereotypes and lame humor that come before.