dizzyizzy01

I'm not sure I'd use Darren as a barometer for vocal talent though. Janet's numbers are more about the overall performance. She's not some extraordinary vocalist.

I have to say most of the numbers you listed were pretty boring to me. Pleasant but very forgettable. I thought pitting Melissa vs. Lea in her first duet for the show was the wrong choice cause to me Melissa wasn't nearly as good as Lea. But that's all subjective of course.

Well it's not like covering Janet is some sort of vocal feat. His dancing was fun though. I didn't really like the Stevie Wonder covers on the show.

Jacob was a great dancer, but his singing voice does remind me of Kermit the frog. Becca can carry a tune and kind of has an interesting tone, but she's a far weaker singer than most of the original girls, except Heather and Diana. Alex and Melissa were pretty good though. Of the current glee club, I like the new boy cheerio (Mason?) and Jane the most so far.

Seriously, isn't Becky supposed to be at school? And why isn't Puck stationed somewhere? Logic need not apply on Glee though. Sue was way too cartoon villain in this episode. The tonal shifts in her character are so bizarre. Who flips out over a plastic fork of all things... Rachel made a bad call with asking the other teams to take it easy. The more logical outcome would have been Blaine & Will declining the invitation to the invitational. It was clearly a setup if the invite came from Sue. They both know the state the McKinley Glee Club is in. Why would they want to participate in a voluntary scrimmage thing with an opponent that clearly doesn't pose any threat right now? It seems like just a waste of time on their parts. Showing parts of their competition strategy with no real payoff/benefit. They already know New Directions isn't competition ready. Whatever, it's clearly a setup for the rivalries this season and probably paving Will's path back to McKinley. Blaine's attitude was odd this episode. I don't know how we're supposed to take his relationship with Kurt. Also, he just comes across really smug and condescending when he interacts with Kurt and Rachel. Will reacts to things like a child, no wonder his team dislikes him so much. Sam/hypnosis is just dumb. I really can't tell if it's supposed to be funny or not. This episode was just there.

None of these actors are really at the point in their careers where they can just say no to a pretty decent paycheck. This show gave them their big breaks, I think these actors recognize and appreciate that. And like others said, I'm sure they like working with the cast and crew of the show.

In addition to Let it Go, they just did Sing and Problem also in episode 1, and the last episode was thematic with Carole King/Alanis. It's been a similar mix to past years I think. Tightrope and Home are also fairly new songs from episode 2.

Well if we went by the census, then the show was over-represented with Asian and Hispanic kids. The show did an above-average job with diversity in casting. It's not perfect by any means, and I'm certainly not saying it's some gold standard. The whole industry has a very long way to go, but when Glee premiered, the diversity of its cast was pretty unusual. With regards to the WSS casting though, I don't think the any of the casting choices were based on race. It was what songs they wanted to perform on the show and who they wanted to sing them.

But it's a high school in the middle of nowhere Ohio. It's pretty white there...

No neither are legit sopranos, but I think they're both lyric sopranos based on what wikipedia says. I agree that Amber probably has more potential, but as it stands they do have pretty similar ranges. I have a tendency to believe what Lea has actually said about her voice though over people that have never met them. I'm not an expert either. I just play piano and violin, and the violin basically lives above middle C so... I'd have to go look up songs, but I remember she did it kind of goofily during the beginning of the Diva episode. It's just in the background of her doing vocal warm ups though.

She can. There is actual proof about this. Besides actually doing it on Glee itself, like Matt's body of work, not everything Lea does is shown on Glee either. Definition of soprano from wiki: A soprano is the highest vocal range of all voice types which primarily refers to classical female singing voice, with diversification to reference male falsetto vocal range, as well as a member of an instrumental family with the highest range such as the soprano saxophone. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) =880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) =1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody. The lyric soprano is the most common female singing voice. I don't see where Lea doesn't fit the definition of a soprano?

What experts though? I'm pretty positive they're wrong. I mean my vocal training ended in 3rd grade choir, but I have perfect pitch and she can clearly hit the notes within the defined range of a soprano. Unless there's some requirement I don't know about of being a soprano that goes beyond being able to sing notes within a soprano range, Lea's a soprano. Amber and Lea both have about a 2.5 octave range. Amber's voice is more powerful overall I think, but they do have very similar ranges. If you google Lea Michele vocal range, most of the sources say she's a soprano that is often mistaken as a mezzo soprano because of her belt.

Probably best, but after reading a bit more about head voice vs. chest voice, and what that means, I'm pretty sure that Lea Michele is a soprano based on the definition of a soprano. She and Amber actually have very similar ranges. There can be a preference of voice of course and who you think is a better singer. However, Amber and Lea are both sopranos.

I'm pretty sure Lea has stated herself she's a soprano, and I'm pretty sure her vocal range spans the Soprano range. I'm not a vocalist so I'm not really sure how head voice plays into it? However, I can distinguish a high C, which is within Lea's range.

That's fine. I'm not the original poster, but they never said Mercedes didn't fit that role based on those facts, it was a statement in relation to why Rachel could fit the role perfectly despite not being a Puerto Rican Immigrant. The comment that Mercedes isn't any closer to a real-life Puerto Rican immigrant still stands fine IMO.

I'm actually pretty sure Lea is a soprano. I think she gets mistaken for a mezzo soprano a lot. She still may not necessarily fit the role of Maria, but I'm pretty sure her actual range falls in the proper definition of a soprano.

The comment is that Mercedes isn't any closer ethnically than Rachel is. I don't think It's in regards to the bolded statement. Lea, hence Rachel, does have the range of a Soprano though? I mean Lea was up for the role of Maria in real life... The audition songs were all ridiculously out of place though.

It's not that easy to simply transfer a show over to a rival network even if it is a joint venture with CBS. There's lots of behind the scenes stuff, but it'll be interesting to see it all play out. I think Berlanti's production company is under the Warner flag so that might actually help. The premise of the show sounds pretty good. I'll probably check it out at the very least and Berlanti has been pretty successful with Arrow and Flash. Hopefully they can get an audience on CBS.

Yea, the writing left a lot to be desired, but that's par for the course on this show. I suppose one could argue they were going for color-blind casting. It's still not a good look for the show.

Although I think this is awesome for Melissa, I have big doubts on CBS launching a superhero show. For DC, if it isn't batman or superman, it can be tough to get an audience, and Supergirl (relatively speaking) isn't that popular. I feel like it could work on the CW like the Flash, but CBS just seems to skew too old. Hopefully they'll prove me wrong though.

I think the writing was very poor, but to me it was clear that they didn't come to a conclusion who was better. The exact words were "Rachel is Maria" followed with "On the other hand, Mercedes is Is the riskier choice, no doubt. And she might even be the more exciting one." So your latter point might be valid, they were afraid to go with the bold choice, but it was never shown that Mercedes was better.

The scheduling wasn't unfair to Mercedes though. That comment was made after they both got 4 evenings and 2 matinees. Mercedes was objecting to double-casting period. I mean if one says Rachel was being condescending so was Mercedes, and she was further implying that she thought Rachel wasn't as good, which of course is probably her belief. However, it's still an insulting statement to make. It'd be the same if Rachel said that to Mercedes. Oh you're right. I forgot about that. I really hated the Funny Girl/TV audition plot so I didn't pay close attention. Either way, the whole process made no sense, and a real-life production wouldn't have cast Rachel in the role in the first place.

But Rachel's not in the wrong for doing it. Mercedes rightfully didn't like it, but Rachel didn't do anything wrong. Mercedes was also kind of awful when she whined about "why does everyone not want to hurt Rachel's feelings." She was implying Rachel wasn't as good and it's a categorically untrue statement to say nobody tries to hurt Rachel's feelings. Ignoring your own personal preference of who is better, Mercedes was being pretty condescending to Rachel as well. I just don't think either of them were really wrong in these situation, and it's a false equivalency to try and compare the presidency stuff to the WSS stuff. Rachel was wrong in the beginning but came around. You don't give her credit for that. Also, how do you compare real-life productions to Glee though? They still proceeded without an understudy anyway after Santana dropped out. Also, you don't audition for an understudy unless something had gone wrong that late in the production anyway. The whole thing made little sense in real life so the real professional stuff is really hard to take into consideration. I think Santana was in the wrong to start, and they both had a part in escalating it. That fight in the dressing room is one of my favorite scenes ever though. Rachel's Showgirls and Ghost Fanny line was pretty epic.

Everyone forgets that despite Rachel not wanting an understudy, she was going to accept it. She didn't like it, but she was fine with it in the end. I think her fight with Santana was clearly about your first point and escalated from there. Her argument with Santana starts with "why didn't you tell me you were auditioning" not "why are you auditioning for something I don't think is needed". I think that's an important difference to give insight as to where Rachel's mindset was. Ultimately Rachel shot herself in the foot with the Funny Girl story line, but I think that in how that fight started and escalated had mostly to do with Santana. I don't really equate the WSS storyline and presidency run situations. Everyone knew Rachel was going after the role of Maria, and Mercedes had the right to audition as well. They were both open with that. Like jtrattray said Artie/Emma/Bieste screwed up because they couldn't cast properly and couldn't make a decision on who they thought was better. Why wouldn't anyone ask for the better performance slots for a role they really wanted and got cast for?

I'm not saying Glee is perfect or did everything right or even groundbreaking for just casting two Asian American Actors. I'm saying Glee as a whole was pretty groundbreaking for a combination of things including a pretty diverse cast. BTW, the shows you listed all premiered after Glee hit the airwaves. I don't think Glee was necessarily the catalyst for all those casting choices on those shows, but I think Glee did have a hand in changing the current TV landscape.