My college experience was typical... it was a lot of work, I met some great friends, there were some good times, and I left semi-educated and with a pile of debt to pay off. I never particularly thought it was the time of my life. Frankly, life after college was pretty awesome! There was no homework and I had a lot more disposable income. I fondly remember Thursday night clubbing, then stumbling into work Friday morning. Stick that in your schedule, boss!However, media is continuing the tradition that life in college was glorious indeed... if you belonged to a fraternity or sorority. That's where the true fun was, you know, the rest of us were shit out of luck. The latest twist on this fine tradition is Glory Daze, (Tuesdays on TBS,) a show set in the 80s that follows the crazy hijinks of four freshmen, Joel, Eli, Jason, and Brian, rushing a... wait for it... fraternity!
Being set in the 80s is about the only twist I've seen so far. The show basically takes a lot of stereotypes from previous college and high school flicks and throws them all in here. You've got an updated Long Duck Dong, the Reaganite preppy, the jock, the short loud guy (who is actually pretty funny), and the normal pre-med kid. You also have the unorthodox but suave frat mentor, the sage pothead, the responsible frat leader with the untouchable, hottie girlfriend, and the professor on the edge (whom I love, because it's Tim Meadows). The pilot premiered last week and actually had a few laughs while the freshmen predictably got wasted, one did some B&E and vandalism, the others tried to rescue him, and all got arrested. Just your typical first week at school. Even though there was both nut-tasering and branding in this episode, I figured they were just starting the show off strong.
But when I watched the second episode there was again an over-the top, contrived plot - this time the boys must find an impossible gift of beer, which they need fake id's for, which leads to their car getting stolen, which leads to hitchhiking and then riding around with their on-the-edge professor, yadda yadda yadda. And in this episode some of those characters that were stereotypes but OK had become downright annoying. Suave frat mentor is getting a little creepy stalkerish. And "the Oracle", a.k.a. sage pothead, would be more entertaining with more goof and less sage. The freshmen also don't need to be quite so fawning. You know, just because this show is set in the 80s, doesn't mean it needs to be written like it was still in the 80s.
In contrast, the show Greek has done a great job of developing nuanced characters and balancing drama and comedy, which has raised my expectations of college shows. I might give Glory Daze an episode or two more to see if it can pull it together, but I'm not going to waste more than that. There were some interesting guest stars in episode two and more predicted in coming shows, but I'm not sure if that's because it gets more entertaining and the guest stars are excited to be there, or if the producers are just trying to save a tiresome show.
Glory Daze does play some great music, though.
