glee: joss whedon. so what?

explain it to me slower // fox promotional photo

Listen, I love Dr. Horrible as much as the next girl (and probably even more), but I’m not sure I understand all the crazymaking that went on yesterday over the news that Joss Whedon is helming an episode of Glee.  Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a creative, super-talented guy, and I’m all for any kind of hype that brings viewers to this show.

Back in the day, Whedon directed an episode of The Office, “Business School,” and I’m not sure there’s anything in there that really identifies that episode as Whedonesque.  (The vampire B-story was a nice touch, though.)  The thing is … he’s not writing this episode.  I get that a lot of people are excited because of his previous musical forays, including Dr. Horrible and the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  But he won’t actually write any of the songs here, regardless of how funny “Better (Than Neil)” from Commentary: The Musical is.  And isn’t that what makes his other stuff so identifiably Whedon?

I’ll admit that I fangirled like a fool when J.J. Abrams directed his Office episode. It’s “Cocktails” and it happens to be the episode RIGHT AFTER “Business School” and it is so vastly superior and not just because it’s way Jam shippy. (If we ever decided that we needed to have an epic fangirl battle to the death between Joss Fans and Jabrams Fans, it’s very clear whose side I would be on, okay? My allegiance is deep and it’s real.)

But even in “Cocktails,” I can’t point things out and say, “Oh, wow, that camera angle is SO Jabrams.”  It’s not like Mission: Impossible 3, co-written by Jabrams and some other Alias dudes, during which I stopped counting Jabramsverse throwbacks at around 45 or so.

So if everyone else IS freaking out because they love the way Whedon lights his scenes, by all means–flail like it’s your OTP’s anniversary.

And then please point out all the nuances to me later.