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Glory Daze is a coming-of-age college sitcom set in 1986. It has all the usual characters, all the usual jokes (“electronic mail? How retarded”), and all the usual songs. I really wanted to hate it, and there were many reasons why I would.
Firstly and most importantly, I’ve seen it before. It’s basically American Pie mixed with Greek, and takes so much inspiration from these shows and many others in the same vein that when watching it you can’t shake a distinct feeling of déjà vu. As a result, there is not one single original character in it. The average bloke who everyone likes, the virgin who wants to be in the in-crowd, the jock, and the preppy boy are the leads, a group of four boys who just want to drink and get laid, and who have led every college/male coming-of-age saga since the dawn of time, or a least since the dawn of sitcom. Supporting them are Asian nerds, creepy room-mates, stoners (lifted almost exactly from The Big Lebowski), pretty and nice blonde love interests, loud-mouthed black men, etc. etc.
Secondly, the music, while a highlight for someone who likes ‘80s pop, is not current to the year in which it is set, which shows a lack of attention to detail. The soundtrack is classic new wave, but given that most of it was about half a decade old at the time that Glory Daze is set, I don’t see why it makes sense to have the 18 year-old characters listening to music on the radio that was around when they were only 13. While this may be a minor point, it is just another reason why Glory Daze was uninspiring - the producers were preoccupied with creating an ‘80s stereotype to the detriment of creating something original and attention-grabbing.
Also (and this may be a gender issue), it often wasn’t very funny. What is amusing about someone throwing a sperm-soaked sock and getting it stuck on the wall? Why would someone brand themselves on the arse? And tazering someone on the testicles just makes a male audience wince and a female one roll their eyes at the sheer crassness.
Having said all of this, there were some good points. The leads’ acting, for instance, was good. They created a believable friendship group of misfits who were each quite charming in their own way. Among all of the stupidity, these were characters which a viewer could root for, maybe even relate to (at a push). I also enjoyed the setting. The clothes, the music, the slang, all created a roundabout sense (even if not a particularly accurate one) of the decade, if not the year itself. It had its funny moments, mainly when it wasn‘t being something else, which perked it up into something watchable.
The thing is, it could be good with a little more effort. It’s a shame that good acting is being wasted in a sloppy production which, because it is covering well-worn ground, thinks that it doesn’t need to make any effort. As a result, Glory Daze was forgettable when it didn’t have to be, but had potential. I wanted to hate it, but I couldn’t, I just lost interest.
Glory Daze continues at 9pm, tonight on E4
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