GLORY DAZE on E4

Movie and TV Mistress series review.

So here is a review of a new TV show which has already been cancelled in the States after only 10 episodes.  Glory Daze is set in 1986 at Hayes University in Indiana and is about a group of Freshman guys who join the Omega Sigma fraternity.

The show starts very strongly with good casting and no over the top outfits or hair like other films and shows that are set in the 80's have done in the past.  We follow five freshman going to mixers at the fraternities at the University so they can decide which they should join.

We have the Asian Computer Geek called Alex Chang he rarely turns up after the first episode as he joins the Asian fraternity because it parties all the time in secret, but he couldn't take it and quit and did not join Omega Sigma. Next we have the young Republican of the group called Jason Wilson he failed to get accepted to his fathers Alma Mmata the Zheta Rho, then their is the Jock called Brian Sommers basically Capitan Awesome, he rarely has his shirt on but he is very intelligent. Then we have the desperate virgin called Eli Feldman, he's small and wants to be the big man on campus and does the craziest things in the show.  Finally we have the heart of the group who we follow called Joel Harrington, he the nice guy in pre med who falls in love with a girl who just happens to be dating the leader of the Omega Sigma called Damon.

If you have seen films like Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds and any other film about university fraternities then you already know these characters and plots, they could have called this show Animal House the TV series, because it is basically the misadventures from that classic John Landis film played out in 46 minute episodes, I know this sounds like I think this is a bad series, it isn't the worst out there, it tries hard and has some great humour, and a lot of referential humour that only people in their 30's or those who have watched a lot of 80's TV and Movies would get.  

I knew when I watched the Pilot back in November that this show was unlikely to get a second series, because I liked it. You see I have this unfortunate knack of liking a show from the start that are doomed, some say it's because I like bad shows, but anyone who has watched Studio 60 knows that was a great show which again I loved from the start.  It appears that the shows which are successful and get picked up are the ones that it takes me a few episodes to get into, this is not always the case but I'd love to know why shows like Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens and Lost stayed on the air for as long as they did. (I did watch all of Lost but I still think that Invasion was a better show and deserved a second series more then Lost deserved 6)

But back to Glory Daze the show is actually a well made and feels like a love letter to the 80's and the films of that decade, when I watched the Pilot it felt like it was from the 80's it was better then the short lived That 80's Show, I also think it spoofs films like Top Gun just as well as Hot Shots did.

The other reasons I think this series failed in the states are that there is already an excellent collage comedy show called Community which is more diverse and spoofs classic films all the time,  also we only follow four white guys we don't know much about the girls or find out what female fraternities are like, perhaps it was to similar to the shows of the 80's which we have moved away from.

Even though the show is only 10 episodes long I do recommend that you watch it, because it is a very well written 80's comedy and especially if you enjoyed the College films of the 80's and Hot Tube Time Machine.  I would go on but I really don't want to spoil the series for all the UK E4 viewers when it starts tonight, so give the show a chance, besides it's only 10 episodes.