AFI announced today their top 10 films and top 10 television series of 2009.

After reviewing the lists, two things jumped out at me right away.  First, that two of their top 10 films are animated features (Coraline and Up.) This speaks to something that our mentor Jana Williams talks about frequently:  that animation is home to some of the best storytelling out there. In animation, the sky is the limit with regard to set-pieces and premise, but there are no famous faces (famous voices, I suppose, but how much does that really mean…) or superstar directors to coax people into shilling out twelve bucks for a ticket. These films rely so heavily on great scripts — big stories brimming with unique characters and situations. These are indeed two of the best in recent memory.

The other thing that jumped out at me was that The Hangover made the list! To me this is another testament to how vital a great screenplay is. This was an anomaly as far as studio comedies go in that there were no huge stars attached.  The cast was instead packed with emerging talents, and their performances (along with the incredible script) made stars of them all and turned The Hangover into one of the year’s biggest films.

The TV list didn’t bear too many surprises. Comprised of the most critically praised shows of the year, the only thing that caught me off-guard was the inclusion of Glee. I understand it’s a huge hit… I just can’t figure out why.

Here are the full lists:

AFI Movies of the Year

Coraline

The Hangover

The Hurt Locker

The Messenger

Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

A Serious Man

A Single Man

Up

Up in the Air

AFI TV Programs of the Year:

The Big Bang Theory

Big Love

Friday Night Lights

Glee

Modern Family

The NO.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

Nurse Jackie

Party Down

True Blood

So, I caught the latest episode of the new Fox series Glee tonight. Last week’s premiere got off to somewhat of a rough start, but after getting settled I found myself curious to see more.

After tonight’s episode, I’m not sure I’ll be tuning in again.

The elements I thought were the pilot’s strongest points, the musical numbers, have here become awkwardly drawn out and cringe-worthy (the rendition of Kanye West’s Gold Digger with the rapping teacher was particularly hard to watch.) When a song was chosen for comedic effect, it ran too long and spoiled what could have been a good gag. I can’t help but think that Glee would be better as a half-hour, with these sequences cut down heavily.

Despite these issues, there are some good moments – Principal Figgins, played by veteran actor Iqbal Theba, is a fun character with some great lines, and there are some funny “Cut-To’s” throughout.

At this point,  it just doesn’t seem like Glee is living up to the hype.

After being bombarded for weeks on end by promo after promo after promo, tonight was finally the night: the  ’special preview episode’ of the new Fox series Glee (the show premieres next week.)

Thanks to these promos, in the lead up to tonight I  had crafted an admittedly delusional mental image of what this show might be – Arrested Development in a high school Glee club. My hopes were high.

The first couple of acts proved to be an adjustment period, to say the least. I was distracted at first by the similarities to Election – the blended-source narration, the desperate-to-achieve outcast schoolgirl, the singing jock tapping into his sensitive side – and I also struggled a bit to discern who’s story this was. But as the show played on I got more comfortable in the world and found myself completely caught up by the end.

The writing at times seemed a little ’surface’, and some of the dialogue too ‘on the nose’, but the great cast of new faces and old favorites and the incredible music (most notably the cast’s rendition of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing that closed the episode) more than made up for it.

So is Glee the new classic it’s been billed as? It’s still too soon to tell.

Will I be watching to find out? Most definitely.