Do you and your friends love "Glee"? Or are you already tired of hearing about it? Maybe you're not even allowed to watch it. Whatever your relationship with this phenomenon of a TV show, it's here for a while. Even though the season wrapped up last night, Fox will be rerunning episodes until fall and of course there will be a DVD release on top of all the songs already available on iTunes.

Over here at IML, we are solid "Gleeks". It's great entertainment, and we laugh and cry and sing along just like many of you probably do. Still, the show has its flaws, which can be frustrating. Now that McKinley High is out for the summer, we'd like to take a few moments to look at New Directions' first year.

The characters. One of the reasons why "Glee" works so well is the cast of characters (and the actors who play them). There's a good range of interesting personalities and backgrounds. Yes, a few of them are stereotypes. For instance, you could say Kurt is almost a caricature of a gay teen, but his struggle to be true to himself and his relationship with his dad is so compelling, we forgive him for being a little over-the-top. Mercedes and Brittany are also characters we've seen before. But sometimes good storytelling has to use characters like this in order to give the audience some familiar, relatable territory. For the most part, the "Glee" characters learn and grow, and occasionally surprise us. That's what keeps us watching.

The music. Well, duh. The music is awesome. Sometimes it's in a cheesy setting and sometimes it almost makes no sense. Like, the guys in the club are really going to completely dress up like Kiss and do a song? Mr. Schuester would really sing a sultry number to Sue Sylvester? Whatever. "Glee" is a musical, and like all musicals, you have to forget about reality and believability and just sway to the beat.

The storylines. Our biggest annoyance with "Glee" is that there will often be a fantastic episode that ends on a great note, with what they call "story arcs" nicely wrapped up, and then parts of that story will be totally forgotten. For instance, take the episode where New Directions figured out that they could beat Vocal Adrenaline by doing a funk routine. This episode ended with Jesse St. James and his fellow club members admitting to themselves that they were, in fact, "soulless automatons" and they could lose. It was a great moment. But in the finale, there's no mention of doing a funk number; they do the "Journey" medley (and Vocal Adrenaline does "Bohemian Rhapsody" even though, in a previous episode, they were planning some Lady Gaga). Argh! Of course, the real reason why this happened is that the producers behind the show want to create as many different musical numbers as possible; the more musical numbers on the show, the more record sales. But storylines get glossed over too often, like Kurt's football career and Finn being totally betrayed by Puck and Quinn. And just when we think Santana and Brittany are true "Glee" clubbers, they do whatever Sue Sylvester tells them to. Although we love all the characters in "Glee," sometimes it does feel like there's too much going on for the producers, and the audience, to really invest in everything.

The mature stuff. "Glee" is not a Nickelodeon or Disney Channel show. It airs at 9pm and has teenage and adult characters. So there's teenage and adult subject matter, language, and humor. That's just the way it is. "Glee" never planned to be so popular with tweens. Plus, everything that happens usually ends with a lesson learned or an upbeat, inspiring message. When characters do something that's morally questionable, there are consequences and they eventually understand that (even if it's just for an episode). In the end, it's up to each individual family to figure out what's appropriate TV viewing and what isn't.

The first season "journey". Bravo to the "Glee" folks for keeping the finale from being predictable or unsatisfying. The members of New Directions lost Regionals, but won so much more, and we're glad the show choir competition itself ended up being pretty insignificant. Rachel and Finn found each other on equal terms. Quinn loved her baby but knew someone else would give her a better home (the fact that it was Shelby, Rachel's mother and the Vocal Adrenaline coach...a little melodramatic but oddly perfect). The club got another year (uh, was there any doubt?). And Sue Sylvester has always been one of the most complex "villains" on TV; only she and the audience know how her vote went. We love that! We didn't get a big final kiss from someone like we did at the mid-season point between Mr. Schue and Emma, but maybe that would have been cliche. A few things were dropped too quickly, like the Jesse/Rachel romance (didn't he say he was beginning to like her, then he ditched them all with no explanation?) and Shelby's relationship with Rachel (that went sour in minutes, as if the producers decided they didn't know what to do with it). We hope these loose ends get continued next season.

Like most pop culture sensations, "Glee" won't always be such a big deal. Maybe in another season or two (how long will these kids stay in high school, anyway?), we'll be talking about how the show has gone downhill and we're kind of over it. For now, it's fun to enjoy and take part in the buzz. It's not often that something gets to be fresh and different and trend-setting. When it does happen, it happens big. We like being part of that!