The Rise and Fall of Glee

A few years ago i got hooked on a little show called Glee. Enchanted by the dancing and the music, the show appealed to some of my more camp sensibilities. The show just celebrated their 100th episode, and with the announcement that the next season would be the last, i though now was as good a time as ever to write about the show, and to compare the latest episodes of the show with the early episodes, that made me fall in love with the show. The show is currently in it's sixth season, and i've been watching it since the second season. Particularly for a high school show, six years is a long time for a show to be on the air, and as such the show has gone through numerous cast changes.

The show as it is today is a mere shadow of what it once was, the show has gone from being fiercely proud of how uncool it was, to desperately trying to be cool. The music performed on the show has gone from being a fun blend of show tunes and 80's pop music, to being so up to date and of the moment that watching back old episodes three weeks later they suddenly feel dated. The show is trying so hard to be current that in some cases by the time the episodes air, they are already dated. For example in one episode they covered 'What Does The Fox Say', about a month after that fad had already ended.

Being a high school themed show, the cast has changed cyclically since the first few seasons. Where the show really started to go downhill for me was when the first class graduated. The class of students that included Rachel, Kurt and Mercedes had so much charisma and charm, and were such a disparate group of misfits that they were somehow endearing. They were believable, because one could truly understand that they would be the outcasts in school and that they would be shunned by the popular kids. The current class of students, however attractive are in no way believable as misfits, because they would all be the popular kids in school. Let's be honest, Marley, obese mum aside, would have lots of friends in school, and as one of the highly unpopular kids in school, i can say that unpopular kids do not look like this.

There is also a sharp difference in talent, Mercedes, Rachel and Kurt are all truly fantastic singers, and although Marley, Jacob, Ryder and Wade are okay singers, none of them is fantastic. Interestingly one episode focused on finding 'the new Rachel', and despite devoting a whole episode to it, the show still hasn't found one, and the show doesn't have a single lead character to anchor the show around.

The other problem is the storylines, the original seasons were lauded for their frank description of sex, teen pregnancy, sexuality and relationships. The pregnancy storyline involving Quinn, Puck and Finn is a particular highlight, as is the romantic storyline between Santana and Brittney. Although i highly praise the current transgender storyline featuring Unique, and it is really the only trans storyline in a mainstream show, but the rest of the storylines feel very pedestrian, the love triangle between Marley, Jake and Ryder is a little overdrawn, and a bit been there done that.

Overall, the new Glee is a shadow of what it once was, i have high hopes for the fest of this season, with the show's focus switching to New York, where many of the show's good cast members lie, and i hope that the show can regain what it once had before the show ends for good. Focusing on the more interesting cast members and shifting focus away from some of the newer cast members (Marley, Jake, Ryder) will aid the show in regaining some of it's old character and personality.

RIP Corey Monteith: 1982-2013