The last episode of Glee aired in March of 2015, more than six years ago. I still miss it even though the suds-to-singing ratio got out of whack in the final seasons, so I didn’t watch regularly.
Despite the high school soap opera—or maybe because there’s no escape from high school until graduation for most folks, so you need to figure out how to make it work—Glee was a story about the the redemptive power of music and how people singing together can see past their individual perspectives into a shared viewpoint, even if only until the final notes of a cover tune.
It was about collaboration and compromise and putting the song ahead of the singer.
It was about the gap between what we feel and what we’re able to say about what we feel, and how sometimes singing can help to bridge that gap.
And it was about the frisson of recognition smacking into novelty when something you know, a song made famous by people outside the show, combines with a new performance by the cast.
According to Wikipedia, there were 729 musical performances over the course of 121 episodes. That’s 729 attempts at communication, collaboration, empathy, and understanding.
Those things are in short supply these days.
Watching re-runs on Netflix or listening to the covers on Spotify is nice but not the same. That’s why it was heartening to know that Michael Thorn, head of Fox TV, is at least open to rebooting Glee.
Here’s hoping.
Leave a Reply