Let’s Not Forget That Glee Was Good

I’ve had enough of the “cringe” and “problematic” libel. Photo: Glee/YouTube

The general public is obsessed with rewriting history when it comes to the quality of Glee. People speak of it as if it’s a stain on the sanctity of television history, a war crime that violates the Geneva Conventions, and an embarrassingly nonsensical cringefest. The libel continued this week when, after years and years of Ryan Murphy teasing a return, Disney+ and Hulu announced that a revival of the series is in fact officially on the way. Yes, there’s plenty of excitement and hopeful trepidation, but others have been referring to the news as a “threat” and liken the slushy-stained halls of McKinley High to “hell.”

Have you all forgotten that Glee was actually good?

First, let’s look at the numbers. Glee was nominated for 40 Emmys and won six. The Glee Cast earned 207 Billboard Hot 100 Hits (135 more than The Beatles). The first season has an 86 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, because upon its launch, it was a critical darling, instantly ascending into the cultural juggernaut we know it to be today. Entertainment Weekly said, “This comedy from creator Ryan Murphy is so good — so funny, so bulging with vibrant characters — that it blasts past any defenses you might put up against it.” The New York Times wrote, “Glee will not stop until it wins you over utterly.” Those reviews still hold up.

If you go back and watch those early seasons of Glee, which I do every three months for mental-health reasons, it is brilliant. The scripts deliver a level of joke density practically unheard of in today’s television landscape, amplified by a cast of comedic legends including Jane Lynch and Iqbal Theba, fresh faces capable of delivering powerhouse vocal performances while developing distinct characters, and Matthew Morrison. The dark comedy’s biting send-up of high-school archetypes and hierarchies, which would have been enough on its own, was of course bolstered by its prolific musical output of more than 700 songs, which provided a cultural education to a young audience who might otherwise not have been exposed to such an array of songs and artists, from ’60s Motown with “I Say a Little Prayer,” to the world of ’80s pop via Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional,” and, for better or worse, the obscure ’70s deep cut “Run Joey Run.” Because of that education, millions now can’t help themselves from saying those five magic words when certain songs hit their ears: “They did this on Glee.”

Not only did they do those songs on Glee, the cast held their own. And by “held their own,” I mean that they were better than the originals. There, I said it. Don’t believe me? Those punks in Journey were never nominated for a Grammy for “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Do you know who was nominated for a Grammy for “Don’t Stop Believin’”? The Glee cast. Eat your heart out.

In between those songs, you had indelible moments like Rachel Berry sending her competition to an (inactive) crackhouse, Finn believing that he managed to impregnate Quinn by way of hot tub, and Stephen Tobolowsky exclaiming in horror, “Who is Josh Groban?! Kill yourself!” Our cup runneth over with plots, line deliveries, and imagery that will be burned into the collective consciousness until time immemorial. Glee scored on every possible metric you could use to measure a show’s success: reviews, awards, Gwyneth Paltrow participation, ratings, and cultural impact.

You wouldn’t know that based on the way some corners of the internet now talk about it, as if it was some mortifying traumatic event we all went through. Sure, the show waned in its later seasons, around the same time the cast discovered hair extensions. But most television shows do, and Glee was particularly forced into a corner from a story standpoint. When the high school characters had to inevitably graduate, the show’s premise no longer held, forcing a complete restructure. A new class entered while we simultaneously followed a handful of the originals to New York, fracturing the ensemble the show was built on. Glee outgrew itself and became a different show altogether, and those last three seasons clouded the show’s legacy.

But the real reason people have a tendency to rewrite history stems from the contemporary memeification of Glee, which often decontextualizes it in a way that makes it easy to view in bad faith. Glee is a very deliberate satire, yet some act as if the show didn’t know that. Everything that is cringe is meant to be cringe. Everything that is offensive is meant to be offensive. Everything that is absurd is meant to be absurd. It’s not some big accident, but rather a purposeful, distinct tone and style that still holds up to this day. Saying that you couldn’t make Glee in today’s climate is completely ridiculous, because Glee was largely not offensive, it was portraying and lampooning offensiveness. And it did so incredibly successfully.

Now we’re all on the same page: Glee was phenomenal. Will this reboot/revival be? Well, reboots are reboots, and thus are graded on a curve given the innate uphill battle to live up to all that came before. At this point, we don’t even have a logline to explain what premise could possibly bring these characters back together again, even though much of the cast has slowly started to tease their returns. All signs point to this being more of a revival or continuation than a reboot of the original premise, but given how the original run’s final seasons struggled to unite its characters, how will this new chapter manage to do so? How will it navigate the absence of the three integral original cast members who have since passed? It’s no easy task. A high-school reunion is probably the most obvious reason for the New Directions to come back together, but it’s also worth noting that the baby Quinn gave birth to during the season one finale (as “Bohemian Rhapsody” was performed) would now be 16 years old and ready to lead a glee club of her own. Could this be Beth Corcoran’s time to shine? What songs should we expect to hear? Will they be brave enough to break the fourth wall with Olivia Rodrigo’s “déjà vu,” which explicitly mentions “watching reruns of Glee”? And of course, the most pressing question of all … how will Terri Schuester factor in?