“In the first few episodes, I was wide-eyed, in awe that a show would dare to try a musical style on primetime television, and that it worked. Just like seemingly everyone else, I loved the mash-ups. I fell for the characters. I was amazed by the “Don’t Stop Believin’” cover.” — Beena Raghavendran
I relate to Glee on a personal level.
I grew up just outside Cincinnati, about 125 miles south of Lima, Ohio, the hometown of Glee. My school was William Mason High School (oddly similar to the show’s William McKinley High School) and takes the same abbreviation (WMHS or MHS). Characters have mentioned the Kings Island amusement park, which is just minutes from my house.
My high school is huge. For the most part, its students stayed in their assigned cliques — jocks, cheerleaders, mathletes, drama kids — and tried not to intermingle. Uproar, even chaos, ensued when anyone tried.
Glee’s 100th episode, a two-parter that aired its first half March 18 and concluded March 25, shows how the show has changed and the magic it once had.
As a junior in high school, I watched and evaluated Glee’s heyday. In the first few episodes, I was wide-eyed, in awe that a show would dare to try a musical style on primetime television, and that it worked. Just like seemingly everyone else, I loved the mash-ups. I fell for the characters. I was amazed by the “Don’t Stop Believin’” cover.
But more than that, I understood. I understood why Rachel wanted to get out of her small town. Why Finn struggled with social insecurity through high school. Why Blaine and Kurt were trailblazers for dating — and why Glee should still be praised for being a prominent TV show portraying homosexual relationships. In many ways, Glee was reflective of the community I grew up in. I experienced real-life high school issues around the same times as the characters on Glee did.
It’s had its troubles, no doubt, and they have hurt the show: Falling viewership, having a cast that needed to graduate — forcing a focus on unknown characters — and trying too hard to make some songs and plot arcs work. But the biggest blow to the show and cast morale was the death of star Cory Monteith this past summer. Glee, in its fifth season, announced its sixth season will be its last.
To be frank, Glee sucks now. It’s trying to keep rolling with the steam and the magic it once had, its former sense of teamwork and auto-tuned precision. But idealism only goes so far.
Just like the characters in Glee, I’ve grown up. We can’t all stay in high school forever.
