Glee: Season 4 Premiere

Glee hasn’t been good for a long, long time. It very quickly became a victim of it’s own success, trying too hard to please its fans rather than the writers trusting themselves to be able to continue creating the storylines that drew those fans in the first place. As a result, after its first season ratings highs, it has been shedding viewers weekly. While last night’s premiere had slightly higher ratings than the season 3 finale, it was still down from the previous year’s premiere, with the bump likely attributable to a “look-in” audience curious to see how, or if, the show would be retooled now that several of its main characters have graduated.

And the answer to that question is: not much at all. After several of the characters grades were ret-coned last year to make them younger, we ended up with seven cast members leaving high school, and only four of failing to appear in physical form last night, though they all received mentions and most will have recurring roles throughout the season. Everything else quickly fell right back to normal. New members were added to fulfill the stereotypes vacated by the graduates: the gay guy, the bad boy, the girl star. Meanwhile, the two storylines that could have helped the show evolve have already been sabotaged. Rachel moving to New York for school could have added a new dynamic, instead we get McKinnely, the college version. Even more potentially interesting would have been Curt’s story, as the star who was supposed to make it but didn’t, being forced to live an un-extraordinary existence in the small town. Rather than exploring this, Kurt has moved to New York by the end of the episode to live with Rachel. Given this show’s history, I’d be shocked if Curt isn’t accepted into the arts college with Rachel by Christmas.

I’ll echo what I said before. If you’re not already committed to watching Glee, there is absolutely zero reason to start. It has, at best, two seasons left, but was already in danger of cancellation last year. For myself, I think I’m going to treat this show the same way I do a new series, with the four episode test. If it hasn’t shown some sign of improving by then, I’ll quit watching. I’ve endured two and a half seasons of a terrible show, hoping it would return to the heights it started from, with the occasional glimmer of hope. You can only hold onto that hope for so long.