Ryan Murphy’s high-school creation was bizarre and brilliant, until its leads graduated and self-awareness exited stage left
In 2019, the ultra-popular teen
comedy Glee largely exists in the public consciousness as the punchline to a joke. The subject of monthly
Twitter threads lamenting its best worst moments, it is pretty easy to forget just how popular it once was.
Bringing musical theatre to the small screen, Ryan Murphy’s comedy follows the New Directions, an Ohio-based, high school show choir. Initially made up of a small group of students at the bottom of the food chain, the club is turned upside down when quarterback Finn Hudson (the late Cory Monteith) is blackmailed into joining by teacher Will Schuester (a perma-smiling Matthew Morrison) who plants weed in his locker. With Finn’s fellow football players and cheerleaders following, Glee Club becomes temporarily cool.