As a millennial homosexual who once was pursuing a music education degree, Glee was an incredibly formative TV show in my life when it aired on Fox from 2009 to 2015. To anyone who didn’t watch the show, Glee probably just looked like a bunch of musical theater singers trying to sing the latest pop hotness and being woefully ill-equipped for it. But those of who watched it know that wasn’t the case. I mean, it was that, but it was also the most cursed, out-of-pocket satire-turned-issue-of-the-week musical drama known to man. Despite having been off the air for over a decade, it has maintained a place in pop culture because it mixed a commitment to over-the-top, not-always-PC humor with efforts, however flawed, to bring attention to social issues, even as it spoke about them in an often tongue-in-cheek way.

Now, the show is apparently coming back, with at least some of the original cast returning, as a Disney+ and Hulu joint. I do wonder just how contemporary it can be, as the show was pretty whipsmart about weighing in on modern topics and singing current songs when it was airing on Fox. If the new season is all shot and packaged before it airs on streaming services, I wonder if some gags and song choices will feel a bit dated by the time we finally see them. At any rate, the jokes are flowing because Glee fans and haters are masters of the shitpost.

It’s unclear what the Glee reboot will entail. The original series ended with an epilogue (set in 2020 but with no covid pandemic in sight) so, in theory, we know where most of those characters ended up. Right now, only Lea Michele, Heather Morris, and Chord Overstreet are confirmed to return, though other cast members, such as Chris Colfer, have indicated that they’d be hesitant to return, but open to the idea.

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