It must be said: there’s something off about the vibes of Ryan Murphy’s Glee. Never mind the shame associated with having watched (or, more accurately, witnessed) the 2009 Fox show, which was drawing an average of over nine million viewers at the time.
But in the years during and after the TV series’ six season run, a number of disturbing stories emerged including one about a child pornography scandal, several unexpected deaths, and a recurring narrative about a toxic work environment created on set by the show’s de facto lead Lea Michele aka incessant try-hard theatre kid Rachel Berry.
What happened on Glee? What are the controversies surrounding it?
For the uninitiated, Glee focused on a fictional high school show choir club in Lima, Ohio. The series trafficked in a winning combination of acapella pop music covers and pulpy after-school special plot devices: teen pregnancy, homophobia, disability, racism, the dangers of alcohol, and more. Matthew Morrison’s frighteningly upbeat Will Schuester acted as a guide for the troubled kids of the glee club, helping them find their voice and work through their issues, all the while rapping far, far too much.
But nothing in Glee’s canon compared to the stories that eventually came out of the production. In 2013, it was reported that Cory Monteith – who played Finn Hudson, the show’s quarterback, himbo heartthrob and main love interest to Lea Michele’s Rachel Berry – had been found dead in a hotel room due to a combination of heroin and alcohol. In 2017 Mark Salling, another Glee cast member, pled guilty for being in possession of over 50,000 images of child pornography. Just a few months later, at the start of 2018, the actor committed suicide.
The shocks didn’t stop there. In 2020, the actor Samantha Marie Ware spoke to Variety about her experiences on the show, discussing the ways her co-star Lea Michele made her life a “living hell”.
“I knew from day one when I attempted to introduce myself. There was nothing gradual about it,” she said. “As soon as she decided that she didn’t like me, it was very evident.”
Samantha initially spoke out when Lea posted online in support of Black Lives Matter: “Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?! Cause I’ll never forget. I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would ‘shit in my wig!’ amongst other traumatic micro-aggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.”
The same year also saw the death of Naya Rivera, who went missing after a boat trip on Lake Piru, and was later discovered to have drowned.
What will the new docuseries be about?
The new documentary series is said to address some of these stories through a three-part structure, with access to key cast and crew members. The project is the latest to be announced from Discovery+, and will also feature interviews with “family and friends” who will tell “never-heard-before stories”.
When can we watch?
With the show only just confirmed, a release date is unfortunately far in the future. But when the series does eventually arrive, we’re sure it will be worth the wait.
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