Glee is coming back. After more than a decade, Hollywood has looked at the dustiest corner of its own archive and decided it was the future.
The show that gave us slushie facials, mashup numbers and a teenage romance that aged like milk is returning to screens. Ryan Murphy’s press team describes it as a revival. Nobody has asked the people who watched it the first time whether they were revived.
The original ran for six seasons, and by the end most of its cast had moved on to better projects, which tells you something about who was enjoying the thing. Now it is coming back with the same songs, the same jokes and a fresh coat of nostalgia paint.
Why build a new idea when you can rent an old one? The industry has stopped asking that question, and the audience was never given a vote.
The pitch leans hard on the word ‘iconic’. It appears in the announcement twice. The show was never iconic. It was loud, and the volume got mistaken for culture.
The revival will be marketed as a return to joy. It will be watched, mostly, by people who want to feel fifteen again and by executives who want to avoid a pitch meeting.
The slushies are back, presumably. Nobody has confirmed the reboot will keep the ones that ruined the choir room carpet.