And that's what you missed on Glee...

Growing up in the 2010s was interesting, to say the least but for anyone who was a teenager during this time, there was a constant staple – Glee. Glee was utter chaos. Watching the show in 2023 is an experience, especially when we remember watching it for the first time in 2009. Plots are wild, references are outdated and a lot of the jokes have aged terribly – but the show itself is still intriguing. Glee first popped onto our screens back in 2009 and after six long seasons, it ended in 2015. I was 12 when Glee first started and by the time it finished, I was heading into my Leaving Cert year. I grew up with this show and it helped open up my eyes to a lot of issues other shows wouldn't have done at that time, no matter how flawed it comes across now. As cringey as it is to watch now, Glee dealt with an abundance of social issues. It featured a coming out story within the first four episodes, a teen pregnancy in the first season and by the fourth season, it was championing trans rights. While they may have tackled these issues in a now outdated manner, at the time it was one of the only shows on TV that were tackling them. It spoke about parent loss, and school shootings, dealt with a loss of their own and still managed to create an entertaining show. Nothing about Glee was ever that serious, it was light-hearted and an escape. Even when it went into detail about hard-hitting social issues, it was done in a way that stuck. This all being said, Glee to a modern-day audience is otherworldly. A show like this could never be made now, and should never be made now. Not only are some of the references slightly embarrassing and the once groundbreaking themes are dealt with in a way that has now advanced so much. While there were disabled and trans characters in the show, the jokes made about the are ones that nobody would get away with saying now. The way certain minorities are spoken about is appalling. While most are passed as jokes, it still has a degrading legacy. Glee had a massive impact on anyone who watched it, especially anyone going through their teenage years with it. It opened our eyes to issues in the world we may never have known about and made us think in a much more progressive way – but had its issues. Glee was the best show on TV while simultaneously being the worst. Will I still be rewatching at any given chance though? You bet.

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