In last week’s season 4 premiere of Glee, members of New Directions were bickering amongst themselves about who would be the group’s new star singer – the “New Rachel.” It’s appropriate that the show would kick off this season seeking a Rachel 2.0, because it appears that this was also the quest of the show’s writers and production crew in seeking new Glee characters.
They were looking for a Rachel 2.0. And a Quinn 2.0. And a Puck 2.0. And a Mercedes 2.0, and so on.
Ryan Murphy caused a real stir in the summer of 2011 when he announced that he was going to make most of the kids in New Directions graduate. In the July 13 edition of The Hollywood Reporter Murphy announced that the writing staff would be writing Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer off the show entirely, a decision that was later rescinded when the decision proved wildly controversial and the spin-off got scrapped. At the time, I thought Murphy was interested in creating new characters to replace the ones he was losing. (That is the stated purpose of The Glee Project, after all.) However, now that the seniors are gone and the show has gotten an influx of new blood, I am getting a very strong sense of deja vu.
The “new Rachel” is not, as Artie suggested, Blaine. It is clearly Marley, even if she has one impoverished mother instead of two indulgent dads. The dead giveaway – she sang “New York State of Mind” in a split-scene duet with the “old Rachel.” Marley is not an egotistical diva, and she wants to be a pop star instead of a Broadway star, but the show has framed her as Rachel 2.0.
Quinn 2.0 is obviously Kitty. Sue even spelled this out to us very, very explicitly in the script. She’s not pregnant, manic-depressive, or in and out of wheelchairs… she’s the new and improved version, Quinn 2.0.
I could tell that Jake was Puck 2.0 even before he revealed his last name. There was something in the attitude, the stance, the belligerence. The fact that the two boys are long-lost brothers just solidified it.
It took me a minute to really see Unique as Mercedes 2.0 than as a character who was… well, unique. Once again, it appears as if the show is actually deliberately driving the comparison, as Brittney greets Unique by telling Mercedes she likes her haircut. They actually went out of their way to shoehorn Unique into a place vacated by somebody else.
The new Glee character who comes closest to being an original is Brody, since his talent and intelligence set him apart from being Finn 2.0. He’s also not quite Jesse St. James 2.0. He’s a genuinely nice guy. Maybe he’s a hybrid, combining Jesse’s intelligence and showbiz savvy with Finn’s essential decency.
Why all the retreads? Are Ryan Murphy and his crew running out of ideas, or do they think they will help us stop missing the dearly departed characters by giving us people who echo some of their most noticeable traits? Will they begin with these basic templates and then set out in new and creative directions that we’ve never seen before, or are we getting Glee season 1 2.0?
One good thing to note – some of these characters are oddly familiar, but the new cast members are all pretty talented, and they may indeed have infused some new energy into a franchise that was sagging. We still have at least one new character to come in played by Glee Project winner Blake Jenner, so it will be interesting to see if they place Blake in a previously configured template, or if they really will be going out in New Directions.
I recap Glee episodes at my blog, Recapper’s Delight.
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