Amy Winehouse, Anna Nicole Smith, Michael Jackson – the media goes wild when a celebrity dies of a drug overdose. It does so because people love to read about it; celebrities are forcibly held to moral standards as role models and when they don’t live up to them, their drug-related deaths garner attention that the media takes advantage of. Last week, Glee, the drama-comedy musical television series, had to catch up with the death of one of its main actors, Cory Monteith, who died of an alcohol and heroin overdose in July. It did so by addressing not Monteith’s drug use, but the death of a close friend. While I applaud Glee for not exploiting Monteith’s death as a way to garner views and attention, I do feel that the show fails to properly deal with the real life problems it attempts to address such as the loss of a loved one.
While Cory Monteith struggled with addiction issues, Finn Hudson was a straight edge, singing jock-turned-teacher and it wouldn’t have made sense to suddenly say that Finn died of an overdose. I’m glad that Glee stuck with the plotline and didn’t take Monteith’s death as a chance to impose condescension towards drug users. The latter course of action is what I had expected the show to do. After all, Glee is most often a very “happy” show dealing with idealistic teenage dreams to become rich and famous as talented show performers. The show does often try to bring up serious teen problems in a way that reminds me of the darker Canadian Degrassi but the characters of Glee are much less complex and dimensional, often having easy quick-fix solutions or leaving their issues hanging without much of an explanation.
I was pleasantly surprised that Glee chose to honor Monteith by taking on a celebrating-his-life-not-his-death attitude; in fact, the show doesn’t mention how Finn dies. His step-brother, Kurt, opens the issue by saying, “Everyone wants to talk about how he died, too, but who cares? One moment in his whole life; I care more about how he lived.” I appreciate the show’s push for American youth to gain more tolerance of its peers. Glee does just that, featuring a group of misfits as its main cast and introducing a transgender character in its second season.
However, I was disappointed by the way Glee addressed the aftermath of Monteith/Hudson’s death, much like the way it has addressed its characters’ previous issues that include self-consciousness, teen pregnancy and sex. The episode included attempts to include humor with trite and superficial thoughts on dealing with Cory’s death, such as Tina’s dismay at having to wear the color black: “I just don’t know how much longer I can do this… This look is so Tina two years ago,” and Puck’s “If I start crying, I don’t think I’ll ever stop.” Sue Sylvester offered some tough love with advice on paying tribute “by not making a self-serving spectacle of our own sadness.”
By jumping around to the show’s many characters, Glee showed snippets of the ways people reacted to and dealt with death, but by not delving into deeper reactions and solutions to dealing with grief that are actually helpful, Glee ultimately fails to get past a superficial acknowledgement of real teen problems.
Stanley, Alessandra. “‘Glee’ Addresses the Loss of Cory Monteith.” NYTimes.com. New York Times, 09 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Oct. 2013. <http://tv.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/arts/television/glee-addresses-the-loss-of-cory-monteith.html?ref=television>.
I appreciate your review. As a (yes, I’ll admit it, a Glee watcher every now and then) I had not seen the episode they aired in tribute to Monteith or any since then for that matter. I think that including the jokes/humor you alluded to in the episode would not do anything to desecrate his memory at all at least not intentionally. I know the way Glee is structured and hence the title is a very happy go lucky show. I think by handling it the way they did was clever because it shows that people can (though reluctantly) move on from these things. There’s only so much suffering you can fill in an hour time slot on TV. Unfortunately, I had to deal with quite a similar situation in high school with the loss of a friend/schoolmate. It was a rough time and it took a while to “get over” and I use that term lightly because I know myself and others are still feeling the effects. But, we were able to grow closer to each other and as the quote sums up perfectly “I care more about how he lived.” I applaud Glee on tackling this subject matter that is so very relevant to more people than you would think.
Although I’m unfamiliar with Glee and the characters of the show, I think the delicate nature by the writer’s approached Monteith’s death was to honor his memory and deliberately shy away from controversy. When someone you’ve closely worked with or loved dies, the way they passed is second to the fact that they are truly gone now. I think the writers knew that the scandal of Monteith’s drug overdose had been thoroughly discussed by the media and that his true personality had been raked over the coals by his final impression on the world. The episode, “The Quarterback,” was the only opportunity the writers and cast had to control what was left of Monteith’s presence in their lives.
While it’s frustrating to see a learning moment go by, it’s also worthy to note that Monteith’s life should not be reduced to be a cautionary example. I think addressing the issue of drugs would have polemically split the otherwise gleeful show into a dark special. And to specifically give Monteith’s character a death not by drugs but say drunk driving, would have been an insult to those issues. I believe that the writers did as best as they could have to abruptly wrap up a storyline without overwhelming Monteith’s memory with false platitudes.
I actually saw the last fifteen minutes of this episode of Glee, and while I agree that the show often addresses teen issues without depth, I also think they handled Cory Monteith’s death very well. Like you mentioned in your post, the show tried to deal with Cory’s death in a positive manner. Rather than focusing on his passing and how he died, it celebrated his life. I think the producers chose not to show the characters mourning over their friend at full-scale because it would be too disheartening and pessimistic. Instead, they included some humor to lighten the situation. In addition to that, the show only had about forty to forty-five minutes to portray the characters’ reactions and the aftermath of their friend’s death. In my opinion, Glee did a pretty good job at commemorating Cory Monteith by devoting the episode more to honoring his life and less to his drug and alcohol addictions that led to his unfortunate death.
As a huge fan of Glee, I believed the show handled Cory Monteith’s death well. They were able to celebrate and honor the life of Cory, the person, but also Finn, the character. Instead of focusing on his death, the episode centered around how the other characters mourned and moved on. I enjoyed how they incorporated many different reactions and way to deal with loss.
Although it could have been a powerful teaching moment, I believe not addressing Cory’s drug abuse was the right choice. Like Kurt said in the episode, it is more important how someone lived their life than how they died. Despite his addiction, Cory was a genuinely kind person and should not be defined by his demons.
I actually disagree with your comment about its lack of depth. You have to keep in mind that this is not just a death of a character but a death of the person as well. It must have been really difficult for the cast and crew to film this episode. In fact, every scene was done in one take because the cast and crew would leave the set crying. In addition, this episode was filmed a while after Cory’s death so everyone already began the mourning process. Adding some humor into the episode also lightened the mood. With such a serious and sad episode, it was nice to laugh once in a while.
Overall, I really enjoyed the episode and applaud the show for working through such a difficult time.
Dealing with a celebrity death in an non-exploitive way is extremely difficult and touchy, especially when the man or woman is a key cast member on a widely watched and celebrated television series. That being said, I really appreciate and value the route Glee producers chose to take in handling Corey Monteith’s passing. Contrary to your analysis – as well as Stanley’s in her article-opting to keep the nature of Finn’s death on the show a mystery was both a respectful and considerate move toward Monteith. Instead of making his overdose a lesson for all teens watching the show to learn from, the producers honored his memory and celebrated his life. Not everything has to be an example; not every mistake or horrible event has to have an after-school special created for it. Somethings are personal and are better left unsaid.
I have never watched Glee before, but, from this article, I definitely appreciate how the cast and members of Glee reminisced and celebrated Monteith’s life, rather than make the final episode into a lesson about the danger of drugs. But, when reading about celebrities in the news who do controversial things, I can only think that its natural for the media to go crazy over it. Even in our own everyday lives, how often do you hear of people you know become addicted to drugs like meth and cocaine? Although celebrities should be societal moral examples, we all clearly know thats not the case, ever.
Also, people have overlooked the fact that the cast did film a Public Service Announcement acknowledging Monteiths mistake as well as advising their viewers to not follow his example in any way.
I used to watch Glee as a freshman in high school and I loved the show for quite some time. I think I eventually outgrew its, as you say, “less complex and dimensional” story line. However, my love for the show’s characters remain, and despite his overdose, I still love Cory Monteith. Drug abuse and addiction is such a sad, devastating issue that affects so many amazing and genuinely good people. With that said, I think Glee honored his memory tastefully. Cory Monteith was a talented actor and musician, who lived a beautiful life with many accomplishments. I can’t imagine a show that he put so much work into exploiting his one true weakness to benefit their show. I think it would have also been too difficult for Cory Monteith’s costars to act in such a way.