Like How I Met Your Mother, Glee was another show that I stuck with
until the moderately-bitter end. It was
an absurd series that was sometimes hilarious, sometimes tacky, something
beautiful, sometimes bombastic, and always insanely extra. It had some seriously-lean years in there,
although the final season did get itself together somewhat (similar to the end
of Scrubs.) Of course, season 6 could be wildly uneven as
well, but when it comes to this episode, the series finale, I’m mostly
satisfied with how it shakes out.
The
episode opens on the climactic moment of Nationals 2015, with Will standing
alongside the New Directions waiting for the results with baited breath. From there, we move back and forth between
the present and five years in the future, seeing various characters make their
goodbyes and set their paths, then watch where those roads take them. It all culminates, as everything on this show
does, in the auditorium, for one last performance.
As is
typical with Glee, plenty of the
proceedings are absurdly over-the-top, with an inordinate amount of glee-club
members rocketing to silly levels of fame in so few years. (In some ways, though, it’s actually less
over-the-top than reality, as the hypothetical 2020 features Jeb Bush running
for reelection – not even a Ryan Murphy show could’ve dreamed up the satire
that is real life.) At this point, I’m
pretty much used to it on this show and roll my eyes but don’t grumble. It’s still fun to see what becomes of some of
these characters I followed for six seasons, and as with any later-season Glee event episode, I like the glimpses
of characters who left the show (hi, Mike Chang!)
Some good
songs here. Kurt and Blaine’s duet of
“Daydream Believer” is lovely, performed in a goofy but very cute setting. Will and Rachel both have beautiful goodbye
numbers, “Teach Your Children” and “This Time,” respectively. And of course, the big blow-out final number,
OneRepublic’s “I Lived.” Sure, the song
choice is pretty high-school graduation, but it’s worth it to see all those
characters singing together one last time.
Cameos from pretty much everybody who’s ever been through the New
Directions – including Jesse, which delighted me (you can never have enough
Jesse St. James in my book) – brimming with exuberance and catharsis. Pardon the expression, but it was certainly a
good note to go out on.
As for
Andrew Rannells, he makes a brief cameo as himself in one of the 2020 segments,
presenting at the Tony Awards.
Incredibly short, with just a few quick Best Leading Actress in a
Musical jokes – I smiled at “Dame Maggie Smith in Miss Jean Brodie’s Second Prime,” and his enthusiastic delivery of
“Anne Hathaway in her one-woman show Anne!,
Exclamation Point!” cracked me up.
In itself,
this is barely more than nothing to see, but it is a tiny bridge between Rannells starring in Ryan Murphy’s The New Normal in 2012 and being
featured in the Murphy-produced The Boys
in the Band in 2018. In that way, I
suppose it’s a little sign that, even though The New Normal was short-lived, Murphy still liked Rannells and
liked working with him. And I’m on
record as flat-out loving Rannells’s
performance in The Boys in the Band,
so I’ll take it! Not to mention, Rannells is reprising his Boys role along with the rest of the cast in Murphy’s Netflix
adaptation of the play and has been
announced as part of Murphy Netflix adaptation of The Prom, so I think it’s safe to say the Rannells is now officially
one of Murphy’s people.
Recommend?
In
General
– While I’d say this is a better-than-average episode of late-seasons Glee and a pretty good series finale, it
doesn’t do much good to recommend just
a series finale. Paired with seasons 1-3
and maybe some of season 6 (you can mostly skip the middle,) I’d recommend it
for folks who like silly shows about performing.
Andrew
Rannells
– Naw, not enough for him to do.
Warnings
Language,
sexual references, and thematic elements.
