Goodbye Glee
Our resident Kiss92 DJ bids a fond farewell to one of the most inspiring TV shows ever created
COMMENTARY
After six seasons, Glee is done.
I'm sad the musical comedy TV series is over, but also elated at how things wrapped up.
If you haven't seen the final episode - which was telecast in the US and on cable channel Star World here last week - yet, you can stop reading now to avoid the flurry of SPOILERS.
If you don't plan on seeing the final episode, you can also stop reading - I don't want to be your friend any more.
Anyway, what happens is that glee club New Directions win the national championship.
You'd think that would be enough of a happy ending, but they've only just begun with the happy endings.
The final episode of Glee is like the mother lode of all happy endings - like Cinderella, Return Of The Jedi and Blades Of Glory all wrapped in one.
Soon after New Directions win the championship, Mr Schue (Matthew Morrison) is told that McKinley High is going to be transformed into a school for the arts, and that he is to be named the principal.
Then, via some juicy flashforwards, we learn that Sue (Jane Lynch) becomes vice-president of the USA, Kurt (Chris Colfer) has a baby, and Rachel (Lea Michele) wins a Tony Award.
Some might say that this is overkill, but I say that these folks deserve whatever good fortune comes to them.
Glee has absolutely put them through the wringer, and they've met every obstacle with creativity, bravery and determination.
These sorts of people really do succeed. I know these sorts of people.
I'd like to think that on my best days I can be like these sorts of people.
As I watched the finale, I couldn't help but get teary-eyed.
The waterworks were inspired by the beauty of the music, the kindness of the characters and the sense of nostalgia that the show evokes.
These aren't cheap tears. These are hard-earned tears that come from a pure and joyful place.
Out of all the emotional moments in the show, the most powerful one must have been the scene where they announced that the school's theatre would be named the Finn Hudson Auditorium.
Finn was of course played by the late Cory Monteith, the actor who died of a drug overdose during Glee's fourth season.
Glee, more than almost any other programme I can think of, was a celebration of life.
Not just the good stuff, but also the bad stuff.
All of it, even the end of it.
Even death.
In the end, Glee's greatest triumph was perhaps that it could take the miserable demise of a beautiful young man, and ultimately transform it into something powerfully uplifting.
Its final number takes place in the Finn Hudson Auditorium, and it's a rousing version of One Republic's I Lived.
If Glee ever had an overarching message, meaning, theme or thesis, this was it.
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