The Good of Glee Returns in Rise

By: Paige Zinaman

On May 19, 2009 a pilot episode premiered on FOX. It was a show about twelve teenagers, a Spanish teacher and a passion for music. This show was called “Glee.” The series was exciting and brought in audiences from across the world together as they followed the lives teenagers at fictional William McKinley High School. Flash forward to the year 2018 where we are introduced to the new series “Rise,” a similar teen drama musical series. From the creators of “Friday Night Lights,” we meet the rising stars of the famed theater program at Harry S. Truman High School. Though the final season of “Glee” may have ended in 2015, we welcome a new acapella era with the new similar veined series “Rise.”

With “Glee,” we watched Rachel (Lea Michele) the diva who was destined for Broadway and Quinn (Dianna Agron) the head cheerleader who is determined to be the best and run the school until one request from the cheerleading coach leads her to Glee Club as a spy, but presents Quinn with much more than she expected. We met Finn (Cory Monteith) the star quarterback for the football team and boyfriend to the head cheerleader who is recruited to the Glee Club and Artie (Kevin McHale) who is a nerdy paraplegic who can bust moves in his wheelchair. There was Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), a goth girl with a speech impediment. Mercedes (Amber Riley) was the diva-in-training who wants to show the world she is more than a back up singer. Santana (Naya Rivera) was part of the cheerleading squad and is the baddest babe in town, but throughout the season struggles with how to present herself. We got to know beautiful Brittany (Heather Morris) who is the airhead cheerleader with good intentions who is the right amount of crazy and loyal. We found Puck (Mark Salling) who was the resident bad boy whom was best friends and teammates with Finn until one mistake with Quinn leads them both in hot water. Then, there was Kurt (Chris Colfer) who is the first openly gay student at the school and is bullied by the football team. Finally, there was Mike (Harry Shum Jr.) who is also part of the football team and joins the glee club where he finds a place he can express himself. All of these talents were brought together under the guidance of high school Spanish teacher (and former Glee Club member) Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison). Essentially, “Glee” was a show about a group of misfits who shouldn’t fit together but unite together and become better than ever…All for the love of music. Overnight this show became a tremendous success, leading into mall tours across America to promote a show that would be talked about for a lifetime while being nominated for nineteen Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, six Satellite Awards and fifty-seven other awards in just the first season with a world tour and 3-D movie. As the success of “Glee” continued, they also brought in huge guest stars such as Neil Patrick Harris, Idina Menzel, Kate Hudson, Demi Lovato and Gloria Estefan to name a few while also hitting some of the top songs from past to present day.

“Glee” focused on many issues during its six-year run, tackling relationships, sexuality, religion, bullying, homophobia, teenage drinking and social issues that were and still are present in society today. The story lines that were brought forth each week were so profound that people were craving more, reaching out to Twitter. “Glee” fan Terry Brown says, “I started watching it because it was something totally different of what was on TV then. Plus, the cast was phenomenal. I continued watching because I adored the characters of Rachel Berry and Quinn Fabray. And I love the underdog theme.” The show “Glee” delivered hard hitting stories with music that everyone could relate to and one of the greatest things about this show was it wasn’t afraid to push the limits and the social norms to fit in with other shows on television. One such plotline was Quinn’s teen pregnancy and being kicked out of her home because of her family’s religious beliefs to giving her baby up for adoption. This storyline was tackled all throughout Season One and was one of the most heartbreaking things to watch because it brought in so many issues that were relatable to a broad variety of people. The success of “Glee” was measured on their ability to stay witty and bring the dramatic flair when they needed through song. It left the audience craving more and leaving the lasting message of “don’t stop believing.”

“Rise” will be making its debut on March 13, 2018 on NBC. This show is inspired by a true story of a working-class community in Pennsylvania that is suddenly brought to life when the local high school theater program gets a new leader, Lou Mazzuchelli (Josh Radnor) who encourages his students to discover who they really are and their creativity. Throughout the season they explore change, sexuality, unemployment and opioid addiction – things that are issues that are being dealt with in today’s society. “Rise” brings the amazing talents of Auli’i Cravalho (Moana) and Rosie Perez (“The View,” “Elena of Avalor”) as well as a very diverse cast whose characters take the challenge of bringing Spring Awakening, one of Broadway’s coming of age musicals, to their high school as their major production. “Rise” will also be tackling a much darker route and realistic route than that of “Glee,” which sprinkled the majority of their episodes with humor and light heartedness. “Rise” will be tackling issues where it shines a light on what truly matters and how to become better as society and within our schools.

“Rise” comes with some mixed emotions already with some calling it a “Glee 2.0” while some gleeks (fans of “Glee”) like Sam Donnelly notes, “’Glee’ was groundbreaking material upon its initial release and I hope that ‘Rise’ can continue that trend. It’s unfortunate that ‘Rise’ has already rewritten a closeted character as straight, but I’m hopeful it will make up for this in other areas of the show.” It’s so easy to compare the two shows that it’s even harder to look outside the box and open the mind to actually see the difference and how it could be exactly what society needs now, a show where hopefully you can escape to for an hour and just relate to what story is being told within the bigger story. When asked about what they hope “Rise” brings from its approach to musical theater, “Glee” fan Beck Donnelly says, “Hopefully, ‘Rise’ takes the opportunity to also bring light to these situations. I feel like it’s going to go deeper with more serious tones. I’m sure it will be as popular as ‘Glee,’ but who knows. It might just be exactly what people want and need these days!”

Being a fellow ‘Glee’ fan myself, I thought really hard about what I wanted to see come from “Rise” that I didn’t really see come from “Glee.” As I was thinking about this, I realized I was putting too much pressure on this new series and projecting my wants and needs to be for the show. As continued my thinking, I asked my friend Heather Dunn what it was she loved about what “Glee” and what she hopes “Rise” represents. She said, “Being a theater kid and seeing all these different kids coming together to achieve their dreams, no matter how small, made you feel like you were a part of something special.” I’m thrilled to see another show that brings the musical arts once again to light because the arts are very important. Many schools don’t have a theater arts program because there’s not enough funding for it or because it is lower on the importance than other programs. I want this show to open the minds of students and even teachers as they watch and maybe encourage them to push the limits and realize that even though you’re in a certain group in school everyone can come together and share the love of music.

Music is one of the most universal form of connection that breeches boarders and religions and connects everyone. With the popularity of acapella music still so prominent thanks to films like Pitch Perfect, I cannot wait to see what “Rise” will become and what everyone can learn from it, myself included. My hope for “Rise” is to do their own thing, not taking the comparisons to “Glee” or other shows to mind and deliver fresh story lines that hit home and has me turning the television off craving more episodes each week. It has the potential to become a world phenomenon and I truly believe it will be the cause of impact and that it will become a success because it’s not “Glee” and that is going to set it apart. It may not always be easy to do what it can be done. They are two different shows sharing one common goal and that is the love of music and the ability to show love and acceptance is better than anything life can throw at you.

Rise airs Tuesday, March 13^th at 10/9c on NBC.