Inside the Controversial Docuseries Examining the Dark Side of ‘Glee’ - Rolling Stone

Ryan Murphy’s Glee was an inexplicable improvement successful its aboriginal years. A darkly comedic musical bid acceptable successful a precocious schoolhouse glee nine didn’t dependable similar it would propulsion astir 10 cardinal viewers an episode, but the amusement was a runaway occurrence for Fox from the start.

In the decennary since it debuted, however, Glee has had a tumultuous nationalist image. The show’s prime burnt retired fast, trying to support up with what was fashionable connected the vigor arsenic good arsenic what the fans wanted from the bid and its characters. On set, play was bubbling up and hard to mask.

Then, determination was a drawstring of deaths — tragic, abrupt and horrific — that would marque radical judge that a “Glee curse” exists. Cory Monteith, the show’s antecedently chartless pb who played saccharine backmost Finn, was found dormant astatine property 31, successful betwixt the show’s 4th and 5th seasons. Mark Salling, who played little saccharine backmost Puck, was accused of some intersexual artillery and aboriginal possessing kid pornography. He would die of suicide successful 2018. Naya Rivera, who stole scenes arsenic snarky cheerleader Santana, passed distant from an accidental drowning successful California’s Lake Piru portion connected a travel with her son. 

Interest successful unpacking the enigma of what the hellhole was going connected with the formed of this amusement has made the bid much fashionable present than erstwhile it went disconnected the aerial successful 2015. 

Enter The Price of Glee, a three-part documentary from ID and Discovery+ premiering Jan. 16. Unfortunately for Gleeks who yearn to cognize the information astir each the romances and fights that occurred connected acceptable during the show’s heyday, this isn’t the beverage enactment aged fans person agelong been hoping for. Instead, it’s a existent crime-poisoned instrumentality focusing connected the abrupt deaths of Monteith, Rivera and Salling. In trying to recognize the inexplicable, the docuseries seeks and fails to find answers, alternatively passively placing blasted connected the amusement and its formed for those losses.

The Price of Glee has a conspiracy-brained attack to the storytelling, mostly owed to the information that the existent formed refused to enactment and adjacent denounced the docuseries upon its announcement. The bid relies connected the actors’ stand-ins, backup dancers, assorted unit members, publicists and adjacent a supporting histrion connected Big Time Rush to portion unneurotic the story, with galore hawking half-baked theories connected what went wrong.

Editor’s picks

Instead of being a genuinely juicy tell-all with behind-the-scenes gossip, the doc exploits some the news-making and behind-the-scenes deaths of the formed and crew. Though overmuch of the accusation shared by the talking heads is speculative, present is immoderate of what we learned from those progressive successful this series.

The cast’s enactment schedules were grueling.
Normally, casts of deed tv bid get a fewer months disconnected betwixt filming seasons nary substance however large the amusement gets. Glee was not structured similar a mean show: the cast’s versions of fashionable songs became hits themselves portion the amusement spurred an insatiable online fanbase. As soon arsenic Season One wrapped, the formed were sent retired connected the Glee Live! Tour, which they embarked connected successful 21 cities globally the pursuing twelvemonth arsenic well. For the archetypal twelvemonth and a fractional of making the series, the formed worked connected the marque connected acceptable and off. Their enactment days included hours of creation and vocal rehearsal, arsenic good arsenic clip successful the booth to grounds the songs for their numbers and, of course, filming the existent scenes.

Every talking caput successful The Price of Glee takes clip to constituent retired however peculiarly grueling and isolating their schedules were. To adhd higher stakes, the young, blistery formed of actors were becoming tabloid, paparazzi and stan bait. Filming successful nationalist became a harrowing ordeal owed to hordes of fans and cameras showing up. Monteith adjacent had to determination from his Culver City flat owed to a stalker. Eventually, a walled passageway was built connected the workplace batch to link the casts’ trailers straight to acceptable to support them harmless (and yes, immoderate of the talking heads usage this walled passageway for a inexpensive metaphor connected the casts’ loneliness). 

Related

A formed subordinate allegedly encouraged Cory Monteith’s relapse.
Monteith was unfastened astir his past with substance maltreatment arsenic a kid. He was caught up successful a “bad crowd” and spent his teen years spiraling deeper into cause and intoxicant maltreatment earlier his ma and friends intervened. He had been sober for respective years anterior to being formed successful Glee, his large break. Though his friends, similar roommate Justin Neill, enactment however overmuch helium hated fame, Monteith seemed to beryllium different upholding his sobriety until Season Four of the show. He began showing up unprepared to shoots and past disappeared from astir of the season, having entered a rehabilitation facility. On July 13, 2013, helium was recovered dormant successful a Vancouver edifice room, surrounded by bare champagne bottles and with heroin successful his system. 

The speculation astir Monteith’s death successful The Price of Glee is poorly-handled, grasping astatine bare notions astir however and who whitethorn person caused him to spiral retired alternatively of dealing with the world of addiction being an ongoing illness a idiosyncratic grapples with passim their life. One of the astir shocking claims comes from Dugg Kirkpatrick, a hairsbreadth stylist who led the hairsbreadth section connected Glee. He continued to chopped immoderate of the formed members’ hairsbreadth aft helium near the amusement and had chopped Monteith’s not agelong earlier helium passed. According to Kirkpatrick, Monteith was inebriated astatine the haircut and recounted the communicative of however helium ended up drinking again. Kirkpatrick alleges that different formed subordinate had been astatine a enactment with Monteith and told him that it was OK for him to portion if helium wanted to. Because helium did not witnesser the existent interaction, Kirkpatrick refuses to sanction who Monteith claimed had fixed him permission, lone saying that it was idiosyncratic they loved. 

Unfortunately, Kirkpatrick is not the lone idiosyncratic successful the doc to constituent fingers. Several radical successful the doc walk a batch of clip pointing retired however unusual and mismatched Monteith and co-star Lea Michele, who helium was dating astatine the clip of his death, were. In turn, they meagerly effort to link existent allegations of her mediocre on-set behaviour toward her castmates and extras to Monteith’s abrupt relapse. 

There were respective different deaths wrong the Glee family.
The tragic and abrupt deaths of Monteith and Rivera, arsenic good arsenic Salling’s termination successful the look of kid pornography charges, person been well-covered by the media. Many person deemed the amusement to beryllium “cursed.” The erstwhile unit members and stand-ins from the amusement besides constituent retired that determination were galore different abrupt deaths of radical who worked connected the amusement behind-the-scenes, and galore blasted the rigorous accumulation docket and workplace unit for immoderate of those losses. Among the deaths that occurred portion the amusement was inactive airing: a car occurrence that killed Mark Watson, who was the stand-in for Matthew Morrison, and adjunct manager Jim Fuller’s suspected bosom nonaccomplishment astatine property 41. Production adjunct Nancy Motes died by suicide, arsenic did an unnamed rigger. 

In mentioning these losses, The Price of Glee tees up a last occurrence focused connected Salling and Rivera’s deaths, 2 highly antithetic circumstances that person nary crushed to beryllium tethered together. 

Trending

Naya Rivera’s household are inactive looking for answers aft her death.
The 3rd and last occurrence of The Price of Glee focuses connected Rivera’s accidental drowning successful 2020 portion connected a boating travel with her son. The occurrence besides touches connected Salling’s kid pornography charges arsenic good arsenic Melissa Benoist’s revelation that she was a unfortunate of home violence, which was aboriginal linked to castmate and ex-husband Blake Jenner (the brace joined Glee successful Season Four, becoming bid regulars successful Season Five). 

Rivera’s dada George details his daughter’s child-acting career, volatile narration with Salling and, later, her untimely death. The docuseries features a writer connected a pontoon similar the 1 Rivera was past seen connected with an adept offering applicable reasons wherefore specified a “strong swimmer” similar Rivera whitethorn not person been capable to hoist herself backmost up connected the boat. George hints astatine inactive seeking answers, though nary 1 suggests foul play arsenic a cause. Some theories the investigators person suggested were her past of vertigo that worsened underwater arsenic good arsenic a weakened carnal authorities aft redeeming her lad successful the currents.