Glee: 5 Reasons Why It Deserves A Revival Or Reboot Today (& 5 Reasons Why It Doesn’t)

Glee was one of the biggest shows of the late 2000s and early 2010s. It was a critical darling (at least the first two or three seasons – especially the first!), and it proved widely popular (again, for the first three or four seasons).

It helped reinvigorate interest in the musical genre, it helped popularize the idea of Glee clubs, and it proved a wonderful promotional tool for a wide array of great music. But the show is over ten years old – is it time for a reboot? Let’s find out. Here are five reasons Glee deserves a reboot and five reasons why it doesn’t.

10 Reboot: New Music

Glee performed a lot of great and timeless music throughout its run, but it also performed a lot of music that was very much “of its time.” Watching it now, in 2020, it’s very clear that the show was made in the early 2010s.

The show came to an end in 2015, and that’s five years of good music to catch up on. There’s a ton of modern music we’d love to see Glee tackle, but we’ll never get the chance – that is unless they do a reboot.

9 No Reboot: The Music

Then again, you could make the argument that Glee deserves its spot in the early 2010s and that rebooting it would do a disservice to its time in music and television history.

Maybe we don’t need to see the show tackle more modern music. Maybe it’s fine that Glee lives and remains in the early 2010s where it belongs. Let it be a proud cultural marker of its time, much like the musicals of the 1950s.

8 Reboot: The Cast

As much as we love Glee, there’s no denying that the cast, and the cast’s personal struggles, have somewhat tainted its reputation.

Naya Rivera and Lea Michele are known for being problematic divas behind the scenes, and the less said about Mark Salling’s personal demons, the better. We should be able to divorce art from the artists, but sometimes that’s easier said than done. Maybe a new cast would help shed Glee of its behind-the-scenes stigma.

7 No Reboot: Social Justice

If there’s one thing about Glee that hasn’t aged, its the show’s dedication to social justice.

Glee helped herald the social justice movement of the 2010s, presenting proud homosexual characters and transgender issues through Unique Adams. Not to mention the show’s delicate handling of issues like physical and eating disabilities, poverty, and racism. Luckily, Glee fits right in with the progressive cultural movement of the 2010s, so there’s no need to reboot it in that regard.

6 Reboot: New Characters

As much as we love the characters of Glee, we would also love to see a new cast of characters in a similar role. Should Glee be rebooted, we wouldn’t necessarily want to see Kurt Hummel, Will Schuester, Rachel Berry, etc.

Maybe it could feature a new cast of characters – maybe even a new school and a new Glee club altogether. There’s tons of good stuff to explore with Glee‘s fun and inclusive concept.

5 No Reboot: Classic Characters

By the same token, maybe people don’t want new characters. Glee contained a lot of memorable personalities, and each individual character is unique and interesting in their own way.

They each have their own distinct storylines that nevertheless mesh well with the overall Glee club dynamic. The characters are well written, well-acted, and well cast, and maybe they don’t deserve to be rebooted after all.

4 Reboot: Launch A Glee “Universe”

If there’s one thing that’s “in” right now, it’s cinematic universes. Movies, especially Marvel, are doing it well, and even television is getting in on the action with their superhero dramas.

So why not a Glee collective universe? Maybe the show could be rebooted, and that reboot could serve as a launching pad for an extended universe containing other schools and other Glee clubs. They could also do crossover episodes through tournaments and local competitions.

3 No Reboot: Sue Sylvester

We just went through the classic characters, but we think Sue Sylvester deserves her own entry. If Glee were to undergo a reboot, they would need to redo the character of Sue Sylvester in some capacity.

But there’s just no way they’d be able to do it. Sue was the breakout character thanks to her strong, complex writing, witty dialogue, and Jane Lynch’s remarkable performance. To reboot this character would be a disaster.

2 Reboot:  Save Its Reputation

It’s no secret that Glee kind of went off the rails in its later years. Critical reception grew more divided and negative, it rapidly dropped out of public discussion, and TV ratings plummeted.

While some shows end with a bang, Glee ended in a whimper. And for a show devoted to showstopping musical numbers, that is not a good thing! Let’s reboot it and do it “right” this time – even if it means ending the story after one season.

1 No Reboot: It’s Not That Old!

All this talk of reboots has us thinking – is it even time for a Glee reboot? The show is only eleven years old, and it ended not five years ago. Maybe it’s too early to begin thinking about a reboot.

At the minimum, a show/movie should be ten years gone (as in, ended and out of the public consciousness) before plans for a reboot can commence. Otherwise, the original is still too fresh in viewers’ minds. We all saw what happened with The Amazing Spider-Man…

About The Author

Nathan Sharp
(852 Articles Published)

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Nathan Sharp is a writer from outside Toronto, Ontario. He has a love of movies and television, having enjoyed them for more than twenty years. His preferences include drama, action, and horror, with the former being a particular point of interest and fascination.

He also has a love of video games, particularly those of Rockstar.

Whether it be about film, television, or video games, Nathan loves a good discussion and has written hundreds of articles for Screen Rant.

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