Mentioning the musical choir New Directions may bring to mind William Mckinley High School and, therefore, the teenage musical series Glee. Since its debut on the Fox network in 2009, and after the six seasons and 121 episodes broadcast, which ended on March 20, 2015, Glee became an indisputable success program.
The perfect formula for combining social issues that concern teenagers, such as bullying, friendships, self-esteem and sexual orientation, mixed with musical interpretations and choreography, made Glee a mass phenomenon.
To all this splendor was added a cast of little-known young actors who, due to the success of the series, became the stars of the moment, and who were catapulted to fame in a short time.
However, behind all the brilliance of Glee there is also a shadow that cannot be overlooked. Producer Ryan Murphy’s series, which is currently available in its entirety on Disney, has garnered controversies, controversies and tragedies. The scope of the dark side of Glee is so great that it has been made into a documentary series, Glee: the cursed series, which will premiere on August 2 at 10 pm on the Warner TV channel.
The docuseries deals with the three tragedies that shocked the public the most. One of which is the death of Cory Monteith, known for playing Finn Hudson. In 2013 and at the age of 31, the actor was found dead due to an overdose of drugs and alcohol.
Another of the most shocking deaths was the suicide of Mark Salling – Noah Puck in the series – on the banks of the Sundland River in Los Angeles. The actor took his own life in 2018 after admitting that he was guilty of possessing more than 50,000 images of child pornography, a crime for which he was to be sentenced to four to seven years in prison.
The most recent tragedy of Glee is the strange death of Naya Rivera, recognized for being an LGBT reference for her homosexual character, Santana López. On July 8, 2020, Rivera, 33, spent the day at a lake with her son. The four-year-old boy claims that his mother went swimming and never came back, five days later the body of the actress was rescued lifeless.
The documentary collects the testimonies of the people closest to the protagonists. It provides statements from Cory Monteith’s friends, digs into Mark Salling’s inner circle, which reveals exclusive details about the actor, and finally, Naya Rivera’s father pays tribute to his daughter by reviewing her career. In addition, the program has the opinions of stylists, publicists and the art director, Michael Rizzo.
The documentary will consist of three chapters that “investigate the events” that led the protagonists to the end of their lives. And it raises whether the popularity and fame overstepped the limits of the actors. Whatever it is, the series will hardly be able to get rid of the dark image, as if it were a curse.
