As students across the country return to school, Fox’s high school comedy Glee returned to the small screen. The second season premiere picks up after an eventful summer for some of America’s favorite outcasts. While many personal changes have taken place, conditions for the glee club remain the same.
Kurt (Chris Colfer) takes a slushie to the face within the first few minutes, showing that glee club is still unmistakably at the bottom of the William McKinley High School social hierarchy; the familiar struggle for recognition continues as the show enters its sophomore year.
However, a new challenge emerges in the form of Shannon Beiste (Dot Jones), the new football coach, who has managed to convince the easily dominated Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba) to cut some of Glee Club’s funding in order to give more money to the floundering football team.
This turn of events seems potentially shattering, but it serves to bolster the tenuous truce established between Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) and his nemesis Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), as for the first time in her career her funding has also been cut.
Beiste presents a lot of possibility for the show in that she is the only one who does not back down from Sylvester. Even Schuester generally opts to avoid confrontation. Having a legitimate adversary will give Lynch the opportunity to elevate her already larger-than-life performance.
The blossoming friendship between Schuester and Sylvester is short-lived, as Schuester finds himself incapable of maintaining the level of cruelty Sylvester expects in order for them to try to force Beiste’s resignation. So viewers can most likely expect a revival of the old feud between the two.
This choice demonstrates a consistency in character development, but the fact that the cooperation between the two is so short-lived also could indicate an inability to significantly alter relationships on the show.
Essentially, although the season premiere was humorous, Glee seems to be running the risk of falling into a rut in terms of the challenges facing its characters. The students still struggle with acceptance and self-esteem, as shown by Santana’s (Naya Rivera) decision to get breast implants over the summer, Rachel’s (Lea Michele) insatiable appetite for the spotlight and Finn’s (Cory Monteith) quest to find his place in between his social position as a jock and as a gleek.
But the introduction of several other new characters could present a chance for the show to develop further, rather than rehashing the themes of last season. Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) is a newcomer to the football team who also harbors an affinity for music. In that regard, he runs the risk of turning into another Finn, and while everyone loves Finn, reincarnating him as blonde doesn’t have much of a purpose.
However, Sam didn’t get much screen time, so he does still have the potential to develop along different lines. He has already displayed a little more attitude than Finn normally does. Furthermore, rumor has it that Sam might eventually date Kurt, a possibility that could give greater depth to his character.
Newcomer Sunshine Corazon (Charice Pempengco) physically appears to be a more extreme version of Rachel (read: similar hair color and skin tone, but even shorter) and has an even bigger voice. In terms of personality, she so far seems to be genuinely unique, although like Sam she has not had the screen time to prove herself. At the end of the episode, she is lured away from New Directions to join Vocal Adrenaline, who managed to get her mom a condo and a green card, but her voice was so powerful that she will most definitely make more appearances on the show.
The premiere struck the right chords with its mix of ridiculous humor and portrayal of the insecurities not only of the high school students, but did not break a whole lot of new ground. Old fans will most likely enjoy the beginning of the second season, but those who did not enjoy the first season will probably see no reason to change their minds.
