Sometimes actors will re-watch their own shows and reminisce about their time on set, but there’s one episode that Glee alums can’t bare to get through due to its foreshadowing.
Glee was the perfect show to watch after school on E4. The original group consisted of a handful of dorky outcasts and some cheerleaders and jocks who were forced to sing it up in order to pass their grades for the semester.
As fans, we laughed, cringed and cried at the unexpected plots that were thrown our way - but behind the scenes, the show was rocked with far more than its fair share of controversies, with cast members Cory Monteith and Naya Rivera both dying far too young.
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When Monteith passed away following an accidental overdose on 13 July 2013, the show's writers were faced with the heartbreaking task of writing his character's death into the show in a way that was family friendly.
In the end, they chose to have his character Finn Hudson, die without a cause of death mentioned.
But it was another moment in the show that, in retrospect, cut close to the bone.
Monteith's co-stars Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale, who played Tina and Artie respectively shared their thoughts on a previous episode of Glee which saw a very similar storyline play out.
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Speaking on their latest episode of their And That’s What You REALLY Missed podcast, they reacted to season 3 episode 10 where Monteith's character, Finn Hudson, gets the shock news that his father died of a drug overdose while he was in the army.
His mum Carole explained on the show: “He died in Cincinnati after being dishonourably discharged.
“Honey, he had a drug problem that he tried to get over when he came home — for you, mostly — but then he would just disappear for a day or a week sometimes. One day, he just didn’t come back. It was an overdose.”
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When the pair were talking about it, they confessed that the storyline ‘hit a little too close to home’ and threw them off after having forgotten about the scene.
Jenna said: “We probably don’t remember it because we thought it was just another story line for Finn that was really well done.
“But in hindsight, the whole through line of this story line — every line that he said about it — really just struck a different chord that resonated or mirrored his life too closely. It was just really sad to watch.”
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Kevin agreed, saying: “Yeah, it felt really dark and morbid watching it.
"But obviously, there was no way to know what the future was going to be... it just felt very eerie.”
Speaking about Monteith's death, showrunner Ryan Murphy told the same podcast in 2022 that if it was up to him, Glee would have 'stopped for a very long time and probably not come back' following Monteith's death.
Topics: Glee, TV And Film, Celebrity
Britt Jones