Glee is being criticized for its school-shooting episode, but “Shooting Star” is only the latest in an increasingly misguided genre.
After the trauma of the school shooting, the Glee Club sings a cathartic final song.
Adam Rose / FOX
Last night on the "Shooting Star" — note the cringe-worthy wordplay — episode of Glee, our favorite McKinley High students plus some of the ones we don't care about cowered in the dark of the choir room, trying to keep quiet despite the screams outside, and recording goodbye messages to their loved ones. Meanwhile, Brittany hid in a bathroom stall with her feet on the toilet, silently weeping.
It was Glee's school-shooting episode, except that no one got shot. In fact, there wasn't even a school shooter. Becky, the cheerleader with Down syndrome, brought the gun to school because she was afraid of the future. (How this translates to carrying a gun is unclear. In an earlier scene, Becky laments not being able to go to college — so, a gun?) The gun goes off when Sue takes it from Becky, and again when it falls on the ground. Sue takes the blame, and she's fired.
We could talk about why it's problematic to have Becky, the one character with Down syndrome, bring a gun to school — particularly in light of the link some tried to draw between Newtown shooter Adam Lanza and autism. We could question the timing of the episode, six months after Newtown, and decry it as "too soon." We could also note that Glee, a series that skirts the line between comedy and drama but works best when it's being silly, is particularly ill-equipped to handle the horrors of school violence. But Glee is only the latest TV series to ineptly depict a school shooting. And the broader problem is that there's nothing that Glee or any other series tackling the issue brings to the conversation. It's all about manipulating the audience to anxiety and dread by showing the unthinkable.
Artie films Jake and Marley saying emotional goodbyes to their families while the Glee Club hides in the choir room.
FOX
Glee is an easy target, and there will be plenty of think pieces about what "Shooting Star" did wrong. (Short version: everything.) But if it weren't Glee, it would be another high school drama — these episodes pop up whenever there's a national conversation about gun control or the culture of violence or the influence of violent media on young people. They reflect the contemporary political climate and serve to make a larger point that furthers discussion. But while that may have been the original intention behind school-shooting episodes, we're far past that point.