A Fitting Farewell

I guess I kind of started watching "Glee" by accident. It premiered in May behind an episode of "American Idol." There was nothing on and I was flipping channels. What I saw in that pilot episode was something I'd never seen before.

After waiting through the hype machine all summer, I was excited when the show officially premiered the following fall. That first season was magical. When it was over, my sister and I spent an entire Saturday driving to Southern California to see "Glee Live" and driving back so I could be at work early on Sunday morning.

The music was great, the performers were affable, and it was quickly becoming my favorite show. Somewhere amid the second season, I started to grow apart with "Glee." I watched through the third season but gave up on the show after that. It wasn't what I thought it would be, and neither were the musical performances.

But this summer, when Cory Monteith, the 31-year-old star of the show, passed away, it was shocking. When word spread that the show would honor Monteith and his character — Finn Hudson — during the third episode of its fifth season, I was curious.

Thursday night was that episode, entitled "The Quarterback," which let the audience and his cast members pay tribute and say goodbye to Monteith. I tuned in, and I'm glad I did.

It's always hard when shows lose beloved characters. Sometimes it's because the actor passes away in real life. I will always remember when Leo died on "The West Wing." Sometimes it's just part of the narrative construct. And in all cases shows have to find a way to acknowledge the loss and move forward.

But last night's "Glee" stood out because it felt like so much more than that. The emotion was raw and real. Monteith wasn't a co-worker, he was a friend. The group on "Glee" not only worked long hours together on the show, they toured together and grew up together. The sense of loss was deep in the episode, and the moving musical tributes were incredible.

But perhaps what I loved most about last night's episode is that it reminded me about what I loved about "Glee" during its first season. The music was beautiful, it fit the story well, and the characters emotion popped off the screen. The best part of the tribute was that it rekindled the best of "Glee" in the writers, actors, and production. It was an hour I won't soon forget, and that's how it should be.