For as long as I can remember, I have defined myself first and foremost as a fangirl. Society might say this makes me out of touch with reality, perhaps sometimes too overly dependent on fiction to face my own day to day life, the list goes on. I’ve never agreed with that assessment, of course. I was defensive and protective of both the shows that to varying degrees of obsession got me through my college years. Hell, Glee is the reason I connected with my now closest friend online and despite years of frustrated and addicted borderline hate-watching, I will never regret those days.
One thing the two, otherwise not particularly similar teen dramas have in common, is the transition from the original core beloved characters. In real life, we are usually thankful that high school doesn’t last forever. But when it comes to TV, the transition to a new phase of life for fictional characters on shows like these is always a risky move. The balance between doing the future of beloved core characters justice and not letting the story-telling grow stale and repetitive is a difficult one. With the way Glee soared in popularity when it first came out in 2009, it seemed the only way to go was down. The once immensely popular Fox musical comedy limped to the finish line of its six year run in 2015, with newbies so shamelessly a re-hashing of the original cast that it was hard to appreciate their individual talent. For the fans who couldn’t bring themselves to let go like me, it was a strange mix of relief and bittersweet regret to see it end.
I owed that show the courage to get up on stage when I graduated high school myself in 2010, a year before the original New Directions did. For all the inconsistencies in the writing in later years, in the summer of 2010 I transitioned from high school to college grateful to have those super-talented misfits by my side. My passion for Glee back then gave me something to bond over with a classmate besides our classwork, as an introvert TV shows or books in common are always a major blessing.
Glee was conceived in 2009 and until 2012 when they attempted to send the core gang to college in New York and yet split the scene with newbies in the small Ohio town, it was more heartfelt and fun than ridiculous. One Tree Hill meanwhile was always on my radar, but I was never more than a casual fan until 2012. With the graduation of Glee’s original cast and the increasingly poor writing when dividing time between the newbie high-school batch and the original cast in college, I had room to expand my fandom bubble.
The same year that Glee started out on a high note, 2009, was technically when One Tree Hill introduced their newbies, with the show’s second time jump between seasons six and seven. It’s not that the CW drama didn’t have some crazy twists and turns of its own, but compared to Glee the story-telling was for the most part consistent. Sure there were school shootings (an episode that still resonates today for being tragically relatable even twelve years later) and drawn out love triangles, but the words of wisdom still give fans hope today.
The cast of Glee had the shadow of tragedy hanging over the once joyful show ever since July 2013, when their male lead Cory Monteith died of a drug overdose. It changed the course of the foregone happy ending planned for Finchel and made the already messy writing go even more all over the place. It got so bad that the line “the show’s gotta go all over the place or something”, a misquote of theater motto the show must go on by Cory’s character Finn Hudson, became an accurate description of the trainwreck that Glee became.
I confess I haven’t dwelled much on Glee since it ended in 2015, the once chart-topping musical covers are all I need to take me back to the years it meant everything to me. What I do remember is how devastating Cory’s death was in 2013. It irrevocably changed the course of the admittedly shoddy story-telling and my bedroom wall is a testament to how much the tall, awkward, Canadian goofball meant to me and still does.
There was a lot of judgement surrounding his death, the fandom that had been infuriating for so long became a place to grieve with others who looked up to Cory how I did. Although I remember where I was when I heard the news and exactly how surreal and painful it was, it’s easier now to look back and smile remembering what joy Cory brought me.
Last year, the foundation of the safe place OTH gave me to bounce back from grief over Cory was tainted. The signs of disrespect for women were there in the more cringe-worthy moments of the show’s history but it was still a shock. In 2017 the taboo of sexual harassment acknowledgement shifted and a former staff writer for One Tree Hill came forward with claims against showrunner Mark Schwahn. She was supported by a number of One Tree Hill and The Royals cast members, both male and female.
The dust had barely settled on the One Tree Hill fandom’s show of unity against despicable treatment, when former Glee actor Mark Salling pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. Weeks later he committed suicide to escape sentencing for his crime and the fandom that died out in 2015 rose from the ashes to express disgust and condemn his actions. Mark’s former castmates speaking out about his death took me back to that dark place July 2013 was, but like them it was more shock and disgust than pain. The event rocked the dormant fandom and suddenly there were heated arguments on Twitter and Tumblr about if it was acceptable to mourn what Salling’s fictional portrayal of Noah Puckerman meant to some people, despite what he was accused of doing to innocent children.
As an Indian, I am no stranger to a culture of entitlement over and mistreatment of women. My worlds as a fangirl and a girl with Indian roots collided when in the aftermath of Shantel Vansanten’s statement against sexual harassment culture, I discovered a speech she made at the 2012 Drawing Hope gala. I could go on about why this woman is my idol, for talent, beauty and even more beautiful heart. Every day she gives me a new reason to look up to her. But for now, I’ll just be grateful that my country of origin and the celebrities I look up to are all such strong, brave and worthy idols in a world that is finally being forced to take responsibility for its actions. In that itself there is a lesson, as Lily James’ 2015 live-action Cinderella taught me, the most important thing that nobody can take away from you is the ability to Have Courage And Be Kind. If everyone could learn how to do that and respect each other, the world would be a brighter place and so I hope for someday.
Have Courage And Be Kind 