10 Things I’d Like to See on Glee Next Season

Hi again, everyone, and thanks, Alyssa, for inviting me back. Happy to be here!Over the past few weeks, some details about the second season of Glee have been trickling out, and it got me thinking about what I’d like to see on the show. Like many people, I thought the first half of the first season was quite good, while the second half was somewhat of a mess, although I loved the finale. Here, in no particular order, are some things I’d like to see in order for them to recover next season:1. Fewer musician-themed episodes. The music is a large part of the show’s attraction, sure, but the plot is important, too, and in episodes focused on one artist, the plot often gets even more strained than usual to make things relate. And episodes that feature music from a variety of artists and genres offer entry points to a larger portion of viewers.2. Less stunt casting. Same idea, in some ways. I’ve greatly enjoyed some of the guest stars — especially Kristin Chenoweth — but I don’t want them to mess with the plot in order to get celebrities on the show.3. A holiday episode. I just think it would be fun, and I’d love to have an album of holiday songs sung by the Glee cast to add to my extensive holiday music collection.4. A non-pregnancy storyline for Quinn. Quinn wound up being one of the most interesting characters in the first season, and I’m looking forward to seeing what lasting effects the pregnancy and birth experience had on her, but I want them to let the character move on and have a story not directly related to that.5. A real Rachel/Finn relationship. We’ve seen plenty of the build-up to this. Now the show should just let it play out for a while. They’re very different people, but they honestly seem to care for each other, so how will they negotiate that relationship in the fraught high school setting? I’d love to see Rachel attend one of Finn’s games or a party with the football team, for example.6. Rachel’s dads! It seems completely backwards that we met Rachel’s long-lost mother before we met her fathers, so I want the show to fix this. Who are these men who made Rachel into the person she is? And you’d think that Rachel would be the type to decide that one or both of her dads should be role models or mentors for Kurt. Why haven’t we seen that?7. More Brittany, but not too much. I’m thrilled that Brittany (and Santana) will have expanded roles this season, as they’re great characters and both actresses are quite talented. But much of Brittany’s appeal is in the fact that her character is so understated and used rather sparingly. Her brilliant one-liners will lose a lot if they’re happening all the time.8. Less Sue. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I’m not that much of a Sue Sylvester fan. I understand the importance of having a character of that sort on the show, but during her scenes — especially the ones that don’t involve students — I find myself wishing the show would just get back to the kids.9. Finn’s side of the Kurt story. In the conflict between the two boys, the show completely took Kurt’s side. It wasn’t even acknowledged that Finn was being forced, by his mother, into a situation in which he was receiving constant unwanted sexual attention. If a teen girl was made to share a room with a straight not-quite-stepbrother who was constantly hitting on her, I seriously doubt that the audience would be told they should take the boy’s side. There’s no real reason why this should be different.10. More of Will as mentor. I like Will best when they’re focusing on his relationships with his students, rather than his own love life. His interactions with Finn were particularly well-drawn, and I completely bought the “To Sir, With Love” from all the kids in the finale. (I know some have questioned whether he could possibly have changed the lives of some of the more minor characters, but I’m willing to accept that some important things happened off-screen.) More of this, please.Agree? Disagree? What do you all want to see next season?