This News Won't Please 'Glee' Fans

Glee might be on the air for one more season, but, based on this news, it seems like the Fox series is more than ready to hang up its hat. Glee has shortened Season 5, its current season, from 22 episodes to 20 episodes thanks to a major dip in ratings. So, you hear that, Gleeks? Apparently, you don't! Because you guys aren't watching as much as you used to!

The show, which recently celebrated its 100th episode, was already renewed for Season 6 despite the ratings, which have been continuously dipping for some time now — and, most significantly, after Cory Monteith's untimely death, which devastated the cast and fans alike. During the course of Season 1, 11 million viewers tuned into Ryan Murphy's innovative new series, and now, only 6.5 million watch on Tuesdays. Rachel Berry would gasp over the lack of attention.

So what can be to blame for this dip? Could it be that when you watch matters less and less, with more ways to watch television available to viewers? Or did some viewers jump ship when the show added New York to its focus? After all, as the characters grew up, the high school trauma at the core of the series — the high school trauma of the characters in whom we were originally invested — shifted at that point.

Although it was five years ago, I recall the pilot quite specifically. The show possessed a snarky, even satirical tone — and that was fitting, considering creator Ryan Murphy (the man behind the excellent American Horror Story: Coven) was also the man behind the so dark-it-was-opaque Nip/Tuck. But Glee slowly started taking the turn for saccharine when it noticed who its easiest target audience was: young teens. But now that target audience is growing up, could they be craving something a little less syrupy?

Regardless, with the next season marking the series' last, Glee's writers will have a good opportunity to wrap up each of the characters' stories. With the rise of serial dramas and comedies, shows that have a simple story to tell — rather than those that try to milk efforts for longevity's sake — fare much better. Perhaps, with the trimmed penultimate season, we may see a finale that fans actually want to watch.

Image: more-rp-gifs/Tumblr