Rain Varela
Staff Writer
I first heard of Glee from a friend of mine. She was a big Spring Awakening fan and had seen the show on Broadway plenty of times, thus she was a big Lea Michele fan, who starred as the show’s the lead .
My friend was able to get me hooked on the Broadway show’s music, so when she told me there was an upcoming musical television series that starred the young lead actress, it piqued my interest. But I still wasn’t convinced to watch it–I had to see the trailer first.
Let me say, I wasn’t impressed. I thought that it was a rip-off of High School Musical. I particularly did not like the male lead. Back then, I only knew Cory Monteith as that guest star from Kyle XY who played the cheating boyfriend. My impression was that his voice was too weak for him to perform besides the great Lea Michele.
Eventually though, I ended up watching the pilot after other friends of mine gave it a glowing review. But that would be months away, I chose to watch it during the start of the series proper.
That was then that most of my negativity faded away. I loved the first episode, it was amazing and it was something new for television. But I still did not like the male lead. I thought he danced funny, and I couldn’t get over the fact that his voice was not as great as Lea’s particularly in the duets.
The turning point for me was the the first season episode, ‘Theatricality’. If you don’t remember,this was where Finn and his mom moved in with Burt and Kurt; Finn had a total meltdown when he and Kurt had to share a room. That scene was intense but beautiful. Cory was so raw and natural in that, you could actually see the struggle in his character’s face as he is confronted with his own biases.
That was then that I realized what the show’s creators had seen in him. Despite being years older than Finn, he was able to embody the adolescent boy’s struggle to be a man too soon. Tending to overdo things just to prove yourself, even if at times you know that what you are doing is wrong.
In a show where characters tend to shift and change at the drop of a hat, Cory was able to bring consistency to his role. His voice was not perfect because that was part of Finn’s character. A jock who was forced to join Glee club because he was popular and could sing ‘well enough’ in the shower.
He may not be the best singer and dancer in the television series, but as it turns out he may actually be one of the-if not the best actor among all of them. Take away the musical numbers, and watch his expressions. He is able to convey what his character is feeling, without losing the reality of how a young High school jock would be like. Which is somebody who tries very hard not to show a lot of vulnerability. I know that full well, my best friend and his team mates at the varsity team are like that when we were younger. Most actors would create a caricature of it, but not Cory, he executed it perfectly.
The sad thing though, he was able to showcase his great acting skills in the last movies he made, in McCanick and All The Wrong Reasons. He was already stepping out of high school and into more mature roles. We mourn the fact that he could have been among the movie greats. It took me a while to see what an amazing actor he truly is, and to fans of Glee and in the world of television he already is among the ‘greats’.
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