Bring on the Gleeks! As promised, the season 2 premiere brought two new faces to the Glee club – the quarterback, Sam, and the foreign exchange student, Sunshine. Apparently, creator Ryan Murphy isn’t stopping there. The next to join the slushied singers is newcomer and singer-songwriter, Darren Criss.
Glee’s creators are really jumping on the social media bandwagon this year. First off, the girl who plays Sunshine (Charice – yep, she goes by one name, like Madonna) was discovered last year through Oprah’s YouTube search for the “Next TV Star.” And now, Criss is joining the cast after participating in Glee’s open casting call on MySpace last year and the guy can really sing. Even though he took a rather grassroots approach, he’s no stranger to TV. You may recognize him from the short-lived drama, Eastwick.
Criss will reportedly play Blaine, a gay student who is part of a rival singing group at another Ohio high school. Watch out Vocal Adrenaline – two can play this game. (Plus, it looks like they’ve lost Idina Menzel’s character as their stickler of a coach, so maybe they’re losing their edge.)
The big question swirling around the newest addition to the Glee family is whether or not he will be the love interest for the show’s other openly gay character, Kurt. Ryan Murphy promised fans that this year, Kurt would get a boyfriend and seeing that Criss’ character is also openly gay and a singer, it’s got everyone wondering if Kurt and Blaine with be the new Jesse and Rachel. (That whole relationship was so obnoxious, it’s about time someone else took a stab at the whole forbidden teenage love thing anyway.)
Even though the pieces look to be falling into place, we still can’t be sure that Criss will be the new BF. There’s also been speculation about Kurt dating the pouty Justin Beiber lookalike, Sam, and honestly that’s where I’m putting my money. The show is all about turning the typical high school stereotypes upside down – the president of the celibacy club gets pregnant, the star quarterback and three other football players sing and dance and wear costumes, the top cheerleaders join glee club despite the heavy hallway persecution, and the head football coach is a woman – it only makes sense that the writers would create another contrast to the norm and have the star quarterback date Kurt. And after Finn’s homophobic issues marred his friendship with Kurt last season, it would even create even greater contention between the ex-quarterback and the kid who stole his claim to fame.
Who knows, maybe both theories are right and Kurt will become part of love triangle with the two newcomers. It’s about time we stop worrying about Rachel and who she’s currently locking lips with – share the spotlight, honey and let’s have Kurt get all the attention for once.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
