Does Glee Need New Characters When It Already Has These Two?

Now that Glee's wrapped up its freshman season, everyone wants to know what the writers have planned for season two. Executive producer Ryan Murphy has promised that the show will add three more characters to its already overstuffed cast: love interests for both Kurt and Mercedes, as well as a Christian moralist who'll go toe-to-toe with Rachel. My question is, do they really need to add new actors when some of those roles could go to its two most underserved actors?

Harry Shum Jr. and Dijon Talton haven't had much to do on the show besides dance and fill out the rest of the glee club -- in fact, it's regarded as a major event whenever one of them gets a single line in an episode. While that could be a disadvantage for the actors, who work hard with little recognition, it could have been treated as a boon for the writers when figuring out their next season.

After all, Murphy keeps saying that he wants Kurt's love interest to be a regular jock who's still coming out of the closet -- so why don't they just use Talton's Matt Rutherford for that, since the fact that he's a football player is one of the few things we know about him? As for Mercedes, her song-belting would be a great counterpoint to the fleet footwork of Shum's Mike Chang -- and what a good-looking couple they'd be! Plus, we know he can sing -- as Shum told Movieline, "I did a lot of musicals when I was younger, but I also did a lot of singing in the bathroom."

Alas, it looks like there will be even less room for Talton and Shum next season; not only have their fellow barely-there counterparts Naya Rivera (Santana) and Heather Morris (Brittany) been upgraded to full-time regulars, but the show has the onus of serving the three new players it'll be bringing in.

Look, I get what Glee is trying to do by hiring these new actors. The open casting call is a great way to build buzz, and it gets the already devoted audience even more invested in these newbies if they watch them rise through the ranks of their very public auditions. I also understand that Glee's current cast is tremendously overworked, and they probably wouldn't mind some more time off if other actors came in to shoulder the burden. I just think that the show could better use the resources it already has. Why not give Mike Chang and Matt Rutherford something to sing about?



Comments

  • i totally agree! i love these guys and think they deserve a lot more screen time!

  • Neil Marlowe says:

    Same thing happened with TWIN PEAKS.
    Huge and talented ensemble cast. Why do you keep adding characters instead of working with what you got.

  • pinkyt says:

    I agree as well. I really dread the addition of the three new characters. There is nothing more cliched at this point than the term "jump the shark" , but adding so many new characters so early on to this kind of show never seems like a good idea. It reminds me of The OC, which kept throwing new characters into the mix after season 1 hoping one would stick (but no one did, they just all varied along a continuum of annoying).

  • Frank says:

    Add me in, I don''t want new people when they haven't even developed the leads much less the huge supporting cast.

  • Indigo says:

    COuldn't agree more. Why not take the floaties off these two and take them for a swim. They're already loved by the viewers. Give the 'gleeks' what they want.

  • Chrisjozo says:

    I completely agree with this article. Work with what you have instead of adding more.

  • cchoi says:

    Totally agree, I love them! Want to see more of them! I'm tired of Rachael and Finn.

  • Beebee says:

    Although I love Rachel and Finn, I do agree that we need these guys to make Glee even more exciting, otherwise it's just going to run out of steam and there won't be much on the storyline front! Rachel and Finn should just get together and make way for new stories but then I want to see Rachel and Finn again as well :/ Ah well can't have everything! Good luck 🙂

  • Kant says:

    I so agree with this article. I love Mike Chang and I would love to see more of them both. They're amazing dancers and even a little storyline with them would be great.

  • Cielo says:

    I agree with you guys in part. I'm also dreading this new characters will take screen time from our beloved suporting cast (I honestly don't care if I don't see Rachel, Finn or Schue for the next entire season). But we have to consider that, when Shum and Talton were hired they were hired to fill the blanks. Meaning, they were probably hired for their dancing and (maybe) their singing, they can SUCK at acting, That would ruin any possible storyline. I'm not a hater but the single lines they had in the season finale were so over acted that they were cringe worthy (especially Talton's). I actually would love to see Mike CHang with Kurt Hummel, THAT would be a goodlooking couple. But only if Shum could keep up with Colfer acting wise.