Vulture has premiered the new key art for Glee's sophomore season and the slushee-wielding cast seems sassier than ever. Still, is there more here than meets the eye? Here are five observations about the gang's new year that can be gleaned from this heavily-Photoshopped yearbook spread:
1. Lea Michele has leveraged her first season success for a total character makeover.
Goodbye, argyle knee-high socks and horrendous homemade Lady Gaga costumes. Welcome, bangs and thigh-grazing mini skirts.
2. Harry Shum, Jr. is still getting short shrift.
He may be the most talented dancer in the cast (just ask Oprah) but the first season's other recurring cast members Heather Morris and Naya Rivera were promoted to series regulars while Shum kept his recurring status. Now, he's not even one of the twelve cast members included on the poster. As Will Schuester might white-rap to the tune of Rufus and Chaka Khan, "Tell Harry something good already."
3. Quinn will lose her baby weight and be able to fit back into the Cheerios uniform in no time.
Apparently, giving heavily choreographed birth set to "Bohemian Rhapsody" is quite the aerobic exercise, because teen mom Quinn is already back in fighting Cheerios shape. (Coincidentally, you can also prove to your real-life classmates that you're back in shape after that accidental sophomore year pregnancy by getting a new size small Cheerios t-shirt from Macy's!)
4. Bullies won't be the only ones slusheeing McKinley High classmates.
Because the New Directions are getting in on the fun, at least that is what it seems like in the poster. The kids and the adults are turning the once-humiliating hallway punishment into something positively gleeful. Except for Jayma Mays, whose character was conspicuously absent from the first season's final episodes and who is again missing from the new poster. What does a girl have to do to get some key art love around here? Her character locked down a dreamy dentist played by John Stamos for crying out loud.
5. Quinn and Puck, Rachel and Finn, and Tina and Artie are back on in time for homecoming?
This is entirely speculative, but is it just coincidental that Quinn and Puck, Rachel and Finn, and Tina and Artie are positioned next to each other? Who knows, but Fox marketing could have at least separated Puck from Quinn a little because where his Slushee is positioned, it kind of looks like he is...well, never mind.
ยท Your First Look at Glee's New Slushee-Centric Ad Campaign [Vulture]