Getting Geeked Up For Glee

Since I heralded FOX's "Glee" as my sleeper pick for best fall show in my last blogpost, I figured that I should take a closer look at some aspects of the show that I think are being overlooked. Here are a few thoughts:

- Chord Overstreet, the actor who played Sam "Troutie Mouth" Evans, is leaving the cast. Not a huge blow to the show, especially after hearing that Kurt's boyfriend, actor Darren Criss, is being promoted to full-time regular. However, given how the finale showed Sam and Mercedes together, it will be interesting to see how this will be weaved into the plot. Overstreet had been given an option to be in a six-episode arc on the show with a chance to come back for the rest of the season. I can't blame him for rejecting that feeble offer - he filled a niche last season as being the "cool" guy after Puck went gaga for his "fat-bottomed girl." Sam brought a baller aspect to the guy-half of the group that Finn just can't pull off (see: Justin Bieber episode).

- Speaking of Finn, I discovered recently how old actor Cory Monteith (who plays Finn) actually is: 29. I understand that this happens fairly often in the acting community, but I thought that this is a little ridiculous. He's almost twice as old as the character he's playing, and he looks like it too! I found this fact to be just a bit unnerving, and I'm curious how it will change the way I look at Finn as he goes into his "senior year" in high school. Right.

- I didn't watch the reality show "The Glee Project," but the Oxygen channel's attempt at bottling the "American Idol" mojo serves as a feeder into Glee. The top two finishers (Damian McGinty and Samuel Larsen) will have a 7-episode stint on the show, while the 3rd and 4th finishers will be on for two episodes each. This will be interesting, considering that these winners could possibly do well enough to earn a permanent spot on the show. Just something to keep in mind.

- Terri Schuester, Will (Matthew Morrison)'s crazy ex-wife, is no longer going to be making random appearances on the show. This, coupled with the second half of Season 2 showing Will and guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury getting close leads me to believe that Season 3 will be a green light for the Will-Emma relationship. This seems like a good thing, since Terri never came off as significant to Will's day-to-day life, and hopefully the main antagonist of the show will remain dynamite villain Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) for a long, long time.

I only recently came back to my Glee crush, and I realize that I approached it with the bar set low. I'm looking forward to the premier this week, as lame as that sounds, and hopefully this season doesn't disappoint a little higher expectations.