Are you still a fan of Glee? If so, it's time to begin to say goodbye.
The series returns for its sixth and final season at 7 p.m. Friday on Fox. The shortened season will kick off with a special two-hour premiere and wrap up with a two-hour finale at 7 p.m. March 20.
All episodes in between will air at 8 p.m.
Glee, which debuted on May 19, 2009, has had a roller coaster run on Fox, with the early seasons being critically praised. For me, the series lost much of its charm as the kids aged, graduated and one of the plotlines headed off to New York to follow several characters.
That's the familiar Beverly Hills, 90210 problem when you set a series in high school and the "kids" start aging. For me, the replacements on Glee never reached the quality of the originals.
For some fans, the series never was able to recover from the 2013 overdose death of star Cory Monteith, who played Finn Hudson. Meanwhile, series creator Ryan Murphy spread himself thin with other shows -- his hit anthology American Horror Story (2011) and the quickly canceled The New Normal (2012).
Murphy's latest, the horror/comedy Scream Queens, is in the works for Fox and will star Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Look for the 15-episode Season 1 next fall.
Meanwhile, love it or leave it, it's nice that Glee has the opportunity to wrap things up. That's increasingly rare these days.
In Friday's double episode, "Loser Like Me/Homecoming," Rachel (Lea Michele) returns to Lima, Ohio, after her humiliating failure as a TV actress to try to figure out what to do with her life.
Fans will recall that in the final episode of last season ("The Untitled Rachel Berry Project") screenwriter Mary Halloran (Kristen Schaal) shows up at the apartment with a script for Rachel from the network. In the final scene, Rachel gets a call and they want her to film a pilot.
That didn't go well, we learn.
Once back home, Rachel discovers that Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) has banished the arts and disbanded the glee club at McKinley High. Rachel is horrified and takes it upon herself to rectify the situation.
Meanwhile, Blaine (Darren Criss) is no longer in a relationship with Kurt (Chris Colfer) and has moved home to coach the Warblers while Will (Matthew Morrison) is coaching rival Vocal Adrenaline.
Sam (Chord Overstreet) is the new assistant coach for the McKinley football team. He's helping coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones).
In the second hour we get much of the old gang back for homecoming. Look for Puck, Quinn, Santana, Mercedes, Brittany, Artie and Tina. They are played by, in order, Mark Salling, Dianna Agron, Naya Rivera, Amber Riley, Heather Morris, Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz.
The new season has a reported five new characters that we won't go into here.
• Portlandia. One has to be just a hair off center to fully appreciate Potlandia. The Peabody Award-winning sketch comedy series lampoons the hipster lifestyle and stars Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen. It returns at 9 p.m. today to cable's Independent Film Channel. Ten episodes are planned for Season 5.
• Archer. Also returning at 9 p.m. today is Archer, FX's adult animated series that's rated TV-MA for what one critic terms "profligate sexuality."
Season 6 will have 13 episodes. Of special interest is that the show's spy agency -- the fictional freelance outfit known as the International Secret Intelligence Service -- will no longer go by that name because the acronym is ISIS.
I trust I needn't explain that further.
• Masters of Illusion returns at 7 p.m. Friday on The CW. There are only four shows left from the summer run. We have magicians. We have host Dean Cain. Life is good.
• Hart of Dixie. The shortened fourth season returns at 8 p.m. Friday on The CW. Rachel Bilson heads the ensemble. The CW felt compelled to run one episode on Dec. 15 for some reason.
There will only be 10 episodes this season instead of the usual 22. That's never a good sign and has led to speculation that this will be the last hurrah for the comedy/drama.
• Orphan Black. For those beginning to panic, BBC America's Peabody Award-winning series Orphan Black, starring Tatiana Maslany playing several clones, is set to return at 8 p.m. April 18. Mark it on your calendars and spread the word among the vexed.
• Show of hands. I'd appreciate your input. I've narrowed my choice of worst TV show of 2014 to two. Let me know your preference:
Utopia (Fox). A boring, formulaic "social experiment" that never should have seen the light of day.
Eaten Alive (Discovery). We were supposed to watch as an anaconda swallowed some guy in a diving suit. Didn't happen, but 4.1 million watched it not happen for two hours.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Weekend on 01/08/2015