The TV Chick

Glee returns tomorrow night and despite what many may have thought of as a very up and down second season (I agree to an extent with this sentiment), I am very excited for it to be back. I am happy the show has gotten a full writing staff and I look forward to seeing what is next for the New Directions crew. And I am definitely needing some new Glee covers on my iPod! I recently had the chance to talk to Brad Falchuk (Executive Producer) at Comic Con, about what his goals are for this coming season, the new writing staff and what’s going to happen with the characters that are graduating.

What are your goals this season?
Big picture, my goal is really to make it the best season we’ve ever done. And I think we’re doing that through really focusing on the stories in a very specific way which is really building these story engines to drive us through three or four episodes at a time. So the goal is to really use those, to really get deeper into the characters, to really figure out a little more about them. Give it the urgency of what happens when a bunch of people graduate.

How carefully do you want to use guest stars and doing occasional theme episodes?
The idea is that this year, we came up with some amazing engines, so many of them. Frankly, the first nine or ten episodes, there’s no room for any big guest stars. Maybe a guest star, I shouldn’t say never. But there’s no real room for theme episodes because there’s so much story going on. So I don’t think there’s as much of as a balance as when do we need that in terms of storytelling — to find the time when that’s appropriate.

How has the dynamic changed now that you have a writing staff? Are we going to see more story-focused episodes?
It’s our job to drive what the show is and decide what is the tone of the show and what the stories are the show are. So what a writing staff provides is fresh, new ideas to help what determine what we think is a good idea. So when we’re stuck with something, they come in and they help us solve the problem. What it’s allowing us to do is more of what we want to do because you have all these great brains out there to really help us.

Do you have a favorite episode?
I love Sectionals in Season One. I think it’s really a lot of what the show is about. I love the pilot. I love them all in different ways. There are ones that I’m prouder of than others, but that’s what it is.

Can you talk about the characters who are graduating?
People are graduating. Those three characters are certainly graduating. But we’re not getting rid of them. We’re going to have to get creative about it. And we have a lot of ideas about it. Like we did with Darren last year. If I came and said Darren’s not back next year, they would have [thrown a fit] at us — Darren has been in fifteen episodes, not even, of Glee. It’s our job to find people like Darren who are really talented and bring them and to make them characters who people really love.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night at 8 PM to FOX for the big third season premiere of Glee!