‘Glee’ School Shooting Episode Strikes a Chord in Newtown
Glee‘s school shooting episode last night struck a chord with residents of Newton, Connecticut, the site of the December 14th shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 first-grade students and six school staff members dead.
In “Shooting Star,” the glee club is rehearsing when they hear gunshots. The students and teachers are shown trapped in the choir room, mulling their fates, while other scenes show students across the school dealing with the incident. At the end of the episode, cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) claims responsibility for the gunfire, but later reveals the gun really belonged to teenager Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter), who has Down syndrome.
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Newtown Action Alliance sent an email warning viewers of the episode’s sensitive themes, ABC reports. A local resident also expressed his unhappiness that Glee writers and producers didn’t reach out to the town prior to the episode’s airing. “I think it’s terrible that the writers and producers of that show didn’t think to contact someone in Newtown to let us know this was coming,” Andrew Paley told The Newtown Bee. “A lot of people watch that show. They shouldn’t be upset by it.”
Glee creator Ryan Murphy was extremely happy with the episode last week. “Just saw the rough cut of next week’s ‘Shooting Star.’ It is the most powerful, emotional ‘Glee’ ever,” he tweeted. “So proud of the cast and crew.”