New trailer for “The Price of Glee” excites and offends

The first trailer for ID’s three-part docuseries The Price of Glee promised, “the real story behind the global phenomenon is more twisted than anyone could have imagined.” And it’s already stirring up controversy.

“In May 2009, ten young actors made their TV debut on Glee,” the trailer stated. “By 2020, all of them would be famous. And three of them would be dead.”

The Price of Glee is set to explore behind-the-scenes controversies and public tragedies that followed the hit television series that aired from 2009 to 2015. Specifically, the series will focus on the untimely deaths of main cast members Cory Monteith, Naya Rivera and Mark Salling, who played Finn Hudson, Santana Lopez and Noah “Puck” Puckerman respectively. It feature interviews from family members of the cast, among others.

“Then you find out somebody is not necessarily who you thought they were,” one interviewee said.

This quote specifically seems to reference Mark Salling, who committed suicide on January 20, 2018 after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography. He was expected to be sentenced to up to seven years in prison, as well as registering as a sex offender.

Monteith, who had struggled with drug addiction well before he starred on the hit show, died on July 13, 2013 from a combination of heroin and alcohol. On July 8, 2020, Rivera was declared a missing person after she failed to return a boat rental she took to Lake Piru with her four-year-old son. Her body was found five days later on July 13, seven years to the day after Monteith’s death.

The trailer has caused mixed reactions from fans on Twitter, some of whom can’t wait for the docuseries to air.

Others are less enthused, going so far as to call the trailer “disgusting” and “exploitative.”

A particularly contentious issue surrounds the association between Rivera and Monteith’s accidental deaths with Salling’s suicide. Some object to their deaths being linked at all, let alone to Glee.