The Glee episodes which have aged the worst and shouldn’t see the light of 2025

It will be really, really difficult to explain to our kids whatever the hell Glee was. Some storylines on the show were revolutionary for their time, and the series really boosted LGBTQ+ representation on screen. Plus, some of the songs slapped. But there are so many parts of Glee which have aged awfully and seem so problematic to us now in 2025. Here are five problematic Glee episodes which have aged the absolute worst.

5. Shooting Star (season four episode 18)

Who thought this was a good idea?
(Image via Disney+)

Erm, maybe a musical comedy teen show might not be the best way to approach the topic of school shootings in the US? The glee choir hears gunshots, and the whole school goes into lockdown. Sue eventually announces that she fired the gun in the school, to cover up for Becky. The student was scared of graduating so smuggled her father’s gun into school?(?). In the next episode, they all carry on singing like nothing ever happened.

What makes this episode age badly is the controversy surrounding its release. There was a mass school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut just a few months before the episode aired. People from this town complained they hadn’t been given enough warning that Glee would attempt to cover this topic.

4. Preggers (season one, episode four)

A defining moment in TV history
(Image via Disney+)

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I do appreciate that Quinn’s whole teen pregnancy storyline was really revolutionary for US TV when it first aired. Then it spawned a thousand imitations, so seems cliché to anyone watching it now. But one element of Quinn’s story seems pretty problematic in hindsight.

Quinn tells Puck she only slept with him “because you got me drunk on wine coolers”. Puck definitely lied about using protection in order to get Quinn to have sex with him. A lot of Glee viewers now consider this to be rape, even though it’s not dealt with at all seriously in the show.

3. Glease (season four, episode six)

Er, Kitty uses niche musical references to bully Marley but then they all become friends again?
(Image via Disney+)

There’s a whole storyline in season four which has aged awfully. Glee attempted to approach the topic of eating disorders and really, really didn’t deal with it well. Kitty basically manipulates Marley into behaviour typical of eating disorders. She convinces Marley that she’s going to look like her mother, and encourages her to go on a diet. In the episode Glease, Kitty even resews Marley’s clothes to trick Marley into believing she’s gaining weight?

Kitty eventually says sorry, but never faces any actual consequences for her awful actions. In season five, Mr Schue, a 30-something male teacher, suspends Marley, a literal child, for feeling uncomfortable wearing a bikini on stage. This is terrible in itself, but even worse when you consider Marley is recovering from an eating disorder.

2. The End of Twerk (season five, episode five)

Help
(Image via Disney+)

Some Glee episodes have one major moment that’s really wrong with it. This Glee episode doesn’t really have anything right with it.

Mr Schuester teaches all the children to twerk so their performance at Nationals can have more “edge”. The principal Sue bans twerking from the school (fair enough). Mr Schuester sings Blurred Lines out of protest (yup, that song which some people interpret to be about sexual assault). Sue then fires him. Valid. But eventually Mr Schuester appeals to the board that some ballroom dances were also considered controversial back int the day, so they give him his job back? Because of course, teaching literal children a dance which imitates sex so they can do it in public is totally the same as adults holding hands while they waltz?

The side plot is that Mr Schuester and Sue are feuding over whether Unique (a trans girl) can use the girls’ bathroom. The conclusion is that Unique can go to the toilet as long as everyone stops twerking?! I’m just so confused as to who thought any of this was a good idea.

1. Lights Out (season four, episode 20)

Were all these candles just lying around the school?
(Image via Disney+)

This is a real low, even for 2013. Lights Out contains a scene that’s perhaps aged the worst out of all of the problematic Glee episodes. There’s a power cut at the school, so Ryder sings an acoustic cover of Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. (because isn’t that what everyone does during a power cut?). Ryder chooses this moment to reveal that a babysitter sexually harassed him when he was eleven.

Sam and Artie really, really miss the point of this and gush that Ryder got to experience every boy’s fantasy. Sam literally says, “Wait, hold on did you just say ‘she’ as in a girl, like a teenage girl? Dude, I’d have killed for that!” Yikes.

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Feature image via Disney+