PSA: ‘Glee’ Is Leaving Netflix in November

It’s a truth so horrendous is feels like it’s coming straight from Sue Sylvester’s diary. Self-proclaimed students of McKinley, we are devastated to tell you that Glee will be leaving Netflix at the end of November. No, this isn’t some terribly orchestrated plan from one Will Schuester to somehow make Glee Club relevant again by taking it away. This is the real deal. Soon you won’t be able to hear Blaine croon “Teenage Dream.” Let us be the first to say that we are outraged.

If you were to travel to any point of time and tell a stranger that the most popular show in America would be a musical comedy that uses slushies as a bullying tactic and once created a heartfelt ballad about a headband, they would laugh And honestly? They should. Yet that’s exactly what happened when Glee first premiered in 2009. Over the course of its six seasons, Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan’s show became more than a rating success. By October of 2011 —four years before the show’s finale — the music of Glee had resulted in 36 million digital single sales and 11 million album sales worldwide. It spawned karaoke video games, an international tour (they performed in Canada!), a film based off said tour, and Glee-exclusive reality competition series. That’s right. The Glee Project absolutely existed, and five lucky winners actually got to sing on the Fox show.

That’s nothing to say of the progressive ground Glee broke episode after episode, acting as if glass ceilings were made of flimsy plastic. Through Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss), Glee showed network television one of the first gay romances that was treated with as much compassion, humanity, and respect as any straight relationship. The series would go onto include difficult and nuanced coming out conversations, frank conversations about STDs and safe sex in the LGBTQ+ community, and, through the troubled David Karofsky (Max Adler), the horrors of teen suicide. Then the show turned around and offered an equally swoon-worthy romance for two of its leading woman, Brittany (Heather Morris) and Santana (Naya Rivera).

But Glee didn’t stop there because Glee never knew the meaning of the word “stop” unless it was in “Don’t Stop Believin'”. The dramedy routinely had frank conversations about eating disorders, the body pressures both men and women face, teenage pregnancy, body dysmorphia, what it means to be trans, and how to cope with the tragic death of someone who dies too soon. Season 5’s “The Quarterback”, Glee‘s quiet yet haunting tribute to the late Cory Monteith, remains one of the series’ best episodes of all time.

The Fox show managed to do all of that while making the most unhinged decision at every turn. Want to see a ton of kids get high and sing with Britney Spears? Wondering what it would be like if Gwyneth Paltrow covered CeeLo Green? Craving a singing mashup between a teacher trying to draw some appropriate relationship lines and a student who refuses to accept it? Hell, want an all-child version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, one of the raunchiest mainstream musicals ever produced? It’s all there. We haven’t even made it to Season 3.

Bet you didn’t know that your Netflix account was hiding the pinnacle of the human experience. And it’s all about to leave. There is, however, some hope. Altogether there were 121 episodes of Glee, each of which run about 45 minutes. If you block out seven and a half days between now and the end of November, you’ll be set for a rewatch. Truly there’s no better way to spend your limited time on Earth.

Where to stream Glee