Glee - Our Friend - Cory Monteith PSA - Video

Credit: FOX

"The Quarterback" has aired, and the characters of Glee have said goodbye to Finn Hudson. But saying goodbye to Cory Monteith remains an arduous process for all involved.

The end of the episode featured this PSA in which the actors on the hit FOX series spoke out to encourage those affected by drug addiction to seek help. You can watch the full video below via FOX:

So here's sort of where I stand on "The Quarterback": the episode was unmistakably poignant and devastating, but I kind of wish they had just said Finn moved away or provided some other excuse. As disingenuous as it might have been to pretend nothing had happened, I feel there would have been something truly poignant in the idea that even though Cory died, Finn would still be out there somewhere living all the years Cory didn't get to.

Of course, I get why Ryan Murphy and co. did things the way they did. Once again, it would have been a bit disingenuous to just pretend nothing had happened, but then it's also a little disingenuous to just say "he died" and never really engage with what happened or why - they're conflating the character with the actor in a way that was mildly uncomfortable. Nobody was "acting" in this episode. It just felt voyeuristic, like I was watching private moments of grief I shouldn't have had access to.

With that said, there was really no perfect way to do this. Ryan Murphy and co. were put in a completely untenable position, and nothing they could have done would have satisfied everyone, even if they'd opted not to do anything at all. So in closing, I'll just say that if even one person learns from this tragedy, and is inspired to make a change as a result of this episode, it will have ultimately been worth doing a tribute.