TV REVIEW: Glee Season 4 debut

I really wasn't looking forward to Glee season 4. There's always a problem when the characters of a good drama graduate from high school - do you end the show there and leave it short and sweet or do you let it continue for several more seasons as the characters move into college? The likes of 90210 and Gossip Girl opted for the later option, though whether or not this was a good idea is debatable. Sure, they still have huge numbers of viewers and they are both still two of the most popular teen dramas today; however, you cannot deny that the story lines have been regurgitated over and over again to the point where many of the shows' original viewers have given up on them. I feared that the same would happen to Glee, but at a much faster rate. Glee did not seem like the sort of series that would survive outside the bounds of high school given that the story is basically about the underdogs at high school, but I was very much surprised by this brilliant premiere episode.

Has Rachel found herself a new beau?

Season 4 began with a good punchy kick. We see Rachel in her first dance lesson at NYADA with none other than Kate Hudson starring as her teacher! The fact that we start off with Rachel in NYADA is a clear indicator that she is still going to be a big part of season four which is a huge relief. At the end of series 3 I vowed never to watch glee again should they scrap all the major characters e.g. Rachel, Finn, Kurt etc though the majority of them are still hanging around in one way or another. Both Finn, Mercedes and Santana were missing from the premiere episode though creator Ryan Murphy has reportedly said: 'they're all coming back', so we'll be seeing them all at some point in the future.

There are some fresh faces that have been added to the New Directions, including Jacob Artist as Puck's half brother Jake and Melissa Benoist as Marley Rose. Both of these new additions have extraordinary voices that will no doubt bring even better music to Glee season 4. Every single Glee character is different and unique and that hasn't changed in season 4. We haven't had the chance to see much of what the new characters are really like, but I've seen enough to know that they'll bring something new to the series to make it even better. There's also a new hottie in town with Dean Geyer as Brody Weston, a junior who Rachel meets at NYADA. It's not hard to figure out what's going to happen there. I'm absolutely loving the addition of Kate Hudson as Rachel's bad-ass dance teacher. She brings something sexy and dangerous to the show that we've never seen before. I suppose she's supposed to be 'Sue' version 2.0, but she's so much better than that. I'm really looking forward to seeing what her role in the series will be, I just know it's going to be good!

Saucy Spanish number by Kate Hudson