Image Credit: Adam Rose/Fox
After Chord Overstreet parted ways with his recurring role on Glee this fall, the news that he’s in negotiations to return has given Sam Evans fans renewed hope. It got us thinking. How would the trouty-mouthed towhead best be used in future episodes? From his first moments on the show, producers have clearly struggled to make Sam’s character more than milquetoast. Even a story arc about his father’s unemployment and a 13th-hour dalliance with Mercedes couldn’t gain any traction. So take note, Glee honchos, we have a few suggestions for you:
WARDROBE: Less is more (see: above)! Take a cue from your friends over at The CW and skip the shirts.
MUSICALITY: Since the sizzling Blaine transferred to McKinley and Mike Chang showed off his improved vocals, there is officially no space for Sam in Schue’s crew. With a few exceptions, including Sam’s “Lucky” duet with Quinn, he has been strictly back-up as a New Directions member. He could step into the foreground by joining Shelby Corcoran’s upstart show choir. With Mercedes’ recent defection, he has an in, and he could stake a claim as the fledgling group’s resident heartthrob.
LOVE LIFE: Will Sam be jealous of Mercedes and her new hunk o’ man Shane? Who cares? Sam and Mercedes’ relationship was too little, too late. Sam needs a real power player to make him more than a pretty face. To take on the Finn-Rachel power couple, he needs someone who has put Rachel to the test. We suggest The Glee Project runner-up Lindsay Pearce, whose Harmony handed Rachel’s ass to her in a rousing rendition of “Anything Goes” during this season’s premiere. Pearce still has two more episodes on her contract, and she might have a shot at landing more if Harmony and Sam raised each other’s profile.
EXTRACURRICULARS: Sam will still be strapped for cash as college approaches. Give him a job at Breadstix. There have been far too few shout-outs to the Lima, Ohio hangout this season, and it has the potential to be The Max of the Glee gang. Sam’s new place of employee could be the headquarters for McKinley’s incoming co-presidents (in our ideal world the unicorns’ election will result in a tie) and a possible setting for some seriously carb-fueled turf wars between New Directions and Shelby’s scions.
What do you think, Gleeks? Are you happy about Sam’s possible return, even if it’s only in a limited role? How do you think he should reassimilate into the ongoing story lines?
Read more:
‘Glee’ scoop: Chord Overstreet in negotiations to return
Chord Overstreet not returning to ‘Glee’ as series regular
EW’s Glee Recaps
These are all horrible suggestions.
Why does Ew always attack Chord Overstreet while praising saint Darren Criss who plays the most boring character ever on the show, calling him trouty mouth and milquetoast, do you think maybe ‘Glee”‘s decline in the ratings have something to do with his return? he has a lot of fans that would strongly disagree with your description!..if you want to save a character how about some help for the ever boring Blaine,the show just seems to stop every time he is on screen and with the exception of Kurt he has not really gelled with any other character, whereas Sam seemed like he was part of the group!
Sorry but I have not seen any Sizzle in Blaine, Fizzle is more like it!
ok things I just do not get the appeal of James Spader on “The Office”, Bungee Jumping, Greek Style Yogurt, the movie “Billy Madison”, watching Golf on TV, and mostly Darren Criss on “Glee”, can someone explain tp me why he has “sizzle” as this article stated, because for the life of me I just don’t see it!
Only see the sizzle when he is singing… other than that… not yet…
Woah woah woah. Let’s get this straight here. First of all, Blaine may not be the best character, but he adds a dimension to the story that is absolutely necessary. A masculine, openly gay teenager. Without Blaine, all the gay males you be flamboyant/feminine (Kurt), or refuse to come out (David). Also, Darren Criss is a slam dunk for Glee. If they took away his character, I can absolutely promise that they would lose a huge amount of viewers. Now that that is straight, on to Sam. They called him attractive and said they wanted to hear more from him. They even suggested his own arc separate from the group so that he could be heard more. They clearly like him, they just don’t like that they wouldn’t hear much of him. The writers are still developing Blaine’s character because he is the new one at school and he is different from everyone else. It’s true that Sam fit in better with the group, however Blaine will get there. And if he doesn’t, there will be a reason. As much as I disagree with a lot of what the writers do, I don’t believe the the choices they have made with Chord or with Darren are wrong or unreasonable.
Ok first, i LOVE Chord Overstreet. Cutting him was a BIG mistake (in my opinion anyway).
I whole-heartedly agree with Abby up there^. Troutymouth is not necessarily an insult. If you watch the show, there is an episode where Santana refers to Sam as “Troutymouth.” The author of this article was simply describing Chord’s looks while using a Glee reference.
As for Blaine, like Abby said, he is an asset to the story line. He provides a character that gay, masculine teenagers can relate to. He gives a sense of hope to some of Glee’s viewers. He also adds to Kurt’s character. Without Blaine, Kurt would be some random kid with no purpose in his life other than being in Glee.
And, if I may add, Chord Overstreet and Darren Criss are both sexy as hell.(:
i agree. Blaine is just a manlier kurt. And kurt is a better character. Blaine just stormed in and everyone treats his character and darren chris like a god now its annoying. Blaine is a warbler. He does NOT fit the directions. And i cant wait for sam to come back they can go so many directions with him now. His dorky personality was priceless. He better not be a senior though i dont think he is but im not sure. I hope not im tellin you sam can be the leader after finn graduates it would work
Oh LORD, here we go again. Seriously, Glee? This show has no vision. Just gets pulled in every which direction.
The decision to cut him was a GOOD one Ryan Murphy! Gah! Next you’ll bring back Charice, Lauren, Ken Tanaka.. (that was sarcasm. Please don’t read my comment and start negotiations with these people).
Lauren will be back and she will have a storyline with Kurt…
Yeah, cutting him was such a good decision that it made their ratings canon ball. -rolls eyes- Sam was, and is, one of the only characters that the majority of the viewers can relate to. He’s nerdy, awkward, finically challenged – hello, that accounts for 70% of the viewers of the show. There’s literally a dozen other characters that they would have been better off cutting.
Correction: He was SUPPOSED to be nerdy, awkward, etc. They kept that up for about one episode, threw in maybe two other pop culture references and turned him into yet another jock. The big disappointment with Sam was that he could’ve been so interesting and relatable; instead, he wound up with no personality whatsoever and basically became the guy they used whenever they needed to add another love triangle.
They need to go back to the plan the character was created for and make him Kurt’s boyfriend.
It’s been painful to watch Kurt settle for less than he could have had (I mean, even if the character of Sam hadn’t been created specifically for Kurt, at least he’s his type!).
Sam isn’t gay!
… no.
um yeah just….NO. Blaine is PERFECT for Kurt. I don’t see how he is “less than what he could’ve had.”
Mercedes is supposed to be a “Power Player” but it’s like the previous writes didn’t know what to do with her and she got pushed to the background. I hope that changes this season.
PS: I’m pretty sure the writers don’t read comments on websites but whatever…Stop giving Mercedes “Big Black Girl” songs. I’m sure my namesake can sing any and every song you give her amazingly.
Um, no. Amber Riley was hired for (and ONLY for) to sing black people/Urban/R&B songs. Although, Lea can tackle Rihanna and artist such hearing her sing something with soul and rhythm would make me die laughing.
And that’s fine…I’m say stop giving her Big girl songs. Stop with the Jennifer Hudson and Jill Scott and Dreamgirls songs. Give her the Amy Winehouse and Beyonce songs. Why doesn’t she sing the Rihanna song? Have they heard of Marsha Ambrosius? She’s amazing and I could totally see Amber/Mercedes singing one of her songs….Mariah Carey. Monica. Aaliyah. Amerie. Ciara. She could sing anyone of these artists songs.
No… Amber/Mercedes sucks and we’ve had quite enough of her singing all the songs the same.
(I’m in a singing group and even the most talented people don’t like her voice, sorry.)
The best singers don’t have to like her voice for her to be amazing.
Whats wrong with her singing big girl songs? The songs she’s singing are from fantastic artists what does it matter what they weigh? Big artists have big pipes and they can BLOW!
I’m all for Sam parading around shirtless as long as Quin does the same. (and before the “sexism” comments come, YOU STARTED IT FIRST!)
Love your comment !!!
Bring him back as a potential love interest for Kurt like he was supposed to be before they decided to go in a different direction with his character; that would be interesting.
I agree with this. Add him to the Kurt/Blaine mix. It’s waaay too blissful between those two.
when he was supposed to be a love interest for Kurt, EW praised him, when it turned out he was not they shifted there love to Darren Criss, and started to attack him, sorry but Sam was a way more interesting character than Blaine who is ultra boring and bland, but because he is a gay character, it seems like it is not PC to say so, well I am gay and I hate Blaine, there I said it!
If they decide to make Sam gay, then he should be a love interest for Blaine.. more chemistry between those 2 actors…
Noooo just get rid of Blaine…he is soooo BORING, the only thing he has any chemistry with is the sound of his own voice!
Blaine and Sam have had no one-on-one interaction, so how do you know about their chemistry? Every time Sam and Blaine are in a scene together Sam looks absolutely pissed at Blaine. No, no, no. Besides, I’d like to see someone chase after Kurt for once. Go get him, Sammy.
I agree with Sam’s Love Life. I wouldn’t want to see him jealous of Mercedes’ boyfriend when we haven’t even connected with them as a couple yet. I’m not a fan of Lindsey from The Glee Project, so I’m voting for him getting a whole new character love interest.
No! Sam needs to get back with Quinn. I need me some Fabrevans time!
He should be a rival. They said Sam moved to another town. Maybe he joined the Glee Club at his new school. It would avoid the awkward “Oh, nevermind, I’m back” thing and it could add to the storyline about how Finn is jealous of him. Maybe he took the lead at his new Glee Club and made them more “rock n roll” so now they’re amazing. Sam’s club could win a different Regionals and they could meet in the Nationals.
Totally agree with you !!
I was basically in agreement with you until you mentioned giving Lindsay a bigger role on the show. She was awful on the Glee Project. Less of her would be more.
Technically, she only has one more episode left on her contract – she and Alex both got 2 episode arcs as a consolation prize for not winning and since she was already in episode one this season, she’s only got one guaranteed one left. If Sam were to be seen dating her character in whatever ep she appears in next, it would only have impact if he was spotted by maybe Mercedes since their dating relationship was cut short by his move it could be a what could’ve been moment for her that brings her back down to Earth a bit from her current diva extreme. That’s about the only way I could see him being paired with her where it would possibly matter for the story. then again, since when do the writers of Glee care about the story making sense?!
I didn’t watch the Glee Project, but she had a fabulous voice during the Anything Goes number. I wouldn’t mind hearing her sing again. Remember, she’s playing a role on Glee–it’s not a reality show where she’s playing herself.
Didn’t the guy decide not to be on the show because he wasn’t interested in their offer? Why did that change? In any case, “Interesting again” in the headline suggests the character Sam was actually interesting at some point. IMO. If so, please pinpoint when that was. The guy has a pretty face but Sam’s weak storylines and Chord’s very average acting and singing (and really weak dancing) were one of the things wrong with Season 2.
I did like Sam’s storylines:
- how he as newcomer handle the pushy behavior of Kurt
- how he courted Quinn
- how he is competition to Finn
- Bieber fever
- how he was broke
- how he started to court Mercedes in “Prom Queen”
He had way more varried storylines than Tina , Mike and even Blaine !! Blaine was just all about Warblers and Kurt…
Anything with Bieber cannot be good
actually Glee’s problems really did not start until the itroduction of Blaine and The Warblers midway through season 2, the whole “Teenage Dream” thing was a hit, so they kept going back to it and them, and there was nothing interesting about them!…other than his relationship with Kurt what has Saint Blaine really done, and as far as acting goes Chord seems like a real goofy kid and is a much better actor then cheeseball Criss, yes Criss has a good voice but he seems to have only two expressions and cannot act his way out of a wet paper bag!
Agreed. The whole homo-erotic Dalton Academy may have been good for a certain sub-section of the audience but it was what killed the season for a lot of people. The songs may have been good but they didn’t fit with the show. Blaine has been a DOA addition to ND and casting him as the male lead over Finn a massive understimation of Cory Monteith’s appeal. A certain section of fandom may hate on him, but along with Sam, he is a relatable character. Having virtually no Finn and the loss of Sam has been a disaster in the first three episodes which have felt unconnected with the previous seasons.
Looking forward to see him in sectionals in a competing Glee club… or as nemesis of Mercedes’ boyfriend or Blaine and Finn and even Rory…
Sam is great; Lindsay is obnoxious, but the person that needs to join the cast is CAMERON MITCHELL. He was AMAZING on the Glee Project—BEG BETTER this time, Ryan Murphy. Make the deal happen–CAMERON was simply the BEST.
Yeah, make a contract with Cameron in which he does not has to kiss or do sensual things on the Glee set. They did make a contract with Chord about him appearing shirtless on Glee… so what about “kiss-less”… should be possible… Mercedes did not kiss for 2 seasons…
I would love to see chord come back to glee but I agree they need to make his character more interesting!!! He should get another solo and they should dig deeper into his backround!! ps I agree that he shouldn’t wear a shirt!!
Plain Blanderson.
Glee is awful, why do you people care? I would advise against if i was him.
By comments you would think this article was about Darren Criss/Blaine Anderson
I’m just happy Chord is back