'Glee' leads into Monteith tribute with underage drinking scene

"Glee" is bidding farewell to both the late Cory Monteith and the character he played, Finn Hudson, in this week's episode (Thursday, 8 p.m., Fox/Ch. 13) — and I'm concerned.The episode hasn't been screened for critics, but, given the show's history, there's plenty of reason to doubt that the writers can pull this off. They haven't demonstrated this kind of talent. And they have delivered some appalling mixed messages.In the most recent episode of "Glee," the show's underage viewers were treated to underage drinking by several of the characters.The writers, apparently forgetting that Rachel (Lea Michele), Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Santana (Naya Rivera) graduated from high school less than a year ago (on the show's timeline), showed them celebrating Rachel landing a role on Broadway by drinking champagne. And, yes, the legal drinking age in New York is 21.

This week, "Glee" is going to pay tribute to Monteith, who died after he overdosed on heroin and alcohol. Reportedly, that included two bottles of champagne.The obliviousness of the "Glee" writers isn't surprising. They've lurched from episode to episode, with wild swings in characters and storylines. They've completely forgotten (or ignored) some of those swings.Um, Kurt's father, Burt (Mike O'Malley) was elected to Congress, which has been dropped as a plot point without explanation.But, seriously, you have underage characters drinking just before your big tribute to Monteith? That's pretty much unbelievable and unforgivable.So, yeah, there's reason to be concerned about how "Glee" is going to pull this off.