Rise's Auli'i Cravalho & Damon J. Gillespie Talk Those 'Glee' Comparisons

With only one episode, Rise has quickly become one of our fave new TV shows, and yes, we get little Glee vibes, but it’s definitely not Glee.

Stars Auli’i Cravalho and Damon J. Gillespie are here to remind us of that too.

“We’re very different. We’re a show within a show,” Auli’i shared in a recent interview. “We’re putting on Spring Awakening within Rise. The real heart of the show is in fact the students and Lou, the teacher, and Tracy and how they’re coming together and really inspiring everyone. And then we also have the musical aspect.”

Damon joked that they’re “not gonna randomly break out into song like some of the other musical shows or movies that we’ve seen.”

He added, “The music serves either as an underscore or a parallel to what’s going on outside of the theater. But it’s a lot like Friday Night Lights. It wasn’t all about football — it was about these people’s lives around what’s going on.”

Get a sneak peek of what’s going on in tonight’s new episode in the gallery below!

Rise airs @ 9PM ET/PT on NBC.