GLOW - Season 1 Review
This review of Season 1 of GLOW is spoiler-free!
The female revolution on television is fully underway and by no means is that a bad thing. From a show like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, there's a lot of really good television out there with female main characters and simply focused on empowering females all around. GLOW is another show in this vein, and that's what makes it so great. I've never really been a fan of female wrestling or just wrestling television in general, but I see why people would love these girls. So, let's dig in to GLOW, and like I said, the world of lady wrestling on television.
The most important part of this show all around is it's two main characters, Ruth Wilder (Allison Brie) and Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin). Their dynamic plays a major role in the show overall. Their relationship takes a turn for the worse in the very early going of the season due to something Ruth does to Debbie unintentionally. I won't go into depth but their relationship is strained to throughout the entire season. It's one of the strongest parts of the season seeing them work together while trying to sidestep one another outside of the ring. They both also have their own issues to deal with, Ruth's personal arc is actually one of the most interesting parts of the show. At one point her director, Sam Sylvia (Marc Meron), asks her who she is. It turns out she really doesn't know who she is and takes on a journey of self discovery through wrestling to understand who she really thinks she is. It's a beautiful reflection of many people's lives on finding ourselves in our work and others.
Mentioned in the previous character, the director of GLOW has his own story that plays a large part in the show as well. Sam doesn't realize that he is on a downward spiral in his career and got involved in GLOW simply out of necessity and a promise from the producer to pay for his next film. There is a girl in the team though that seems to take an odd liking to him and he finds it rather strange. Marc Meron portrays Sam's deadbeat nature well, but there are moments between him and Ruth that are really powerful. They both feel broken and lost and they're looking for happiness. Sam wants to love something, and by the end of the season I was very happy with where his story ended up. I didn't anticipate his major role in the story early on but it really did play well into the larger overall narrative.
Obviously though, one major thing that this show overall is manage to convey the feeling of female empowerment extremely well. Throughout multiple periods of time there are moments where women are confronted with the stereotype of this not being the world to be a part of and it being savagery. Each and every time the women manage to prove their doubters wrong and show that they can be a part of this world and they do it fantastically. Whether it be a girl who came from a family of wrestlers, or a woman who sees herself as above all of this, throughout the series they all realize they want to do this and are willing to fight for GLOW. I personally think that overall theme is great and really adds to the series in general.
GLOW is unique show. As I said in the opening paragraph, I never really thought I would watch a show about wrestling until I saw this show. Allison Brie and Betty Gilpin's drama and relationship makes this series better than I expected, and while there are some very generic story beats I am glad that they manage to overcome them. The overarching narrative combines the individual stories of each main character and manages to create a world that challenges stereotypes and establishes these women as fans and champions their craft. Check out GLOW on Netflix whenever you get the time.
8.5/10
