Season 1 of the Netflix show GLOW was great. I was both excited and afraid before it started. Wrestling, as regular readers know, is important to me. And women's wrestling is particularly important to me. Which has been fraught, because women's wrestling has often been treated as a sideshow. A sideshow with extra added misogyny. And as important as the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling tv show was in wrestling history, it was also a place where every bad wrestling stereotype was performed egregiously.
And then there's the fact that as good as Orange Is The New Black is, I quit it because it was too depressing, and GLOW comes from people who worked on that show.
Images are promotional released by Netflix
So there was potential for trash, and potential for depressing. And, you know, GLOW has both of those elements. But it somehow manages to dance on the tightrope without falling into either one. It is a show about a diverse group of people, most of whom are women, who come together to do a thing that is - as is quintessential to wrestling - both awful and glorious. Season one, as I wrote, was great.
And then came season 2. I was less afraid, but still apprehensive. I quit a LOT of shows in season 2. And before Luke Cage, I don't know if I lasted the entire second season of any Netflix Original live action drama. They tend to lose focus. Netflix gives creators a lot of artistic freedom, which can be great, but... sometimes people need to be reigned in.
Female friendships are my jam
Season 2 of GLOW is better than season 1 in every single aspect. Much like the show within the show, all of the setup was done. Season 1 was about creating the show. Season 2 was about making the show.
This is a show about sisterhood, about creating a thing together and fighting for it. It's about identity, on multiples axes. It's a show about the 1980s with a level of complexity on race and gender issues shows in the actual 1980s were not allowed to have.
Now, let us take a moment to appreciate Alison Brie. She was very good in Community and did everything required of her in Mad Men. I knew she was good. In both seasons of GLOW, she isn't just good. She is amazing. This is like the opposite of Orange Is The New Black, where the pretty white girl was supposed to be the audience's way in, but everyone likes her the least. Ruth is complex, and she messes up, but you gotta root for her. And a lot of that is due to Brie's amazing work.
So, obviously, I am very much the target audience for this show. I love wrestling and queer stuff and comedy and Alison Brie. I've been listening to Marc Maron (who continues to be excellent as Sam)'s podcast for years. And I like stuff by and about women. Y'all know this if you read this blog regularly. I can't say this show's gonna hit everyone's sweetspot the way it does mine. But I can say it is a very well done show, that handles a difficult subject with skill and grace. And I can also say, again, that season 2 is better than season 1.
