It was a fun show, I liked it a lot. It’s made by some of the same folks as Orange Is The New Black, so it had a similar feel - majority women cast, a lot of sly humour, a soapy set up but non-soapy execution - with a more original backdrop. It’s getting a great reaction, most people seem to really enjoy it, but it’s no phenomenon like OITNB or Stranger Things, that’s for sure. It’s a quiet achiever, and that’s not a bad thing.
It was the 80’s. Sam’s behavior wasn’t wildly atypical for the time, especially as the boss of a group of women. And Justine was a confused teenager.
I’m not sure of your point here - that actual pro wrestling doesn’t create characters that are permanent heels? They certainly did - such as the The Iron Sheik, who was a wildly popular heel throughout his entire wrestling career.
Part of me thinks the costumer is a fan of Miranda July with Brie’s look in the show.
https://www.google.com/search?q=miranda+july&safe=active&rlz=1C1CHZL_enUS655US656&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZz_P6-P7UAhUSfiYKHV6WATUQ_AUICigB&biw=1327&bih=609#imgrc=81Y2Q4lhfYsw_M:
I don’t like wrestling but female wrestling is rather interesting for some reason. 
Still, I didn’t think I would like the show but gave it a try, mostly because Alison Brie from Community is in it. The characters and plot got me hooked and I binged the whole thing in a few days.
Since the series starts before GLOW existed as a show, it’s not really about wrestling that much. It’s more about the characters and comedy and drama, all set in the 1980s so there is the nostalgia factor too. Brie’s character might be my least favorite but I still think she did a great job. I do have newfound respect for wrestlers (and the actors playing wrestlers) and the training they have to go through. I’m surprised someone doesn’t get hurt every day.
It’s interesting to watch the GLOW documentary after watching the series, it definitely seems like the writers of the show saw the documentary.
I’d bet money the show only exists because someone saw the documentary.
I wonder who they’ll cast as Jackie Stallone for the next season. Or if they’ll just bring in Jackie Stallone.
Oh, I’m quite aware of this.
But even if that weren’t the case, Justine sees what he’s doing - she even calls him on the ‘casting couch’ aspect. ‘I should inform him who I am before the inevitable’ should not have been such a hard thing to figure out.
From the Wikipedia article about the show:
[15] How 'GLOW' Recreates the Golden Age of Lady-Wrestling TV
[16] 'GLOW' Creators Talk Women's Wrestling, Jenji Kohan, Alison Brie
Assuming they actually keep that angle, I hope they cast one of the actual GLOW performers (not Stallone herself, one of the ring performers, who’d be around the right age). OTOH, given some of the other changes, I’d be unsurprised if they had Bash talk his mother into playing the role.
I agree— Marc Maron does a surprisingly great turn as a selfish, irascible, sardonic, lecherous asshole; it’s just strange to see him playing against type.
FWIW: I don’t have Netflix but I was able to find some 15-second-long clips of Alison Brie by turning off safe search. That was about all I needed (wanted) to see.
One might think it could also be true with Game of Thrones: the first episode had some white-haired young woman taking a bath, and two lovers being spied upon in a tower. One could imagine that that’s all there is to the story so you don’t need to keep watching. One would be wrong. So maybe I should watch the rest of GLOW.
The funniest moment for me was when his gf is breaking up with him:
“You’re paranoid, Sam.”
“WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!”
Bumping this since I searched and didn’t see a season 2 thread
Anyone watch season 2 of GLOW yet? I binged it earlier this week and enjoyed it just as much as season 1. A good mix of cornball comedy and realistic drama. The main three actors (Maron, Brie, and Gilpin) are all terrific.
The side-bits with the other wrestlers were good, especially the episode about ‘Welfare Queen’ and also Britannica’s green card crisis.
I didn’t love episode 8, but I appreciate the intent.
I really hope this gets renewed for a third season. Where they are headed, literally, at the end of this season has me excited for what may come.
I really enjoyed the 2nd season, I ended up watching it over 2 days I think. Its not official yet, but the word is that Season 3 will be picked up. Netflix is loving the reviews.
I loved the story line of the Justine Biagi and her mom. funniest lines in the season, I think was,
Sam Sylvia, “They’re so loud.”
Ruth Wilder, “You’re loud.”
I enjoyed S2 a lot. I was hoping it wouldn’t dip in quality so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it stayed at like 95%. A lot higher than a lot of Netflix shows’ second seasons.
They do such a good job of recreating the 80s. Sure, there was a lot of big hair and blue eyeshadow, but sometimes it was just weirdly cut clothes with pastel patterns.
I’m a big fan of old school wrasslin’, but I haven’t watched this yet. Wasn’t GLOW the show that had a character named Dementia who carried an ax? I was too much of a purist to watch the show inn the eighties, but I should check this out.
I just finished up the season today. I liked it, as well as I liked the first season.
I started this season out really confused. One thing I don’t like about an entire series dropping on a single day is that you can’t really read about individual episodes. AV Club, Vulture, Rolling Stone etc, get access to it a few days early so they can write season reviews and publish them quickly, threads like this are full of spoilers. When I started watching this, I got to the episode that opens with Ruth breaking her leg. The next episode she had no cast and appeared to be walking just fine, no explanation. Things continued to get stranger, it seemed like some really sloppy/lazy storytelling. I eventually realized that somehow I was watching the episodes out of order. I have no idea how that happened.
Looking at my Netflix history, I watched, in this order, 1, 7, 8, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10.
7 was the episode at the hospital. When I started today, I decided to check to see if I was doing something wrong and saw I was playing them all out of order. I watched 5,6,7,9 today.
Anyways, I liked it. Like a lot of shows, it was good in both the first and second episode, but for different reasons.
I haven’t yet decided if I liked how most of the main characters really had no reason to stay in LA. They cleaned that all up very nicely. Bash doesn’t have Florian. IIRC, Ruth made a point back in S1 of saying there was never anything holding keeping her tied down anywhere (someone did, anyway). Debbie saw her ex with Susan which cut any lasting feelings she had for him. Justine is left for Sacramento leaving Sam [unhappily] alone. Cherry lost her other job. There’s a few more I’m not thinking of off the top of my head, but to me it seemed like one of those ‘we might get renewed, we might not, we don’t know yet, so this can be a season or series finale’ type thing.
One thing that I found odd is that they did’t set it up so that Justine would live closer to Las Vegas than LA. It would give her the ability to randomly show up and/or Sam to go and see her. Maybe she’ll go to college nearby.
You remember correctly! There’s a documentary about the real GLOW on Netflix — definitely worth a watch. It inspired this show, which is also worth watching.
Just finished season 2. I think GLOW (the show) is great in lots of ways; among other things, it’s feminist/political without being didactic. Characters are well-developed, even the “bad” ones (Debbie’s ex, Glenn the station exec, the creepy superfans…).
I was so happy to see one of the Lumberjacksons show up in the finale. Along with his buddy, Chico Guapo or whatever.
I don’t know if it’s mentioned in the documentary, but Welfare Queen (the actress) was in the original GLOW.
