Date of release: June 23, 2017 (Netflix)
I might have found my favorite show for the next couple of months because I liked this episode as equally as I did the premiere. There is something about a male asshole with a moustache full of cocaine directing a bunch of women, half of them not knowing what this GLOW thing will become at the end of the day or tomorrow or next week, or when it finally airs on cable television. There is also something about the idea of Ruth becoming a villain in the show-within-a-show, even if she is being forced to play one and she doesn’t feel happy about the director’s choice. But I would really love to see how this cute girl who doesn’t have any friends, who can’t hold a job, who is about to probably land on the streets if this doesn’t work out, is slowly turning into a hardened woman with a mission to destroy other hardened women because Sam told her to. Who knows, maybe Ruth will enjoy playing the villain at the end of the season and this is where her career will be heading after the end of her wrestling career. Becoming a prime example of what women can do in front of the camera when women were still regarded as “secretary characters” or “attractive love interests” for the male stars. It’s the 1980s after all...
Meanwhile, the episode managed to introduce a few more characters to the team, making GLOW a better ensemble show this time around. Melrose was more of a villain in this episode than Ruth could possibly be, which means Ruth, who has been targeted for the villainous role by Sam, might already have unexpected competition when it comes to that role, although I don’t think Melrose will make it long. Her cocky attitude could help GLOW in general (and when everyone hates her after only a couple of training sessions, why should Ruth be the villain?), but that cocky attitude will not help her in general as a character in a television show and when it comes to making friends among the rest of the cast. It’s difficult to like cocky characters that are assholes in nature and are unable to show their good side, until the writers figured out how to display their emotions, which is why I’m hoping the writers found Melrose’s emotional side quickly here. Otherwise, I would wish for Ruth to be exiled so that Melrose can be the villain. By the way: Isn’t everyone a villain in wrestling one way or the other? But what do I know about wrestling?
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| Lesson one: Don't feel the pain. |
I very much liked Cherry in this episode. Instant backstory, instant drama between her and Sam when he decided to create the miscarriage skit in the ring and humiliate her (and here I was, thinking he was trying to humiliate Ruth out of the project so that Debbie would stay). I was expecting Cherry to be all kinds of mad as hell, maybe even slapping Sam (the two have history, so it wouldn’t come out of nowhere that she is the dominant one in that “relationship”), but the fact that she tried to be nice to Sam, not disappoint him by saying “No” to his offer of double salary and title as the trainer of the team, said a lot about her character and how submissive she may be. While the first episode might have centered on Ruth, this episode clearly centered on Cherry, even if Melrose might have had more screentime. At the end of the half hour, I was already waiting for the next episode with Sheila being front and center. Her fiend-ish look intrigues me, and I just want her to have an assigned role in GLOW, make some moves, and smash her body into whoever becomes the real heroine of the story.
Finally, there was Debbie. I guess she liked to see that Ruth was getting humiliated in the ring, which might have awoken her interest in GLOW, and that creates interesting energy between her and Ruth. The two are going to hate each other throughout most, if not all, of GLOW, and that hate might give Sam all the possible skits and ideas he needs to get that show on the air and bring in viewers and money. In a way, the existence of GLOW is also hinging on the success Debbie is supposed to bring to the show-within-a-show, and since her character hasn’t been properly introduced yet, there might be quite a few outside forces that are ready to destroy her new career, and with it, GLOW. Especially since Sam has already started to dream about Debbie being the star of GLOW, and we all know what can happen to a star and the show he or she works on.
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| Lesson two: Bring props into the ring. |
One final note: GLOW must have been cheap to shoot. Yes, the design and costume department might have spent some money, and the cast was most likely well-paid as well, but considering that more than half of the episodes are situated on just one standing set, and that set is the gym the characters are training in, it must have meant that the producers were able to save some money by creating an impromptu bottle show and putting the saved money into whatever the writers were coming up with by putting the action into the gym. It’s quite clever, and if there will be an entire bottle episode set in the gym, no one will even notice because that’s the primary setting of GLOW anyway, and that’s where everyone wants to see the characters. Bottle episodes aren’t evil, and I wish that some viewers would come to realize that. BREAKING BAD’s “Fly” wasn’t that bad of an episode, it’s in fact kind of an intriguing and unique thriller. Just because a show needs to cut on the budget for a couple of episodes, it doesn’t mean that the episodes have to be worse in return.
