Date of release: June 23, 2017 (Netflix)
I guess now is the time during which the episodes of GLOW become more like what you usually see on television, and the stories start to detour around a bit, so the writers can fill an entire season of the show without having to focus on the central premise in every minute. The introduction of Bash was pretty much such a detour, as was the Hollywood party in Malibu, and the entire closing scene of the gorgeous ladies introducing their characters was essentially an extension of the characters they portray in the show-within-a-show, and it was a scene that would have landed on the cutting room floor if GLOW had been a feature film. But without Bash, or generally without a producer of GLOW, depicting how the show is getting made past the coked-out director and his cast members, this episode wouldn’t have happened, and I appreciate that Sam was working hard and even harder to get the show on the air (or simply just written for now), and it’s probably a realistic depiction of how ideas start to flourish and become productions staged in front of a camera.
Still, it’s a typical episode to fill some time and complete the given order of episodes, even if spending an entire episode figuring out what the show-within-a-show is and who the women were going to be playing happened to be a good idea. All this doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the episode though. The party could have been a springboard to give Debbie and Ruth some alone time to nurse their conflict, and the Malibu party could have been the opportunity to bring some of the other gorgeous ladies front and center, in addition to depicting the craziness that was the 1980s Malibu house party. All of those ideas might not have been used very well throughout the episode, but there was a moment between Debbie and Ruth I absolutely liked: Their somewhat soundless two-word exchange when Debbie got into the cab, which could bring the entire story of the two women into the ring for one final duel – the villain which Ruth is probably going to play in the show-within-a-show, and the role of the hero which Debbie stole from Reggie at the end of the episode.
 |
| They have never seen a helicopter up close before. |
But I loved the introductory scenes at the end. What a shame that most of the characters that Bash created with a snap of his fingers in his dressing room changed by the end of the episode, because I would have loved seeing Kate Nash pulling that astronaut thing off for the rest of the show, even if it would have meant for her to wear half an astronaut suit for most of the series (also, wrestling with a fishbowl on your head... probably not as easy as it looks, and possibly dangerous for the actor, even if the bowl is made out of candy glass). That comes from my realization that I didn’t really like the Britannica persona she delivered, although I probably just disliked it because of the oversexualized nature of the performance in that scene. Then again, Rhonda seemed to have been oversexualizing herself for three episodes now, so it isn’t much of a surprise that she was trying to sell sex appeal to Sam and Bash. Maybe that’s just who she is.
Story-wise, there might not have been much in this episode. Sam and Bash had a conflict about the story of the wrestling show, and that was pretty much all that the episode had to offer. At this point, I’m happy that GLOW is only a half-hour series, because I’m not sure how many detours this episode would have taken by adding a C and D story, or expanding the conflict between the two guys and going over meaningless material between all the women in the ring.
I did like Bash as the newly added character of the production, however. He looks like a stereotypical closeted Hollywood producer with constant delivery of cocaine and pills to people he would like to consider “friends,” and who thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants with all his money, but he wasn’t at all a dumb character. His concerns about Sam’s ideas were legit, and his scene with Sam at the fireplace was quite good for character development, showcasing that he isn’t just a brainless producer who trashes all his money into a TV show. It almost made me think that Bash will be an important character from here on, bring some of his ideas into the production, so he can feel more like a producer, and Sam doesn’t have to mount this entire thing by himself.
 |
| The new Liberty Belle introduces herself. |
Meanwhile, I was surprised to see that the writers cut back on Melrose being a bitch. I would have hoped that becomes her main character flaw, which would have suited the dominatrix attitude she was given by Bash and could have brought an evil persona into the ring, but maybe the writers realized in-between episodes that it might have been a little too much for the viewers to handle. It’s a shame though, but I believe that the bitchy version of Melrose would not have been good enough for the story and the character would quickly lose herself in the mix of these women. The thing is just, it looks like Melrose has been rebooted as a character, and that usually doesn’t look good on any TV show, even if we’re only three episodes in, and the writers were certainly allowed to fix any problems that arose during the production of the less-than-a-handful of previous episodes.
