Date of release: June 29, 2018 (Netflix)
written by: Liz Flahive, Carly Mensch
directed by: Lynn Shelton
It is when you needed to wait for an entire year for a series to return that you realized how much you actually missed said series and find out you are one of its biggest fans. This happened to me and GLOW back in 2018, because I realized how much I want female-fronted shows and movies to watch and have them drop straight into my brain without hesitation or pause. It is also when you know that GLOW is about to return for another season that you decided to rewatch every available episode beforehand after you understand for yourself that the show is perfect, even with all the minor inconsistencies and weird story choices.
I always think that I should focus on watching stuff that is more centered on women and minority characters (as in, everyone who is not a white man), because it is a field of scripted television that barely exists and does not get a lot of love outside awards season, let alone is successful. Yet I am only watching GLOW at this very moment, and not shows like ONE DAY AT A TIME or QUEER EYE or KILLING EVE or ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK or GRACE & FRANKIE, although all of these shows are on my very long to-watch list. Sometimes there is simply not enough time to watch 20 TV shows a day (or write about them), which is why I jokingly hope that days will be 48 hours long very soon, and there will be a medical way to remove sleep from one’s life cycle. Because what theheck, we do not have a long lifespan anyway. The planet is burning, and humanity is about to die out, so science can take away sleep from us and we can watch television constantly until we die of starvation or during a forest fire lit by Nazis that extended into the city.
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| Debbie makes an unintended move on Sam's job. |
The premiere was super solid. It probably was a little harder to get back into the show after a year of waiting because of the relationships between the characters that needed re-establishing for the viewers who decided not to rewatch the first season before the drop of the second. Still, the most obvious and more developed relationships have found their way into a major story for this episode: Ruth and Debbie still fight for their friendship (Ruth more so than Debbie, but the latter is trying), while both of them individually make career moves on and beside the stage that could set them apart again. Sam is still the cheeky and charming asshole who might have gotten a few more insecurities during the break, as he is not only fighting against network brass and what kind of TV directors they pull in, but also against Ruth who, on purpose or accidentally, is gunning for his job. Then there is Bash, who might finally turn out to be gay for real, as he was confiding in his friend and former butler midway through the episode, making me hope there will be man-on-man action this season. That is only appropriate, considering the women-on-women premise of the series. Finally, there is Justine who surprisingly (for me at least) is still part of the show, opening up the possibilities of a father/daughter plotline this season, which might bring some heart into Sam and make him a nicer person, or will screw him up even more because he comes to realize he is not made for family relationships, let alone being a television director. Especially when the show could be taken away for him, or Ruth realizes she is much better behind the camera than on stage, and both of these possibilities could be ongoing storylines for this season and create conflict material for the characters.
For a season premiere, the writers offered quite a few potential storylines, each having the shot to branch off into their individual directions, offering a lot of drama on the way. As I said, Sam seems to be in front of a fork in the road – one road giving him nothing but trouble, as he is slowly losing control over the show; the other one giving him complications, as he accepts the difficulties of making a television show, as well as its cast members (especially Debbie), and tries to navigate around them. And I like both options. The former gives GLOW the melodrama it might need if the writers are getting tired of the comedic aspect of the premise, and the latter could make for great and complex storytelling that could bring Emmy awards to the cast members or writers of the show.
And I really would love to see Sam battling it out with both Ruth and Debbie over separate matters. Ruth is about to discover her creative side (and I can suddenly see where her series-long arc will lead to: Maybe she becomes a creator and/or director when the finale of GLOW comes around), and Debbie is about to discover her ruthlessness in business. That contrasts well with Sam’s “screw it” attitude, as well as Ruth’s creative agenda, which means there is a troublesome threesome at work, ready to fight each other over creative control of their show. Although I do not know if Debbie is interested in fighting Ruth in that matter, because she just wants the money and the title. I for one could not analyze what Debbie’s face was all about when she closed the door on Ruth at the end of the episode. Was that a power move or just the “sorry, but I have to look out for my own” signal? May it have even been a move to say that Debbie has Ruth’s back in the future, since as a producer she has a lot more say on what is happening with the show?
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| It is time to talk contracts. |
The creation of the title sequence was pretty good. The shooting in the mall looked fun, although, for comedic purposes, I would have loved to see more reactions from the mall’s patrons. I do not care for an eventual romantic plot between Ruth and Russell, the cameraman (I do not really want a potentially abusive relationship in the show, but in today’s real-life climate, it might be a necessary storyline), but as long as Ruth gets out of her problems through unique ways, I might take what the writers are giving me and just accept that Ruth is both a creative genius, but also a scared human being, flinching away in fear when someone more powerful than her is raising their fist or voice. That showed when Sam was lambasting the entire crew for having shot the main title sequence, while also firing Reggie for speaking up – Ruth almost looked like she was about to break down in tears, completely shattered by the 180 Sam is showing here, proving that she has not learned how to take control over her own career yet, all while in the meantime, Debbie is doing exactly that. Maybe Debbie will become a mentor of sorts for Ruth, putting a spin on the story of how they become friends again.
