Date of release: June 29, 2018 (Netflix)
written by: Nick Jones, Rachel Shukert
directed by: Meera Menon
Oh my gosh, there are so many things to say about this episode... Like, what is the word for meta, but with more meta in it? In the previous episodes, the women, Sam, and Bash have decided to just screw everything and do whatever they want with the show. Knowing that their wrestling show will be canceled, they have only four episodes left before they start looking for new jobs again, and one episode later they were doing whatever the heck they wanted to do, having fun in the process as it should be in Hollywood. And then GLOW turned that premise into an actual episode of the show-within-a-show? Holy rusted metal Batman, you cannot believe how much joy I had watching this episode! Okay, maybe you do because you might have had a similar amount of joy watching this half hour of television, but the idea of seeing a show within a show going nuts with its narrative because of fictional cancellation fear is something I never thought I would see on television.
I was hoping to get an entire episode of THE NEWSROOM as a News Night with Will McAvoy episode, but I never got it. I almost had an entire episode of STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP be a late-night variety show, but “The Disaster Show” was mostly about something else, too, even though the entire episode was about the live airing of the show-within-a-show. I never watched a legal drama be set in a courtroom for the entire episode, pretty much going through the entirety of a case, and never had a medical drama going through an operation in real-time, let alone a mass casualty event in 45 minutes (ER’s “Time of Death” was a real-time episode depicting the slow death of a patient, but that was not really what I was looking for). That is the kind of stuff I would love to see, and it seems like GLOW actually delivered as the first-ever TV show to the full nine yards and just have balls-out fun.
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| When your show got canceled, you can act your crazy heart out. |
I cannot even believe how much fun the cast must have had shooting this episode. Alison Brie was probably delighted to play the Russian twins; Kate Nash must have felt like the 1950s D-horror movie queen doing her Britannica scenes; and who knows how excited Betty Gilpin was doing the wrestling princess stuff and be as over the top and hilariously bad as possible. But really, I do not know if it was easy for the cast to play their roles or if it was hard to act like their characters cannot act. I do not know if they had to fight not to break out in amusing laughter during the shooting of this episode, or if everything was done in a professional manner. All I want to know right now is if a documentary of the production of this episode exists, because if so, I would want to watch the heck out of that. I also want to hear all the people involved in this episode and what they have to say about this, so let the podcast world light up with each and every one of them, as they tell the story of how they decided to give a crap by not giving a crap and go even deeper into their series universe. I mean, interrupting the narrative of the season to depict a show that was supposed to tell the audience that the characters of the show do not care any longer? Who knew this was even possible?
I loved that Reggie came back and immediately lost the wrestling match for the sake of Liberty Belle’s story, and I loved that Arthie got the chance to retool her GLOW character and move away from the cliched terrorist persona she wished to get rid of for so long now, although maybe there could have been an even better move if Beirut the Mad Terrorist had the same thought in her mind during the match, and decided to join forces with Liberty Belle. That dance scene with Yolanda was wonderful, and I could have watched another ten minutes of that, especially since I started shipping Yolanda and Arthie again. It happened before when Yolanda mentioned that there is not one gay bush among all these straight women of the wrestling show, and she did her tongue move on Arthie, but now that the two danced for this episode... It makes you think Arthie is interested in Yolanda (the dance scene may have come from her, just to be close to Yolanda for a little while), only is she as much in the closet as Bash currently is, although the writers must have forgotten again that Bash was supposed to be gay. Or maybe he is not gay, which means my gaydar is defective and needs re-adjusting.
I also loved that the episode was not just all about the episode of the wrestling show. No, it ends with its proper narrative again, and it surprises me yet again by bringing me Annabella Sciorra as who I think is Justine’s mother. It brings Justine back front and center after she has kind of been absent for most of the days after removing herself from GLOW after getting what she wanted (time with her father) and the writers not finding anything for her to do, now that she was mostly not involved in the making of the wrestling show. Besides that, the writers have delivered a nicely sized backstory for Justine, and I am interested in seeing that play out, especially since it can bring some standard-fare drama of the emotional kind. Not just Justine is about to get into trouble with her mother, but Sam will also be involved in the story, essentially facing his past love affair and potentially having to deal with his own emotions.
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| This is a love story, but only during a dream sequence. |
There is so much about this episode, it could almost serve as its own source of a college analytics class. Beginning with the whole kidnapping story (plus that song – oh my gosh, that anti-kidnapping song!), continuing with Britannica’s brain, and how that story must have confused some of the little girls out there, believing that their vagina is just a slot for a floppy disk (this might be the laugh-out-loud moment of the episode that cannot ever be repeated by SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE because it is just too naughty), and ending with the commercials inside the show. I definitely want a Welfare Queen action figure now!
