Date of release: August 9, 2019 (Netflix)
written by: Sascha Rothchild
directed by: Mark A. Burley
Did the writers just decide to turn GLOW into a character drama with the third season? It has been the second episode in a row without the depiction of a single wrestling move (minus the “dry run” in the previous episode that kind of showed what the stage show of GLOW looked like), and so far this season, we have come from storytelling from before opening night to before the opening night afterparty, and we have now reached the narrative of what the characters were doing when they had a day off. From what I am expecting from this television show, it is not really stuff I wanted to see, even if GLOW is still a good-enough series focusing on its characters. But when it does not have anything to wrestle for, it seems like the show was missing the topic a little bit.
However, it is interesting to notice how the writers have turned GLOW from a show mostly set in the gym and the ring to a show set in Las Vegas (two entirely different settings), where the characters are on their individual adventures, with individual problems and individual ways to deal with them. GLOW has somewhat become a mainstream character drama, which means it lost all the uniqueness that came with it being a wrestling show starring women. GLOW has become a show about a group doing things together (training, shooting the episodes) to a group doing things separately, as each of the women have their own team-ups or even individual storylines.
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| The Las Vegas life is bad for Rhonda's stomach. |
I do no know if I should hate this episode, since it was so far out of its own premise that it pretty much looked like a different series altogether. I still like the characters and I continue to get invested in their stories, but GLOW has a little bit of a lesser meaning for me now because of the cutting of wrestling scenes. In addition, splitting up the characters to deal with their own stories seemed a bit weird this time around, as the friends were not hanging out and having fun together. Not unlike the previous episode that ended right before the afterparty, this episode began right after the night out with Carmen, Melrose, Stacey, Dawn, Reggie, and Jenny (five of the six women called that scene their only one in this episode), and I would have loved seeing some of that. The women are on a for them unique adventure, but the show only depicts parts of it, while the other parts the show is focusing on are not quite that interesting for me.
Besides that, what is there to take from the individual stories in this episode? Bash and Rhonda may already have a few marriage troubles, as he walks away from her feeling ill and she might actually be ill enough to have me all paranoid about what might be if Rhonda was, in fact, ill and about to die (or pregnant). Ruth and Sam finally went through the ring of fire and dealt with their feelings for one another, but not without winning a ton of money playing Blackjack first, and at the end of the day they sort of were at the same place from where they started. Arthie and Yolanda had their first fight as a couple, and if it were not for them being a gay couple in the United States of 1986, during which gays were seen as rodents and subhuman and evil, it was essentially a story you can find about five times in each of the weekly primetime soap operas that aired on either The WB, The CW or FOX between the premiere of BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 and the finale of THE O.C. And Debbie’s homesickness looks to be handled in a very conventional and conservative way as well. If I can already paint a picture in my head of how Liberty Belle’s days in the ring are numbered, because Debbie feels like she has to be home or she will miss how her baby son is growing up, then the show is missing the surprises which could make it a great show even in its third season.
Yet here we are, with stories that may enrich the characters of this specific show, but with stories that have been seen and talked about already, putting GLOW into the background of television shows, where it is dealing with all the other shows that have competent writing and a solid cast and that is essentially all you can say about the show. Maybe I just missed realigning my expectations for the series in its third year, now that the characters do not have to deal with the business of television any longer, but the reason why I started watching GLOW initially has now been removed seemingly entirely from the narrative, which made me wonder what the discussion in the writers’ room was like to have the show change this drastically between seasons.
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| At least someone finds joy during a joyless flight. |
So many individual character arcs, and the episode did barely make anything out of it, since there is not a lot to say about these 30 minutes. I can only hope that this is just a phase the show is going through and the writers went through the “new town, who dis?” premise with this episode, ready to tackle more than just romantic relationships with the next few half hours. And at one point, the wrestling show needs to be unfrozen, just so there can be some development in this area as well. I guess it is realistic to depict that a live show in Las Vegas is doing the same show over and over, but as it turns out it is quite boring when that live show gets turned into a scripted television comedy drama. Sam said that their show is frozen, which means Ruth does not need to do her homework of making her performance better. If Sam tells that to all of his cast members, then what is the reason for even focusing on the wrestling aspect of the show? The writers did not only freeze the live show, they also froze the wrestling of GLOW, and that hurts me a little bit.
