I premiered last Friday, wife and I binged through the whole series this weekend. It's a great show and done really well. Netflix got it right with this one 9 episodes bout 30 mins each, which is perfect. It didn't get long and stale like some of its other shows that have 12 or more eps.

I'd write more, but I'm not good at these things, I'll just say I felt they did some great characterization and storytelling.

for 30 minute episodes. it wanted to be OITNB without trying as hard. The Asian and Indian characters were basically only there for the light digs on wrestling's history with racism and xenophobia, and the She-Wolf was there because...She-Wolf? Ruth, Debbie, Sam, Bash, Welfare Queen were great. I wish it had focused more on Ruth and Debbie since that was clearly the A plot for the season but because they wanted to stuff the structure of OITNB into half-as-long a show they told a lot of cookie cutter stories around the big one.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

I'm actually glad they didn't OITNB with this though, cause it could get long and boring. Backstories are great and I'm sure there will be more as the show goes on but, not to those dry OITNB levels of backstory.


I think they balanced the Debbie/Ruth thing well like Maron's character said: "The money is in the chase." I'm sure we'll get more of that dynamic, but I think it's cut and dry on where those two are. Debbie ain't ready to be friends with Ruth again and Ruth understands that and at the same time, she's still is searching to find out who she is.

I feel this show is way better than OITNB. Hopefully, it won't run into the pitfalls that Kohan's other shows have.

>
>I feel this show is way better than OITNB. Hopefully, it won't
>run into the pitfalls that Kohan's other shows have.

I'm just speaking in the sense of other shows that have had her name involved.

Maron is great playing the Maron-that-could-have-been (say if Breakroom Live! era Maron did not start a podcast.)

Agreed, they cast the perfect actress for the role of Debbie.

wrestling is an after thought in this. Make a show about GLOW and GLOW is barely a character in the show.

GLOW is just the vehicle for the characters. I'd hope they'd get more into the ups and downs of the wrestling world, but that's probably 2nd season or 3rd season stuff.

the most effective scene of the season was Debbie going to that VFW wrestling match and realizing what wrestling really means to people.


but yea, the season was more about what it means to be a failure at the profession you've chosen but unwilling to concede that point.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

I wasn't expecting a full on wrestling show. But all the promotion and interviews they talked about it being a fictional behind the scenes look at how glow started. But the least they could have done was show a little bit of wrasslin. They went from the girls can't even do a forward roll to the televised match when they all looked good in ring. The only two they showed progressing was Liberty Bell and Alison Brie.

Because I was shouted down for saying the same sting about "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip."

Okayplayer: I learned it from you!

GLOW is like a copy of OITNB. But at least OITNB remembers the prison plays a role in the show. GLOW forgets that wrestling should be mentioned once in a while.

>GLOW is like a copy of OITNB. But at least OITNB remembers
>the prison plays a role in the show. GLOW forgets that
>wrestling should be mentioned once in a while.

much like actual wrestling (at least in America) the in-ring stuff is just a means to progress the characters

I feel like OITNB fails at portraying the jail stuff at times. This show is using the wrestling better to drive the show. Also, we have to remember, they're just starting off with GLOW. They don't even have a clear picture of what they want it to because they're still trying to figure out wrestling. That's part of the drive, they're trying to learn the moves, create character/personas in order to launch a successful show.

We can't expect a first season to go right into them being pro-wrestlers., these are students, daytime tv actresses, and folks with background/extra work. They actually had one legit athlete, a stunt woman, and the daughter of a pro consisting of their "experienced" people. Hell, they even fired the pro that was the trainer.

I think the set up is there for more wrestling but, this wasn't a show about the History of GLOW and wrestling in the first place, it's a sitcom about the women and right now these women aren't the wrestlers of the GLOW you and I grew up watching. I'm sure it'll get there but we can't expect it to be a true wrestling show, they wouldn' many numbers if it were.

>GLOW is like a copy of OITNB. But at least OITNB remembers
>the prison plays a role in the show. GLOW forgets that
>wrestling should be mentioned once in a while.

much like actual wrestling (at least in America, it may be different in Japan) the in-ring stuff is just a means to progress the characters

I thought it kept up the same level of quality. If you liked season 1 you’ll enjoy it...if not it won’t sway you.

I dug it...they set things up nicely for the show to continue. Looking forward to it coming back next year.

The only thing I didn't like was the will-they-won't-they with Ruth and Sam.

I loved that they stepped up the wrestling scenes.

Without getting into spoilers, the physical fight between Zoya and Liberty Bell leading to the argument between Debbie and Ruth was the best the show has beem

*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

Last year felt like Ruth's season, this year felt like Sam's, and for a show about feminism and self-described by a lot of its cast and staff as a haven of women's lib, it sure did feel like the camera had a much more male gaze this season. During the #MeToo plotline, it's hard not to see Sam as the hero of that story, with Betty and Ruth left to #bothsides the debate and let the man decide what's morally right. And there was a scene as a hetero male I was extremely happy with late in the season that seemed to definitively frame this show as slightly more voyeuristic than it was before, though I understand Gilpin is an actor that's unafraid to show out and her character was building to that sort of vulnerability. It still felt like something that would've been less fan servicey just last year.

There were a lot of smaller instances throughout the season I felt that vibe, and again it didn't make it a worse show to me but it did feel different this year and that was the big one. I'm stunned at how good Maron is on this show considering how much I disliked his own show so it's great to get more of him, but he took time away from the girls when Debbie and Ruth's dynamic continued to develop layers and be the most interesting part of the show.

Now, having said all that, BETTY GILPIN. She's got a goofy face that I kind of love, especially that lip curl thing she does when she finds something absurd. And she's got other things that are, uh, decidedly NOT goofy. I used to date a girl that made a similar face and rocked a similar build so I get funny feelings whenever she's on screen to begin with. It didn't hurt that she did the hell out of her more extended scenes and had the most interesting arc on the show this year. Suddenly I want a lot more Betty in my life.

Lastly, I love Bash and I don't mind at all they turned him into as much of a cartoon character outside of the ring as any of the actual wrestling characters. I felt like the last bit of his arc was super rushed, but part of that is probably that this is a show I'd gladly take an old school 22 episode order of. I actually probably dislike more than half the characters/cast on this show but the characters I like I like so much I just want to give them more room to breath, especially if they suddenly want to take a main character on an emotional rollercoaster worthy of a full season in basically two episodes.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

since there were relatively fewer things to introduce

and forgot I was the one that created it.

I loved S2 and like others said felt it was way better than S1.

Episode I loved the most was the one about Tammè and her son. She's my fav character and I hope she's a guiding light for Debbie. I'm team Ruth all day and I hope her and Sam can have a great partnership that grows in S3, he needs that friend to keep him from being a total a-hole.

MY one complain is with Bash's storyline, I didn't feel they focused enough on it and the ending with the marriage was strange.

>Episode I loved the most was the one about Tammè and her son.

You could see how painful it was for both parties. I was proud of her kid how he handled it with her. This is what she needs to do so he can go to Stanford.

>MY one complain is with Bash's storyline, I didn't feel they
>focused enough on it and the ending with the marriage was
>strange.

I wasn't too bothered by this. it kind of trickled in here and there. As it is, he woulnd't admit who he is and how he really felt about Florian. The aids thing makes it 100x more terrifying for him than it already was. If you consider this was early 80s, the panic marriage thing made perfect sense.

episode 8. it reminded me of that Atlanta episode with all the commercials... except not good lol

idk why but anytime she drops into character it's instant laughs from me.

i kept waiting for them to get back to the story. halfway through I'm like "oh, that's what this is"

an excruciating half hour in an otherwise solid season

It only made sense to do so, fans would’ve eventually asked for it. The gags were funny in the lense of a cheap 80’s show.

I think it's a really cool idea. You're making a show about a show, how about we see that show your show is about once in a while?


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Netflix seems to do that quite a bit...they should put those kind of eps earlier in teh season so it doesn't feel like a jarring shift of momentum

i think the characters are great. Sam is my dude. i'm almost done with season 2, i'm sure i'll finish today.

this is a really good show. i enjoyed it way more than i thought i would.