Pilot
Ruth struggles to find work in Hollywood. She doesn't like the roles for which she auditions and never gets cast. One day a casting agent refers her to a call for unusual women. It turns out to be an open casting call for women wrestlers to join a new show called the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW). She doesn't exactly look the part but she certainly has the spirit.
Ruth is interested enough to stick around but gets cut from the program before training really gets started. She goes home, watches a bunch of wrestling, and comes back the next day in costume. She doesn't make much of a splash until Debbie, her best friend, shows up and the two start fighting. Ruth is very gung ho when she shows up in uniform but gets very squeamish when Debbie shows up and wants to fight. Debbie is enraged because Ruth slept with her husband. For a moment I wondered if this was some sort of set up that that Ruth and Debbie engineered but it was only a passing thought. Sam Sylvia, the guy organizing GLOW, gets very into the fight and starts fantasizing about a real match between Ruth and Debbie in front of an audience.
I'm not sure I would have watched GLOW on the first day it was available if it weren't for the fact that (a) Marc Maron (Sam Sylvia) is in it and (b) he's been talking about it a lot on WTF, his podcast. He is in this episode and plays a fairly significant role. According to IMDB and what I recall him saying on the show he is only in one more episode.
Alison Brie (Ruth) looks very different in this than she did in either Mad Men or Community. This episode was very much focused on Ruth.
There are other characters with speaking parts but none of them get their own spotlight. On the whole I was pleased with what I saw but it didn't grab me in the same way that some shows have with the first episode. I don't love it but I want to see more.
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