GLOW 1.10

Money's in the Chase

The big day arrives and it is finally time for the first television taping of GLOW. Not everything goes exactly as planned. It has been a few days since the last episode. Sam is nowhere to be found. He finally shows up after three days of drinking. He tells Ruth that Justine is his daughter. He doesn't know what to do. Ruth encourages him to find Justine and tells him about Billy, Justine's boyfriend.

Cherry finds out that she got the part in the TV show she auditioned for. Taking the TV work will mean leaving GLOW. She isn't sure what to do. She's excited that she got the part but is reluctant to leave GLOW.

Bash fills in as ring announcer when Sam isn't there for the beginning of the show, he is out looking for Justine. He finds her at Billy's place but she doesn't want to talk to him. He says his piece and then leaves. She eventually finds him at the ballroom where the taping is taking place.

The first match of the night turns ugly when the crowd starts throwing stuff. It could have easily been played uglier but the message is clear: if you bait the audience enough some people are going to buy into it hook line and sinker and let their true colors shine through.

Carmen (aka Machu Pichu) has another anxious moment in the ring but then she looks out into the audience and sees he father. He is cheering her on. This boosts her confidence, she shakes off what's bothering her, and starts wrestling.

It doesn't look like Ruth (aka Zoya) will get to fight Debbie (aka Liberty Belle) until late in the episode. Debbie is present watching the match with Mark but she doesn't make a move until it looks like Zoya has won the crown. Liberty Belle has had enough and steps out of the crowd takes off her dress, she has her costume on underneath, and jumps into the wring. There is a great montage of shots done to Invincible by Pat Benetar. Even though she beats Zoya, the show isn't over yet. There's yet another twist as Welfare Queen returns to snatch the crown from Liberty Belle.

Ruth and Debbie have a moment after the show is over. Ruth is feeling good and asks Debbie if she wants to go out and get a drink. Debbie hesitates and then says, "no, too soon." I've got a feeling that she is going to have to get a divorce before her relationship with Ruth is really better.

One subtle thing that deserves mentioning is that the cast as a whole and individually all play it as if there is no certainty to GLOW being successful. It isn't something that I noticed until I read some reviews of this episode. It's subtle and understated contributes greatly to making this the show that it is.

This is a good episode, a lot more fun and upbeat than the last couple but I don't think I liked it as much. Not a bad episode, just not my favorite. Overall I am very happy I chose to watch the first season of GLOW and I will be back for more. I believe it was just announced that it has been picked up for a second season which will start filming in the fall.

GLOW 1.09

The Liberal Chokehold

Bash still hasn't got the money for the venue for the debut of the TV show. Birdie, his mother, holds the purse strings and she has cut him off. He has spent hundreds of thousands so far and she refuses to give him another dime. Debbie suggests that they should have a bikini car wash. She's confident that they can raise the money easily.

They give the car wash idea a go, at the Dusty Spur. There's an awkward moment for Ruth when Mark, Debbie's husband, the guy who Ruth slept with, the guy who got her pregnant, shows up to get his car washed. He is still trying to salvage his marriage to Debbie. Ruth gets out of the way as quickly as possible. Sam is a little stunned to learn that Mark isn't more handsome. In the end the car wash only raises $287. They need $9,000 to rent the venue.

When they learn that Birdie is throwing a fund raiser for women addicted to crack the women of GLOW decide to crash the event. The plan is to do a little fund raising of their own. They claim to be from WAD, Wrestlers Against Drugs. Bash gets them in the door, even though they aren't on the guest list. They mill around for a while. Debbie and Ruth have a moment when they start talking privately about what happened to their friendship. The silences and the looks they gave one another in this moment said at least as much as their words did. Powerful stuff.

Sam sneaks off and hangs with some guys at the fundraiser and does some coke. He tells them about the movie he wants to make only to learn that someone else made a very similar movie. It is called Back to the Future. He's emotionally crushed.

The women of GLOW take turns talking to the assemblage of fundraiser attendees. They talk about how wrestling helped them get off of crack. Most of their presentations are unintentionally funny. The exception is Ruth. She uses her fling with Mark as material and talks about how crack ruined her friendship with her best friend. It gets to Debbie. It also gets to Birdie, who wasn't moved by any of the other presentations. The checks start rolling in. Birdie admits to being moved and finally understanding for a moment what it is that her son loves about wrestling. She agrees to help him with the venue.

Justine wanders upstairs and finds Sam passed out. He wakes up. He still feels crushed about his movie idea and goes on about it to her. She tries to talk him into not giving up but he is very down on himself and life in general. I had a bad feeling about where this moment might go and I was partially right. Sam ogles Justine and then starts to kiss her. She freaks out and then drops an atom bomb of a revelation on him.

Even without the revelation, what he did felt very wrong. I was hoping he wouldn't try something like that. As the scene developed I had a bad feeling he was going to go there. I was whispering to myself, "Please don't," over and over. And then he did. I wonder if I will think of this scene the next time I hear that Perry Como song: Magic Moments.

I've probably said it before (about other ones) but this was the best episode to date. There have been plenty of good ones but the emotional impact of this one was heavy. There's a little humor in this one but it is the emotional moments that really moved me this time around; not just the words but the facial expressions and the wordless moments with Ruth, Debbie, Sam, Justine, and Birdie.

I'm hopeful that the next episode will be more upbeat that this one. I don't expect everything to go right for Ruth, Sam, Debbie, and the others but hopefully it will have fewer emotional gut punches than this one did.

GLOW 1.08

Maybe It's All the Disco

The women of GLOW continue to prepare for the big on camera debut but there is no ring action in this episode.

Sheila (the wolf girl) accidentally let's it drop that it's her birthday. She doesn't want a party but the other women, Jenny in particular, insist on celebrating. The group takes her to a roller skating rink and have a party for her there. She is reluctant to put on skates but once she gets rolling they can't get her to stop.

The only one who misses the party is Debbie. She is dealing with Mark, her husband. She signs the divorce papers but he tears them up. He tells her that he has been in therapy and doesn't really want a divorce. She is flabbergasted by the fact that he wants to fix the marriage and the lengths to which he has gone so far. It seems as if it is still a little too early to say that they will definitely patch things up.

Sam gets weary of Sheila's lack of shame. He doesn't understand why she doesn't want to hide their relationship from the others. He's ready to end their sexual relationship when she does. At first he's happy but when she tells him why he wants to give it another shot.

Ruth suspects and then confirms that she is pregnant. The father is presumably Mark. She turns to Sam for help and he shows up for her. There isn't any talk about it or how she is feeling. It is all in how Allison Brie plays it: her body language, her facial expressions. Powerful stuff.

What an episode. Considerably more pathos than humor but what an episode. Not sure I would call it my favorite but I am impressed. There is one moment that made me laugh out loud harder than I have in quite a while. I'm not sure it would resonate with everyone but there was something about it. I think it may have been because that I thought I knew where it was going once it got started and then it veered in a different direction. That and the commitment to it by the performers. That was followed up by the most sober moment of the episode. What a mix

GLOW 1.07

Live Studio Audience

Everything is set for the first performance in front of an audience. It is a test run, no television cameras or broadcast just yet. Ruth and Debbie get some help preparing for the big day from Carmen's brothers. They work on their moves and really step up their game.

Sam's camera is still missing. He threatens to fire the person who stole it if it doesn't get returned. He also threatens to fire the person who stole it if it does get returned. He has no clue who stole it. Justine puts the camera in Rhonda's locker. Rhonda uses it to record a video of herself "speak-singing" a theme song for the show. She shows it to Sam but he doesn't get very excited.

The big day comes. They have a small crowd of spectators. Not everything goes as planned or as Sam scripted it. Carmen has a panic attack and faints without even stepping in the ring. Cherry and Tammé talk their opponents into flipping things around and coming out dressed up in hoods, like they are with the KKK. Debbie and Ruth's match goes great until Debbie spots Mark, her husband, in the audience and runs out of the ring to talk to him. That's doesn't go well. Rhonda saves the end of the show from being a complete disaster by stepping in and singing her song. The other women of GLOW jump in and join her.

I really enjoyed this episode throughout. It was a great mix of humor and pathos. Lots of moments that made me laugh and moved me. Debbie's character has become much more three dimensional since the beginning of the season when it felt like GLOW was for the most part about Ruth.

GLOW 1.06

This Is One of Those Moments

Sam wants Ruth to be heel (bad guy) to Debbie's face (good guy). Debbie's not interested or ready to work with Ruth. She uses the fact that she's the best thing Sam's got going to force him to try and find her another heel.

Justine has a spat with her new boyfriend after he makes fun of Sam's movies. During practice she finds out that Rhonda is sleeping with Sam, which totally kills her respect for him. She confronts him about it but he blows her off, tells her she should focus on her moves in the ring if she doesn't want to get fired. At the end of the episode she sneaks into his office and steals the video camera.

Sam gives Ruth the day off from practice so he can audition other women to be the heel to Debbie's face. Ruth goes back to the motel. She wants to work on her Russian character, Zoya the Destroyer. She questions Gregory, the manager of the motel. He is Russian. She wants to learn more to make her character more authentic. He takes her to a family event which turns out to be a bris for one of his adult cousins. Ruth entertains everyone by singing songs from Yentl.

Debbie goes through all the other women but none of them work as a heel for her. Ruth comes back just in time and Debbie challenges her. They get in the ring and start going at it.

There was this one moment at the beginning of the episode that had an interesting tension to it. Sam and Ruth were alone just before Debbie showed up. She was going off in her Russian accent and for a brief moment I thought something else might happen, that their relationship might cross a boundary. There was a similar moment in the last episode but in that case they were in the car with Rhonda who got very catty when she picked up on the vibe that was flowing between Ruth and Sam.

Not quite as entertaining as the last episode but this was another good one.

GLOW 1.05

Debbie Does Something

Sam and Bash are working on finding the show a sponsor. They take Rhonda and Ruth to the opening of a patio furniture store hoping to get the owner interested in sponsoring the show. He blows them off until Ruth puts on an impromptu show in the middle of the ceremony. Ruth, talking with a Russian accent and with a little help from Sam gets everyone smiling and laughing, including the owner of the store.

Debbie knows she has fallen a notch when Sam doesn't take her to the patio furniture store. She asks Carmen, who has been training with Ruth, what she's doing wrong. Carmen and takes her to a wrestling match. At first Debbie doesn't seem to get it. In the middle of one of the matches it all starts to fall into place for her. She understands. It is all one big soap opera. She insists on going back to meet Steel Horse, one of the wrestlers. Then she kicks Carmen out and spends the night with Steel Horse.

Justine has a flirty thing going with a pizza boy. It's a little too much for her. He gives her his number but she overthinks the message he is sending her to the point that she doesn't call him. Arthie, her roommate, winds up stepping in to help her hookup with the pizza boy.

Overall this was the best episode to date. It was a good mix of plot and character developments that moved at a faster pace than in the previous four episodes. There was also a lot of good humor in this one. Thumbs up all the way.

GLOW 1.04

The Dusty Spur

Sam and Bash return from a weekend of brainstorming and doing drugs in Palm Springs. The big idea they come back with is that they are going to have all the women stay in a motel together, the Dusty Spur. Their hope is that it will be a bonding experience for the group. There are just 5 weeks until the first show and the group needs a lot of work before they will be ready.

The room assignments are handed out. Ruth shares a room with Wolf Girl. Things don't get off to a great start. Ruth is convinced that Wolf Girl is her roommate's wrestling persona but what she learns is that her roommate has been dressing like that since long before GLOW started. Ruth is a bit concerned because she hasn't been assigned a wrestling persona yet. She comes up with a few and tries bouncing them off Sam, but he isn't very receptive.

Debbie is the only one who is allowed to opt out of staying at the motel. She changes her mind after her husband tells her that he is moving back in to their home.

Carmen's father comes to take her back home. He doesn't want his daughter wrestling, even though that's what he does for a living. Bash tries to help out by pretending to be her boyfriend but he isn't convincing enough to fool Carmen's dad.

Sam gives Tamme some VHS cassettes of his movies to watch. She shares them with a bunch of the other women. When they are watching one of the movies the film is interrupted halfway through by a video recording that Sam did of himself for a dating service.

There's no reconciliation or big blowup between Ruth and Debbie.

Loving it might be too storing a way to put it but I'm still enjoying the show.

GLOW 1.03

The Wrath of Kuntar

Sam writes a script. He loves it but Bash, the guy who is financially backing GLOW, whose idea it was to start GLOW in the first place, disagrees. He thinks Sam's idea is way too complex. He wants Sam to simplify. Bash is right but Sam can't see that. He explodes when Bash tries to start guiding things.

The episode begins at their training facility but after he's seen enough Bash invites everyone back to his place in Malibu for a party. He takes Debbie in his helicopter but the rest have to make it there on their own. Most of them ride with Melanie in her limousine. Sam and Cherry go in his car. Justine gets a ride with them after she gushes about Sam's films. Ruth and Carmen go together in Ruth's car.

Debbie still doesn't want to talk to Ruth. She is still angry about Ruth sleeping with her husband. Ruth continues to want to try and patch things up but is intimidated by her friend. I hope that Ruth eventually snaps and gives Debbie a piece of her mind, in or outside of the ring. What Ruth did is a betrayal but Debbie's solution to the problem seems to be to try and drink the problem away. Eventually something will have to give.

Bash shows the ladies his room of costumes and encourages them to have fun creating personas for themselves. This drives Sam nuts. He already has a plan, a story for the show. He doesn't appreciate what Bash is trying to do. The right answer is probably somewhere in between what the two visions for GLOW.

The ladies don't have the final say in who they will be some of them are pushed into presenting themselves as characters who are racial stereotypes. If anything this helped to highlight how degrading and improper this was even back then. Hopefully most people watching this will see it for what it is and not just laugh it.

All in all I like this episode. The story continues to unfold slowly. I'm still not in love with the show but it is different enough from everything else I am watching and it is good enough that I want to see more. So far Sam and Ruth are the two leads. I get the impression that Debbie is also supposed to be a lead but for the most part her performance seems a little more one note that of Ruth or Sam.

GLOW 1.02

Slouch. Submit.

Sam lures Debbie back to the ring. She wasn't interested in coming but he convinces her to give it a chance. She sits on the sidelines and watches while Sam has Ruth and Melanie act out a skit. He has Ruth play the part of the Homewrecker. He might think it is a good part but it seems to me that he is doing it in part to placate Debbie.

Ruth doesn't like being the villain. She wants people to be liked, not hated. She can't grok that the villains get the best lines, as Sam tells her toward the end of the episode.

None of the characters get backstory spotlights like on Orange Is the New Black but there is a little more revealed about Melanie and Cherry. Melanie drives a limo, which I assume is a paying gig and not just her car but there is no evidence, so far, to back up my assumption.

Cherry once had a threesome, years ago, with Sam and her husband, Keith. She also had a miscarriage a few years ago. Melanie overhears Sam and Cherry talking about it and shares this information with everyone.

So far the group has yet to do more than just practice. I'm starting to wonder if they are going to get to a real match before the end of the season.

It looks like I was wrong about Maron only being in two episodes. Now IMDB has him listed as being in all 10 episodes.

So far I'm liking but not loving this show. I like what I'm seeing but I wish that there were more character moments. I guess the show is growing. Hopefully one day it will be a show that I love. Before that day comes the characters need to become a little more three dimensional.

GLOW 1.01

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.