I have a confession to make; I don’t know anything about wrestling. I remember it around when I was a kid. The theatrics were vaguely interesting to me, like a play, but it just seemed too much. I’m not even sure it was wrestling’s fault, but instead all of the terrible pantomimes I witnessed from those around me. There seemed to be something about professional wrestling that begged bad imitation.
Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting to like GLOW necessarily. Then again, I wouldn’t have predicted that I’d connect to the experiences of inmates in an upstate New York prison in Orange Is the New Black. I’m happy that both proved me wrong. So little in entertainment seems surprising. That’s what makes it thrilling when something actually is.
I think that we as a culture spend so much time under the “male gaze” that it’s almost disconcerting when we encounter something completely outside it. We’re starting to see this more and more, with female-focused shows like Transparent, Orange Is the New Black, and now GLOW. I was listening to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast last week with co-stars Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin, who play Ruth and Debbie, the show’s main characters. In it they discuss how freeing it was to work in an environment built around the female experience. Rather than the stereotypes of women being competitive or catty, the show encouraged community, support, and safety. It’s almost like those assumptions about women are projected onto them, or something.
GLOW represents the 80s in all its big hair and hyper color clothing splendor. Alison Brie is nearly unrecognizable as Ruth, at least at first, with her permed hair and lack of makeup. Her character is interesting because she skates just over the line of desperate and cloying. The chemistry she has with Marc Maron’s director Sam is at once exasperated and flirtatious. I’m not sure where they’re going with those two, but I could see them having either a life changing friendship or a soulmate-like relationship. I’m not sure it matters which.
Another surprise in GLOW is just how good Marc Maron is. It’s kind of amazing how he can be more at home playing this character than on his own show where he’s depicting a version of himself, but Maron is able to sit so comfortably inside his character, a grouchy, smoking, cocaine addled, sarcastic, and ultimately fascinating man. I hope they get a second season so we can see where Maron takes him.
The other obvious chemistry on the show is with Gilpin, the beautiful and furious Debbie. On WTF, Brie and Gilpin talk about how they instantly connected, even before they were cast. In fact, they tried not to fall in love with each other in case one of them didn’t get the part and they didn’t get to work together. These emotions certainly show on screen. We can see their deep affection for each other, even if Debbie has all the reason in the world to hate Ruth right now. Sam uses this tension to create the scaffolding for his new show. I love how Debbie and Ruth were transformed into the pinnacle of 1980’s conflict—the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. Who would’ve predicted how prescient that story line would be in today’s world?
In another episode of WTF, Jenji Kohan talks about how fascinated she is with characters who wouldn’t normally interact with each other being forced into the same space. She explores this wonderfully on Orange Is the New Black, and we see it here on GLOW as well. The diverse cast of 14 women have just barely scratched the surface in this first season. Given how polarized we are culturally and politically, it’s inspiring to see people from all different backgrounds and experiences coming together rather than apart. I can’t wait to see where they go from here.
Readerish 