FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
FEMALE WRESTLERS PUT ON NEW MOVES IN NETFLIX’S ‘GLOW’
There’s an uncommon sweetness to “GLOW.” That might seem like an odd thing to say about a comedy about a struggling ragtag wrestling troupe set in the 1980s and based on a real group, the Glorious Ladies of Wrestling.
Season two picks up shortly after the season one finale. Ex-besties Ruth (Alison Brie) and Debbie (Betty Gilpin) are still trying to figure out if they can be friends — or if they even want to be. Debbie, Ruth understands, finds it hard to move past the fact that Ruth slept with Debbie’s soon-tobe ex-husband.
Debbie, drawing on her knowledge of the TV industry as a onetime soap actress, draws up a contract that makes her the producer of their new wrestling show.
“I know what I’m worth and I’m not apologizing to anyone,” she says.
Ruth proves to be an able director of the women, taking them out to the mall for a lively credits sequence.
All this is making Sam (Marc Maron) more cranky than usual. In addition to his fractious cast, he’s trying to learn how to be a father to daughter Justine (Britt Baron), who at 16 is getting more sex than any of the woman in the cast and refusing to go to school.
Where’s Cherry (Sydelle Noel)? She took that job playing a detective in a prime-time series, but as you’ll see from the third episode, being a superb stuntwoman doesn’t necessarily translate into being able to deliver lines with any semblance of humanity.
In her place in the group is Yolanda (Shakira Barrera), a lesbian stripper who won’t be shamed by anyone.
“Your job is doing G-rated girl-on-girl in a one-piece. You’re not that far from that
life,” she tells Ruth.
The series plays with a whiff of a possible romance between Ruth and Sam, which is about as desirable as cancer. He’s just too horrible to imagine with any life form. Maron plays him to perfection. As the dim-bulb announcer Bash, Chris Lowell seems to have perfected a low-rent Armie Hammer impersonation.
“GLOW” just bubbles with scene-stealers.
Tamme (Kia Stevens, who actually was a successful pro wrestler) looks out for Debbie, even though Debbie thinks she doesn’t need it. Carmen (Britney Young) faces flack from her brother, a struggling wrestler, now that she gets a taste of the success he’s long desired. Arthie (Sunita Mani) just wants to play a hero. “My costume still smells like beer and racism,” she complains.
The ’80s references don’t stick out like monster aliens as they do in “Stranger Things.” (Describing “Cheers” to someone who hasn’t seen it, one of the wrestlers says, “It’s great. It’s about an invisible woman named Vera.”)
The high-energy finale focuses on an in-ring wedding that swerves into reality, turns into a battle royale and finally a redemption of sorts.
That’s “GLOW” for you — snatching victory from the mat of defeat. The finale leaves enough open to imagine these women finding a new battleground to conquer.
That’s a journey we all deserve to share.