First, if you don’t know what GLOW is about, get over to GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling documentary. Basically, it was a bizarre all-girl cash-in on the TV wrestling craze of the 80’s founded by Matt Cimber, an ex-husband of Jayne Mansfield. The syndicated show combined wrestling with Hee-Haw/Laugh-In style comedy sketches all performed by a group of models and actors. It was hilariously awful and low budget, but models grappling in skin-tight outfits went a long way towards making up for any wrestling technique or acting talent.
Anyway, GLOW folded after four seasons amid difficulties with drugs and money issues from management as well as the talent. The license was later bought by “Babe the Farmer’s Daughter” and was revived a couple of times for limited engagement performances, but nothing ever stuck.
Until that documentary. It was picked up by Netflix for a bit and got some wide exposure, which led to this!
If you never heard of the real GLOW watch the documentary, also on Netflix, when you finish this series to see what it was based on. Many of the in ring personas are slight twists on ones from the old show.
I binged this over the weekend as well and loved it. Impressively precarious performances, both physically and comedically. As someone who grew up with the subject matter, I particularly appreciated its deliberate adherence to the style of the times, not just in the costumes and design, but in the storytelling tropes.
Glad to hear it is good. I am a little wary of Jenji Kohans stuff as her unique and interesting premises often turn into bloated messes, careening from deadly serious to hilarious without any regard for tone or consistency.
Also, I read that the GLOW girls largely had little to do consulting with the show itself. I was hoping for a more dramatic retelling of true events kind of thing.
But, this sounds like it is great. Pile it on to the other 100 shows I need to watch.
I really enjoyed this and appreciated the little nods to the current wrestling scene with cameos, main roles (Welfare Queen, who I didn’t recognize as the former Awesome Kong/Kharma), and hiring on Chavo Guerrero Jr. as the wrestling consultant to make sure there was some historical accuracy for something that could’ve easily been played up as a big joke. One of the articles I read mentioned how the leads had ideas for moves they wanted to work in, but Chavo nixed them since they weren’t invented or brought to prominence until the 90s.
Same, though it wasn’t surprising here. Especially the “OMG topless girl in the locker room!” scene, which meets a couple of different expectations Between that and Harry+Trudy, I’m sure someone was thinking “OK, let’s get Alison’s boobs out of the way early.”
I saw it as an 80’s thing - EVERYONE had a nude scene, or a sex scene back then.
Just finished this a few days ago, and this is the surprise hit of the year for the GF and I - REALLY enjoyed it. Top notch performances all around, wonderfully cast, and very high production values. I cannot wait for next season!