{"id":90586,"date":"2020-10-08T13:48:44","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T13:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gamerant.com\/in-memory-of-glow-season-4-canceled\/"},"modified":"2020-10-08T13:48:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T13:48:44","slug":"in-memory-of-glow-game-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/10\/08\/in-memory-of-glow-game-rant\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memory of GLOW | Game Rant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s annoyingly appropriate that GLOW<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, despite its earlier renewal by Netflix, has had its fourth season cancelled<\/a> due to production delays from COVID-19. Loosely based on the real-life 1980s female wrestling promotion, these Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling were always scraping by and struggling to keep their silly little all-women wrestling show alive. But it was that tenacious attitude that made GLOW <\/em>so endearing<\/a>, always packing a surprising emotional wallop within its funny digestible half-hour episode seasons.<\/p>\n

The show was a fun throwback to the 80s, with giant hairdos, stiff shoulder-pads and a rocking soundtrack, but still served gentle reminders of misfits trying to work in a male (and white and straight) dominated entertainment industry. Using its shabby, bad time-slot\u00a0 TV (and later Vegas live-show) setting, GLOW <\/em>showed the struggles of these creatives inside and out of the ring.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Was a Gift to Audiences<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On GLOW<\/em>, GLOW is nobody\u2019s first choice. Actress Ruth (Alison Brie) wishes to try something \u2018unconventional\u2019 after being rejected from the mainstream\u2019s limited roles for women. Her best friend Debbie (Betty Gilpin) gets written off her soap-opera role and initially joins GLOW to push Ruth off (having discovered Ruth\u2019s affair with her husband) and director Sam (Marc Maron) mainly sees it as a cheap gig to fund his passion-projects with – culminating in an incredible Back to the Future <\/em>joke<\/a>. Yet steadily over the course of the show, they and the rest of the cast and crew find a value in constructing this show. GLOW<\/em> mirrors Dolomite is My Name <\/em>in displaying the aspirational pride in creating \u2018trashy\u2019 entertainment. GLOW <\/em>validates the creative efforts in wrestling<\/a>, particularly through stuntwoman Cherry (Sydelle Noel) and wrestling-descendant Carmen (Britney Young). Wrestling\u2019s storylines might be \u2018fake\u2019, but the physical exertion is very real. Plus, often GLOW<\/em> would focus on the direction and camera-operation more than the wrestling itself, demonstrating how the right editing and filmmaking are used to enhance the shows.<\/p>\n

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But aside from the technical aspects, even the silly storylines of professional wrestling are not dismissed, but shown as a broad long-form mode of storytelling. One great moment comes in \u201cDebbie Does Something\u201d, when the still-skeptical Debbie is taken to a \u2018professional\u2019 wrestling match and realizes the complicated storylines and double-crosses are the same as her soap-opera. They are extremely goofy and exaggerated but even wrestling alter-egos come with showmanship and potential for expression. For instance, Ruth is rather timid and desperate outside the ring, but under her Russian arch-heel character of \u2018Zoya the Destroyer\u2019, she transforms into a scenery-chewing delight. Alison Brie is excellent in both personas, although GLOW<\/em>\u2019s real standout is Betty Gilpin as Debbie, a sarcastic and ruthless bombshell who steadily reconstructs her life after it seems to break.<\/p>\n

GLOW <\/em>also recognized the problematic stereotypes that are used in wrestling, casting Cambodian Jenny as yellow-peril \u2018Fortune Cookie\u2019 (Ellen Wong) or intelligent Arthie as terrorist-Arab \u2018Beirut\u2019 (Sunita Mani). Producer \u2018Bash\u2019 Howard (Chris Lowell) might claim the women are simply using what the world already sees, but GLOW <\/em>upholds tension and comedy from how much they are empowered by the show, and how much they are exploited. One heart-breaking episode, \u201cThe Mother of All Matches\u201d, shows sweet African-American mom Tamm\u00e9 (Kia Stevens) performing in front of her son as her character \u2018The Welfare Queen\u2019, an ugly stereotype of African-American \u2018laziness\u2019 who is beaten by Debbie\u2019s all-American (and startling blonde and white) \u2018Liberty Belle\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Identity was a core aspect of GLOW<\/em>; who we present ourselves as both externally and internally. It showed the struggles of being a working woman in a man\u2019s world, with the episode \u201cPerverts are People, Too\u201d\u00a0seeing producer Tom Grant (Paul Fitzgerald) sexually harass Ruth and then killing the show when she won\u2019t comply. Debbie also faces pressure and disapproval as she tries to climb her way into a more senior position behind the show. GLOW<\/em>\u2019s showrunners, Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch,\u00a0are both women, as were the majority of its writers, directors and cast. But the ensemble allowed different ethnicities and sizes that addressed the aforementioned stereotypes even within the group, particularly in Season 3\u2019s camping bottle-episode \u201cOutward Bound\u201d. GLOW <\/em>also examined internal identity, with Arthie and Bash coming to express queer desires. Arthie becomes able to outwardly engage in a relationship with Yolanda \u2018Junkchain\u2019 (Shakira Barrera), but Season 3 left Bash more conflicted, especially given the homophobia surrounding the 80s rising AIDS paranoia.<\/p>\n

GLOW <\/em>showed the limitations of being attached to, or repressing yourself into, such singular labels. Ironically it is with Ruth, deemed too \u2018unconventional\u2019 in the first Season, that this applies to. Ruth displays high competence in directing and managing GLOW behind-the-scenes, but due to her self-determined persistence of becoming an \u2018Actress\u2019, she finds herself unable to change course. She can perform as other people but is unable to shift her core being, and her single-minded goals strain her relationships and happiness. This is beautifully contrasted with Sheila the She-Wolf (Gayle Rankin), who has clung to her \u2018she-wolf\u2019 persona inside and out of the ring. But in Season 3 she gets drawn to Vegas\u2019 drag-show performer Bobby Barnes (Kevin Cahoon), and discovers her \u2018she-wolf\u2019 armor was also a cage, one that she sheds to embrace the full spectrum of herself. As she tenderly explains after burning the costume, \u201cIt was holding me back\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Sadly, we won\u2019t get to see where GLOW <\/em>would have gone to next with another season. Netflix\u2019s habit of prematurely cancelling shows<\/a>, plus GLOW <\/em>specifically requiring plenty of physical contact (prohibited under COVID production guidelines) are a harsh blow. Although it\u2019s always possible campaigns to \u2018Save GLOW<\/em>\u2019<\/a> will prove fruitful. In any case, GLOW<\/em>\u2019s three seasons gave us a funny and touching ensemble about women and the creative process, people who refuses to quit no matter how many times they were slammed down. GLOW <\/em>may now, sadly, be down for the count, but they put on a hell of a show while it lasted.<\/p>\n

GLOW\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>is available now for streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n

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