Glow Season 2 - Episode 8 (spoilers)

Anyone watching Glow on Netflix? I’m really digging season 2, but hit a wall with episode 8.

It’s basically just an episode of the show-within-a-show, complete with commercials. Fine idea. Fun idea. But MAN did the commitment to doing a full episode kill it for me.

I looked into it, and I’m seeing a lot of positive takes out there.

Anyone here watch it? How’d you like it?

Personally, it was A LOT of guerrilla television all at once. I think it would have been better sprinkled throughout the series (teasing future state), or appended as a bonus episode.

I’m planning on wrapping up the last couple of episodes tonight, but that episode maybe had 5-10 minutes of good content. The rest dragged in a really painful way. I get that that’s kinda the joke...but it went too far, I think.

On the one hand, the episode you're talking about was probably a fine writing exercise compared to the drama/comedy of the rest of the episodes. Also, I wasn't totally against the idea of actually seeing the cheesy, low budget show in its totality instead of just seeing all the behind the scenes stuff.

On the other hand, it was a pretty fluff episode in a season that I overall think was kinda directionless and didn't need more fluff, barely-anything-happened episodes. The first season had a direction of "oh shit, will they pull everything together to actually be able to shoot a pilot and launch the show", but this second season is just kinda "they're doing the show and the network is screwing them, is this going anywhere" and season 2 ends on what I felt was a weird note.

The couple episodes right before episode 8 I think are actually quite good (peak of the season). The episodes after 8 I remember not liking so much because some stuff REALLY comes out of nowhere as they end the season. I guess I liked most of the season, and really enjoyed the episode that had more focus on Tammé/Welfare Queen (forget which episode that is). Wish more of the characters got screen time instead of being soooo focused on Ruth and Debbie (and sometimes Sam, Bash or Cherry/Junkchain will get some more focus). Granted, Brie and Gilpin are the big name actors and they play their parts quite well.

Now that I really think about it, I'm disappointed that Carmen/Machu Picchu, Sheila the She-Wolf, Melanie/Melrose, Arthie/Beirut, Jenny/Fortune Cookie, etc. get very limited character development, and I don't know much more about them than what I did by the end of the first season. I let it go in the first season since they had so much to introduce, hoping they would flesh them out a bit more in the second season. Obviously they don't have time to devote half an episode to each of them, but I'm disappointed that Tammé/Welfare Queen is just about the only one to get that screen time. I like all the stuff they did with the characters that actually have more dramatic scenes (Ruth/Debbie/Sam/Justine/Bash/Cherry), but I think they're really under-utilizing the rest of the cast. I know the show is partially a comedy, partially a drama, but there's an episode where Jenny helps Melanie with her constipation to get a nice jacket from her, and I'm like "whyyyyyyy are you wasting my time with this dumb C-plot."

As a non-wrestling fan who enjoys the wrestling more as a premise and setting than having any real appreciation for the source, I thought it was reasonably entertaining, but it was pretty hit and miss, and I don't think it would have been a huge loss if that episode was removed entirely. (Especially when we're talking an only 10 episode season.) Reading some reviews from actual wrestling/GLOW fans they seemed pretty in to it, so maybe I just lack the personal context and appreciation for the source they were paying tribute to. I don't know, it was fine.

Overall I thought it was a great season though.

@bisonhero: I would say Arthie definitely got more than average character development by the end.

I didn't like the episode, but intentionally making a shitty episode of a TV show is what they were going for I guess.

B-movies worked because they weren't tongue-in-cheek about their shittyness, they were genuinely trying to make something good. I think the one time that a fake B-movie was good was Black Dynamite.

I really enjoyed the season overall (though I haven't watched episode 10 yet), the highlights were the continued adventures and family life of Sam Sylvia.

@zeik: She did (I'll talk around it for the sake of OP), but even in the back half of the season where that stuff starts happening, I still feel like Arthie is only on-screen and talking for about 30 seconds per episode. Like, a pretty big change happens for her but I don't think they give her enough scenes to justify it/explore it. It feels very tossed off, like "oh btw, Arthie had to drop out of school months ago, and now this new thing is happening with her, but let's get back to showing every detail of Debbie's divorce and the toll it's taking on her."

@nutter: I love the show but hate that episode. I really liked the rest of the season after it.

@bisonhero: I actually REALLY like that side characters have stayed side characters. Some of the same folks behind Orange is the New Black are behind GLOW.

Orange was absolutely POISONED by over-use of side characters. Don’t get me wrong, Red is great. I don’t need to know the background of the methheads, though. Same goes for 75%+ of that cast. They’re great side characters. Let them be that.

I was figuring that installment would be just as polarizing as an episode of another popular Netflix series' second season. So much so I kinda wish the geography of both were aligned enough to allow some sort of low key nod to its existence. I personally loved what they were going for though, and especially enjoyed the show within a show presentation for the actual matches.

Not only that but they did a much better job at crafting a cheesy of its era music video that's actually catchy. I watched it right after the embarrassing shit that was "I Want Your Cray-Cray" in Jessica Jones' second season however, so I may be giving them a little more praise than deserved, but all around I thought it was a fun episode....which might've been better served as a bonus or something.

I also preferred the second season to the first (Kia stole the show early on) as it seemed to flow better as we got most of the training and wrestler cameo pep talks out of the way....along with far less Rich Sommer which was a huge plus. Dude needs a face turn in terms of the roles he's been taking, his douche level is way too high even if he wasn't as douchey this time out.

Wrapped-up the season. All good stuff.

I just wish that one episode would have been a bonus, shorter, or sprinkled throughout the season as a sort of foreshadowing not unlike Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul.

I get why they did it that way, and the connective tissue to the prior and next episodes, but it was just a bit too much for someone who grew up in the 80s.

I liked that episode and would definitely watch the show they made! That said, I thought that the episode could have been a bit shorter, as parts of it wore out their welcome. Maybe set up a bit, get a laugh or two, then move on to the next one with a "damaged VHS tape" sort of effect.

I laughed my arse off the whole way through episode 8! Couldn't believe what I was watching. Good stuff.

Yeah, when it comes to parts that wore out their welcome, I'd specifically point to the song about kidnapping people. It was a funny, We-Are-The-World-style bit to have the whole cast singing it, but I didn't need it to be a full length song. After about 20 seconds of it I got pretty bored. The Debbie and Ruth bits were mostly great, the Britannica and Black Magic part was OK, I didn't mind the Beirut dream sequence dance number since it ends up being plot relevant later, but other parts of the episode dragged.

I like the show a lot, but I fast forwarded through 95% of this episode. It was too cheesy, which is what they were going for, but I didn't like it. I only like something this cheesy/lame if it was by accident like The Room or 80s/90s stuff.