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Glow Mother of All Matches Season 2 Episode 4 Editor’s Rating 5 stars * * * * * « Previous Next » Photo: Beth Dubber/Netflix In an earlier season-two GLOW episode, we discussed the nuances of being “buried” in pro wrestling. After this fourth installment, it might be time for a quick primer on heels and faces. Yes, they are parts of the body or — if you prefer — things you put on parts of your body. But in the squared circle (i.e., wrestling ring, not a geometric nonstarter), heels and faces are the twin poles of good and evil, lines increasingly blurred in both the sport and seemingly every facet of news and culture. Face is short for babyface, or fan favorite, the kind of guy or gal you can bring home to papa. A heel is, then, the fan favorite’s antagonist, not always objectively a villain but certainly a situational adversary. It’s not uncommon, within story line boundaries, for heels or faces to “turn,” or pull off a preplanned pivot toward either darkness or the light. The coup de grâce of such gamesmanship is the “double turn,” when the slightest manipulation of character turns our allegiance to a pair of rivals upside down almost spontaneously. (Perennial straight arrow Bret Hart and historical menace Steve Austin’s WrestleMania XIII switcheroo are the standard-bearers of this.) What goes down at the end of Welfare Queen and Liberty Belle’s title bout is nearly that, and definitely not what was scripted. But in wrestling as in life, you can’t control every variable, and Tammé and Debbie enter that match riding opposite ends of the emotional roller coaster. While visiting her son Ernest at Stanford — where he benefits from a Martin Luther King Jr. scholarship and commonly gets mistaken by white students for Tyler, who is also black but to whom Earnest otherwise bears scant resemblance — a fan recognizes Tammé as her alter ego. This is how Ernest discovers that his mom’s been masquerading on TV as … [Read more...] about Recap: Child Support

Glow Money’s in the Chase Season 1 Episode 10 Editor’s Rating 3 stars * * * Previous Next » Betty Gilpin as Debbie, Alison Brie as Ruth. Photo: Erica Parise/Netflix/Erica Parise/Netflix It wouldn’t have been that exceptional or surprising if Bash/Howard Productions’ pilot episode of GLOW culminated with a tag-team match. After all, WWF’s inaugural WrestleMania concluded with a two-on-two affair . But in the GLOW season finale, Ruth, Debbie, and Jenny have a bigger work (“work” being wrestling speak for scripted twist) in mind. Moments after Zoya and Fortune Cookie take out Edna and Ethel (via count-out, apparently?), Ruth’s Russian Destroya turns on her communist counterpart and claims GLOW’s first-ever championship crown. As the crowd boos and hisses, a homely looking housewife rises from her seat, tears off her matronly garb, and makes a beeline for the ring, conquering Zoya with a flying cross-body. She then humbly announces herself to the crowd as Liberty Belle, a “small-town girl trying to do the right thing.” However, Sam knew the best thing for business (to borrow real-life WWE COO Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s favorite phrase) was sending Welfare Queen in to upend the celebration and snatch Liberty’s title away, ensuring audiences would stay tuned for her chase to reclaim glory. It is also a clever way for Sam to sneak in his political agenda, as he snaps out of his funk just in time to recognize how GLOW can subvert norms in ways Mothers and Lovers never could. Good thing he didn’t join Sheila and Melanie outside the triplex earlier that night or he might have relapsed into depression at the very sight of lines forming to catch a midnight showing of Back to the Future . (It’s unclear why 1978’s Dawn of the Dead was also featured, as opposed to its 1985 successor, Day of the Dead .) Just when the car wash seemed degrading, the women literally paid potential moviegoers $10 a head to cross the … [Read more...] about Season-Finale Recap: Belle of the Brawl

Glow Concerned Women of America Season 2 Episode 3 Editor’s Rating 4 stars * * * * « Previous Next » Photo: Erica Parise/Netflix There’s been plenty of TV punch lines over the years about women’s menstrual cycles syncing up, but how often do we hear about the highs and lows of their gastrointestinal comings and goings? (Okay, maybe Broad City is an exception.) In this third and, to this point, high-water mark episode of season two, GLOW goes there right out the gate. Melanie is bloated, not from cramps, but because she hasn’t pooped in an eon. But these women — who have bonded sufficiently enough to dub their shared lodging the Glowtel — aren’t about to let one of their sisters suffer in anatomical angst. (How great, by the way, that her stage name, Melrose, merely mashes up her first and surnames?) Enter Rhonda, who delivers some tummy pats and a cute little lullaby aimed at coaxing Melanie’s “poop baby” out in a flash for a big splash. Never before has real-life singer-songwriter Kate Nash, who plays Rhonda, put her pipes to such practical use. Rhonda’s not the only one looking out for her colleagues these days. Despite some initial moaning, Sam obliges Keith and visits Cherry’s Chambers and Gold trailer for a little pep talk. Turns out Cherry’s a mean stuntwoman but a terrible actress. And when the director starts pruning her lines and has the on-set stylist lather her curls with permanent relaxer, it’s more than she can bear. Sam is, naturally, as blunt as Keith is doting, and lays it on the line that a leading dramatic role ain’t her bag. A simple phone call to the network — massaged as it was with the suggestion to kill off Cherry’s character before she was even onscreen — and Cherry’s back under G.L.O.W. ’s bright lights. (Are you surprised? This is the auteur behind A Wolf Knocks Once , after all.) If only Ruth, who’s off Sam’s shit list, were fully back in Debbie’s good graces. This continues … [Read more...] about Recap: Bowel Trouble