GLOW is a show about women pretending to fight each other for money, and it spends almost none of its time on the actual fighting. That might sound like a weakness. It is not. The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling is a TV show within the show, and the series treats its performers as actors playing parts, not athletes showing skill. That framing is the whole point. It lets the creators, Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, build a comedy-drama about reinvention, failure, and the strange ways people find to survive the 1980s.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Ruth and Debbie
The engine of the show is Ruth Wilder, played by Alison Brie, and her former best friend, Debbie Eagan, played by Betty Gilpin. Ruth is a struggling actress who shows up at the GLOW open call hoping to land a role somewhere. Debbie is the opposite: a retired soap opera star who got out of the business just before it collapsed. The two women fell apart after Ruth had an affair with Debbie’s husband, Mark, and Debbie divorced him over it. Now they are working together again, in a ring, on a show nobody knows if it will last.
Their tension is the main dramatic thread. Ruth is idealistic and wants the show to mean something. Debbie is cynical and just wants to pay the bills. Their scenes together are the sharpest writing in the series, because both actresses are given room to play against each other instead of talking past each other.
Sam Sylvia and the Cast
Sam Sylvia, played by Marc Maron, runs the show. He is the director, the producer, the writer, and the man who hires Ruth and Debbie. His cynicism is the counterweight to Ruth’s idealism. Maron plays him as a man who has seen everything in Hollywood and decided that the only thing that matters is the next trick. He is not a nice man, but he is a funny one, and the show trusts the audience to see both sides of him.
The rest of the cast is a wild mix of types. Sydelle Noel plays Cherry Bang, a performer who brings a punk edge to the show. Britney Young is Carmen Wade, a young woman trying to prove herself. Chris Lowell is Bash Howard, the producer’s son who gets dragged into the production. Britt Baron is Justine Biagi, and Kate Nash is Rhonda Richardson. Gayle Rankin is Sheila the She-Wolf, and Shakira Barrera is Yolanda Rivas. Kia Stevens is Tameé Dawson, and Jackie Tohn is Melanie Rosen. The show gives each of them a moment to shine, even when they are just sitting around the dressing room talking about their next move.
The Setting and Its Limits
The show is set in Los Angeles in 1985, and the period detail is rich. The clothes, the cars, the apartments, the bars — everything feels specific to that time and place. The show also moves into Nevada, where the wrestlers travel to perform. That shift opens up new stories about small towns and big dreams. The show does not waste the decade it is set in. It uses the 1980s as a character, not just a costume.
What the show does not do is spend much time on the wrestling itself. There are matches, sure, but they are mostly used as a way to get the characters together in a room. The show is far more interested in the personal lives of the performers than in the spectacle of the ring. That is a deliberate choice, and it pays off. The drama comes from the women’s relationships with each other, not from the moves they throw.
What Works and What Doesn’t
The show is at its best when it slows down and lets the actors talk. The monologues, the arguments, the quiet moments in hotel rooms — these are where the show finds its heart. It is less successful when it tries to stage a big emotional scene. Some of the later episodes lean on tragedy that feels forced, and the finale stretches out past the point where the story needed to end.
But those moments are few. For the most part, GLOW knows what it is and sticks to it. It is a show about people pretending to be something else, and it never forgets that the pretense is the point.
The Numbers
| Season | Episode Count | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | June 23, 2017 |
| 2 | 10 | June 29, 2018 |
| 3 | 10 | August 9, 2019 |
The show ran for three seasons across Netflix. It was renewed for a fourth season in September 2019, but Netflix canceled it in October 2020 due to financial and production issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. That cancellation is a shame, because the show had momentum going into its final stretch. But the three seasons that exist are strong enough to stand on their own.
GLOW is not a show about wrestling. It is a show about women who want to be seen, and it does not flinch from the hard work that takes. The acting is uniformly excellent, the writing is sharp, and the setting is rendered with care. It is a flawed but essential watch, and it deserves its reputation as one of the best comedies of the decade.
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