DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
 
 
 
GLOW
June 29, 2018  | By David Bianculli

Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET

 

SEASON PREMIERE: Season 2 of GLOW, one of last year’s more unexpectedly impressive TV surprises, begins with the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, and their grudgingly involved TV director, preparing to shoot the pilot episode of their new syndicated female wrestling show. Early on, three characters grab the spotlight. There’s Ruth (Alison Brie), a.k.a. Soviet threat “Zoya the Destroya,” whose Natasha Fatale accent in the ring is a lot more cartoonish than her natural ability as a video director behind the scenes. There’s Debbie (Betty Gilpin), a.k.a. all-American “Liberty Belle,” who pursues her own power grab as a backstage producer. And there’s Sam the minor-league director (Marc Maron), who is verbally and brutally direct about how little he cares – about almost everything. Maron embodies his weary character with a tired resignation that seems effortless, but actually is a very canny, funny performance, and Brie and Gilpin inject their roles with similar layers of frustration and sly humor. And the other players get their licks in, too, as when one wrestler, handed her unlaundered and ethnically exaggerated costume, sighs, “It smells like beer – and racism.” To start Season 2, which arrives today on Netflix, GLOW still has its glow.

 
 
 
 
 
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