I have no explanation for how I missed the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling the first time around, since I was in high school in 1986 and watching TV along with everyone else. But only certain segments of the population watched wrestling back then, and I wasn't the target audience, I guess.
In any case I have watched all of Glow, the 2017 Netflix fictionalization of their story, twice and I will be watching it again. I knew Alison Brie from Community, but her role in this show showed me what a versatile actor she is. It's a wonderful show with great writing, real characters, and I found the drama gripping.
Scores and notes for:
GLOW
Sex/Nudity: Very high.
Passes Bechdel test: Yes, in the first few minutes Ruth and Mallory talk about Ruth's career. The opening scenes of the show, in fact, are about how the only good roles are for men. Later on in the season I felt that the show became a little more about the (male) director than I would have liked, but since it's a show about 12 women working together every day, it still lands heavily on the side of female story lines. One of those story lines is about a man, true, but it drives realistic conflict between two wonderfully fleshed-out characters.
HAES-friendly: The wrestlers cover a wide range of body types, which is nice. Otherwise not remarkable.
LGBT+ representation: Given the time the show is set, any gay characters would have been closeted. There is a storyline later about the death of a gay character that illustrates the fear and misconceptions around AIDS in that time.
Diversity: The main characters are all white, but at least the squad of 12 wrestlers has a good number of non-white characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment