Chris: Oh man, very little actual wrestling in this episode as they venture mostly out of the gym but the last half of this episode was a perfect example of pro wrestling in the 80s and some 90s where wrestlers were stripped down to racial stereotypes, sometimes not even that wrestler’s own race. Hell, hispanic wrestlers where Arabic characters and there’s always one of the most famous examples of Yokozuna, a Japanese sumo stereotype played by a large Samoan man named Rodney Anoa’i. Racial Stereotypes aside, there is something to be said about the stories that are simplified are best to grab an audience. Not saying you can’t grab an audience with a more complex level but we’re talking about grown adults pretend fighting in very little clothing, it’s best not to complicate things too much as you’re already asking the audience to accept a hulk of a premise just by tuning in. The best wrestling storylines are typical brought in on a very basic, simplified level and then gradually and subtly built upon for sometimes weeks and months, really taking the audience for a ride. The problem people have with modern wrestling is that the major company (WWE, mostly) spoon feeds the entire story to the audience with zero subtlety and it’s done all at once, practically throwing out all notions of long-term storylines for most of the year. Of course, there are exceptions once in awhile these days but it’s sadly becoming less and less frequent.
Joel: For the most part, this episode is largely centered around the concept of story and storytelling. We start the episode off with Sam presenting a rather complex script he’s written, one that involved a post apocalyptic wasteland. This is later thrown in contrast with what the producer (Bash, who’s introduced in this episode) has in mind which is nothing more than a few stereotype characters and costumes. Now neither character’s outlook on wrestling storytelling is a hundred percent right or wrong. While you can get quite outlandish with the story aspect of your wrestling company (see CHIKARA, a wrestling company whose past storylines have involved museum heists, mind control and time travel) more often than not, the story being told needs to be one that can be best told between the ropes of a wrestling ring.
On the other hand, Bash’s simple stripping down of what the story needs to be is going too far in the other direction. While Iron Sheik (the example used in the episode) did play into stereotypes, the character did a lot more than that. There’s a reason he’s still remembered as a great heel today whereas similar heels of the time have faded into the background. We get a final sequence that seems to be the whole cast of character working on finding a middle ground between these two extreme ideas. As we progress, hopefully there will be more time to address what goes into a good storyline and good characters. It’s more than a costume and a look, and while that’s important as we see in this episode, it’s definitely step one on the list.
Alexa: Joel and Chris definitely have more insight into the storytelling aspect of wrestling than I do, but its importance to the success of the show and to wrestling in general resonated in this episode even for us casual wrestling viewers. Thus far I’m liking that “GLOW” doesn’t always go exactly where I think it will, but it always moves the story forward in some way. I love character-driven shows, but sometimes it’s easy for them to stagnate because the pendulum swings too far in the direction of character development and takes way too long to swing back to story, but “GLOW” is achieving a strong balance. I thought this episode was introducing Bash as a foil for Sam, and their clashing ideas would continue to drive some of the show’s conflict. But they end up compromising, and the result is the women (except poor Ruth) developing their wrestling personas. It’s fun to see them start to play around in those roles as the concept begins to take shape, albeit pretty problematic that some of them are relegated to racial stereotypes (i.e. Welfare Queen, Fortune Cookie). I understand those types of characters are an accurate representation of wrestling in the 80s, but I hope the show tackles some of the issues with that going forward. Overall I thought this was the weakest episode so far, but it was still enjoyable and serves an important role in building toward the show’s next steps.
Comments
Post a Comment