GLOW Episode 2.3: "Concerned Women of America"

Chris: Cherry’s introduction into season two brings with it the return of Sam’s redeemable qualities. Up to this point, there hasn’t been much to like about Sam and how he’s interacted with everyone else so it makes sense that the return of his longtime collaborator would bring out his positive qualities. All we’ve seen from Sam up until this point has been a miserable guy that only wants to work on his show with as little input from anyone and flat out ignore everyone that he possibly can. However, Cherry shows up with a genuine need and while Sam is still brutal and unforgiving, he’s a least doing it to help Cherry understand her predicament and coming up with a way to come back to GLOW.

Joel: Because of a time period in the late 90s and early 2000s, wrestling is well known as something that is crass, lowbrow, offensive, and something that was frequently protested against. Of course it makes sense that at some point in this series we were going to get a storyline where a organization of concerned parents protesting the content of the show. While WWE’s real life response to having their content criticized in this manner was to not care at all (and really thrive off of the poor taste content for years) GLOW tries to address the protests by creating a PSA with a positive, moral message. Honestly, the resulting PSA was a really entertaining product, managing to make the point that Ruth and Debbie we’re trying to make, while still using the medium of wrestling to tell the story. It’s really creative, and is something that they can genuinely be proud of.

But the best bit of the episode isn’t about wrestling at all and goes to the scene between Sam and Cherry. We learn that Cherry has been struggling with transitioning to acting, and her lines, her look, and everything about her character, has been adjusted on the show in order to try and make it work. When Keith brings Sam in to talk to Cherry, he bluntly tells her that it’s not going to work out. Cherry just isn’t a good enough actress and she won’t be successful on the TV show. It’s interesting to see how everyone on the set of the show is dancing around the issue, not talking to Cherry directly, whereas Sam takes the opposite approach and addresses Cherry’s struggles head on. The key here is that he’s not mean about it. He’s not rude, or even all that harsh. It’s a tricky balancing act to pull off and Marc Maron is able to pull the scene off while still making Sam likeable in the scene. Sam says the thing that nobody else is saying here, but he does it in such a way that it still feels like he’s a good guy for doing so.

Alexa: She’s back! She’s back! Hallelujah, Cherry Bang is back! Cherry was one of my favorite characters in season 1 and she makes a welcome return this episode. This season has been solid so far, but I didn’t realize something was missing until Cherry resurfaced. Last season she was the glue that held the group together as their head trainer. But now, instead of the no-nonsense character we know, Cherry is cripplingly insecure in her new detective series role, and it’s a little jarring to see her so out of her element here. But it does allow for some nice supportive moments from Keith, and it’s refreshing to see the two of them together again. Other than Cherry’s storyline, this episode largely feels like filler. The Concerned Women of America plot underscores the fine line the show walks between empowerment and exploitation, but the PSA does lend itself to some humor, and pushes the fragile tension between Ruth and Debbie further.