I loved GLOW season 1 on Netflix. I was very pleased when I heard that they were going to make a second season of the show, and I was excited when it came out. The thing is, I didn’t watch it right away, and it eventually fell behind in a queue of other films and shows that I didn’t watch immediately as well, because I’m neurotic about wanting to have more than adequate time to watch things, and simply won’t if I feel that I don’t.
While mythical gf has been out of the country, I’ve been systematically chopping away at this queue, and I’ve been watching films like Ready, Player One (book was way better), and shows like Cloak & Dagger (took 4 episodes before it actually started going somewhere) and Sharp Objects (still not sure what’s going on, but it’s an HBO show and they’re always about the long form). After I got caught up with all these other things, I found myself in a place where the only thing that I feel that I really needed to catch up with was the second season of GLOW.
There’s a part of me that wonders why I waited this long to watch GLOW, but then there’s another part of me that’s glad that I watched it last, because much like the first season, the second was as enjoyable, and at just ten, 30~ish minute episodes, it moves quickly, and if there’s one thing I love in programming these days, it’s quickly.
In my opinion, season 2 doesn’t so much feel like a choppy pick-up from where the first season left off, but it’s a pretty smooth transition from one season into the next, that if I were told that it was filmed sequentially immediately after the first season, I’d have believed it. The storylines are nothing complex, much like the professional wrestling industry itself, but there’s a lot more character growth and spotlights being distributed a little better amongst the women of the show, and just about everyone gets at least a minute or two to shine at some points of the show.
Naturally, the show mostly revolves around Ruth, Debbie and Sam, played by Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin and Marc Maron respectively, and I’d be remised if I don’t fall a little bit in love with Alison Brie again every time I see her in something. Maybe it’s the types of characters she always portrays, or a Community residual, but I often think she’s the strongest actor of everything she’s in. But Maron is also a real captivating performer in his role as Sam, since he’s just really good at portraying an abrasive asshole of a director, but has a whole lot of genius behind his actions, regardless of if he’s aware of it or not.
But if there was one thing that really stood out to me this season, was probably the performance of Kia Stevens, AKA the Welfare Queen. Obviously, there’s extreme amounts of irony to the character, but what really stood out to me the most was the performance of the actress herself. Most people are aware of it by now, but Kia Stevens was among the crew that were actual professional wrestlers and not really an actor, although there’s a degree of acting talent necessary to be a wrestler. Going under the names of Awesome Kong and Kharma, Stevens was basically Nia Jax before Nia Jax was, dominating the women’s divisions in TNA and just barely getting started in the WWE before a pregnancy pretty much derailed her in-ring career.
The thing is, she wasn’t really an actor for the screens, but she ends up killing it anyway, especially with the expansion of her character in season 2 of GLOW. Obviously, I’m not going to give anything away, but when the spotlight goes onto the Welfare Queen and her real life outside of wrestling, it’s a pretty impactful backstory, and surprisingly well acted by someone with probably no real refined acting training prior to the show.
She’s admitted that she was basically an extra wrestling coach-consultant, along with Chavo Guerrero, Jr., in addition to playing one of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, but it turns out that Kia Stevens can actually act pretty well herself. No pun intended, but she really does glow among the large cast which is cool to me, considering that she probably wasn’t really meant to.
The bottom line is that season 2 of GLOW was as enjoyable as the first season. There’s a lot of heart in the show, but it never gets too serious, nor does it really get too boring. It’s pretty whimsical, but it moves fast, not a tremendous amount of extraneous fluff, and I’d say that I could stand it if they go on to make a third season. Two thumbs up for GLOW, once again.
