Emmy Episodes: GLOW

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the third year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

GLOW: Season 1, Episode 7 “Live Studio Audience” (B+)

One of the great things that I’m realizing about this show as I screen the fourth of the submitted episodes for Best Comedy Series is that it’s focused much more on characters than on plot. Justine stealing the camera and trying to frame Rhonda barely registered as we learned much more about what kind of investor Bash is, putting a mesmerizing $600,000 of his own (mom’s) money into all this. I remember actor Chris Lowell from his debut role on the short-lived TV series “Life As We Know It” way back in 2004, and it’s great to see him cast in a part like this that allows him once again to be entertaining but also portray a character of substance. I thought that Carmen was having a panic attack, but it turns out that it was just her health, something that the paramedic told her in a not-so-kind way. Watching Ruth and Debbie try to learn some serious wrestling moves was very fun, and they really did almost manage to save the day after a rough start to the live studio audience session. The Ku Klux Klan bit went over better than in the end than it started, but the ultimate hero of the half-hour, surprisingly, was Rhonda, who stepped in to start her wrap and eventually got all the women to join her in singing the fun new theme song for their show. The return of Debbie’s husband Mark, played by Rich Sommer, was a harsh return back to reality that’s going to shake Debbie’s confidence at exactly the wrong time.