GLOW - The Liberal Chokehold

Yeah, I’d say The Liberal Chokehold is my favorite of the first season episodes because it has gotten us to the point where the prospects of GLOW are at an all-time peril only for “performance art” to work overdrive to get funding. And Elizabeth Perkins emerges as Bash’s very wealthy, conservative right wing mom (something I’d never imagine seeing her as much to my astonishment) who has cut him off from producing anything else GLOW related. The ladies band together to do a car wash but it only brings them a little over two hundred bucks for all their trouble. While Mark continues to try and win over Debbie’s trust again, Ruth tries to keep faith alive in Sam, soon realizing his dream project has been introduced to theaters as Back to the Future (he talks about it enthusiastically to a band playing at a soirée, conducted by Perkins of Nancy Reagan’s Just Say No To Drugs campaign, after letting him do some blow with him in one of the mansion’s many rooms, and the despair he gains when told about the movie that seems quite similar to his own idea)! Sam also gets the shock of learning that Justine isn’t in love with him but is, in fact, his daughter! He gets hit with a lot in this episode. Having to watch the girls car wash in bikinis, Bash in emotional tatters at being cut off, and disgust in enduring the shindig put on by Perkins for her rich friends; Sam is sucking on the cigs and snorting the blow. Meanwhile, Bash agrees to attend his mom’s party, bringing along the ladies, presenting them as WAD…Wrestlers Against Drugs! Their “testimonials”—never forgetting to mention crack—busted my gigglebox. Except for Ruth, who shares achingly about betraying her friend and sleeping with her husband, copping to buried resentment and owning her mistake for participating in it.

The character of Ruth has been given the season to rehabilitate herself and Debbie clearly just wants their friendship recovered. There is this really potent moment between Debbie and Ruth that presents the hurdle of just being able to talk as friends due to the adultery. This is what I take away almost the most from the show, although I think the sense of humor and characterizations certainly serve as a reminder to us that the television medium has simply overtaken film. There is such good acting and writing in television; I feel like we are so gifted these days. When I say television, I guess I should broaden that to medium of seasonal programming where a series produces episodic storytelling. GLOW has certainly gleaned from Orange is the New Black; I think that’s obvious in its female-centric focus on stories that involve women choosing to fight for something they consider important to them, while their lives outside of this get some (I do think there is still some work to be done on the ensemble as a whole, but I cut the creative some slack because this is just the first season) much needed love as well.

This episode is more about keeping hope alive on the show seeing air. Bash must convince his mother that this “ladies wrestling” project is worth investing in. After his success with getting the girls in front of deep pockets (somewhat at his mother’s expense), she relents and offers Bash a venue. Now it will be up to Sam and the girls to make GLOW a worthwhile project worth the time and effort Bash’s mom had already afforded to her son…and continues to afford her ambitious son, looking at the venue as a better investment than more money spent.