The GLOW Season 3 Afterglow

Hey, guys! It’s another TV post! Today it’s on a show of a
more recent vintage.

So I finally finished off season 3 of GLOW on NetFlix this weekend. Over three years, these Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling have certainly grown and evolved in clever and nuanced ways. The different tracks of that growth among the cast forms a through line for the seasons as the women become more than they were whether by choice or circumstance. 

Debbie, the woman with the closest thing to some level of fame as an actress and also as a mother, has by default been a person a part from the larger group. In season 3, this condition became more pronounced. With Sam no longer fully invested in GLOW since the show moved from TV to a stage show in Vegas and with Bash perpetually distracted by a lot of things, basically Debbie, as a producer, is the one person actually running things. 

The season ends with Debbie manipulating Bash into buying out a TV station that Debbie’s investor boyfriend Tex was looking to buy. It is a double bill of cold calculating ruthlessness as she betrays Tex and pretty much blackmails Bash to get GLOW back on TV. Debbie is not content to be just a star in a front of a camera or an audience. She’s looking to be a major player in an industry and a world that otherwise doesn’t consider her important.

The documentary on the original GLOW wrestling show from the 1980s addresses the physical hurt performing in the ring that afflicted these women. In the current GLOW, this is touched on with Tamme whose large frame can’t stand the continued stress and abuse her body takes night after night. Pain pills, bottles of wine and long stays in the hot tub can only take her so far. Cherry finally has to pull her from wrestling but suggests Tamme might consider becoming a manager. Tamme’s not so sure about that but she interested in developing her skills as an actress.


Also looking to acting is Sheila who mid-way through the season gave up her she-wolf persona, dumping her fur vest and wig into a camp fire. Without the burden of being restricted to being a wolf person, Sheila discovers her gift for acting. Much to Ruth’s chagrin, Sheila may be a better actor than her. 

In the Freaky Tuesday episode, Sheila, with some help from drag performer Bobby Barnes, enters the ring as a drunken Liza Minelli. It is an act of extraordinary daring and funny as hell. 

Later, Sheila in the 9^th episode has to perform a monologue at a charity ball. The deep emotion of her performance and the enthusiastic applause that greeted her when she finished was a very heartwarming moment.


Rhonda may have been a cipher going into this season but the British woman who married Bash Howard for a green card to avoid being deported shows unexpected depth.  Bash, for all his schemes to launch GLOW, does not have a head for details and management. Turns out Bash doesn’t even know how to cash his pay checks or how to open a bank account. Thankfully, Rhonda does. Rhonda’s aptitude for sensible money management and her genuine affection for Bash is enough to convince his flint edged mother to arrange the release of Bash’s full $40 million inheritance. Unfortunately, Rhonda is disturbed by an increasing lack of physical affection from Bash. As anyone watching the show can tell but Bash is in denial about, Bash is at least bi-sexual if not out right gay. It is something that comes out in the open when Bash, Rhonda and a hotel gigolo wind up in a three way and Bash enjoys his time with the dude more than he does with the girl.


Surprisingly, Ruth is not evolving or changing. She’s doing performance reports for GLOW that nobody is reading, she’s keeping her long distance boyfriend Russell at a safe distance and she still thinks she’s going to make it as a serious actress even though her last audition for Sam’s daughter’s movie did not get her the part. She can’t get movie roles when there are friends in the room. Even so, when Debbie tells Ruth she’s working on getting GLOW back on TV and she wants Ruth to direct it, Ruth says no.

There were some good stand out performances from new characters for Season 3. Kudos to Geena Davis as Sandy Devereaux St. Clair, former show girl turned entertainment manager for the Fan-Tan Hotel; at turns tough and ascerbic but also empathetic to the women of GLOW, Sandy is a fascinatingly nuanced character. 

At 63 years old, she still rocks out in her classic Bob Mackie showgirl ensemble from 1962 when she appears in the charity ball in episode 9.   

And Kevin Cahoon as Bobby Barnes is amazing as the Fan-Tan's drag show performer; Barnes' joy and wonder are tinged with an undercurrent of sadness. Barnes is over the top but also grounded by the sad reality of a world where he is mocked and hated and too many people he knows and loves have died. Being a gay man in the 1980s is a particularly trying time.   

Kevin Cahoon as Bobby Barnes as Barbra Streisand

So what will happen in Season 4? Will there be a Season 4? This is a Netflix show and they screwed me over when then cancelled Santa Clarita Diet after 3 seasons. 


I hope Netflix does the right thing. I’m not done with GLOW yet.