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(Pretty Much) Everything You Need to Know About Glow, Netflix's Newest Original Series

It Premieres on Friday, and, Alison Brie

By Sam Eichner ·
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Photo: Netflix
On Friday, Netflix releases the first season of GLOW, about a band of actresses who perform in what is essentially an all-female version of the WWE, set in 1985.

Championed by Jenji Kohan, who’s responsible for Weeds and the similarly female-forward Orange Is the New Black, it stars the famously likeable Alison Brie and the infamously unlikeable Marc Maron. A strange pair, indeed, but intriguing nonetheless.

As we understand your binge-watching time is valuable, and House of Cards is kind of a slog, we’ve decided to give you a quick primer on the series.

Here’s (pretty much) everything you need to know...

GLOW stands for Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
And believe it or not, it was a real show that ran from 1986-1990. Man. The '80s were dope.

Alison Brie stars as a struggling actress, looking for a role she can sink her teeth into.
Because few of those existed for women back then. Man. The '80s also weren’t dope.

A rivalry exists between Alison Brie’s character and a former soap opera actress.
Hopefully it will be exploited in the ring.

Undoubtedly, there is an interesting meta-y aspect to the entire thing.
Marc Maron plays a B-movie director tasked with running a fictional series about a group of women portraying wrestlers, while the series itself is about a group of women portraying women portraying wrestlers. The difference between how the series treats the women, and Maron’s director treats the women, is something to look out for.

Tensions with the Soviets will come into play, because it’s 1985.
What a simpler time.

If you like Orange Is the New Black, You’ll Almost Certainly Like This.
Both center on groups of misfit women bound together by circumstance in close quarters where physical violence is involved.

Expect spandex, big hair and other 80s-like shenanigans.
By which we mean, Marc Maron’s character blowing lines.

Apparently, Brie’s character does a spot-on impersonation of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday.
Which felt necessary to mention here.
Sam Eichner

Sam Eichner likes literature, reality television and his twin cats equally. He has consistently been told he needs a shave since he started growing facial hair.

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