Friday, June 30, 2017
Fri-Yay: Get Your GLOW On; FX and FXX Set Comedy Returns in September
by Vincent
Summer has always been a slow time for TV, but that's changed a bit in recent years with streaming services and premium cable, who generally try to keep their operations running all year. Even still, there is significantly less TV to be found in the summer months, and especially less good TV. So it's a nice surprise when we have a show like Netflix's GLOW, a refreshing new half-hour comedy from Orange is the New Black producer Jenji Kohan.
GLOW has a bit of an unconventional premise. It's based on the real female wrestling television series "GLOW," which aired from 1986-1990 in syndicated TV. GLOW was a breakthrough female wrestling show that fought many odds to become a long-running, successful program, and GLOW follows the show's conception and journey to the pilot. (The first season, at least, focuses on the show's preparation for the pilot: assumingly, future seasons would follow the rest of the show.) While Netflix's GLOW is only "based" on the true story, and takes many liberties with its characters and plot (much like Kohan's other Netflix series Orange is the New Black) it retains the same scrappy underdog energy. You get the sense that the odds are low for the show's success, and the only way it can survive is if the show's cast fights hard and really believes in themselves.
In that way, GLOW sort of feels like your classic "underdog" story, and follows many of the similar beats of one. It's sort of a "Friday Night Lights, but with female wrestlers" type of show (or, I've been describing it as "Glee, except with female wrestlers, and also unlike Glee, it's good.") There hasn't really been a good "underdog" story on TV in quite a while (since maybe the first season of the aforementioned Glee?), and it's fun to settle back into those rhythms of watching characters that start off hating each other work towards a common goal that seems impossible at the start of the series but gradually seems more and more and reach. GLOW also adds enough interesting spins on the "underdog" dynamic that it doesn't feel completely "done" before, particularly in its lead character Ruth (portrayed brilliantly by Alison Brie), who is more complex, flawed, and nuanced than you might expect from a "hero" of a show like this. In fact, the entire cast is doing a great job of taking what could be stock characters and turning them into genuinely interesting people. Betty Gilpin's Debbie could be the typical "diva" lead, but instead she's someone who feels trapped in her failing marriage and uses GLOW as an escape. Marc Maron's Sam could be a typical sleazeball director, and he kind of his, but the way Maron plays him gives insight into why he's that way. And Chris Lowell does such an excellent job with his character (the show's producer, Bash) that he somehow transforms the spoiled, coked up rich boy into one of the most lovable characters on the show.
There isn't much to watch on TV right now. So there's really no reason not to check out Netflix's GLOW, which is not only "great for a summer show" - it's just great TV.
FX Networks has set the premiere dates for the acclaimed comedy series You're the Worst, which returns to FXX on Wednesday, September 6, and Better Things, which comes back to FX on Thursday, September 14. From Creator/Executive Producer Stephen Falk, You're the Worst returns to FXX for its fourth season with a special one-hour premiere on Wednesday, September 6 at 10 PM ET/PT. You're the Worst is a modern look at love and happiness told through the eyes of two people who haven't been very successful with either. It's the story of Gretchen and Jimmy, fear, heartbreak, romance, sex, food, Los Angeles, Sunday Funday, friendship, and the fact that sometimes the worst people make the best partners.
Peabody(R) Award Winner Better Things is back for its second season on FX beginning Thursday, September 14 at 10 PM ET/PT. Better Things centers on Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon), a single, working actor with no filter raising her three daughters, Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Alligood) and Duke (Olivia Edward) in Los Angeles. She's mom, dad, referee and the cops. Sam also watches out for her mother, Phil (Celia Imrie), an English expatriate, who lives across the street. Sam is flawed and fierce with her love for her daughters, and her own mother, as well. Sometimes, heaping the love on when she feels guilty. Sam's just trying to earn a living, navigate her daughters' lives, have fun with a friend or two and also - just maybe - squeeze in some private time once in a while.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Thursday, April 18
Young Sheldon - "An Ankle Monitor and a Big Plastic Crap House" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Sheldon studies to be Meemaw’s lawyer when she is put on house arrest, and the Coopers have a plumbing emergency.
Ghosts - "Holes Are Bad" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
When Sam and Jay leave the ghosts home alone for the weekend in an attempt to have a romantic getaway, shocking revelations are made about two of Woodstone’s beloved spirits.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of April 15)
Thursday, April 18
- Zendaya (K.C. Undercover/Shake It Up) - Catch Zendaya on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Sandra Oh (Arliss) - Sandra is a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS. She talks about Sympathizer on NBC's Today in the 9am hour.
- Reid Scott (Veep/My Boys/It's All Relative) - Reid appears on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Daniel Radcliffe (Miracle Workers) - Daniel will be on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Joel McHale (Animal Control/The Great Indoors/Community) - Joel is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Dulcé Sloan (The Great North) - Dulcé hosts Comedy Central's The Daily Show at 11pm.
- Chris O'Dowd (The Big Door Prize/Family Tree) - Chris appears on CBS Mornings some time between 7-9am. He chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Tony Danza (Taxi/Who's the Boss?/Hudson Street/The Tony Danza Show) - NBC's Today catches up with Tony in the 10am hour.
- Jurnee Smollett (On Our Own) - Jurnee talks about We Grown Now on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Jay Hernandez (Hang Time) - Jay discusses his new film The Long Game on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Lil Rel Howery (Rel/The Carmichael Show) - Lil Rel talks about We Grown Now on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
- Michaela Watkins (Dinner with the Parents/Search Party/The Unicorn/Casual/Trophy Wife) - Michaela is a guest on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
New on DVD/Blu-ray
12/05 - Father Knows Best - The Complete Series
12/05 - The Odd Couple - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/12 - The Dick Van Dyke Show - The Complete Series
12/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
12/12 - That Girl - The Complete Series
12/15 - Letterkenny - Season 11
12/19 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Official Restored Complete Series
12/22 - Three's Company - The Official 40th Anniversary Collection (includes The Ropers and Three's a Crowd)
01/09 - South Park - Seasons 11-15 (Blu-ray)
01/16 - Ghosts (UK) - Season Five
02/13 - Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/27 - The Really Loud House - Season One
03/12 - Ghosts (UK) - The Complete Series
03/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 3 (Blu-ray)
03/12 - Rick and Morty - Season 7 (Blu-ray Steelbook) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
04/03 - Too Close for Comfort - The Complete Series (VEI)
04/08 - Check It Out! - The Complete Series (VEI)
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