S01.E05: Debbie Does Something

[The Crazed Spruce]

Debbie attends her first wrestling match and has a major epiphany. Meanwhile, Ruth finally finds the inspiration for her alter ego.

[thuganomics85]

Even though it's more common knowledge now and it was a bit on the nose, I enjoyed it finally dawning on Debbie that pro wrestling is basically another kind of soap, and that is something she has experience in.  Liked Carmen taking Debbie under her wing for a bit.  Got a kick out of the wrestlers for that segment.  I could totally see persona like Steel Rider and Mr. Monopoly back in that day (really, Mr. Monopoly was basically an even more flashy version of Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.)

Ruth has found a possible character with an over-the-top evil Russian one, but the only way it will work would be having to go against "All-American" Debbie. I have to think this is where it is heading, but the question is can they pull it off, without hurting each other outside the ring.

A few other sprinkles of info like Justine/awkward girl having a crush on a pizza guy, Rhonda/British Lady is sleeping with Sam, and Melanie is actually Melrose, I think?

"It's porn the entire family can enjoy together!"  It's only been five episodes, but that line is already Classic Sam.

Edited June 24, 2017 by thuganomics85

[ItCouldBeWorse]

21 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

A few other sprinkles of info like Justine/awkward girl having a crush on a pizza guy.

She should have figured out he liked her when he didn't seem miffed at not getting a tip.

[Maximum Taco]

6 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

She should have figured out he liked her when he didn't seem miffed at not getting a tip.

Also when he didn't question her ordering pizza after pizza.

If I didn't like somebody, and they kept making me go out there, and didn't tip me, I'd ask them why they kept ordering pizzas one at a time instead of just ordering them all at once.

On another note, I think I preferred Ruth when she was "The Homewrecker" that seems like such a more epic name, she could've been GLOW's version of the Undertaker.

[The Companion]

1 hour ago, Maximum Taco said:

Also when he didn't question her ordering pizza after pizza.

If I didn't like somebody, and they kept making me go out there, and didn't tip me, I'd ask them why they kept ordering pizzas one at a time instead of just ordering them all at once.

On another note, I think I preferred Ruth when she was "The Homewrecker" that seems like such a more epic name, she could've been GLOW's version of the Undertaker.

I agree that the Homewrecker is a better name, but only if Ruth could sell it. I suspect part of the problem is that she feels so damn guilty, she can't own it as a persona. 

 

I liked this episode a lot. I enjoyed mixing up the ensemble a bit. I felt for Debbie. She clearly feels so blindsided by everything. I thought it was interesting that she didn't tell her family about Ruth. Was she embarrassed? Is her anger cracking a bit? Does she just not want to hear everyone else's opinions? I was glad to see her find her groove a bit at the end.

 

I am really digging this cast. They play off one another well, and all of the characters seem to have some depth to them.

[CletusMusashi]

They've actually reached a point where I like everybody.

[OnceSane]

Debbie's face when she realized that pro wrestling is a soap opera with body slams was everything.  Now she's all in.  And I liked how she immediately engaged in the storytelling in the ring.

Finally Ruth has a character!  But Debbie will have to ovary up to remain professional and let this perfect rivalry happen.  I feel for Debbie, Ruth was shitty…but they both need to work to make it work.  And I hope they do.

Also, I'm loving seeing so many current professional wrestlers getting a little love on the show.

[Lady Calypso]

It was nice to see a little more of the supporting cast. I specifically liked seeing more of Justine, even if it's her love life with the pizza boy. I also seeing the continued Cherry/Melrose rivalry, and that they don't just save it for their bigger episodes.

Carmen is definitely my favourite character and I liked seeing her help out Debbie. The problem with Debbie is that she does seem to struggle with the idea of not just going back into acting, but acting as a wrestler. Hopefully, now that she sees wrestling as its own soap, she can learn to relax and enjoy herself while still working hard.

I enjoyed Ruth's Russian persona. It seems like she found a possible character to toy with. Sam's also proven himself as a pretty good entrepreneur. He managed to sell the show to Pat better than Bash, showcasing his usefulness instead of him just being the creepy, sexist director.

Speaking of, why is Rhonda sleeping with him? Kind of funny that he was enjoying Ruth with an accent, and he's sleeping with the only woman with an accent.

It's nice to see Debbie making friends with the women. Hopefully, Ruth can find a way to do the same, because it seems like most tolerate her. Shelia might be the only one to semi-like her. 

This show really has great music. It really hypes up the tone of the show.

[tennisgurl]

Debbie having her wresting come to Jesus moment where she realized wresting was a soap opera (even figuring out the plot twists) was everything! I loved her bonding with a few of the other women, and then hooking up with the wrestler guy. Get it girl, he was hot, and had solid advice!

Ruth's Russian persona is going to be a lot of fun I think. Its not a parade of 80 stereotypes without an evil commie! Is it sad that Ruth's silly, obviously over the top fake Russian accent is actually about as good as some people trying to do a serious Russian accent? Hell, hers is actually better than a few I could mentioned!

I also like that they ended up having the GLOW gang get their break with the patio guy through showmanship, not just cheap sex appeal. I mean, I'm sure Baz and Sam will keep using sex to sell the show, but I think now they can see that they can actually promote the woman through actually wresting or jokes.

[dubbel zout]

On 6/25/2017 at 11:15 PM, The Companion said:

I agree that the Homewrecker is a better name, but only if Ruth could sell it. I suspect part of the problem is that she feels so damn guilty, she can't own it as a persona. 

I agree; it hits way too close to home for her.

On 6/26/2017 at 11:07 PM, tennisgurl said:

I also like that they ended up having the GLOW gang get their break with the patio guy through showmanship, not just cheap sex appeal.

I loved the look on everyone's faces when they realized what Ruth was doing. Not only did it mark the beginning of Ruth's wrestling persona, but I think it also was when the group felt the wrestling could actually work. It was a nice continuation of them coming together as a group.

[Primetimer]

And Ruth lands on her heel.

View the full article

[Clanstarling]

On 7/2/2017 at 11:03 AM, dubbel zout said:

I agree; it hits way too close to home for her.

I loved the look on everyone's faces when they realized what Ruth was doing. Not only did it mark the beginning of Ruth's wrestling persona, but I think it also was when the group felt the wrestling could actually work. It was a nice continuation of them coming together as a group.

I was initially embarrassed for her. When I saw Sam grin and give her the slightest "keep going" I finally started really listening to what she was saying and enjoyed watching her roll with it and bring the group and audience around. 

[Totale]

I was surprised to hear Debbie say the Steel Hammer successfully drove outside of the ring, I was fully expecting a "what anabolic steroids give here they take away there" outcome.

[Absurda]

I loved the look on Debbie's face when she realized this was a Soap and totally laughed out loud when she said it. Back in the 90's/early 2000's my brother was a huge wrestling fan and would tell me about all the plot lines. I always said it was soap operas for men.

I really like the conversation Debbie had with Cherry, just a bit of bonding from 2 characters we haven't seen interact.

[DianeDobbler]

I liked that conversation too. I also liked the Sam/Debbie conversation about soap operas. As a former soap fan, I think he nailed how soap opera show runners punished female leads who were too smart, too talented, and too popular.

[JakeyJokes]

On 6/24/2017 at 4:21 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Even though it's more common knowledge now and it was a bit on the nose, I enjoyed it finally dawning on Debbie that pro wrestling is basically another kind of soap, and that is something she has experience in.  Liked Carmen taking Debbie under her wing for a bit.  Got a kick out of the wrestlers for that segment.  I could totally see persona like Steel Rider and Mr. Monopoly back in that day (really, Mr. Monopoly was basically an even more flashy version of Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.)

 

My roommate and I just binged all the way to Episode 5 tonight, and I have to say at this moment I wanted to hug the television. I used to always dismiss the "wrestling is soap opera for men" argument as too simple, but I think in this episode it completely proved that. I remember when I was a theater major we had to write essays or explain certain things and I would always fall back on the topic of professional wrestling -- in so many ways, wrestling *IS* theater. Not in the way that Ruth tries to express it in early episodes, trying to do Tennessee Williams in there, but it's having a live audience and telling a story, and the audience will be much more invested if they know all the dramatic back story about how Mr. Monopoly ran down Steel Rider's factory and brainwashed his girlfriend. The part when Steel Rider was begging for her, saying "I'm here for you"? Pure camp. And also pure '80s wrestling. I would argue that the heyday of WWE's creative peak was in 2000 when Chris Kreski was their head writer, and that show was absolutely soap opera at its best points: You had "main" characters but they often criss-crossed with other characters on the canvas and you would create great storylines (or "angles", in wrestling speak) off of that to create more material for the weeks to come.

Goodness, can you tell I'm wrestling nerd? So I have to say I loved watching this show this with roommate who doesn't know ANYTHING about wrestling and still loved it. It did a good job of explaining things like "heel" is the badguy without being pedantic or hitting you in the face with it.

Ruth as the Russia character works for me because one of the biggest heels in GLOW was "Ninotchka", who was a badguy because she was ... Russian. I don't recall GLOW ever having an actual Welfare Queen character, but considering that Ronald Reagan coined the term and people *still* use it today as a negative stereotype, it doesn't seem impossible to me.  I also think Carmen is based on Mt. Fuji.

[Milburn Stone]

Alison Brie started to blow me away in this episode. I've seen her in other things (Mad Men, Community) and thought she was...fine, but the pleasure Ruth took in playing the "Russian Communist"--and then the pleasure Ruth took in Sam's approval--was really something to see. I'm now convinced Brie is a very special comic actress.

Edited July 25, 2017 by Milburn Stone

[Danny Franks]

On 25/07/2017 at 5:05 AM, Milburn Stone said:

Alison Brie started to blow me away in this episode. I've seen her in other things (Mad Men, Community) and thought she was...fine, but the pleasure Ruth took in playing the "Russian Communist"--and then the pleasure Ruth took in Sam's approval--was really something to see. I'm now convinced Brie is a very special comic actress.

 

I thought she was really good in Community. She held her own with some seasoned comedians in that show, and also managed to bring emotional depth to a lot of the material. She was a really good physical comedian, and listening to Alison Brie in real life, I know she's a big fan of accent and roleplaying comedy, like with the Russian Communist gag here.

The funniest thing about it was that, once she started, and got some positive reinforcement from Sam, she just Would. Not. Stop. Which feels very in-character for Ruth.

On 19/07/2017 at 5:45 AM, JakeyJokes said:

 The part when Steel Rider was begging for her, saying "I'm here for you"? Pure camp. And also pure '80s wrestling. I would argue that the heyday of WWE's creative peak was in 2000 when Chris Kreski was their head writer, and that show was absolutely soap opera at its best points: You had "main" characters but they often criss-crossed with other characters on the canvas and you would create great storylines (or "angles", in wrestling speak) off of that to create more material for the weeks to come.

Goodness, can you tell I'm wrestling nerd? So I have to say I loved watching this show this with roommate who doesn't know ANYTHING about wrestling and still loved it. It did a good job of explaining things like "heel" is the badguy without being pedantic or hitting you in the face with it.

I watched WWF wrestling on and off as a kid (my favourites being Randy Savage and Bret Hart), and then later during the Attitude Era. I even delve back into it now and again when I hear something that catches my attention (like the women's matches in NXT, which garnered rave reviews). But what has stuck with me is not really the wrestling itself, which I often find kind of dull to watch. No, what I still find fascinating is the production and booking aspect of it all, and the history of that. The territories and the way wrestlers could rehash the same storylines and ideas in different areas, with differing levels of success. How they come up with characters and ideas, how they plan matches and angles. Often the tastelessness of angles, either through their exploitative nature or through the offensiveness of things that are designed to get strong reactions. I find all that stuff so interesting. I do wish this show delved into that a little more, rather than just sort of gloss over it with training montages.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

There was a lot to like in this episode!

Part of me couldn't help thinking that the pizza guy showing up is like the classic porn storyline, but Justine's crush on him was so cute (and still less awkward than when Ross tried to hit on the pizza delivery girl on Friends)! Loved that Arthie called to order another pizza to push things along.

Sam has been pretty hostile to Ruth thus far so it was nice to see him appreciate the fact that she has acting and improv skills on top of the fact that she's working her ass off to learn how to wrestle.

It was nice to see it click for Debbie that wrestling is a soap opera. I don't think she should reconcile with her cheating husband just because it was more comfortable with him. But I'm still glad that she slept with the Steel Horse guy. I think it was something she needed to do, just to do it. Bonus she got some great advice from him: you don't have to like your coworkers, but you still have to trust them, have a working relationship, and make each other look good. It's called being a professional (regardless of what your profession actually is).

I really like that Cherry is taking her responsibilities seriously.

On 6/25/2017 at 8:15 PM, The Companion said:

I agree that the Homewrecker is a better name, but only if Ruth could sell it. I suspect part of the problem is that she feels so damn guilty, she can't own it as a persona.

I think it's a combination of being embarrassed about what she did to her best friend but also not wanting to make things any worse with Debbie. In order for Ruth to have be the Homewrecker character, she would have to be wrecking the home of another character. Even if it weren't Debbie, it would still be painful for Debbie to have to see it every week.

But on top of all that, I think a persona/character is best when a lot of it can be acted out in the ring (as opposed to monologuing about it to the audience). Ruth would either have to talk about being a homewrecker every week or the show would have to bring in male characters for her to rub up against in the ring. Budgetwise, I don't think they want to add even more people to the payroll.

Plus the wrestling matches have to be mixed up from week to week. You can't have the same two characters wrestling each other every week. What reason would the Homewrecker have to fight with all of the other characters? The Russian character, on the other hand, could be enemies with just about everyone since there was an especially anti-Russian/communism feel in the United States in the 80s. Since Bash and Sam are having all of the other girls play stereotypes, the Russian could maybe team up with Jenny's character (because even bad guys need alies!).

[aradia22]

Loved Melrose's "workout bustier." The 80's were a terrible time for fashion but people knew how to put together a look. It was just a LOT of look.

Glad Ruth FINALLY found her character. It also finally injected some fun into her storylines. You get why the show is partially focused on her. She's got a great character but she also was able to improv to show how they could be of use to the sponsor.

Steel Horse was attractive but his advice for Debbie was a little on the nose. I hate writing in shows with adult characters where they learn lessons like they're children.

Feels like the show is finally going to start.