“GLOW” premiered its second season on Netflix on Friday, June 29, just a few days after Emmy voting for nominations ended on June 25. These new episodes won’t be eligible for consideration until 2019, but they could give the show a major boost in visibility during the next round of voting when the academy is picking their winners.
The show will leave a good impression on voters if its impression on critics is any indication. The second season has a MetaCritic score of 85, which is up four points from its season-one average. It’s a “massively entertaining” collection of new episodes that “surprise in the best way possible.” The storylines are “more specific and grounded,” and they’re anchored by Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin as estranged friends and sparring partners Ruth and Debbie, who are “the show’s greatest strengths.”
With Emmy nominations less than two weeks away, the show is predicted to earn bids for Best Comedy Series and Best Comedy Actress (Brie) based on the combined predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users. Earlier this season it earned a Golden Globe nomination for Brie as well as four SAG Award nominations, four Critics’ Choice nominations and two Writers Guild nominations, so it has generated significant support from the media and the industry alike.
How do you think season two of the show will affect its season-one Emmy prospects? Check out some of the reviews below, and join the discussion on this and more with your fellow TV fans in our forums.
Caroline Framke (Variety): “Season 2 — which picks up as ‘GLOW’ starts drawing modest attention in the Wild West of basic cable — gets to cash in on all that progress to tell stories that are much more specific and grounded in the characters as they’ve evolved … Brie and Gilpin have always been the show’s greatest strengths, and that largely holds true in Season 2.”
Melanie McFarland (Salon): “Though the stories of its characters continue apace, and certain aspects of the first season repeat (it’s a wrestling series, so there always has to be a gigantic showstopping bout), it still manages to surprise in the best way possible. Wrestling is heroic entertainment fueled by stories of physical triumph; there’s an energy exuding from the very marrow of this show.”
Allison Keene (Collider): “Whereas Season 1 of Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch‘s series could at times be sharp and caustic, Season 2 leans much more into quirky humor, and even a genuine sweetness … Season 2 also provides more space to get to know the women better in their personal lives, which is where ‘GLOW’s’ dramatic work solidifies it as more than just a breezy summer series.”
Kristi Turnquist (The Oregonian): “‘GLOW’ – which streams its massively entertaining second season beginning June 29 – takes an outlandish premise about a hapless group of female pro wrestlers, and populates the show with sensitively observed, fully formed characters … Thanks to the affectionate touch of series creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, we see these flawed, hopeful, sometimes desperate wannabes and has-beens as human and complicated.”
Be sure to make your Emmy predictions today so that Hollywood insiders can see how their TV shows and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions as often as you like until just before nominees are announced on July 12. And join in the fun debate over the 2018 Emmys taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our television forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
