Posted in: Netflix, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: bleeding cool, cable, Glow, netflix, opinion, streaming, television, tv, wrestling

GLOW Post-Mortum: Why I'm Glad My Favorite Show Got Cancelled

Everything in the headline is true: I am glad Netflix's GLOW is not returning for its previously planned fourth and final season…but it's not because I hate the show. On the contrary – I adore GLOW. I love the cast, I love where the stories went and were going, and I especially love last season's addition of Geena Davis and every single one of her storylines and characterizations. That said, here's why I'm glad GLOW won't be returning to our screens any time soon.

First and foremost, COVID-19 restrictions hit the film and television industry in Los Angeles hard. 8 months later now, the city has still outlawed dining inside restaurants, being in public without a face covering, movie theaters, and most importantly to my point, gyms.

So what does this mean for our gorgeous ladies of wrestling? Being shot in Los Angeles, they are still subject to the same laws, albeit there are exceptions and separate Union guidelines for filming safety, and things like close contact sports such as basketball, volleyball, boxing, and wrestling are very much out. Especially when actors can't wear masks while doing it, because the show takes place in say the 1980s or any time before this hellscape we call 2020.

If normal residents of the city can't run on a treadmill socially distanced from each other while wearing masks, why should Hollywood be allowed to have actors, doubles, and stunt people wrestle each other day after day for months on end without any form of PPE? Actors are still people, no matter how famous their faces are, and if the rest of the population isn't allowed to do those things because it's unsafe, why should actors be allowed to for the sake of entertainment? Hollywood should still have to follow the same rules everyone else does, they're not special just because they have a visual worldwide platform. If anything, they should be under heightened scrutiny to set an example for everyone else because they are so visible.

At the end of the day, America is still grappling with this pandemic, and with more and more productions in Hollywood shutting down over positive cases, I have to ask: why do we deem this worth it? Are we really that desperate for new content that we are willing to keep tuning in to watch a blatant disregard for safety and protocols? We're done letting Hollywood get away with abusing women and lacking diversity, so why are we standing by and letting them endanger the people who make these shows? Why are we, as viewers, letting Hollywood do things that we can't? Local movie theaters go under, but the film industry is still thriving and churning out Sharknado 8 and bragging about filming movies on the DL whilst everyone else was safer at home. That's not okay. If I'm safer at home, that means Zendaya is too, we shouldn't be celebrating her for going off to shoot a movie in the middle of a pandemic because she's bored with staying home.

Relating this back to GLOW, I love the series, and that's why I'm glad it's not coming back right now. Would I love to see a movie to wrap everything up once this pandemic is behind us? Absolutely! But it's not safe to bring actors back in the way they would need to for GLOW right now, and I am incredibly glad to see one show valuing actors' safety and the example they set for their audience over a television show. I wish the cast and crew of GLOW a very safe time and hope to see everyone in other projects…you know, once it's safe.

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