There's a moment in GLOW, Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch's new Netflix Original series loosely based on the 1980s women's wrestling promotion of the same name, where I found myself simultaneously cheering, laughing and crying. (Oh, and punching the air.)
It's the women's first official wrestling match, one of many hurdles along their road to filming the pilot episode of G.L.O.W. The bout starts out stiff as a Year 9 drama presentation but slowly begins to soar as the "Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling" find their feet.
![Alison Brie says making GLOW was a life-changing experience.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170702175610im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/o/6/g/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx156b.png/1498714541817.jpg)
By "find their feet" I mean "embrace the inherent outrageousness of professional wrestling", and by doing that, they magic up some of the most thrilling and, yes, empowering television in years; the sort of scene that could whip young (or old) women into a frenzy of inspiration.
It shouldn't have been a surprise that GLOW turned out to be one of my favourite shows of the past few years, since it ticks all my boxes: it's set in the mid-'80s, created by women, predominantly directed and written by women, and features a gloriously diverse cast of women doing honest-to-god diving crossbodies and German suplexes that wouldn't be out of place in my local wrestling promotion's Saturday night bouts.
And yet there is something surprising about GLOW: how inspired I felt by it, and then, discovering that the show had had the same effect on its cast.
Betty Gilpin, who plays the flinty former soap star turned babyface wrestler Debbie Eagan, wrote a heartfelt essay for Glamour magazine in which she detailed the vagaries of life on the Hollywood circuit for a young actress, and how different the experience of making GLOW has been.
"GLOW was the first set I'd been on run by women. I saw power and care together for the first time. Seeing women possess those two things simultaneously was a huge lesson for me," she wrote. "My body was harder from giving it protein and vegetables and treats every day so that I'd be strong enough to throw Alison Brie into the air. I was flexible from stretching every day so I could guide Marianna Palka safely to the ground. My stomach was tight because I needed to engage my core when Kimmy Gatewood swung me into a suplex. I hadn't winced at the mirror in months. I stood taller. I took up space."
Perhaps this speaks to me because I've been on a similar journey, learning to fuel my body in order to achieve feats of strength, both physical and emotional, I never thought possible.
![GLOW was inspired by a real-life women's wrestling TV series from the late-1980s.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170702175610im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/o/6/g/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gx156b.png/1498714541817.jpg)
(Discovering that the cast did most of their own wrestling moves, trained by former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Chavo Guerrero, Jr, has also awoken my semi-dormant desire to give wrestling training a go; if I snap my neck trying to do a diving corkscrew moonsault from the top rope, please send the bill to Netflix.)
Alison Brie, who plays the show's nominal central character (it's a true ensemble cast), the unlucky-in-love-and-work Ruth Wilder, has also found the making of GLOW to be a life-changing experience. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Brie enthused, "I feel a lot stronger in general. My arms are much more muscular. The way I workout is different, the way I eat is different. I'm always thinking about protein and eating enough calories, whereas in the past as an actress, I think the goal was to eat as little as possible sometimes. Now, that is not the case at all."
![Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin as two of the "Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling".](http://web.archive.org./web/20170702175610im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/o/6/f/e/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gx156b.png/1498714541817.jpg)
(There have been knock-on benefits for other cast members: Sydelle Noel, who plays stuntwoman turned wrestler Cherry, found her GLOW training helped secure her a stunt-heavy role in the upcoming Black Panther: "I pretty much did all of the moves I learned on GLOW. I was throwing myself on the floor, and they were like, 'Woah'.")
When was the last time you heard a group of actresses talking in such, well, glowing tones about their preparation process for a role? Lest we forget Anne Hathaway's horrific "diet" for Les Miserables ("I just had to stop eating"), or the nightmarish liquid sustenance that gets Victoria's Secret models in Fashion Show Shape.
Where GLOW really blitzes the competition, however, is its ensemble cast. Like the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, the women here are truly diverse (even as they wrestle with the gaudy, godawful racist and sexist stereotypes that have long dogged professional wrestling character creation).
It's a joy to see someone like Kia Stevens, who plays Tamme "The Welfare Queen", at centre stage. The sole professional wrestler in the female cast, during her brief time as WWE superstar Kharma she was one of only three women to ever enter the Royal Rumble, and she's carved out a solid career on the independent wrestling circuit. If there's any justice in the world, her commanding performance in GLOW should have WWE immediately on the phone to call her back up. (At the very least, let's hope we get to see Welfare Queen do a diving splash, one of Stevens' signature moves, in season 2.)
In a way, the show chronicles all of the female characters' education in taking up space: the eccentric goth who becomes a she-wolf; the meek punk chick who takes a stand; the daughter of a wrestling legend who learns to trust her own star-power.
"On the one side, it's about physicality, feeling comfortable and powerful within yourself, and it's also about discovering your inner warrior and your alter ego," Brie told The Guardian. "Especially for the women here, who can be messy and aggressive in ways that women [in real life] so often feel like they can't."
That all the characters do this in a variety of ways is what makes GLOW special: it knows that "empowerment" is not necessarily about standing up and yelling (or looking sexy), and instead it might just be about finding the courage to live as your authentic self.
But if you can live as your authentic self while delivering a sit-out powerbomb to all those who stand in your way, even better.