I Saw the TV Glow
I Saw the TV Glow
I Saw the TV Glow – both written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun – is a delightful exploration of American queerness that portrays skweendom culture. ‘ ‘Horror-teen’ sub-genre is and perhaps will be perpetuated chiefly by the millennials who grew up hooked on the 80s and 90s television, but are old enough now to understand that the shows adults loved on Nick at Nite were far too different from what they remembered.
The feeling of embung me also includes the fact that there is nothing wrong with it – love some of my childhood cartoons (the good ones) thank you very much – but its picture takes rest on the sultry edge of the spoon to the extent that you are struggling against drowsiness itself thanks to the time the movie is over.
This is not possible that everyone speaking could escape hearing the story of a garden boy taking colorful plants out of the world and into his grandmother and before broadening engagements with him. I Saw the TV Glow’s aesthetics owed a lot to surreal killing scenes of Videodrome of 1983 and, a little more recently, Censor of 2021.
The fears it taps into are parasocial relationships where our existence becomes defined by our media and technology. In this narrative, Owen (Justice Smith and Ian Foreman) – nobody liked this character very much – is a loner boy with no identity. When someone asks him whether he considers himself ‘soft on boys’ or rather ‘crazy about girls’ he responds saying, ‘i think that I like TV shows.’
His favorite one – encouraged by his obsession on Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), a character who is a devotee of this show – is The Pink Opaque. It is aired at 10.30pm before the Kid’s Network is changed into adult content (figuratively speaking of course, i.e. Cartoon Network versus Adult Swim!).
Maddy insists that the said show is way too sophisticated in its mythology to be solicited towards its intended audience, although Owen’s father – who was distant – observes that it is a girl’s TV programme. As they reach initiations, they eventually become understood to be its central characters and a storyline going beyond the typical TV serial plot.
There are early warnings of danger that one should heed, and in a strikingly hysterical manner, I commonly add. Owen and Maddy are all combed and slackened jawed before the colorful pink and purple colors return to the program full view.
When there is no program running, the back screens are filled with such colors — trying to convey something, Isn’t it? So as expected from the typical owen et al’s movie-type, we get our standard-issue travelling in the dream and the opposite. Images of men with moonshaped faces intermittently flit across the screen while Owen and Maddy inhabit the world of their beloved series.
Whether these images frighten you or not, will depend on whether cheap-looking kids’ show animatronics glowing lights in blue are scary to you or not. For myself, I couldn’t just say much, not even a little.
Fusing the innocent aesthetics of kids television with scares is a very dangerous thing for the creators. Sadly, in this film, they turn ridiculous. It is not even so much the entrancing freak show the Davids Lynch Cronenberg one expects but more like TerrorVision. (Now that’s an obscure ’80s reference if there ever was one.)
Do you know what makes something scary? Motive and capability. The characters of I Saw the TV Glow are mostly blank slates, and for that reason, whatever cause they are supposed to fight for does not incite a single thrill.
Okay fair enough, that may be the intention in the first place. Owen’s struggle is that he does not know who he is, which could be an allegory for sexual orientation and gender identity. That’s the thing. He’s all idea and nothing but that. The writing is so B-grade that no characterisation has been fleshed out.
It also doesn’t do anything better, than to claim that the actors are functioning in that darkened-Nyquil-and-sleepwalking mode. The majority: animated conversations of love and family can never know excessive use of, is the presence of panics and stiff smiles in almost every scene. Smith and Lundy-Paine are not bad performers but then again, what they offer is hardly enough.
On the other hand, the aesthetic is too excessive. The story is conveyed through combinations of text and animation, as for instance, when Maddy hands Owen tapes of the show, her comments appear on screen.
Narration of this type is sometimes carried out by actors who communicate directly with the audience, such things occur very chaotically and are very annoying. Then, fragments of the motion picture are cut up into excessively long musical interludes. It is not that the choreographic piece is sloppy and uncoordinated as it seems; the boredom never helps.
This review may seem too much on the negative side; maybe it is too negative; however, I am tired of such films where the aesthetics and nostalgia are utilized throughout with absolutely nothing impactful to say. Especially during these times, when everybody is influenced by the media and is more than ever ‘child’s play’ there ought to be great films.
Sadly, those films that these subject matters todaydo exist only in this movie’s untouched past and this film hopes to achieve but does not. If I Saw the TV Glow appeals to some, fair enough, but for me, I Saw this movie blow.
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- Genre: Drama, horror
- Country: United States
- Director: Jane Schoenbrun
- Cast: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman
