I Saw the TV Glow

Synopsis:  A teen gets obsessed with a TV series and weird things start to happen.

Back in the 90’s kids didn’t have the internet and their phones to become obsessed with, so they had to make do with television. Can you imagine waking up at 3 AM and not having your phone to look at? You’d have to spin the radio dial and be at the mercy of an overnight disc jockey.

Owen (Ian Foreman) is a lonely seventh grader in 1996 any-suburb, USA. His mom (Danielle Deadwyler) seems kindly, but she’s sick, so they don’t interact much. The dad, played by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, seems like a bastard. Adding to Owen’s isolation is the fact that he’s biracial in a majority white town.

One thing that he really relates to is the scary TV series, The Pink Opaque. One episode is about a sinister ice cream man who terrorizes a neighborhood because he has nothing else to do after the busy summer season. Idle hands do the devil’s work, I guess. After some kids tell the hideous ice cream-human freak that he could sell hot foods from his truck during the cold months, problem solved.

The common denominator of all the eps is the presence of two young women who have never met but connect through a ‘psychic plane.’ I figured that there would be a reveal of some connection between Owen & Maddy and the TV characters. Mostly, Owen will be filmed tromping along sadly through suburbia.

Sadly, Owen can’t watch the show from start to finish because he has a 10:30 bedtime. His parents should have made lights out-time at 10pm, to save the kid some aggravation. But the mom has other things on her mind. Meanwhile, the dad aggressively questions Owen as to why he’d want to watch a show that is for girls. I guess he thinks it’s for girls because the word pink is in the title.

One evening, Owen accompanies his mom to the local high school which serves as their area’s polling place. Before voting, his mom runs into an acquaintance. While his mom is in conversation, Owen mills around and notices a girl, sitting against a hallway wall, reading a book about the minutiae of The Pink Opaque. He’s hesitant to approach her but works up the courage to ask about the book. The girl turns out to be Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), a goth-ish sort of ninth grader. When Owen tells her about his love for the show, and his bedtime predicament, she invites him to watch the show at her place. Maddy says her parents don’t care what she does. 

Owen is averse to lying but tells his mom he’s going to a sleepover at another boy’s house. Trotting off with his sleeping bag, Owen arrives at Maddy’s. She’s not unwelcoming, but pretty blasé about his presence. In the background, we can hear her mom and stepfather arguing. Owen settles in and enjoys what looks like an average cheap show geared to young teens.

Now! I was expecting some real spookiness because the story is being narrated by a grown Owen (Justice Smith): A) in the dark of the night, B) in the forest, C) beside a crackling campfire.

But I Saw the TV Glow doesn’t get spooky, it gets creepy and is really draaawn outtt. 

Time passes (slowly) and Owen enters high school and starts having lunch with Maddy. Although high school is a social nightmare for both of them, at least they have each other to sit with at lunch. No surprise that they talk about The Pink Opaque.  Maddy asks Owen if he, too, sometimes feels that their favorite show is more real than real life. He stays quiet. Maddy tells Owen she will soon be getting out of their town.

On The Pink Opaque a character says she’s afraid of what’s inside of her. This resonates with Maddy, but Owen is afraid to think of what is inside of him.

Maddy draws a ghost on the back of Owen’s neck, leading him to experience a minor, and unsettling supernatural event. Thankfully it is not a tattoo and he can scrub it off.

I started to think about what the writer-director might be trying to say. I had questions… Maybe Owen and Maddy have some sort of body dysmorphia?? Is it about trans identity with the glowing TV representative of the real ID inside the wrong body? Why has Phoebe Bridgers shown up?

Owen by-the-campfire clearly survives whatever creepiness is to come, but the implication is that something has happened to his friend Maddy. Meanwhile we see flashbacks to his unsatisfying home life and being bullied at work. I felt sorry for Owen, but beyond summoning pity for the character, the movie doesn’t have much of a story. 

I will say that The Pink Opaque show within the movie was creepy, but the film itself wasn’t as good as Nickelodeon’s  Are  You Afraid of the Dark? Now that was scary!

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  C-

Cut to the Chase: The two leads are good, but the overall feel of the movie is amateurish.

Humor Highlight:  The disengaged dad looks bitter that he is forced to get involved with his son when the teen tries to jump into the tv.