Mikes Film Talk

The 2024 film I Saw the TV Glow really is an opaque life, one that seemingly mirrors fiction but instead reflects real life. Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun gives us an agonizingly slow slice of suburbia. There is also, perhaps, a nod to internet horror, “Creepy Pasta?”

The YouTube horror sensation that is said to have influenced Channel Zero. *A show that creeped (No pun intended.) me out. That “tooth” man was incredibly disturbing.* I Saw the TV Glow feels like an overlong episode of either creation.

It takes a long time to reach a payout in this film, but just wait.

It is worth it.

The Story

Maddy and Owen are two misfits. They both, however, share a love of television. In particular a Young Adult TV show titled; The Pink Opaque. In the show, two female protagonists battle a number of scary monsters.

One day Maddy disappears and shortly after, the show is cancelled. Owen limps through his life without her.

Then she returns.

The Main Cast

Justice Smith is Owen. A young man who is, perhaps, autistic. He also has no real gender identity. He is attracted to Maddy, but only as another fan of The Pink Opaque.

Brigette Lundy-Paine is Maddy. Their character announces to Owen that they like girls. They send Owen VHS tapes of The Pink Opaque when he can no longer watch it on television with her on Saturday nights.

Helena Howard is Issabel, one half of The Pink Opaque team.

Lindsey Jordan is Tara, the other half of TPQ.

It Works but oh so slowly

I Saw the TV Glow crawls. The pace is beyond slow. It is at times agonizing to watch. And it is opaque.

not able to be seen through; not transparent.

“the windows were opaque with steam”

But.

There appears to be a method to this madness. It is classified as a horror and a drama. However, drama is the better descriptive term. Underneath all the hodge podge of The Pink Opaque, the film all boils down to life.

Not a supernatural battle of wills against weird monsters. *A brilliant bit in the films shows Owen, all grown up, rewatching The Pink Opaque. He is disappointed to find it “cheesy and cheap.” Owen has outgrown the show.*

But leaving behind the whole, Mr Melancholy plot line, both Owen and Maddie complain that their lives, recently; now they’re older, is going by too fast.

What used to take days or weeks now takes, seemingly, seconds or minutes. Days flash by. This is when we realize that Owen and Maddy have grown up, despite fighting against it their entire lives.

Back to life

I Saw the TV Glow may well be all about the opaque nature of our lives. There are moments, however, the drag us back into the “life” of The Pink Opaque. There is a sort of odd “duality” going on here. Owen dressing as Isabell; playing off Maddy’s Tara. Battling against Mr Melancholy. *And surely, when one thinks about, what is Melancholy? A sad and pensive state, for no apparent reason. A state both young people are in during most of the film.

The verdict

I Saw the TV Glow is an unsteady and slow 3 stars. There is no real light bulb moment of a reveal. It is a plodding look at what may just be, at the core of it, two very societally challenged youngsters. It is, however, almost impossible to stop watching until the very end. It is streaming on Max.

The Trailer