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Netflix's GLOW Canceled, Leaving LGBTQ+ Storylines Up in the AirĀ 

Netflix's GLOW Canceled, Leaving LGBTQ+ Storylines Up in the AirĀ 

Betty Gilpin, Alison Brie

The show's third season is now its last.Ā 

Despite green-lighting its fourth season, Netflix has canceled GLOW, the beloved series set in the world of '80s-era women's wrestling that stars Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin leading an ensemble of mostly women.

The series, which was supposed to be in production on its fourth and final season, has been in a holding pattern since March when production halted due to the pandemic.

Now GLOW, from creators Carly Mensch and Liz Flahive, has been canceled after three seasons. Budgetary concerns about how to keep the massive cast and crew safe as productions struggle with how to get back to work factored into Netflix's decision to cancel the series, according to Deadline.

The cancellation leaves the show's storylines unresolved, including a few LGBTQ+ stories.

GLOW's third season followed the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling to Las Vegas for a sit-down run. During the season, Bash (Chris Lowell), the brainchild behind creating the women's wrestling show, began to come out as queer. The series also touched on Bash coping with the loss of a friend to AIDS and the fear of coming out amid the height of the AIDS epidemic.

In its second season, GLOW introduced a love story between wrestlers Yolanda (Shakira Barrera) and Arthie (Sunita Mani).

Mensch and Flahive addressed the show's cancellation in a statement.

"COVID has killed actual humans. It's a national tragedy and should be our focus. COVID also apparently took down our show. Netflix has decided not to finish filming the final season of GLOW. We were handed the creative freedom to make a complicated comedy about women and tell their stories. And wrestle. And now that's gone. There's a lot of sh-tty things happening in the world that are much bigger than this right now. But it still sucks that we don't get to see these 15 women in a frame together again."

Marc Maron, who played the grizzled coach Sam on the series, summed up the cancellation in a tweet.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.