GLOW is better than ever, but will Netflix give it a chance for a "great" Season 4?

Variety

"The third season of GLOW....is the clearest example of how much Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch’s show has evolved in such a relatively short amount of time," says Caroline Framke, pointing out that the Netflix wrestling drama "encompasses story possibilities like no other on TV." "Though the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling have now relocated to a glitzy Las Vegas hotel, their stories include far less of the actual wrestling than before. Instead, three seasons in, the show takes advantage of the fact that it’s now freer to move past everyone’s basics and explore their issues in more depth," says Framke. "It also sets up several storylines that could pay off big should GLOW get a deserved fourth season order." The problem is that Netflix has a tendency of late of canceling shows after their second or third season. Season 3's ending, says Framke, is "downright gutsy given reports that GLOW, critically acclaimed though it is, has been teetering on the edge of cancellation since its debut. It also signals a willingness on the show’s part to keep pushing itself alongside its heroines and dream bigger with every chance it gets. GLOW would still be a very good show if it ended with season 3, but given its upward trajectory, it only stands to be great in season 4."

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• GLOW doesn’t feel like a period piece, or for that matter a wrestling show anymore: "It has never been afraid to get dark or to unveil cliffhangers that feel more like existential threats, if not to the actual show than certainly to the plucky wrestling troupe the show is ostensibly about," says Rob Harvilla. "But the triumph here is that the characters, in all their vibrant messiness, have fully transcended the premise. GLOW doesn’t need the ’80s trappings anymore. It doesn’t even need the ring."
• GLOW felt like a different show in Season 3: "I wasn’t a big fan of Netflix’s GLOW," says Mathew Gilbert, who found that the first two seasons left him cold. "So I went into season 3 with an attitude," he says. "And I finished it with relief. It felt like a different show, with multi-episode arcs devoted to each of the characters. Some of those arcs were more satisfying than others, my favorite being the coming out of Sheila as a not-she-wolf, but all together they gave the season a much-needed depth. The characters now have three-dimensional relationships with one another, since they have history together. The third season makes the first two look introductory."
• Season 3 is GLOW’s least idealistic installment yet, and the one most comfortable lingering in discomfort
• GLOW Season 3 balances its celebration of a woman’s power with acknowledging the obstacles to that power
• Creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch were determined to deliver a season with so many radical changes that it felt like making a brand-new show
• Liz Flahive: "Having an existential crisis in Las Vegas just felt very funny and natural to us — an emotional reckoning in Vegas"
• Costume designer Beth Morgan breaks down her favorite looks from Season 3
• "We’ve had no wardrobe malfunctions," says Beth Morgan. "....We are so lucky; we’ve never had anything pop out."
• GLOW's Gayle Rankin loved unleashing her inner Liza Minnelli as Sheila “the She Wolf”
• Marc Maron is "totally kind of hot" in Season 3