From sequential Facebook postings during viewing.
Glamorous. Episode 1:
Not a good start. It's very archly self-conscious and the lead characters are constantly 'speechifying' making 'important points' and as a result there is no natural dramatic flow. It's all terribly self-consciously effortful...and VERY 'tick-boxey' in terms of characters and relationships. Even Kim Catteral has lost her spark.
I'll try a few more episodes but...
Glamorous: Episodes 2 to 4:
The standard set by the first episode (see previous posting) has, sadly, been more than maintained.
Where to start...
Marco continues to be one of THE most irritating characters ever. Intensely self-absorbed and always trivia-focused, it is NOT a good idea to have the central character as someone so irritatingly unlikeable. His 'inspirational' speeches/statements continue to make the most vapid of Instagram postings seem profound. NOT a good focus for the central character in a series.
Madolyn continues to be a dreary cipher - primarily because of the script and the terror of making her anything like Miranda Priestley on whom she is clearly meant to be based but in recent episodes she has looked slightly less bored with everything going on around her.
Parker is a cookie-cutter 'hot gay' - the epitome of the self-absorbed circuit queen with his body obsession - fine though it admittedly is. But that is ALL he has.
Likewise Chad, the nepo-baby hot gay. Its a completely one-note performance (cause; scriptwriters) - and a rather poorly-acted one at that; eye-bulging is not a string emotional response.
Ben, with his (inexplicable) unrequited crush on Marco does have his endearing moments but he is very much a one-note character. There is only so much that can be achieved, dramatically, by having one character follow another around with puppy eyes.
The only positive element in the last episode or so has been the burgeoning relationship between Venetia and Britt. These two do have some degree of depth and the slowly developing relationship is, potentially, intriguing and could be well done.
Be interested to hear of other views on this series. Jack Cullen what have you and your world made of the series?
Glamorous: Episodes 5 to 7:
Episode 5 was as weak as all the others to date with the faults previously mentioned and characterised by a complete lack of drive; dramatically it was very flabby.
But Episode 6 – hurrah; FINALLY something to celebrate. In this one there was a single dramatic focus (the frantic push for a successful campaign with an imminent deadline). And with this the characters finally began to seem more ‘real’ with actual convincing emotions, rather than mere gesturing of such and one began to get some sort of sense of the relationships between them.
These positives were largely continued in the subsequent episode with the pre title credit sequence with Madolyn and Marco which was really rather good – funny, stylish appealing and endearing. And Marco and Parker almost seemed to be getting plausible as a possible relationship and the use of Ben in the mix was, for the fiest time, more real and convincing. But sadly, at the end of the episode (7) the drama again fell back on predictable tropes and situations with flat and unconvincing dialogue.
Glamorous: Episodes 8 to 9:
Well, endgame is approaching – but, as ever, via clichéd situations and settings with new characters, such as those introduced for the Ptown House Party group being flat clichéd, representing the wprst aspects of ‘gay culture/the gay world. And this is one thing that is a pity about this in that by relying so heavily on tired clichés and lazy writing, the picture of this community plays into all the biased and clichéd old tropes that I, for one, thought had been put to rest. Certainly for a series which made such a heavy-handedly ‘thing’ about being oh so aware of all aspects of gender and representation in the world today.
However, thankfully, there was one strong scene between Ben and Marco at the end of episode 8 which did do something to relieving the weaknesses that have been so marked throughout this series.
Chad however is finally being allowed to be something slightly more interesting than the cardboard cut-out he has been since the start – and this was maintained towards the end of Episode 9, particularly in terms of his relationship with his mother. And there was developed a nicely neat, if a little over-pat, parallel in the mother/son relationships shown in the show. But again, it was done pretty superficially. The dramatic pacing got better again in this episode too with better dramatic ebb and flow, tension and relaxation. This is one area where this latter part of the show has got better, certainly compared to the very weak opening episodes.
Glamorous: Final episode.
Well, this final episode provided a rather better written, plausible and enjoyable ending to the series. There are a number of possible routes for a second series. Let’s hope that the writing just gets better and builds on what was beginning to be achieved in the last few episodes.