I Saw the TV Glow
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Release year: 2024
Nostalgia is both comforting and soul crushing. Owen bonds with Maddy over a TV show she’s obsessed with, The Pink Opaque. Maddy is miserable in her life, and decides to run away from home, giving Owen a choice that will affect the rest of his life.
Owen is suffocated at home by a father he’s terrified of. His mother is protective but terminally ill. In Maddy, he finds a kindred spirit, someone who understands him and will leave him videotapes at school when his father won’t let him stay up to watch his new favourite show. Owen is full of confusion and self-doubt over his sexuality. Watching The Pink Opaque, as dark and insidious as it is, he feels safe.
The Pink Opaque is about two friends, Tara and Isabel, who share a psychic connection with each other, have pink ghosts tattooed on their necks, and are in a good-versus-evil battle with a moon-faced Mr Melancholy. It’s a queer allegory, a trans allegory, and also an allegory for anyone who’s felt constricted and denied by the adult/capitalist/religious world.
Both Owen and Maddy work long hours in poorly paid jobs that snuff out their teenage playfulness and curiosity. Only Maddy finds an escape route, and it’s not clear how real even that is. Owen’s final call for help, a scream of agony and despair, is zipped up and apologised for. It’s not enough to keep our real life alive on the inside. We all need help in being real on the outside too.