take me to the pink opaque

I Saw the TV Glow Review

This newsletter contains spoilers.

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I Saw the TV Glow (2024) - ✰✰✰✰

I Saw the TV Glow (2024) has been on my to-watch list all year, and I not only managed to avoid spoilers - I managed to avoid learning ANYTHING about this movie. Truly, the only thing I knew about this film was that it had a killer original soundtrack. Songs from the movie kept popping up on my Spotify daylist (which is, in this moment, titled ‘Euphoric night drive Friday evening’, if that tells you anything about the vibes), and I was saving them to playlists before even realizing what they were. Once I realized, I was even more excited to see the movie.

I Saw the TV Glow (2024), from director Jane Schoenbrun - who also directed We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), which I loved - tells the story of two outcast teens, Owen and Maddy, who bond over a shared love of a television show called The Pink Opaque. Both are at once horrified and mesmerized by the images on screen, and agree that, though the show is technically on the young adult network, it is FAR too scary for most kids. As they become more immersed in the world of The Pink Opaque - which is ruled by Mr. Melancholy, the man in the moon, and features monsters like scary ice cream cone Mr. Sprinkly - Owen and Maddy begin to feel their realities warp, and the lines between the show and their lives start to blur.

Ultimately, Maddy moves away and life goes on, as it does. But when she returns a few years later, she claims to have been living inside the Pink Opaque - fully convinced Owen’s world is the fictional one of the two. She pleads with him to take his own life by literally burying himself alive, and claims that only by dying in this world will he be able to wake up as his true self. We see Owen try to resist what he at first believes to be a delusion, but as time and space once again start to bend, he loses touch with reality (punctuated by an incredible and incredibly chaotic performance by Conner O’Malley as Owen’s boss at the Fun Center). As the credits roll we are left wondering what’s real, what’s not real, and if it even matters.

Without giving too much else away, this movie fucking rules. It perfectly captures the paradigm shift we all experience as kids (or as adults!) after seeing something on television that we’d never even imagined could exist (and that maybe shouldn’t). It changes everything - the way we see the world and the way we see ourselves.

I will say, though, this film isn’t for everyone. It brings a certain Cheddar Goblin vibe to the party that some viewers (probably) don’t really like. But readers of this newsletter know that I love Mandy (2018), and especially Cheddar Goblin, so this one gets 4/5 stars from me. The practical effects make it gross and scary in a childlike way, but the message is profound. And I haven’t even scratched the surface of what this film has to say about identity and gender and the nature of time, but that’s a conversation for a different day.

And the soundtrack! My god, the soundtrack. Not only does this movie literally star Lindsey Erin Jordan of Snail Mail, and features a cameo from the one and only Phoebe Bridgers, the soundtrack is packed with bangers from some of my very favorite artists like Florist and Sadurn. When we heard Frances Quinlan’s voice over the credits, Eric and I both cheered (Hop Along was one of our very first shows together). Here is the whole track list, for your consideration:

1. Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl - yeule

2. Another Season - Frances Quinlan

3. Starburned and Unkissed - Caroline Polachek

4. Riding Around in the Dark - Florist

5. Big Glow - Bartees Strange

6. Taper - Maria BC

7. Psychic Wound - King Woman

8. If I Could - Jay Som

9. Green - L'Rain

10. Moonlight - The Weather Station

11. Photograph - Drab Majesty

12. The 90s - Proper

13. How Can I Get Out? - Sadurn

14. Bury - King Woman

15. Claw Machine - Sloppy Jane featuring Phoebe Bridgers

All of this to say, I Saw The TV Glow (2024) gets a highly recommend from me. It’s weird and nasty and heartfelt and thought-provoking and it rocks really hard. Trust me on this one.