GLOW – WISE Score & Parent Review | Screenwise

GLOW

Name: Screenwise
Author: Screenwise

show2017

42%

WISE Score

Avg. Tomatometer

Empowering 1980s lady-wrestler dramedy with killer reviews and killer amounts of nudity, profanity, and cocaine—strictly for grown-ups.

93%

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GLOW

show

TV-MA, 2017

42%

WISE Score

Avg. Tomatometer

Empowering 1980s lady-wrestler dramedy with killer reviews and killer amounts of nudity, profanity, and cocaine—strictly for grown-ups.

93%

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Screenwise Verdict

GLOW is genuinely good television—witty, well-acted, visually fun, and packed with heart beneath the spandex. The critics loved it, audiences loved it, and for adults, it's an easy recommend.

But let's be crystal clear: this is not a family show, not a teen show, and absolutely not something you want your 13-year-old stumbling into on Netflix. The nudity is graphic and frequent, the language would make a sailor blush, and the cocaine scenes aren't exactly subtle. Common Sense Media says 16+, and that's the floor, not a suggestion.

The empowerment themes are real—these women fight for respect, agency, and their place in the spotlight. But the show packages those themes in a thoroughly adult wrapper that often prioritizes shock value and sexuality. For mature older teens who can contextualize the '80s setting and handle explicit content, there's substance here about identity, friendship, and resilience. For everyone else? Wait a few years. This one's for the grown-ups.

Age Fit

This is strictly for ages 16+ and honestly better suited for adults. The graphic nudity, explicit sex, drug use, and pervasive profanity make it inappropriate for younger teens despite the positive themes. If you've got a mature 16-17 year old interested in performance, feminism, or 1980s culture, it could work with context—but most families will want to wait until college years.

WISE Breakdown

Wholesome

While the show celebrates female empowerment and friendship among a diverse cast of misfits, it's thoroughly adult in execution. Frequent graphic nudity (full-frontal female nudity in showers and locker rooms, topless scenes), explicit sex scenes, heavy profanity ('fuck,' 'cunt,' 'tits,' 'shit,' 'bitch' used throughout), cocaine use, and crude humor (including a woman squirting ketchup from her vagina as a gag) dominate the tone. The positive themes of perseverance and women fighting for agency in a male-dominated industry are real, but they're packaged in a TV-MA wrapper that's decidedly not wholesome for younger viewers.

Imaginative

GLOW brings a creative, colorful take on 1980s wrestling culture with inventive character personas, over-the-top costumes, and choreographed wrestling performances. The show explores how these women reinvent themselves through theatrical personas and staged combat, blending drama with the campy aesthetic of '80s TV. It's a fun, stylized period piece that plays with gender roles and performance art, though it's more about watching creativity than inviting participation.

Safe

This is emphatically not safe for kids. Multiple scenes of full-frontal female nudity, topless locker room sequences, a long explicit sex scene in Season 3, characters snorting cocaine together, pervasive strong profanity, and crude sexual humor make this a hard TV-MA. Common Sense Media rates it 16+ and warns it's not appropriate for children. While the staged wrestling isn't gory, the show is packed with mature content that would be completely inappropriate for a child to stumble upon.

Enriching

GLOW offers genuine insight into women's struggles in entertainment, the performative nature of identity, and the hustle of making it in a male-dominated industry. The historical backdrop of 1980s LA and the real Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling gives it educational weight, and the diverse cast tackles issues of race, body image, sexuality, and ambition with nuance. For mature teens (16+) who can handle the explicit content, there's real substance about friendship, resilience, and finding your voice. The show doesn't talk down to its audience and treats complex themes with intelligence.

Parent Info

✓

Why It Might Be Great

Smart, funny exploration of female friendship and empowerment in a male-dominated industry
Fantastic period detail and campy 1980s aesthetic that's genuinely entertaining
Diverse cast tackling real issues: body image, race, sexuality, ambition
Strong critical acclaim (93% on Rotten Tomatoes, 82 Metacritic) for good reason—sharp writing and performances
For older teens (16+), offers meaningful conversation about identity, performance, and finding your voice

⚠

What to Watch For

Full-frontal nudity, topless scenes, and explicit sex—this is genuinely graphic, not implied
Constant strong profanity including 'fuck,' 'cunt,' and other choice words throughout all three seasons
Characters doing cocaine together, heavy drinking, references to casual sex and drunkenness
Crude humor that crosses lines (vaginal ketchup gag, anyone?)
Despite empowerment themes, the show leans heavily on sexuality and exploitation to tell its story

Conversation Starters

"What do you think about how these women used wrestling personas to express parts of themselves they couldn't in regular life?"
"The show is set in the '80s—how do you think women in entertainment are treated differently now versus then?"
"Ruth makes some pretty terrible friendship choices. What would you have done differently?"
"Why do you think the show includes so much explicit content alongside its empowerment message? Does it help or hurt what they're trying to say?"

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