Big hair, neon leotards, and a blaze of 80s nostalgia: GLOW was one TV show that always kept us coming back for more. 

It figures, then, that we were bereft when it was announced back in October that the popular Netflix series had been cancelled, despite having already been confirmed for a fourth and final season.

Based on the characters of a real 80s wrestling group named The Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling, the fictionalised comedy series followed a group of misfit actors vying for glory by body-slamming each other on the mat. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Alison Brie, who plays the ever-enthusiastic Ruth, opened up about going through the various stages of grief when she learned the news that GLOW was going to be un-renewed.

“I guess I felt somewhat mentally prepared because the show had kept pushing,” she explained. “It’s something that was not really made public, but what we all knew behind the scenes was that the date at which we might go back to shoot kept pushing and pushing and pushing. So something like that is never a good sign. So I had some time to mentally prepare, and this year, as a whole, has also been a major perspective shifter for me. 

The actress went on to explain that in spite of the disappointment, making the show had been an overwhelmingly positive experience.

“At the end of the day, I feel mostly just grateful that we made a really great show for three seasons,” she continued. “We had a great run. We don’t get to do that final fourth season, but the show had already changed my life in so many ways for the better. I don’t know what else I could have taken away from that experience, so, to me, it’s all still net positive at the end of the day.”

Although the series was lauded, quite rightly, for its complex, nuanced characterisations, and exploration of personal ambition rather than sisterhood, it seems that a powerful bond exists between the actors off-camera, too.

Brie went to explain that she and one of the show’s other stars, Betty Gilpin, gathered all the actors together in a group Zoom in light of the news to offer one another a message of support.

“I think we all learned about it on a Friday, and then the group chat was buzzing over the weekend,” she recalled. “Then we did a Zoom Monday morning, right before the news was released publicly.”

“And I’m so glad we did because it’s always lovely to see all the girls’ faces. As you can imagine, in a cast of 15 women, there were a lot of different emotions that everyone was feeling and it’s always nice to touch base in as close to face-to-face as we could.”

Happily, it doesn’t look as though Brie will be stepping away from the spotlight any time soon. The actor has revealed she wrote a romantic comedy with her husband Dave Franco during quarantine, and is currently in the process of attaching actors and producers.

And if you’re mourning the GLOW-shaped hole in your heart, you can watch Brie in Clea DuVall’s Christmas LGBTQ rom-com Happiest Season, and Emerald Fennell’s upcoming thriller Promising Young Woman.

Images: Netflix; Getty