Intense And Stylish Thriller Is A Mind-Bending Media Obsession

By Robert Scucci
| Published 15 seconds ago

Growing up in the suburbs can be an isolating and suffocating experience, and I can’t think of any piece of media that captures the lonely reality of teenage life better than 2024’s I Saw the TV Glow. Set in the mid 90s in what may as well be any suburban town, the film follows parasocial relationships, friendship, and coming of age while questioning your identity every step of the way. Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow is the second entry in their Screen Trilogy, following 2021’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, a microbudget project that tackles similar ideas in a wildly different context.

Though transgender themes sit prominently at I Saw the TV Glow’s forefront, its emotional core is easy to connect with for any teen trying to carve out a sense of self against the pressures of conformity. The internal push and pull of growing up is palpable in every scene, and if you ever felt out of sync with the world around you, this is absolutely a must watch because it handles that struggle with rare sincerity.

The Show Within The Show

I Saw the TV Glow centers on Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), two isolated teens who bond over a TV program called The Pink Opaque. Owen lives with his sickly yet controlling parents, while Maddy is more of a free spirit in the sense that we never actually meet her family, suggesting that she’s left to her own devices more often than not.

Sneaking out whenever he can to watch the show at Maddy’s house, Owen becomes engrossed, and Maddy fills him in on the complicated lore because she’s so attached to the series that it feels more real to her than her actual life. The show itself is a stylish tribute to teen scream staples like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with a big bad named Mr. Melancholy (Emma Portner) and a monster of the week structure spanning five seasons.

Maddy eventually runs away, hoping Owen will join her, but he’s too afraid to follow. He slips back into his lonely routine, clinging to The Pink Opaque and rewatching tapes Maddy made for him on nights he couldn’t sneak out. The series becomes comfort food as the years go by. When Maddy suddenly returns, convinced she has been living inside The Pink Opaque, Owen wants to believe her but isn’t sure he can. During this time, she explains that she was buried alive like the show’s heroes, Isabel (Helena Howard) and Tara (Lindsey Jordan), and that breaking through that suffocating experience allowed her to emerge as her true self.

Firm in her belief that she is a character from the show, Maddy fails to convince Owen that he’s trapped in a similar limbo. When he turns down her offer to help him make it to the other side, they separate again, and Owen grows older wondering what his life could have been if he had followed her path.

The Struggle Of Finding Yourself

I Saw the TV Glow gets its point across through neon colors bursting through an oppressively beige world. As Owen and Maddy’s lives intersect with The Pink Opaque, they use the show’s mythology to explore who they are, and it becomes clear that Maddy sees the light while Owen is paralyzed by fear. As an analogy for coming out as transgender, the film draws a stark contrast between Maddy’s escape from suffocation and Owen’s inability to break free from the expectations placed on him. Both characters face similar internal battles, using media as a coping mechanism in their isolated suburban lives.

While the message resonates strongly in that context, I Saw the TV Glow speaks to something much broader. I found it easy to connect with both Owen and Maddy because it’s incredibly common to lose your sense of self when your worldview is narrow and the TV becomes your window into possibilities you don’t see in your day-to-day life. It becomes a stand-in for community, identity, and hope.

Surreal, stylish, and occasionally suffocating, I Saw the TV Glow is a visually arresting take on identity, alienation, and the hope of breaking through to the other side, whatever that means for you. It’s a wild emotional journey, and you’ll never look at your TV the same way after giving it a proper watch.

I Saw the TV Glow is streaming on Max.