I Saw the TV Glow
How do you experience life when you feel empty inside? I Saw the TV Glow takes the theme of using fantasy to forget about your troubles and catapults it to an extreme. The two main characters, Owen and Maddie, spend their teen years watching a Buffy the Vampire Slayer like show called The Pink Opaque. Both of them are loners, and in my opinion, autistic characters that have trouble with their parents, and classmates.
After several years, and seasons of the show, Maddie runs away coincidentally after the series finale of their show, leaving Owen to maneuver through life with extreme anxiety and solitude. His mother died of cancer early in the film, and his father was distant and lacking of understanding of his son's inability to cope.
I won't spoil what happens next, but it causes you to think. What if what you perceive as reality is but a myth? What if the fantasy that you use to escape is more than fantasy? What if you feel suffocated from depression that changing realities is your only way to survive?
I often write about my struggles with mental illness, and my love of seeing it in mainstream media being treated with respect. This film goes above and beyond respecting people's conditions, and going to the aforementioned extreme of a person's inability to work with it, or have a support system. Go see this movie. As the POV happens from a character with mental illness, it shows a different side of the disease. A lot of films feature other characters helping out, but what if there was no one to help but yourself? Perception becomes reality, and reality can be not something that can be dealt with. This gets scary, and knowing how people feel can be all the difference.
How do you experience life when you feel empty inside? I Saw the TV Glow takes the theme of using fantasy to forget about your troubles and catapults it to an extreme. The two main characters, Owen and Maddie, spend their teen years watching a Buffy the Vampire Slayer like show called The Pink Opaque. Both of them are loners, and in my opinion, autistic characters that have trouble with their parents, and classmates.
After several years, and seasons of the show, Maddie runs away coincidentally after the series finale of their show, leaving Owen to maneuver through life with extreme anxiety and solitude. His mother died of cancer early in the film, and his father was distant and lacking of understanding of his son's inability to cope.
I won't spoil what happens next, but it causes you to think. What if what you perceive as reality is but a myth? What if the fantasy that you use to escape is more than fantasy? What if you feel suffocated from depression that changing realities is your only way to survive?
I often write about my struggles with mental illness, and my love of seeing it in mainstream media being treated with respect. This film goes above and beyond respecting people's conditions, and going to the aforementioned extreme of a person's inability to work with it, or have a support system. Go see this movie. As the POV happens from a character with mental illness, it shows a different side of the disease. A lot of films feature other characters helping out, but what if there was no one to help but yourself? Perception becomes reality, and reality can be not something that can be dealt with. This gets scary, and knowing how people feel can be all the difference.