I Saw the TV Glow

How old were you the first time you felt like a piece of media was made specifically for you? Maybe even about you?

The powerful reflective nature of media and how it can help us see ourselves is at the heart of I Saw the TV Glow, writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s followup to their Sundance 2021 breakout We're All Going to the World’s Fair. A haunting, harrowing, but optimistic exploration of what it means to embrace your truest self, it’s a film that will linger long after you’ve left the theatre.

Justice Smith (Pokémon: Detective Pikachu) stars as Owen, a lonely kid in the suburbs intrigued by commercials for a TV show he isn’t allowed to watch, The Pink Opaque. (Ian Foreman plays Owen as a child.) One day, when Owen sees someone else reading an episode guide to the series in his school cafeteria, he decides to ask about it. Maddy (Lundy-Paine) convinces Owen to come over to her house on Saturday night to watch The Pink Opaque as it airs. Owen is immediately taken by the show, a monster-of-the-week mystery series for kids that echoes Are You Afraid of the Dark? and So Weird. Maddy and Owen are spellbound by the TV adventures of Tara (Lindsey Jordan) and Isabel (Helena Howard), who share a psychic connection and work together to stop the malicious Mr. Melancollie (Emma Portner). When Maddy suddenly disappears one day, and then returns claiming The Pink Opaque is real and reality begins to warp, everything Owen understands – and doesn’t understand – about himself will come to a head.

I Saw the TV Glow presents a potent rumination on identity, repression, and self-acceptance. Owen’s journey will be familiar to anyone who sensed something different in themselves at a young age, but didn’t have the language or anyone who could help voice what was happening. It’s a journey of self-discovery beautifully acted by Smith, who can seem like he’s unearthing new revelations about himself with every line delivery. Owen is a quiet person, but Smith does a phenomenal job broadcasting his internal recognition and growth with every hesitation, every shakily delivered line of dialogue, and then breaking open when needed. Also worth praising is Lundy-Paine, who brings a driven, haunted quality to Maddy. They radiate self-assuredness, and in one monologue, given in an inflatable planetarium, it’s almost as if they stop the movie and time itself.

There’s a lot to celebrate in I Saw the TV Glow. The commitment to recreating the very 1990s aesthetic of children’s supernatural series is delightfully harrowing, with a potent combination of costuming, practical effects, and filming techniques. It successfully captures a moment in time that looms large in many peoples’ minds. There are also plenty of nods to genre standouts, including Videodrome and Twin Peaks. Mostly though, it’s a powerful depiction of what media can do for us, especially as young people.

Maybe the first show you loved, you loved because it awakened you to a part of yourself you didn’t realize was possible: all the delicious potential of your future presented there, on the TV screen. Maybe you didn’t realize this until much later as an adult. I Saw the TV Glow understands this awakening and that it might take some time to get there. A sidewalk chalk motto appears on screen towards the end of the film, offering grace: “There is still time.” Self-actualization takes as much time as it needs, and is ongoing. That the world will have this movie is no small feat – in fact, it might just help the next Owen or Maddy realize they are not alone.

This film was reviewed at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.