TCA 2018: Netflix's Nailed It, Glow, One Day at a Time, Ozark and More

It becomes apparent from the moment I set foot in the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton that Netflix wants to put on a show. There are women in shiny leotards and big curly wigs. There are people with novelty t-shirts bearing the names of highly specific “taste communities” on the back. But the most obvious sign of all is the slow stream of people who walk up to my seat as I’m feverishly typing away to tell me, “hey, the special performance is about to start in the next room,” or, “hi, please join us for the brunch with our special guests next door.” So I put down my work (huge mistake) and head off to be entertained. It’s a gospel choir! They’re good, but man, it’s a lot.

“Good, but man, it’s a lot” neatly sums up much of the Netflix experience at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. Fresh off their first appearance at the top of the Emmy nominations heap, the streaming giant wants to share information about their new and returning shows, but also to keep us, the distractible masses, from getting sleepy and missing anything. As a result, the day looks like kind of a blur from this side of it, a haze of women in Sabrina the Teenage Witch wigs (lots of wigs, this fine day) and fake awards handed out to critics, gospel and snacks and the odd dodged question. But for you, dear Reader, I shall try to peer through the haze of advanced sleep deprivation into the surreal, often exciting day to recreate the shindig. Here are some highlights from Netflix Day—go ahead and hit the ‘skip credits’ button if you want. 

All hail Nicole Byer, entertainer of very tired people

Have you seen “Nailed It”? It’s a delight, a cooking show that Netflix calls “part reality contest, part hot mess.” It centers on home bakers with spotty skills going head to head in an attempt to bake elaborate culinary confections. It’s hosted by comedian Nicole Byer, who Netflix brought to the TCA tour as an energetic, irreverent, and slightly bewildered mistress of ceremonies. Byer could have been only a wee bit funny and her appearance would still have been welcome, if only because she broke up the day so ably. But Byer’s distinct voice and impeccable timing kept journalists interested and laughing. 

She was also a constant physical reminder of the foray Netflix is making into the world of food TV. A snack break late in the day allowed attendees the chance to try “nailing it” themselves by recreating a cat-spider cupcake created by the talent at the center of forthcoming series “The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell”; in the next room, stations offered snacks that reflected the principles of Samin Nosrat’s book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which is also getting the Netflix treatment this fall—and it looks great. 

The women of “GLOW” and the glow-up

Betty Gilpin is tall. She’s not the only striking figure on the “GLOW” stage — this is a cast of striking figures, prepared to strike other figures for entertainment—but after days of encountering very petite famous people, it’s pleasantly jarring to see someone crack 5’7’’. 

Still, maybe that has nothing to do with height. Among the many highlights of the “GLOW” panel, which included Alison Brie, Marc Maron, Sydelle Noel, Britney Young, Kia Stevens, Jackie Tohn, and Britt Baron, was a spirited discussion about the show-within-a-show aspects of the, ah, show, and how the GLOW wrestling characters affect the lives of the “GLOW” characters. Here’s Gilpin on Debbie, talking about the importance of feeling tall, in the episode “Mother of all Matches”:

“I really relate to Debbie in a lot of ways, as a woman and actress, and from watching my friends become mothers, I guess I see this part of them that you sort of connect to your Greek self. And maybe everyone feels this way, that there's this tiny part of you that thinks, ‘oh, maybe I could be powerful, and maybe I could be special, and loud, and a thousand feet tall, if someone gave me the opportunity to.’ Then Debbie feels that way, and then her job for the day is to paint her nails and put on a nice outfit. And this thousand-foot-tall feeling gets crammed into this very small posing package, and I think she's just done with it, and is ready to explode. I think wrestling has given her an opportunity to feel a thousand feet tall, if only for five minutes. But I think that a trait that a lot of the characters share is that, even though we're all very different, I think a lot of us are very lonely, and feel like our lives didn't go the way that we thought they would. And that ‘GLOW,’ the show within the show, is this sort of weird island where we get to pretend to be the warriors we thought we were gonna become when we were little girls. Then we're all going back to our houses, crying in our bathrooms [laughs]. But I think that that warrior-self that they're finding in the ring is slowly bleeding into their personal lives. I think Liberty Belle has made Debbie a stronger Debbie—at the grocery store, and at work as a producer.”

This is it, the “One Day at a Time” panel

In the moments leading up to the “One Day at a Time” portion of the proceedings, you could feel the air in the ballroom shift palpably. Was it the impending appearances of Rita Moreno and Normal Lear, both living legends? Was it the chance to ask about the show’s mastery of the multi-cam format, or about how it manages to pair so much light and warmth with the tendency to take long, unapologetic looks at the issues that Latinx people confront all the time? Was it just that we love the theme song so much? All of that, probably, and more, because “One Day at a Time” is, without a doubt, one of the best shows on television, and the affection for it in the room was obvious.