Glow, Season 2

The Netflix series Glow doesn't have a theme song as such; an episode usually opens with some tasty '80s-style synth or an actual banger from that decade. But like the first season of the show, the second season kicks off to the tune of Patty Smyth's The Warrior (y'know, "shooting at the walls of heartache/bang bang"), and it's such an appropriate choice. Like that song, Glow is a little naff and obvious, a lot empowering, 100% '80s and thoroughly irresistible. I'm very glad it's back.

Having said that, this new season of the comedy-drama, which follows the cast of a low-budget mid-'80s TV series titled Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling (inspired by but not sticking to the actual story of the real Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling program), suffers from some of the problems that can accompany a show's second go-round.

Some of the initial joy that comes with getting to know such a strong and vivid variety of characters has faded a touch, and a couple of those characters have been sidelined, at least in the first few episodes available for preview.

But while I'm hopeful the likes of Sheila the She-Wolf (Gayle Rankin), Carmen (human sunbeam Britney Young) or especially trash-talking party girl Melrose (Jackie Tohn) will get more screen time in future episodes, Glow does do right by its leads - actors/wrestlers Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie) and Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin), whose fractured friendship and tentative attempts at reconciliation give the story ongoing emotional tension and heartache, and Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron), the B-movie impresario trying to salvage some professional respectability, having pretty much given up on the personal kind.

Maron is startlingly convincing as this crude, brusque, unmade bed of a man who nonetheless retains traces of tenderness and humanity, while Gilpin and especially Brie do marvellous, detailed work as women realising that while they probably can't have it all, they certainly deserve more than they're getting.

Glow, Season 2 launches on Netflix Australia 29 June.