I Saw the TV Glow: Ending Explained
Jane Schoenbrun’s new film I Saw The TV Glow is at once a nostalgia-driven trip through cheesy late 90’s teen TV, and a coming-of-age tale for a protagonist that arrives far too late.
Throughout the film, Justice Smith’s character Owen, attempts desperately to fit in at high school. His mother becomes ill. His father, played by a perfectly cast Fred Durst, is distant and brash. The only solace Owen finds is in a TV show called The Pink Opaque, and an awkward queer teen named Maddy who sneaks him videotapes of the show.
The Pink Opaque, the show within a movie, stars two young teenage girls with supernatural powers. They’re connected through their superpowers and use their powers to fight various monsters of the week, each meticulously sent by Mr. Melancholy. The big bad of the show.
The first half of the film is really just blocks and long stretches of exposition. There is a definitive three-act structure, but the first act covers over half of the film's runtime. The second act begins with the pink opaque ending and Maddy disappearing, only to surface eight years later, bringing Owen some disturbing news. She tells him the pink opaque isn’t a show, it’s their lives. She’s been communicating with him via the show and they need to work together to bring an end to Mr. Melancholy. She tells him all this at a dingy dive bar while the band Sloppy Jane accompanied by Phoebe Bridgers performs live. A clear nod to the weekly musical guests featured on the Pink Opaque.
A normal big blockbuster film would start it’s third act there. Maddy and Owen coming together, realizing the world they live in is a farce, and setting out to end Mr. Melancholy. But that’s not what happens. Owen doesn’t believe Maddy. He believes she’s mentally ill. He rejects her explanation and continues on with his life. Working at the same fun center, living in the same house, watching the same old shows. When he goes back to revisit the pink opaque, now as a middle-aged man, the show is strikingly different from what the audience has seen of the show and what Owen remembers it to be. Gone is the dark creepy aesthetic, a show that was reminiscent of Buffy or X Files. Instead, it’s replaced with a kid's show. The protagonists are much younger, and the monsters of the week are more Scooby Doo than Freddy Kruger. Some of this is undoubtedly an allurement to how our brain shapes nostalgia. What we remember as horrifying as a kid is often downright laughable as an adult. But the aesthetic change, the horrifying now becoming quaint, is also the realization of the film's main theme.
At its core, I Saw The TV Glow is a film about transitioning and queer identity. While not outright explained, the film heavily implies that Owen is trans, or at the very least questioning his identity. When asked if he likes boys or girls, he doesn’t have a response. Stating only that he likes TV. He’s never seen with a partner, and his father is so belittling that any chance of him accepting his true self as an adolescent seems horrifying. Instead he finds comfort in the shows that represent him, even when they do so subtly.
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The Pink Opaque, feels like a very on-the-nose title referencing transition. And Owen's life, his inability to change, years spent at the same job, in the same town, in the same house, watching the same shows, only further fuels this theme.
The film ends on a hopeful note. Owen, old and frail, barely able to breath, escapes to the bathroom of his work. He rips open his chest to reveal a TV glowing. A light inside him he’s never explored. But now, he’s setting it free. Finally being his true self.
I Saw The TV Glow is much more concerned with its themes of queer identity than it is with revealing the secrets of the show within a show. The film is purposely vague on Maddy’s truthfulness, making the viewer feel that she could be correct, the Pink Opaque could be real, Fred Durst could be Mr. Melcanoly, and we have simply been viewing two sides of the same coin, similar to the different worlds the protagonist of the fake show inhabits.
Maddy could also be losing her grip on reality. She clearly had some mental health issues throughout the film and her disappearance could be just a case of her running away. Leaving and abandoning her problems instead of confronting them head-on.
There are no doubt countless Easter eggs throughout the film that will further come to light once the film hits discs and streaming, but where it does succeed is in portraying its themes of nostalgia and trans identity.
I’ve found myself much less concerned with the overall mystery of the film. I’m sure Jane Schoebrun has a definitive answer and there are clues to uncover the mystery. Maybe Owen and Maddy are the heroes from the Pink Opaque. Maybe they’re not but their nostalgia for the show and childhood has muddled these two realities together. Creating a memory of a TV show that allowed them to feel seen that feels as real as their adolescence itself. Or maybe, Maddy wasn’t real at all. Just a construct of Owen's trans identity that he used to cope with his loss and troubled childhood. That’s the theory I find myself leaning towards.
Maybe this isn't a great explanation for a column called “Ending Explained” but I feel the importance of the film is not the answer to its mysteries. It’s the realization of its themes. The Pink Opaque in actuality may not have been the prestige TV masterpiece they remembered, but ultimately it doesn't matter. Because for them, at that time in their life, it was the only thing that made them feel seen. The show is as real as Owen's trans identity, even if no one else can see it.
This film will go down as a cult classic for queer and trans people the same way Rocky Horror or Chasing Amy has. I must admit I was a little disappointed leaving the theater. I was expecting a fun and scary romp through 90’s nostalgia. But the farther I remove myself from it, the more I appreciate I Saw The TV Glow. It’s not a film for me, a straight cis male. It’s a film for those struggling with their identity. Finding solace in friends going through the same thing. Being fearful and scared for years over coming out and finally finding the courage to do so.
