While media obsession is such a massive part of our culture these days, it’s rarely confronted in the media we’re actually consuming. However, in Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow, the writer/director gets vulnerable about how a TV screen can be an all-consuming way to spend one’s time through their eerie coming-of-age A24 movie. The latest of upcoming horror movies was particularly inspired by the classic genre series Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
In I Saw The TV Glow, which critics have been raving about already, a teen named Owen (Justice Smith) bonds with another student (Brigette Lundy-Paine) over their love for a fictional series called The Pink Opaque and become all consumed by it as they navigate their queer identities. When Jane Schoenbrun spoke to CinemaBlend about their film, which is already one of the most critically acclaimed 2024 movies, they shared what inspired The Pink Opaque. In their words:
There are a lot of references [to other TV shows] in the movie or a lot of inspirations that went into sort of crafting The Pink Opaque, but if there's one at the center, it was Buffy. And, Buffy was a show that was like, yeah, maybe I had some crushes on people before Buffy came along, Buffy was like my first love. And, I don't know, I've rewatched it many times over and it definitely ages with time and context, but I still think it's beautiful. When I see it, I remember exactly what it was about it that made me feel so much and feel obsessed. And if anything, it's like now that I am not a lonely kid in the wrong body, I can look at it and be like, ‘Oh, I put so much of myself into this TV show.’ I guess in that way my relationship to it has changed, but I can still look at it and see exactly like why it meant so much to me.
Long before Jane Schoenbrun had accepted their trans identity, they had Buffy The Vampire Slayer. And as the filmmaker spoke to, the series, much like The Pink Opaque in I Saw The TV Glow, was a point of intense obsession and love to pass the time with. While the filmmaker drew from a number of series from the era to create a fictional ‘90s series, no show comes close to the influence of Buffy, which became a major comfort for Jane back in the day, so much so that they liken the series to their “first love.”
Schoenbrun joins a huge segment of Buffy fanbase from the LGBTQ+ community, with many attributing the show as their “gay awakening.” The series even had one of the few lesbian couples in TV history for the time with Tara and Willow’s relationship. Through its plotline, the series also confronted the familiar feeling of otherness and secrecy at a time when front facing LGBTQ+ representation barely existed.
Through Justice Smith’s Owen, Jane has the opportunity to tell a very personal story about their upbringing with a stylistic surrealism that very much draws from horror influences, such as Stephen King (Schoenbrun weighed in on their own pick of an adaptation they’d like to do while speaking to us as well). Smith talked about his favorite TV shows back in the day and how they see them now in our interview as well:
I really liked Goosebumps. I really liked Tales from the Crypt, that was a really good one. I liked a lot of those twisted cartoons. Like I loved Grim Adventures with Billy and Mandy. I liked anything with a dark spin on it. When I re-watched the Haunted Mask episode of Goosebumps a couple months ago.I was like, ‘Oh, this is bad.’ And as a kid I was like that shook me. Like, I was so scared to put masks on, because I thought I was gonna stick to my skin. but yeah, it's just the loss of innocence.
I Saw The TV Glow is now playing in select theaters and is releasing wide on May 17. You can check out CinemaBlend’s I Saw The TV Glow review.
