Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Glory’ on Netflix, where two sons of a demanding boxing coach seek revenge after a tragic attack
Most of the time, tonal inconsistencies is a death knell for the first episode of a new series. But Glory a new boxing/revenge thriller on Netflix, has enough going for it to intrigue us, despite some of those aforementioned tonal problems.
GLORY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Quick, dream-like shots of the Singh brothers, Devinder (Divyenndu) and Ravi (Pulkit Samrat), with their boxing coach father, Raghubir Singh (Suvinder Vicky) — aka “Coach Sir” — talking about his definition of “glory.”
The Gist: In the boxing-heavy town of Shaktigarh, Coach Sir is the most famous and intimidating coach, always pushing his boxers to their limits in order to make the Indian Olympic team. Both Dev and Ravi have been hopefuls in his boxing school, but neither achieved the elusive gold medal that Coach Sir wants. His current charge, Nihal Singh (Yugam Sood) — no relation — might be his best hope.
After Nihal’s most recent victory in the ring, though, we see his mind is elsewhere, as he meets Coach Sir’s daughter, Gudiya (Jannat Zubair), at an empty cricket stadium. She’s pregnant with his child, and the two of them plan to get married and run away from Shaktigarh. Then the two of them get brutally attacked by mask-wearing thugs. Nihal is killed, and Gudiya is barely hanging on when the two of them are found.
Both Dev and Ravi have distanced themselves from Coach Sir over the past number of years. Ravi has even vowed to never hit someone in anger again, reciting a children’s poem to himself to calm down when he’s provoked. Dev has put himself under no such restrictions, and we see it gets him in trouble, like when he gets fired from being a bouncer at a club when he tosses the manager off during a fight. But when they hear about Gudiya, they know they’re going to have to confront their father again.
The brothers are both pretty sure that this was the work of Viju Sanghwan (Ashutosh Rana), who runs the boxing school that’s the biggest rival of Coach Sir and his school. Not trusting the police, they start to investigate the attack themselves. Also looking into it is Joyna Hazarika (Sayani Gupta), a local reporter. As the brothers investigate, they almost get sidelined, though, when a group of Viju’s thugs confront them at a gas station.
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Karan Anshuman and Karmanya Ahuja, Glory feels like a bloodier version of Cobra Kai mixed with a revenge thriller like Man On Fire.
Our Take: Perhaps we’re being a little too flippant comparing Glory to Cobra Kai, because there’s nothing funny or lighthearted about Glory. In fact, it’s a pretty dark and violent story, with Dev and Ravi looking into the attack on their sister and Nihal while dealing with the emotional fallout of being back in the orbit of their father, Coach Sir.
Dev, who lost a leg either while under his father’s guidance or sometime after, has completely divorced himself from his father, but Ravi still has some emotional connections to his callous dad. However, the relationship isn’t at all warm; Ravi calls his father “Coach Sir” just like all his boxers do.
The Cobra Kai aspect comes in because this more or less boils down to a rivalry between two boxing academies, one that’s supposedly “good” and another that’s supposedly “bad.” The gas station fight scene, where the brothers take on a seemingly unending group of thugs from Viju’s academy, borders on the ridiculous, with Viju’s thugs continuing to exit the SUV they’re in like it’s a clown car.
Despite that, though, the fight is presented without any irony or side-eye acknowledgement that, no matter how good the brothers are at throwing punches, that they’re in an impossible situation. The way that fight was resolved was also ridiculous, but at least it led to a pretty horrific final scene that will set up the brothers’ revenge plan.
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix
Performance Worth Watching: Divyenndu is particularly intense as Dev, and we’re pretty sure his emotional layers will likely get the most amount of exploration during this first season.
Sex And Skin: None.
Parting Shot: The Singh brothers and Coach Sir find a gruesome scene after the gas station fight.
Sleeper Star: Sayani Gupta’s character Joyna will likely play a big part in the investigation into the attack, given she is familiar with the players who were at Nihal’s final fight and what they may have gained or lost if he made the Olympic team.
Most Pilot-y Line: The way the final scene was shot was more gruesome than it needed to be, and we’re not sure it fits the series’ overall tone.
Our Call: STREAM IT. While Glory has some tonal inconsistencies, the potential of how deep the exploration of Dev and Ravi’s lives and how they’ve been affected by their relationship with their father should be interesting to watch.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
