I Saw the TV Glow · reception & legacy

How I Saw the TV Glow has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Premiered in Sundance's Midnight section in January 2024 and became A24's most argued-about release of the year — critics were rapturous while audience scores lagged badly. Barely a year on, the reappraisal has already happened: it's routinely called a landmark of trans cinema and an instant cult classic.

What's debated

The eternal split between 'this movie cracked me open and changed my life' and 'nothing happens and everyone's whispering' — with a side debate over whether the film works if you don't clock the trans allegory.

Its footprint

'There is still time,' scrawled in chalk on the street, escaped the film entirely — it became a meme, a rallying cry, and a genuinely popular tattoo. The Pink Opaque, its fake '90s YA show, is now shorthand for the childhood television that raised (and haunted) a generation, and the soundtrack — Alex G's score plus Caroline Polachek, Phoebe Bridgers, and yeule — has a fandom of its own.

Where it stands

A Letterboxd darling of the four-and-a-half-star-with-a-sobbing-review variety — already canonised as the defining 'egg movie' and a you-must-see entry in the new trans cinema canon.

Named by the director

Influences Jane Schoenbrun has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• David Lynch — Schoenbrun repeatedly cited Twin Peaks — especially The Return and the season two cliffhanger, which they described as lodged in their subconscious 'like trauma' — as the film's core influence.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) — Schoenbrun named the series (a teen obsession of theirs) as the direct model for The Pink Opaque, the show-within-the-film.