Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Glamorous’ On Netflix, Where A YouTube Makeup Artist Shakes Up A Legacy Cosmetics Company

Kim Cattrall is getting a lot of attention for her cameo appearance on And Just Like That…, but she’s actually in another show premiering today, and she’s definitely in it for more than a cameo. She’s one of the big names in Glamorous, but the star is a relative newcomer, and they really command viewer’s attention.

GLAMOROUS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Marco Mejia (Miss Benny) wakes up to his phone alarm, and we hear a voice saying, “Y’all wake up desperate to smash that snooze button?”

The Gist: Marco is in that stage of life where he has no idea what he wants to do with his life. He just graduated college and lives with his mom, Julia (Diana Maria Riva). He works part-time at a department store makeup counter and does YouTube makeup tutorials. “Even if we don’t have all the answers, we can still get gorgeous together,” he says.

Julia thinks it’s about time he start working for a living, paying her rent, and being a responsible adult, so she gets him a paralegal job at her law firm. He looks at the cubicle he’s going to occupy and feels a sense of dread.

At the makeup counter later that day, his boss asks him to help a woman she derisively calls “Carmen Sandiego” due to the way she’s dressed. To Marco’s shock and pleasure, it turns out to be Madolyn Addison (Kim Cattrall), whose Glamorous By Madolyn products he promotes on his tutorials. She asks him to do a makeover, and while he’s doing it, he’s honest about how her company has been playing it very safe of late, despite his love for the brand. Appreciating Marco’s viewpoint, she ends up offering him a job to be her second assistant.

Julia has her doubts about the gig, especially compared to the more stable paralegal job she’s offering, but she relents. On Marco’s first day, he’s shown around by Madolyn’s first assistant, Venetia Kelleher (Jade Payton), who introduces him to Chad (Zane Phillips), Madolyn’s son and the head of sales. Chad is immediately dismissive of Marco, calling him the “superstar from the mall” and noticing the heels Marco is wearing. “I may be gay, but I’m not ‘gay’,” Chad says as he stretches out the second “gay”. He’s also introduced to product designers Britt (Ayesha Harris) and Ben (Michael Hsu Rosen) — Ben immediately starts crushing on Marco — and social media expert Alyssa (Lisa Gilroy).

During his first week on the job, Marco makes a ton of mistakes, but Madolyn likes having him and his point of view around. She is really starting to think the same way he does, that her company has not been daring of late and playing it too safe. Chad, on the other hand, wants them to play it safe in order to set up a sale to the biggest corporation in the cosmetics world. Venetia, for her part, starts to think that Marco is there to take her job, just as she took the previous first assistant’s job.

One of Marco’s biggest mistakes is accidentally leaving prototype samples in an Uber — the wrong Uber, by the way, which is occupied by a guy named Parker (Graham Parkhurst), who encourages Marco to calm down and not give up. “You can do hard things,” he says encouragingly. Of course, the flub gets Marco fired, but, with his mother’s encouragement, he uses his epic smartphone skills to find out where Parker worked out; not only does he get the samples back, but he finds out the guy he’s been calling “straight guy” isn’t straight.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Glamorous gives off very strong Ugly Betty vibes, with an outsider shaking up a stodgy fashion-related institution and navigating the vicious office culture while doing it.

Our Take: Despite the “this only happens on TV” vibe of Glamorous, created by Jordon Nardino and directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, it’s got a light and airy vibe to it, mostly thanks to the performance of Miss Benny. They almost literally bounce through their performance as Marco, adding the fresh perspective of a non-binary actor and character to what’s a pretty standard-grade comedic soap.

As you might expect, Cattrall is excellent as Madolyn, who seems to long for the excitement she felt as a model back in the ’80s, but in the context of how her company navigates the world of cosmetics in 2023. Her character is a surprisingly empathetic figure, and not the typical hard-ass boss we usually see in shows like this. She’s tough, sure, but most of that toughness is communicated through what the other characters say about her — and that is mostly praise! — not through her actions in the first episode.

Everyone else in the main cast embodies their characters well, but there isn’t a ton of character depth for them to sink their teeth into just yet. Phillips does have potential as Marco’s douchey nemesis Chad, who calls Marco a “twink” — not to his face, of course — more than once. But we need to have more motivation from Payton’s Venetia than just “he’s going to take my job.” Rosen and Parkhurst are basically there to give Marco a love triangle to navigate, which should be fun to watch, even if right now his two potential mates are a bit flat, characterwise.

Sex and Skin: We see Parker’s tush as he walks to the shower in the gym locker room, but that’s about it.

Parting Shot: As Chad tries to recruit Venetia in his effort to get Marco fired, Marco snaps his compact closed after applying some lipstick.

Sleeper Star: Diana Maria Riva, who plays Marco’s mom Julia, never gets enough attention as a longtime character actor, but she provides a bit of realism and a down-to-earth quality in a show that feels like pure fantasy.

Most Pilot-y Line: Part of the fantasy aspect of the show is that the director, Strauss-Schulson, seems to apply smeary light glares in every scene. Sure, it’s atmospheric, but it made us feel like we’re staring into the sun while driving at dusk. We just kept wanting to put our hand up to shade our eyes.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While Glamorous has a pretty standard fish out of water story at its core, Miss Benny’s lead performance is so magnetic that they command a viewer’s attention.

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.