Erica Parise/Netflix(NEW YORK) — Stand-up comedy veteran and super-successful WTF podcast creator Marc Maron is back for the second season of Netflix’s retro hit GLOW.  It’s based on the late-’80s TV show of the same name, which stands for “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.”

In the fictionalized comedy, Maron Plays Sam Sylvia, a washed up, drugged-out movie producer who takes a directing gig with the upstart wrestling league in an attempt to get a movie made. A group of women of various backgrounds train to pass as wrestlers onscreen, under Sam’s often-harsh direction.

“I am the cranky sort of — I don’t know what you can say on this radio — d**kish? Probably not — cranky, curmudgeonly, slightly sexist but nonetheless sad man at the center of these 14 amazing women,” Maron says with a laugh.

Like his character, Maron is grouchy in real life, but unlike him, he’s been clean and sober since 1999.  He says of Sam, “I’d like to think that I am not that guy, and I don’t think I am that guy.  But don’t think that guy is that far away from a lot of guys, you know.”

The new season sees a change in Sam’s attitude towards his “day job,” after his attempt to revive his movie career goes up in smoke.

“I think the fact that he’s a flawed person, and that you know, he’s tried and failed, and now — like especially in Season 2 — he realizes that…this isn’t just something he’s doing to get through to something else. This is what he’s doing,” Maron explains. “And…he locks into it, full, full force.” 

The new season of GLOW, which stars Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, Britt Baron, and Kia Stevens, goes live Friday on Netflix.

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