Jane Schoenburn’s 2024 psychological-horror flick I Saw the TV Glow is a terrifyingly realistic, beautifully colored manifestation of the transgender experience. While initially disguised as a Videodrome-esque horror, central characters Maddie (Jack Haven) and Owen (Justice Smith) soon find themselves at the crossroads of gender identity, happiness, and the bounds of time.
Beyond these nuances, the film serves as an accurate portrayal of the real-world effects of restrictions on the LGBTQ+ community. Outside of its compelling narrative, it delivers a larger statement on anti-transgender bills, marriage restraints, and rollbacks of individuality—all issues more prescient than ever under the Trump administration.
In early March 2025, the National Institutes of Health terminated a wide range of higher-education research grants surrounding gender identity. Similarly, the Trump administration cut over $125 million in health funding for LGBTQ+-related fields. Attempts under the current administration have been made to upend the pro-LGBTQ+ policies cemented by former US presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The executive orders of Donald Trump—and the rhetoric of his constituents—almost all advocate for rollbacks in gender-affirming care and other protections. This lack of regard is the very carelessness that I Saw the TV Glow calls to an end of.
The film is intended to display the implications of disregarding individuality. It begs the question of what might happen if rights to gender identity are stripped away. I Saw the TV Glow offers grim reflections of our own world as it seeks an answer, reflections which are only becoming sharper as Trump’s second term continues.
In the film, Maddie introduces a young Owen to a television show. Maddie’s obsession with the series soon prompts Owen to consider his own gender identity while his life begins to dismantle around him. As the Trump administration continues down its path of prejudice, those who identify as transgender are forced to make the same decision as Owen: continue living a false, unhappy life, or make the transition and risk public scrutiny. Owen selects the former. He chooses to suffocate, to bury who he really is, at the expense of society’s judgement.
If threats to LGBTQ+ rights become anything more than threats, which they undoubtedly will, hundreds of thousands of transgender individuals will face the same fate as Owen. There will be no latter option to choose from. There will be no Maddie to give them the opportunity to transition at all.
I Saw the TV Glow places an equal amount of blame on personal ignorance as it does political and societal restrictions. For example, Owen’s distant and cold father (Fred Durst) plays a significant role in Owen’s self-discovery—or lack thereof.
His choice to ignore his son’s changes, purely out of a different sort of disregard for the community, is nearly identical to that of Republican lawmakers. The general notion? They resist it because they don’t understand it. For instance, a recent viral video shows Texas Representative Andy Hopper mistaking intersex, which is a biological sex that carries variations in X and Y chromosomes, for a gender identity. To make it even more ironic, the false statement came in a debate regarding his proposition to cut funding for LGBTQ+ studies.
I Saw the TV Glow presents a world of suffering, one which may become reality if this administration is not held accountable. Owen’s story is one that examines what can happen, both on a personal and global scale, when politics and policy are prioritised over individuality. Beneath the calm purple, pink, and blue colour grade, the future it warns of is a harsh one.
Words by Evan Lucas
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