Glamorous follows Marco Mejia, a 22-year-old non-confirming queer who gets a chance to work for the glamour and beauty icon, Madolyn Addison.
Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and created by Jordan Nardino, Glamorous features Miss Benny, Kim Cattrall, Jade Payton, Ayesh Harris, Graham Parkhurst, and Zane Phillips in main roles.
Glamorous Story Summary
While Marco Meija (Miss Benny) creates makeup tutorial videos for his channel and social media, he works part-time as he sells makeup products at a mall. His channel does not really do well as it fails to get the reach that Marco desires, as a makeup artist and beauty industry professional.
Marco was raised by a single parent, his mother Julia (Diana Maria Riva), and he continues to live with her. Julia is concerned about Marco and wants him to get a real job. A new chapter unfolds in Marco’s life as he coincidentally runs into Madolyn Addison (Kim Cattrall), a supermodel from the 80s and the founder of ‘Glamorous by Madolyn,’ a luxury makeup and cosmetic brand, while he was working his part-time job at the mall.
When Marco asks Madolyn why she is at the mall, buying her own products, Madolyn replies that the best way to sell a product is to use the product. Furthermore, she asks Marco if he could give her a makeover, to which Marco expresses that it would be an honor. As the two begin to indulge in conversation, he asks Madolyn why she left her career as a supermodel and started a makeup empire. Madolyn explains that she did it because nobody thought that she could do it.
Marco Enters The World Of Glamor
Marco’s passion and the way he talked about makeup make Madolyn look at her brand from an entirely new perspective, and she decides to hire Marco as a second assistant for herself. Marco starts to face challenges from the first day of work itself as he gets late for his job.
He is introduced to Venetia Keleher (Jade Payton), Madolyn’s first assistant, Ben (Michael Hsu Rosen) and Britt (Ayesha Harris), who work for the product design, and Alyssa, the social media manager, along with her assistant Nowhere. Marco is also introduced to Chad Addison (Zane Phillips), Madolyn’s son and the Director of sales for the company, who had joined the business after graduating from Stanford. Despite trying his best to keep up with the fast-paced job, Marco finds it extremely challenging and difficult to keep up with everything and starts feeling that he would be a flop.
Madolyn’s business is made to face a challenge as the sales continue to decrease, and the company does not seem to do well in terms of finances too. In order to revive their brand from the downfall, Chad suggests to Madolyn that they could sell to Vendemiaire, the biggest beauty empire in the world, and become ugly rich, enabling them to expand their business.
Although they weren’t interested in ‘Glamorous by Madolyn’ earlier, they were interested in it now and even wanted to keep Madolyn and her creative voice. However, Madolyn does not seem to be enthusiastic about the idea as this deal would compel her to let go of the control that she now has over her own brand as Vendemiaire’s Board of Directors would end up having the final say in things due to their financial help to Madolyn’s business.
Madolyn’s son Chad does not seem to like Marco and the way Madolyn listens to all his suggestions. He even tries to manipulate Madolyn against Marco. However, he fails to do so as Madolyn tells him that Marco enables her to look at things from a customer’s perspective, something that they had been missing all this while. Chad even tries manipulating Venetia against Marco, telling her that Marco could become the reason Venetia gets fired just like Venetia had once joined Madolyn, as her second assistant and ultimately got the then-first assistant, Jaida, fired. Although Venetia tries to brush it off, the fear and concern of losing her job indeed cause her stress.
One day, while Marco is on his way to work before an important meeting, he boards the wrong Uber and meets a man named Parker (Graham Parkhurst). However, the two end up sharing the ride as they were both headed for Hudson Yards. Marco accidentally forgets one of his bags in the Uber while getting off. This bag contained new product prototypes, that Marco was expected to get for the meeting. Marco is fired from his job as his fault had the potential of wreaking havoc in Madolyn’s deal with Vendemiaire.
Marco Gets A Second Chance
When Marco talks to his mum about getting fired from his job, his mum tells him that he must not give up so easily. She tells Marco how he is the only good thing in her life and if he fails, she fails too. Therefore, Marco must get his job back.
As Marco narrates the entire incident to Julia, he is able to recall that Parker was in a gym outfit in the Uber, and there was a gym called Equinox at Hudson Yards. Marco decides to get a membership for the gym, which he would cancel the next day, as he would not be allowed entry otherwise. Ultimately, Marco manages to find Parker, who hands the bag over to him.
Marco returns to the office with the package, hoping to get a second chance. As he leaves the package before Madolyn, he gives an intense speech. He tells Madolyn that they were so focused on what the people wanted, that they forgot what the people needed – inspiration, love, and light. He mentions how they do the most important job in the world, giving a reason to people like Marco to get up in the morning. Madolyn decides to give Marco a second chance and Marco gets back the job.
Venetia and Britt get together in a relationship after the two of them match on a dating app. On the other hand, Madolyn also finds herself a boyfriend in James Crane (Mark Deklin), a man she randomly keeps running into while coming to and leaving from her office. James owns a corporate industrial film company that works for individualized corporate clients.
However, things are not so straight and sorted in Marco’s case as he finds himself struggling to figure out his relationship with Ben and Parker. While Ben is clearly head over heels for Marco, ever since Marco first joined the office, his feelings are not reciprocated as Marco finds himself falling for Parker.
Initially, Ben did not even have the courage to express his feelings to Marco. However, he finally does so, after a lot of pushing by Britt, who has known Ben since the time they were together in the art school. Marco hangs out with Ben casually and ends up leading Ben as Ben fails to realize that Marco is not interested in him.
On the other hand, Marco starts giving it his all, to maintain his relationship with Parker. However, when Marco asks Parker about the status of their relationship, Parker slides it under the covers, saying that they should not complicate the good thing that they have going between them. Marco fails to realize that his relationship with Parker is actually toxic, as Parker never takes Marco outside and meets him only when he invites him over to his place.
Ultimately one day, when Marco realizes that Parker is just playing games with him, he decides to end things with him. Marco starts hanging out with Ben more, and the two even make out at a gay bar one night. This results in Ben starting to feel that Marco feels the same way for him as he does for Marco. However, Marco goes back to Parker once again when he hires one of the most popular drag queens to give a bouquet to Marco that said “Parker’s sorry”. However, after all the ups and downs, Marco ultimately ends up with Ben, after he leaves Parker for good, as Marco refused to change his personality for Parker.
Glamorous Ending Explained
A consultant, Mykynnleigh Williams (Nicole Power), is hired by Verdemiaire to kick the tires and see if the deal’s worth making. Madolyn’s company starts working on innovative ideas for their deal with Verdemiaire. After a lot of brainstorming and team meetings, the company decides to launch a range of products, exclusively to celebrate pride, which was a suggestion made by Marco. No other luxury cosmetic brand had ever done this before and Madolyn’s brand wanted to say that queer is not just for the industry to make revenue from but a world to draw meaning from.
‘Glamorous By Madolyn’ Faces Its Biggest Challenge Yet
Mykynnleigh tells Madolyn that they could actually lock the deal if her brand is successfully able to pull off this proposal. However, things take an ugly turn as the campaign gets leaked. It was suspected that it was leaked by a mole as the shoot, from when the pictures were leaked, was an extremely secretive event, and no one except the staff was allowed to enter with their phones. It was later revealed that the mole was Madolyn herself as she wanted to create a buzz and get people talking about the brand once again.
Meanwhile, Venetia, scared to lose her job, decides to make an innovative proposal to Madolyn, in order to increase her chances of promotion or at least retaining her job. Inspired by Britt’s belief in using only organic products, Venetia suggests to Madolyn that the brand should release organic products, starting with an eyeshadow palette. Madolyn likes Venetia’s idea and agrees to go ahead with the product’s manufacturing process.
On the other hand, Mykynnleigh had been spying on Madolyn through an audio device, installed in Madolyn’s car. She had done this to avoid any obstacles in the signing of the deal. Venetia and Chad discover the device in Madolyn’s car one day and tell Madolyn about it. At first, they suspect that it must have been Teddy (Ricardo Chavira), Madolyn’s driver and a friend, who might have done it for money.
Madolyn, along with Chad and Venetia, decides to play Mykynnleigh’s game. Madolyn talks to James in her car, with the intention of their conversation being heard by Teddy and Mykynnleigh. She mentions that she won’t sign the deal with Verdemiaire as she had been receiving calls, offering much better deals. This act ultimately results in Verdemiaire increasing the amount for the deal, doubling the original offer. However, Mykynnleigh ends up revealing that it was actually James who had kept the audio spying device in Madolyn’s car.
After getting to know about their dirty game, Madolyn ends things with James and decides that she won’t sign the deal now. On the other hand, Venetia had given away an archive to Mykynnleigh, which contained the recipe for all the products of Madolyn’s brand, since day one. Venetia had given it to Mykynnleigh, just to scare Madolyn and get her to sign the deal as it was necessary to save the company.
Just when Madolyn is ready and about to sign the deal with Verdemiaire, Mykynnleigh tells her that they can no longer sign the deal. She mentions that Verdemiaire was skeptical about Madolyn refusing to sign the deal, which made them work on a backup plan simultaneously, and that Verdemiaire would be launching a range of new makeup products. Venetia tells Mykynnleigh that the loyal customers of Madolyn’s brand would never go for their low-quality products. When Mykynnleigh says that they might not be able to tell a difference, Venetia realizes that Verdemiaire actually used the archive to create the new products.
The reports from the lab test indicate that it was indeed the same formula as Glamorous, which had been unchanged for the past 23 years. Venetia finds it hard to muster the courage to tell the truth to Madolyn as she might end up in jail. Madolyn announces that ‘Glamorous by Madolyn’ is now over as the customers would go for the high-quality products offered by Verdemiaire at half the price.
Glamorous By Madolyn Survives
Just when everyone, including Madolyn, starts losing hope, things change for good as Madolyn and her team take their fate into their own hands. As suggested by Venetia, Madolyn decides to completely do away with their old products and formula, and launch Glamorous as an all-organic cosmetic brand, before Verdemiaire launches their new makeup products range. They do so in the hopes that the extremely loyal customers would accept Madolyn’s decision and continue to stay loyal.
Madolyn makes an official announcement about the same, and a pop-up sale of the brand’s product is also announced, where Madolyn would present herself to bid farewell to the old era. This announcement enabled them to get rid of their old products while generating revenue for them to launch their new organic products. As a result, Madolyn’s brand ‘Glamorous by Madolyn’ is saved for good.
When they are able to save Madolyn’s brand, Venetia finally musters the courage to tell the truth to Madolyn, which results in her getting fired from the job. However, Madolyn is unable to find an employee as passionate and efficient as Venetia. Ultimately, when Venetia helps the brand amidst a chaotic situation even when not being employed by Madolyn, she finds some favor with Madolyn and she is hired once again. Finally, she gets promoted to become the Creative Head of Madolyn’s brand.
Chad ultimately leaves her mother’s office on a happy note, as he wishes to do something to prove his worth to Madolyn, on his own now. Madolyn is also able to clear her differences with Teddy as she apologizes for suspecting Teddy of being the one who installed the spying device.
Venetia and Britt move in together. Marco’s mother gets a job with much higher pay, but the job requires her to move out of town. Marco finally becomes a mature and independent individual as he moves into a rental place with Dizmal (Damian Terriquez), one of his queer friends. Along with ‘Glamorous by Madolyn,’ things also end on a happy note for Marco as he becomes a popular social media influencer and continues to enjoy a healthy relationship with Ben.
Glamorous is now available to stream on Netflix.
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