It has been such a busy week for film and tv, so I’m going to hop right to it! Sunday was the Oscars and you know that means gathered up all the gay red carpet looks. Drew also had some thoughts about Lily Gladstone’s loss (I’m personally still mad about it) and what comes next for “representation” in Hollywood. Riese updated her deep dive research on The True Accurate History of LGBTQ+ Performers Competing for Lead and Supporting Actress Oscars. We had a special piece written by Chingy Nea about Todd Haynes’gaze and May December.

Last week’s Drag Race came with a twist. Peppermint was finally able to speak her truth in the Traitors reunion. In honor of Feud’s season finale, Sai ranked Truman Capote’s Swans by how much she would like to be insulted by them. After being cancelled by Peacock, Girls5eva has landed with a brand new season on Netflix, and its both gay and on a mission! Speaking of Netflix, Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda brings some brilliant trans comics to the famously transphobic network. And on Peacock, Apples Never Fall wants so badly to be Big Little Lies — too bad it has bad little writing. Over on Max, The Girls on the Bus has an all-star cast, but that wasn’t enough for it to get Natalie’s vote.

We are bringing back one of my favorite series,“Lost Movie Reviews From the Autostraddle Archives”, and Drew kicked us off by talking about Mulholland Drive and the power that lurks in the shadows. We also have an ode to Kristen Stewart’s nervous ticks, just in time for Love Lies Bleeding. And speaking of Love Lies Bleeding, did you read our review? The new Frida documentary is out today on streaming, so we also have a review of how lets the queer disabled communist icon speak for herself for you as well!

Somehow Kayla and Drew both have a shared false memory of girls kissing in Æon Flux (2005)! On the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Reunion, Kyle Richards said she was curious to kiss Morgan Wade. Today the Criterion Collection announced that Bound will be joining its ranks, a win for sapphic cinephiles and fans of extrememly excellent sex scenes alike.

We capped off our Birthday Week with a few more top 15 lists! Top 15 Queer TV Characters Named Alex, a tribute by Riese to Autostraddle’s co-founder Alex Vega, and Top 15 TV Birthday Parties That Valerie’s Rewritten Into Horror Movies (perfect for the theme, we must say!). We also updated The 60 Best Queer and Lesbian Netflix TV Shows.

And finally, We are all particularly proud of this deep dive feature that Drew wrote and if you like good things then you should make it your must read: Peaches Christ and Mink Stole vs. Death!

Here’s what else!

Notes from the TV Team: 

+ YESTERDAY WAS SHONDALAND THURSDAY and my world is finally at peace!! We’re going to talk about Station 19 below, but just to catch you up: on Grey’s Anatomy we got very little of Yasuda and Helm together, though at one point Helm does come to go check on her girl with some serious heart eyes right when it looked like Yasuda was about to be fired from the program (Yasuda got to keep her job, of course! They can’t fool me! But I sincerely hope we aren’t seeing a regulation of Helm back to being a background character. Hopefully this episode was just a one-off). — Carmen

+ Only two chefbians will be part of Food Network’s Tournament of Champions‘ second round. After being eliminated in the first round of last year’s tournament, Tiffani Faison earned her redemption by dispatching Chris Scott in Sunday’s episode. The chefbian’s dish was the best scored of the night which earned Faison $5k to donate to the local restaurant of her choice. The Boston chefbian chose to give the money to Dani’s Queer Bar and specifically noted the dearth of spaces available for queer women (which Riese and Kayla wrote about earlier this week). It was very cool and definitely cemented me on Team Tiffani.

Faison will join Britt Rescigno in the second round which kicks off on Sunday. I’ll be watching. Go gays! — Natalie

Station 19 Episode 701: “This Woman’s Work”

Written by Carmen

Ok so first things first: WELCOME BACK!!! Can I just say that I’ve missed you? I’ve missed this? I have so deeply and sincerely missed talking about my Thursday night Shondaland shows with you, and getting all wrapped up into Carina and Maya and their lasagna sex-filled highjinks and Stefania Spampinato’s and Danielle Savre’s excellent acting with you!!!

So our little reunion out of the way, this week’s Station 19 picks up almost immediately where last season left off roughly 10 months ago (I know, I know, it’s been so long!!). I will be honest upfront and say that I failed us slightly, because I did not go back to re-watch last year’s finale before watching this year’s premiere, and that was maybe a mistake, as it turns out the events of last May were incredibly important. From what I remember Carina delivered a baby during an emergency where the ballroom floor broke during a banquet and turned into sinkhole. The mother (Nannette) sadly did not survive. Now Carina is at Grey Sloan Memorial looking after the baby.

Surviving this crisis has also spurred some life changing decisions for Carina. Namely she no longer wants to live in Maya’s apartment! It’s not as dramatic as it seems, it’s not that she no longer wants to live with Maya, it’s that the apartment is filled with so many of their terrible memories. Carina would rather live in a house, with a backyard where she can grow herbs and Maya can work out and they can invite their friends over for dinner on the patio. And where the kids can run around! Because they are going to restart IVF and Carina wants kids!

At the same time as these revelations, the baby that Carina delivered is facing life without his parents. I don’t remember what happened to his father, and of course his mom died in the accident, though she was always intending to give the baby up for adoption. At first one of Nanette’s coworkers wants to adopt the baby, so that he can at least grow up with someone who knew his mom (this involves an incredibly cute story that Nanette hoped whomever would adopt the baby would name him Liam, after her favorite member of One Direction). But ultimately the coworker realizes that he’s not equipped to be a parent. He feels awful about it, and leaves in tears.

Maya realizes (and I think a lot of people saw this coming), that she and Carina could adopt baby Liam. She’s a firefighter and Carina is a doctor, they would be a lock as foster parents. And Carina has already not left this baby’s side since she delivered him. They could be a family.

So Carina looks at Maya, she looks down at this perfect baby, and of course there’s only one thing she could say. Get ready, we have a Bishop-DeLuca bambino on the way!!

If I can put on my serious critic hat for just a moment, I have to say that from a storyline perspective — is all a little too convenient? Sure, yes, it is. And have I been one of the people most critical of a storyline decision to give Carina and Maya a child when they first began the journey back in Season Five, when it seemed like Station 19 had run out of ideas for what to do with the couple? Yes, that is also historically accurate. Does it feel just a litttleeeee like moving out of an apartment of bad memories and into a cute single family home with a baby is borrowing from roughly Season Ten of Callie and Arizona on Grey’s Anatomy? You could say that.

But this is Station 19’s last season. These are the last few weeks we will ever spend with Maya and Carina. They deserve a happy ending. They deserve a beautiful, joyful send-off that is worthy of these characters and what they have meant to so many others. So I’m going to step into that joy and stand ten toes down in it. I’m happy for Carina, Maya, and the bambino Liam. I bet that backyard is going to be so cute.

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