Welcome to Boob(s On Your) Tube, now with 100% more Stef and Rachel and Mey talking about The X-Files! Also, for everyone asking where The Fosters was in this column last week, guess what: It has its own standalone recap again! Now on to this week’s TV.
The X-Files
Written by Rachel + Stef + Mey
Rachel:
The third episode in the six-episode “event” that is the X-Files reboot was wacky. Full of easter eggs and callbacks for longtime fans — the stoned teens returned! Queequeg was mentioned! Kim Manners got a headstone! — it also featured Drag Race drag queen Shangela Laquifa Wadley as a trans woman, Annabelle, who fends off a lizard monster with her handbag.
It’s not a great portrayal by any means — the character enthusiastically declares she’s “on crack,” and is maybe meant to be interpreted as a sex worker if we understand the scene to be a callback to episode “X-COPS,” in which a sex worker fends off a monster in a similar way. Also obviously not great is that she’s portrayed by a male actor — drag queens and trans women are not the same!
That’s not all though! Later on, near the end of the episode, Annabelle comes up again, when the previously mentioned lizard man says she “hit like a man” (ugh). Mulder replies that “that’s because she used to be one,” which, gross, but then Mulder also shares some much more accurate information than we’d expect from someone who once told Scully she was going to prison and “Your cellmate’s nickname is going to be Large Marge. She gonna read a lot of Gertrude Stein.” Mulder explains that Annabelle was transgender, that it’s “a very common medical procedure,” and that you don’t actually need surgery to be trans. He also explains to the lizard man, who wishes to change species, that the transgender experience isn’t the same as changing species, which is something of a relief when media so often thinks it can use transition as an “analogy” for something else.
On the whole, it could have been worse? Ultimately though all of this happened in an episode devoted pretty much entirely to zany hijinks (lizard men???), and the experiences of trans women are something to be taken seriously! So there’s that.
Stef:
Maybe in the 90s this episode would have been progressive? All things considered, the comment about Annabelle being on crack was probably the funniest part of the scene, which says a lot about how poorly presented it was. The way Mulder explained to the lizard person why the transgender experience was different from the were-lizard experience was particularly tone-deaf. It’s not that I look to The X-Files for politically correct, sensitive discourse, but it’s 2016 and surely they could have handled this slightly better.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing to see Mulder and Scully and their incredible chemistry on screen again, but this episode was almost like a parody of the already-ridiculous comical monster episodes we saw in the original series. The show is so proud of itself, so impressed with its cleverness, that it’s actually less entertaining than it might have been.
On the plus side, Scully straight-up stole a dog.
Mey:
It’s good that it seems like the X-Files tried to do better with it’s depiction of trans women by having Mulder explain trans issues in a somewhat informed way. However there are enough trans women in TV and Movies and online who are speaking out about what good trans representation looks like that just trying to do better isn’t enough. This episode of The X-Files was better than many TV shows when it comes to trans representation, but that doesn’t mean that it was good enough.
Younger
Wednesdays on TV Land at 10:00 p.m.
Every other bus in New York City has an ad for Younger plastered on its side right now, and it promises exactly what this show is delivering in its second season: An actual edge to TV Land’s scripted programming. (“Bolder. Wiser. Sexier.”) It was obviously an experiment last year when it arrived next to Hot in Cleveland and The Exes. What could the creator of Sex and the City do with a comedy sandwiched between reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond? And while the show did push the boat way out by TV Land’s standards, it was still exceptionally tame compared to most scripted TV on cable networks. Not anymore!
“Like a Boss” opens with Maggie and Lauren recovering from a romp, all breathless and sweaty. (A far cry from the closed-mouth kiss they shared for a nanosecond last season). Lauren kisses Maggie and bites her chin and is just so psyched to be sleeping with a 40-year-old lesbian instead of a 20-year-old man. (Hear, hear!)
Lauren: I have never been this sexually in synch with somebody before. It’s like you know exactly which buttons to push on my body, without me having to tell you; I normally have to be so verbal. Don’t you agree we’re so sexually in synch? And that’s why, last night, I decided to be gender monogamous.
Maggie: What? With me?
Lauren: Yes, from this point on, you will be the only woman I sleep with.
Maggie: You know, at this point in your life, you should really keep your options open.
Lauren: Why? I have everything I want right here!
Maggie: You know, you remind me of myself at your age. I was always crazy in love with someone. Usually the wrong one. But you need to learn to protect your heart.
Lauren: Why? You don’t protect your heart. You put it right here. [points at a tattoo on Maggie’s chest] Who’s Belinda? Were you very, very much in love?
Maggie: Enough snuggling!
I mean, “gender monogamous” is weird and Darren Starr doesn’t exactly have a great reputation for writing bisexual women, but I’m withholding judgement to see where this goes because it’s very sweet. Maggie actually is still at least a little bit hung up on her ex, who is married now with a bunch of kids who look exactly the same, posing in polos on a wooden fence on her Facebook profile photo. (“Pumpkin spice hell,” Maggie calls it.) So my guess is she’s going to make a guest appearance at some point this season. And Lauren is really, really into Maggie. She even agrees to help Liza with a work emergency if Liza will try to talk Maggie into dropping her prickly non-committal fling thing and actually give a relationship with Lauren a chance.
I feel really happy that Maggie is getting more to do so far this season, and that Lauren became a series regular; it helps fold both of them into the larger narrative of the show more seamlessly. One of my main complaints with season one was how fractured the storylines were between Liza’s work life, romantic life, and home life. This season has gone a long way toward remedying that issue. And it’s giving Maggie a story with real emotional resonance and actual stakes. There’s still plenty of SATC-style silliness, but the tone has evolved into something that’s really landing with me.
Top Chef
Thursdays on Top Chef at 10:00 p.m.
Karen! Marjorie! Karen! Marjorie! There are only two women left on this season of Top Chef, but Karen says she and Marjorie are going to sweep the whole thing. I believe her! This week’s Quickfire Challenge was to plate junk food in a way that looked cool on Instagram, and Karen crushed that one, winning immunity that she didn’t even need with a pink icing playground. The Elimination Challenge happened at an event called Beefsteak that was basically a thousand men in tuxedos sitting around eating meat off the bone and chortling about being cavemen. Marjorie made pickles and rolls, and Tom said she’s the literal best baker in the history of Top Chef. Do you want to know who she credits? My beloved Mary Berry from The Great British Bake Off! Both Karen and Marjorie survived the week, and I’m cheering for them to slowly pick off the male chefs, one-by-one, like the dynamic duo of Melissa and Mey from season 12. #TopMisandry
The 100
Thursdays on The CW at 9:00 p.m.
Written by Karly
When I heard Lexa was coming back this week, I was looking forward to this episode with finale-level anxiety. But most of the episode involved Arkadia Sky People reuniting with the people of Farm Station (Monty’s mom!), who have survived by the skin of their teeth killing every Grounder they see. So that’s going to cause some tension when half the best people are Grounders.
We get a peak into The City of Light, which seems like a virtual reality like the Matrix. Jaha has gone full-on cult leader so Murphy and Emori (girl from the desert in s2) understandably flee. Listen, we shouldn’t have to explain to Jaha and his henchmen that none of these utopias have ever worked in any story. Okay, back to the best part:
Clarke is brought before Lexa by the Ice Nation bounty hunter who captured her, or Vane from Black Sails. I’ve only seen two episodes of that show, but I will continue to call him Vane. But in The 100, he is Prince of Ice Nation, son of the Queen. I can’t wait until we meet the Ice Queen. Lexa quickly dismisses everyone in the room to speak to Clarke. While Clarke is dirty, wild and pissed off, Lexa is clean, calm, and the most beautiful we’ve ever seen her. She apologizes for the secrecy, but she couldn’t allow Clarke to fall into the hands of the Ice Queen. Remember, the Ice Queen was the one who brutalized and murdered Costia.
Clarke, to put it mildly, is still mad about Mount Weather. She literally spits in Lexa’s face and vows to kill her as Lexa’s guards drag her away. If anyone else on this entire earth had done that, Lexa would slice them up like roast beef. But this is Clarke, and Lexa just looks disappointed about it as she stands on the balcony of her tall tower. Lonely is the head that wears the crown. Their reunion was not as romantic as I had hoped, but it’s only the second episode.
Legends of Tomorrow
Thursdays on The CW at 8:00 p.m.
My dear friend Valerie Anne, the world’s leading expert on Nyssa al Ghul, said that Legends of Tomorrow is a little bit of a mess, but a good-hearted one, and one that gets Sara “White Canary” Lance more than Arrow ever did — and, as usual, she’s right. Early reviews of Legends made comparisons to Guardians of the Galaxy, and that was right too. Rip Hunter, Time Master and former Mr. Amy Pond, assembles a ragtag team of superheroes and supervillains to dance around on the space-time continuum and keep everyone in the past and present and future safe from Vandal Savage.
A little push (and new costume) from Laurel helps Sara embrace her role as part of that team. Although, to be honest, if someone had told her she was going to get to wear different period-based outfits every week and ultimately make out with Ali Liebert, she probably wouldn’t have needed even a nudge in that direction. Yes, Sara is bisexual right out of the gate, no doubt about it, as she makes clear in the pilot episode when she says a female bartender is much more her type than the oaf who’s hitting on her. It was a nice piece of confirmation about whether or not Legends was going to completely ignore her past relationship with Nyssa and/or push the narrative that Nyssa was the only woman Sara was ever into.
It’s shaping up to be a new decade/villain of the week in an overarching season dedicated to a single Big Bad. Legends is still finding its feet, but it’s having fun doing it.
Black Sails
Saturdays at 9:00 p.m.
Damn, y’all. I forgot how bloody this show is. I also forgot how gay it is. Season three kicks off with a hardcore murder (by pirates of people who prosecute pirates) and also an impending queer love triangle. You’ll remember that Max and Anne have teamed up with Jack to get their hands on a quadrillion dollars worth of gold that’s being held in a fort they cannot penetrate. You’ll also remember that Eleanor, Nassau’s once and future queen, has been turned over to some vengeance-seeking asshats and is on her way to be executed. In the off-season, Anne fell more deeply in love with Max and Jack got even more jealous. Max’s main thing is the gold, and so she smooches Anne and coos lovingly in her ear, and then releases her to Jack because Jack’s not any use to her if he’s sitting around like a petulant clod. Anne is sad. But she’s Anne. Anne Bonney. She’ll do some murders and feel better. Out on the sea, Eleanor has been rescued by a dude she’s sure to out-Slytherin any episode now, and is, in fact, on her way back to the island where Max is still secretly pining away for her.
Whatever happens, it’s sure to be a bloodbath!
