Well hello and happy Game Three Night of the 2021 WNBA Playoffs, starring many queer pals and my number three queer enemy, Diana Taurasi, and airing on ESPN2 at 9pm!
This week, the gay shenanigans kept on happening on The Morning Show and Christina kept on writing about it! Drew kicked off her NewFest coverage with a review of Ruth Caudeli’s Leading Ladies. Shelli, Dani, Natalie, and Carmen got together to talk about Blackness and The L Word: Generation Q‘s second season. Batwoman came back to us, and Nic recapped it! Legends of Tomorrow went full circus, and Valerie Anne recapped it! Supergirl headed down the homestretch, and Valerie Anne recapped that too. Also! Here’s a special treat: Carmen is recapping again and this time it’s season two of Twenties! She’s gonna recap the whole season! (If you’re on the fence, we also posted an exclusive clip of Twenties which you should watch if you haven’t seen the S2 premiere yet!) Heather counted down some of your fave queer women and non-binary babes in top hats in response to that Timothee Chalamet Willy Wonka photo. Drew and Analyssa podcated The L Word: Generation Q season two finale. Riese made you a quiz to tell you which Gen Q character you are. I got Angie so I win but you should still take the quiz!
And finally, another piece of exhaustive Riese Bernard research: An Obsessive Analysis of the Timeline of The L Word Generation Q Season Two.
Notes from the TV Team:
+ Tonight is the premiere of NBC’s new reality series (created by Ava DuVernay) Home Sweet Home, each episode will focus on two families as they switch lives as they move into each other’s homes, cook the other other’s recipes, take part in each other’s daily traditions, and all those warm feelings. But I am here to tell you that IT IS GAY and also we have a clip for you!
Home Sweet Home airs tonight at 8pm/7pm central on NBC. — Carmen
+ On Station 19, Carina and Maya have a lot cry-fights continuing about if they would have a baby, this time ending with Maya (who saved a young boy earlier in the day) believing that maybe she could do this after all… one day. And maybe, jsut maybe, “one day” is good enough for Carina. For now. — Carmen
+ On Grey’s Anatomy, there is technically nothing gay to report… but also? I swear Amelia keeps making eyes at this cute non-binary doctor in Minnesota. Y’all see it right? I’m not alone in this. — Carmen
+ Legacies is back! I am on vacation this week so I didn’t get to watch it in time but I’ll be back with any queer teen witch/werewolf updates next week! — Valerie Anne
+ Some returns to look forward to this week: the third season of You on Netflix drops today…I’m unsure if the gay moment from the trailer will actually lead anywhere but, at the very least, you get queer actress, Shalita Grant, in the new season; Fear of the Walking Dead (AMC) returns Sunday to level up your spooky season; also on Sunday, Monica Raymund returns as newly minted police officer Jackie Quinones on Hightown (STARZ); and hip-hop drama Queens (ABC) debuts on Tuesday! — Natalie
Roswell, New Mexico 312 & 313: “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That” & “Never Let You Go”
Written by Valerie Anne
Anatsa either didn’t notice or didn’t care that Kyle was right there and frankly either way it’s inspiring.
In the two-part season finale of Roswell, New Mexico, things get stressful fast. At the peak of her anxiety about the whole brother-body-swapped-with-an-evil-clone-and-neither-can-live-while-the-other-survives situation, Isobel decides to try to channel what Anatsa taught her and do some archery. But what she quickly realizes is that she doesn’t want to be alone behind the walls she built, so she goes to her chosen family and hugs her sisters, Maria and Rosa, tight. Together, they remake Isobel’s badass alien sword and head back into the fray.
Relationship-wise, Kyle admitted to Maria that he has feelings for Isobel, and she tells him Isobel is seeing someone, but I still have a bad feeling about this. I was extra worried after the battle was done and they kind of won and Isobel asked Kyle for a dance, but they are blissfully interrupted by Anatsa, and she and Isobel kiss a lot. Isobel invites Kyle to stay for drinks, implying to ME that her feelings for him are still platonic, but he declines and leaves Isobel and Anatsa to their smooching.
Also? The very last scene?? While not necessarily gay beyond the original Roswell being a core memory for this particular queer, a new character enters the fold, an ex-teacher of Liz’s…played by SHIRI APPLEBY. When I say I yelped.
Thrilled this show will be back for another season! I have really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to more alien shenanigans.
Nancy Drew 301: “”The Warning of the Frozen Heart” “
Written by Valerie Anne
A little sad we’ll never see this Ashley-Benson-looking queer again. (If Bess has any say in it, anyway.)
The Drew Crew is back! In a delightful return to Horseshoe Bay, we pick up a week after we left off, with sweet Bess’s heart still smarting from the love of her life being trapped in her best friend’s body and going permanently dormant. In an effort to never get her heart broken by an old-timey lesbian ghost ever again, Bess is making her way through all the queer ladies in Maine, trying to have some fun and drown out her very loud feelings. No Aglaeca pun intended. Luckily (?) something else comes along to distract her: a mystery. In the form of dead bodies with frozen hearts showing up. After Nancy finds out about her link to the crimes, meets an ancestor back from the dead, and gets rejected from Columbia, she realizes that she can probably never leave Horseshoe Bay…but more importantly, she realizes she doesn’t want to. This is where her family is, blood and chosen, and she’s not going anywhere. Which is great because the show is named after her Bess probably couldn’t handle a friend/roomie breakup on top of everything else she’s going through.
New Amsterdam 404: “Seed Money”
Written by Natalie
Lauren Bloom is sprung. If you’ve watched New Amsterdam from the beginning, you know how improbable this is. I want to just revel on how cute this all is but the cuteness just adds to my dread. Sometime soon, that other shoe is going to drop…a considering how high Lauren is on love right now, the fall is going to be painful.
For now, though, Lauren’s so cute: she rushes into the hospital before her shift, armed with coffee and bagels, to catch up with her girlfriend. Instead of finding Leyla in the supply closet, though, she finds another sleeping resident. Frustrated that she and Leyla are passing each other like ships in the night, Bloom walks into the ED and changes the schedule: moving Leyla back to the day shift with her. Unused to feeling this level of desperation for someone else, Lauren reaches out to Iggy Frome, the head of the psychiatry department, for help. She’s convinced that going days without seeing Leyla is making her insane.
Iggy tries to assure her that she’s just missing her girlfriend but Lauren insists it’s something more. She’s not just missing Leyla, she needs her…she’s craving her. He asks Bloom about her behavior and discovers that she’s using her authority to make things easier for herself. Lauren realizes that she’s turning Leyla into her new drug but Iggy doesn’t share her concern, yet. He applauds her for recognizing her own misbehavior and pushes her to go see her sponsor (which I’m not even sure she has) and focus on her triggers. But, of course, she doesn’t do that; instead, when Bloom gets a break, she calls Leyla.
“I… I know you’re sleeping….I just called, uh… because I miss you,” Lauren rambles. “I know that’s weird and, um, very creepy, but just… I miss the smell of it. I don’t know. It’s… I don’t know, like, you, warm and rosy, fresh out of the shower. I can’t…” Leyla’s voicemail cuts her off before she can add the last part: “I can’t stand being away from you.” She glances over at the Emergency Department’s schedule, torn between wanting to be with Leyla and not abusing her power as the head of ED. Eventually, though, she corrects her misttep: switching Leyla back to the night shift, much to the consternation of Dr. Walsh.
Later, Bloom returns to an empty house, Leyla having gone back to work at New Amsterdam, but her girlfriend left her a gift: a shirt, bathed in Leyla’s scent, with a note reminding her that she’s still there. Again, very, very cute…but the fall is coming…and I worry that the return of Lauren Bloom’s mother next week could hasten it.
Work in Progress 210: “I Release You”
Written by Drew
There’s a good chance this episode will be the last we see of Abby and if this is indeed the end, I just want to say how grateful I am for these two seasons of extremely queer and open-hearted television.
Over the course of its 18 episodes, Work in Progress has taken Abby and the people around her on so many journeys of self-improvement, forgiveness, and, well, progress. Queer and trans people are deeply traumatized and often take this trauma out on one another. Work in Progress showed another way. It did not excuse Abby’s behavior or the harmful behaviors of others. But it did suggest that we are better than our worst choices.
Theo Germaine finally returned as Chris and his conversation with Abby mirrors the conversation that ended season one. The feelings are less sharp, the hurt is in the past, but the quiet devastation remains. These are two people who care about each other and just couldn’t make it work. They know that. But forgiveness from each other isn’t the same as forgiveness from oneself. I love how this scene manages to feel like a conclusion and a beginning all at once — not a new beginning for these two together, but a beginning for them apart.
I’ve already written a lot of words about this show, but I just love it a lot and I really hope we do get a season three!!
American Horror Story 1009: “Blue Moon”
Written by Drew
This week on the first half of American Horror Story is delightful and the second half is absurd… the absurdity is fun!
Sarah Paulson continues to delight as Mamie Eisenhower who is evil and fucking aliens* even though she’s no longer possessed by one. Our alternate history finds the creation of Area 51 and the murders of Marilyn Monroe and JFK and the whole thing is a campy delight.
Then we go back to the testing facility where Leslie Grossman gets to shine as we find out her backstory which involves a threesome with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong and learning just a bit too much for her own good.
I’ve been harsh on the cast of the latter half but Isaac Powell does some really good work as Troy gives birth to a beautiful and soon-to-be-murdered alien baby. What’s ABSURD is the suggestion that Troy and Cal — two gay boys in their early 20s — are sooo attached to the idea of becoming parents. Ryan Murphy is simply addicted to forcing heteronormativity on young gays!! The emotional weight of their desire to “start a family” on this alien lair feels very hollow and while the body horror and final twist don’t need sense to be a good time imagine all the possibilities that could be explored if Angelica Ross wasn’t relegated to ominous alien or if another trans performer was cast as a main character? Why force this storyline when even the slightest understand of the trans experience could’ve led to something so much more interesting? Sorry, sorry, I will return my expectations back to where they belong.
*Okay, fine, technically she’s fucking an alien-created robot.
re: Grey’s I SEE IT TOO! The zoom meeting with Hot Dr. Kai telling Amelia to close her eyes and imagine cold Minnesota was absolutely flirting.
I want to like Lauren and Leyla together so much, but I’m having a hard time getting on board. Part of it is that I feel like there’s a bit of a power imbalance, but I’ve also shipped Lauren and Helen pretty much from the beginning. I knew it was a long shot, and I’m glad that at least Lauren is canonically queer.
On Grey’s Amelia definitely seemed infatuated with the new doctor!
I finally watched New Amsterdam because the recaps here and gifsets I’ve seen. Smitten Lauren is so so cute! Especially since it’s out of the norm for her. Also, as a queer adhd Jew I feel very seen. Leyla is a fantastic match for her and I’m dreading when the love bubble bursts.
That undeveloped and under-thought kids storyline on station 19 was bothering me so much this week, the fight they have right near the start of the episode where karina compares maya not wanting to have kids to her hypothetically announcing she never wants to have sex again was so uncomfortable and casually invalidating of asexual people and consent (which can be revoked at any time) and also antithetical to the realities of a long term relationship where libido can fluctuate and that can be a conversation but isn’t something a partner should fault you for and certainly not fight you on??? Idk it just struck me as a terrible comparison in an already disappointing storyline kicking off the season
I like them as a couple and think they have great chemistry which is why I would like to see them happy and sad and mad in ways that make sense
Nothing about the new season of The Baby-Sitters Club?
Look, bisexual Isobel is giving me all the love but I want her with Kyle. And I really do hope they end up together.