Well my friends it is Friday, July 19th, and you know what that means — the WNBA Skills Challenge happens tonight and the All-Star game is tomorrow! Do you think we should try to make a lasagna or order a pizza for our All-Star game watch party? Let me know in the comments. Also, this week the Emmy nominations were announced, which was great news for Kristen Kish’s arms, Hacks, Reservation Dogs and Abbott Elementary, among others. All the gay stuff is right there in that link.
It was a very important week for all of us as Drew published her very epic 100 Best Lesbian Movies of All Time list and also revealed the ballots submitted by the 78 queer celebrities and writers who lent their desires to the project. Then Drew shared the ten films she wished made it to the top 100 but unfortunately did not.
Okay, let us proceed!
Notes from the TV Team:
+ All American: Homecoming is back for its third and final season. With so many changes happening at Bringston, I can’t wait to see what the season brings for newly minted roommates, Keisha and Nate. — Natalie
+ On 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way, Statler and Dempsey are preparing to… get this… live in a camper van together and travel through Europe despite having nearly opposite personalities. – Nic
+ One very brief scene in Criminal Minds confirmed Tara and Rebecca are back together, but that’s it. If you need me I’ll be riding the high (pun intended) of the Jemily scene from a few weeks ago -Valerie
+ The Boys ended in mayhem but not gayness. The gays belong to Gen V now I guess. – Valerie
+ New season of Bel-Air is on deck:
The show’s third season debuts on Peacock on August 15, just after the conclusion of the Olympic Games. — Natalie
All American 615: “I Do (Part II)”
Written by Natalie
This is where it started: after a frustrating first day at Beverly Hills High, Spencer James retreats back to the world he knows and to those that know him. On the playground where their friendship was born, Spencer vents to Tamia “Coop” Cooper. He second guesses his decision to leave South Crenshaw for a team that doesn’t support him and a coach that only pays him lip service. Maybe he made a mistake. Coop reassures him.
“You just got to do you. You got the goods on and off the field. I knew it from the moment I met you right here in this park,” his best friend reminds him. “You decide who you want to be.”
Fast-forward 105 more episodes, to All American‘s sixth season finale and we find the best friends back where they started: walking the halls of South Crenshaw High and discussing life’s biggest decisions on their childhood playground. Only this time, it’s Coop that needs the reminder.
As a comedy of errors roils Spencer and Olivia’s wedding plans, Coop gets good news: first, she gets accepted into GAU’s law school, then she gets word that she’s been accepted at Yale Law. The Vortex is thrilled for her — they all embrace her and cheer her success — but Coop doesn’t share their enthusiasm. She insists that the good news is just a lot to process right now and she’d rather invest her energy into getting Spencer hitched. Her best friend accepts her excuse for the moment but soon after he’s married, Spencer turns his attention back to Coop. He knows something is bothering her and the two reconnect on the playground to talk about it.
Sitting on neighboring swings, Coop admits that while she’s always been able to imagine a huge future for the Vortex, she never really saw one for herself. Given her history — “a former rapper who minored in gang banging” — she’s finding difficult to imagine herself fitting in, especially in the Ivy League. But Coop’s best friend reminds her that she’s got the goods.
“Coop, you are brilliant and you belong anywhere you want to be,” Spencer reminds her. She gets to decide who she wants to be and Spencer pushes her to chose the law school that’ll make her happiest. Her confidence restored, Coop smiles brightly and, one last time, she tells her best friend she loves him.
I’ll always be remiss at how All American handled Coop, particularly her relationship with Patience. What was truly groundbreaking about this show, initially, was how it gave equal time and weight to its straight and gay pairings. But, by the end, Coop and Patience didn’t share more than hugs, even as the straight couples around them were intimate and had lavish weddings. The disparate treatment was stark and it’s hard not to let that taint the way I view this show.
But if this is the end — and it appears to be, at least of this iteration — then it ended exactly where it should have: with Spencer and Coop, just as it began.
