It’s August somehow?! Riese made you a list of all the new gay things streaming on TV this month. Harley Quinn is back for a fabulously gay fourth season. Stephanie Beatriz’s Twisted Metal is a little gay and a lot of fun. Good Omens gives us a lesbian couple to root for in its second season. Che Diaz got done so dirty on this week’s And Just Like That. Nico wrote some perfect Barbie content this week, including: Can You Feel The Kenergy and Barbie-ology: Your “Barbie” Character, According to Your Zodiac Sign.
Notes from the TV Team:
+ Reservation Dogs returned for its third and final season this week on FX/Hulu. While the show’s first two episodes lean heavily into the funny (White Jesus! William Knifeman!), there are still beautifully poignant moments that reaffirm that this show is one of the best on television. — Natalie
+ Also back? The Lincoln Lawyer, which delivers the back half of its second season on Netflix. I haven’t made it through all five episodes but my hopes that there would be more screentime for Izzy and her girlfriend, Ray, were quickly dashed. I’ll keep watching in hopes that it finally gets gay. — Natalie
grown-ish 606: “Savior Complex”
Written by Natalie
grown-ish is not long for this world — it is one-third of the way through its final season — and it feels a bit like they’re experiencing a bad case of senioritis. The creativity is waning and in lieu of actual character development (what happened to Slick Woods?!) or world building (does anyone at Cal U actually attend classes?), grown-ish has opted for the tried and true method for TV shows to push through their malaise: guest stars.
Lots of them. Lots of them. Think Glee, season four, level of guest stars.
This episode alone features guest appearances by Druski, Lil Yachty, Latto and Kelly Rowland. It’s enough to keep the social media streets talking, to potentially spike the ratings, but if you’re actually invested in the main characters? Yeah, there’s not going to be a lot there for you to enjoy…all their stories are shortchanged by these guest characters.
Case and point: after impressing the streetwear curator, Zaara’s invited to try her hand at modeling. Andre shows up to her hype man/manager and Drea appears to offer her congratulations. Zaara invites Drea to celebrate “[popping] her photoshoot cherry.” Though she tries to play it off, Drea’s suggestion of getting together on Wednesday night, sends Zaara into a bit of a panic. She wonders, is what she agreed to an actual date? Zaara tries to talk to her friends about it — and who should pay if it is a date — but laments that she doesn’t have access to their hetero cheat codes.
In a previous iteration of this show, this would’ve been an invitation for Zaara to engage more with Cal U’s queer community. Or maybe she could’ve just visited the Autostraddle archives for two seasons of the “Wait, Is This a Date?” podcast. But there’s no time for world building in grown-ish‘s sixth season so, instead, we’re shortchanged and Zaara’s forced to take advice from the straights. Kiela advises Zaara to just pay for the outing herself and assert that it is most definitely a date.
Zaara tries to take Kiela’s advice but when Drea offers to pay the tip, she’s flustered. Does the split bill mean they’re definitely not on a date? Eventually, Zaara just gives in and asks Drea directly: “is this a date?” Drea draws closer and asks Zaara if she wants it to be a date. Zaara takes the cue and the couple share their first kiss.
Nancy Drew Episode 410: “The Ballad of Lives Foregone”
Written by Valerie Anne
The Bess/Odette storylines remains one of my favorite queer love stories on TV. Because I’m an emotional masochist.
We open where we left off, in the wake of Nancy realizing the Sineater is Tristan, as he lay bleeding and poisoned on the forest floor. He transforms back into Tristan and tells Nancy he’s okay with dying in her arms, but she’s not okay with being a killer so she’s determined to save him.
The dads come up with a plan to talk to the Glasses while the Drew Crew works together to save Tristan. They get the arrow out, but the poison is already seeping toward his heart so they calculate they have 10 hours to save him.
Bess is big mad that she doesn’t have access to her resources that could save him much quicker, and since there’s nothing else for her to do at Nancy’s, she heads to the morgue where Ace has been put in a time out for some reason, and is not as surprise as you’d think to see him with his hands in a bowl of ice and headphones on talking to a ghost. She can’t help Team Tristan without her tinctures and spellbooks, but she sure knows a thing or two about spirits so she can help Ace.
The rest of the Drew Crew splits up, Mr. Glass off to find a relic, Mrs. Glass and Ryan off to investigate the Black Door, Nancy bopping into Tristan’s memories, mourning the loss of the potential for an uncomplicated relationship.
Bess can’t get the ghost to talk to her, she only wants to talk to Ace, but she does help Ace come up with a plan: if they find the real Mia, the morgue won’t release the body they have to Mia’s parents, and Ace will have more time to figure out who she is. So Bess and Ace follow Mia’s hiking path, and find her…alive! While they’re in the woods, Ace’s ghost saves them from a falling branch in her fully burnt-out glory.
When Bess parts ways with Ace, she warns him about getting too attached to this ghost, who clearly feels attached to him. If anyone knows anything about the heartache and devastation that comes with falling in love with a spirit, it’s Bess Marvin. After she leaves, Ace gets the ghost to appear to him, whole, as she once was, so now he at least knows what she looks like.
Eventually Nancy finds Tristan’s memory of the last sin he ate, curing him of the poison, and at the same time Mrs. Glass finds evidence of who the last confession was from, because she secretly wants to sacrifice that person to try to end her son’s Sineater curse. Of course, she doesn’t tell anyone who it is at first, but that person…is Nancy.
90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days Episode 609: “The Big Chill”
Written by Nic
This week on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, we finally learn more about Dempsey’s past and who she is as a person, while Statler continues to Statler all over the most gorgeous English farm. When they wake up after their first night in the caravan, Statler immediately complains about how cold it was while sweet Dempsey tries her best to get her girlfriend to see the beauty of their surroundings. As part of her morning ritual, Dempsey sages her entire caravan to get rid of bad vibes, and this morning she makes a special pitstop to jokingly sage Statler’s vagina which doesn’t exactly get a laugh from the Texan.
Dempsey then explains in her solo interview that she’s always been about that outdoor/traveling life because her family has been part of the Showmen’s Guild for decades. They went around setting up carnivals for most of Dempsey’s childhood. We learn that Dempsey had 2 sisters, but her elder sister died from carbon monoxide poisoning when she was 19 and Dempsey was 16. She was never the same after her sister’s death and left home to travel, couch surf, and find herself. Dempsey’s positivity and belief that everything happens for a reason so you might as well roll with the punches, might actually make her too pure for this show.
Dempsey’s travels eventually led her to her friend who I will henceforth refer to as Hot!Ben. Hot!Ben offered Dempsey a job at his business on the farm where they renovate shipping containers as staycation living spaces, and the grounds are absolutely stunning! Dempsey refers to Hot!Ben as a main character in her life, so naturally she’s excited to introduce Statler to him. Aaaand, it goes as awkwardly as you might imagine. They make small talk until Hot!Ben brings up Dempsey’s Thailand trip and how much the communication must have sucked while Dempsey was living it up. This digs right into Statler’s anxieties about the Thailand trip, so she decides to bring it up later that evening.
As Dempsey cooks dinner (and Statler hilariously attempts to help), they talk about Statler’s insecurities and Dempsey immediately apologizes for the lack of communication; she also reminds Statler that she gave her a heads up that that might be the case. And in classic lesbian fashion, after some processing, Statler admits that she’s projecting her previous relationships onto this one, and it’s not fair to assume Dempsey was cheating on her. However, she also admits that she has cheated on a partner before. Throughout this entire conversation, Dempsey is incredibly caring and attentive and gives Statler the reassurance and safety she needs.
As much as I think it’s ridiculous that Statler has yet to tell Dempsey that she wants to move there at the end of this trip, these two are actually really really cute together. There was a moment when they were cooking when Statler took a bite of raw garlic just to prove she would, and Dempsey nearly fell over from laughing so hard. I really want these two crazy kids to make it, and next week Statler meets Dempsey’s dad… dun dun dun!
Would anybody be interested in me doing episode recaps of The Rising?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng6WfHCNYeE
Musicals are implicitly gay, which means this weeks episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “Subspace Rhapsody”, should get an honorable mention. And we get to hear Melanie Scrofano sing!
I had no idea Grown-ish was still going.