On this chapter of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, I’ve been quiet for a few weeks, but I’m back with Zelmare and Swanee on Fargo and the premiere of Station 19.
Hi folks, I’m sorry I haven’t written in a few weeks! Queer TV has been pretty quiet, but I also fainted on Halloween morning (the Dr. was like “some people faint” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). My face lost a fight with the bathroom floor and gave me a black eye and a concussion. My brain has been pretty foggy, but my face and head are feeling much better now.
Check this out though! My kid got a black eye (playground accident at school) days before the 2016 election and I got one days before the 2020 election.
I’m not a person who believe in “signs” but these are quite the bookends to our current nightmare administration. I hope my busted face ushers in the climb out of the fresh hell we’ve been living through.
- This is Us – Season 5 Episode 3 “Changes” [Live]
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This is Us has been focusing on the adults and COVID since season five started a few weeks ago. However, Tess had some screen time after her parents discovered a video she made with a friend airing their school grievances.
I love following Tess’ story because my kid is in the same grade, and I imagine they go to similar Philly schools. If they were Tess’ friend they would TOTALLY make this video with her. But they would have probably thrown in the finger for extra drama. To be honest, they wouldn’t get in as much trouble with me as Tess did with Beth and Randall, but I am not nearly as intimidating (in the best way possible) as Beth is.
- Station 19 – Season 4 Episode 1 “Nothing Seems the Same” [Live]
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The return of Station 19 has been a bright spot in my pandemic haze. It’s like a glimpse of pre-COVID normalcy where my current favorite TV ship lived. Not only was the show coming back, Danielle and Stefania have been spoiling us with the cutest content leading up to the three-hour crossover premiere event!
With this and the fact that Stefania was upped to a Station 19 series regular, I buckled in for what I thought was going to be three hours filled with quality #Marina content.
This is what we got.
OMG they didn’t even talk to each other!
I was so disappointed.
- Fargo – Season 4 Episode 8 “The Nadir” [Catch-up]
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My wife and I love Fargo and watch it every season, but this one was difficult for us to get into at first. It’s a lot of dudes arguing and shooting at each other — way more dudes than other seasons. The thing I love about Fargo is there are interestingly-written women heroes in every season. This season is about multiple mob families in 1950s Kansas City, Missouri. When the mob stuff is happening (which is most of the time) I stop paying attention.
Even though they don’t get as much screen time as other seasons, true to the Fargo brand, there are many quirky and intriguing female characters. Two of them are Zelmare and Swanee: prison escapee girlfriends.
Zelmare learns her sister, Dibrell, has taken money from a loan shark, Loy Cannon (played by Chris Rock), so she and Swanee break out of prison to help her pay him back.
Zelmare and Swanee don’t consider themselves criminals, they identify as outlaws which they explain to Zelmare’s niece, Ethelrida.
In true unorganized crime fashion, they steal money from Loy and give it to Dibrill’s husband Thurman to pay Loy back with his own stolen money. Of course, Loy figures this out. He tracks down Zelmare and Swanee at their hotel and forces them to do a hit job for him on a competing mob family. After they complete the job, Loy sends them on their way on a train to Philly. But the authorities are after them too and they force Loy to reveal their location.
The cops swarm the train station and a big shootout happens.
As soon as this scene started I said out loud, “Oh, no I’m going to have to add them to the death ticker.” I was half right. Swanee was shot and Zelmare got away. At least she got to die with a gun her her hand like she wanted.
This week: Please please please, Station 19 writers, give us Marina content this week!
