On this chapter of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, Beth meets Alex on This is Us, I have a new favorite show with Home Economics and the Wynonna Earp series finale brings us the Wayhaught Wedding.
- This is Us – Season 5 Episode 12 “Both Things Can Be True” [Live]
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Tess is having her enbyfriend, Alex, come over for the first time and Beth is trying to be the coolest, most supportive mom of a queer kid ever.
I swear sometimes I feel like Beth and I live parallel lives. We live in Philadelphia and have queer teenagers of the same age who are MEAN when you mess up and get pronouns wrong.
Alex arrives, Tess does a quick intro, grabs the poppers and runs upstairs.
This is also 100% something my kid would do.
Later, Deja asks where Tess and Alex are because she wants to say hi to them. After Beth tells her they’re up in Tess’ room, Deja asks why are they allowed to hang out in a room with the door closed when she and her boyfriend can’t. It’s obvious Beth hadn’t thought about that.
She does agree it’s only fair Tess has the same rules as her straight sister, so she goes up to check on them.
Of course, Tess and Alex aren’t studying.
Tess protests, but concedes to going downstairs. Under her breath, Tess says to Alex, “Sorry, she’s such a psycho.” Oh, no, you didn’t just call Beth a name.
Beth tells Alex it’s best they go home while she talks to Tess about her rudeness. After Alex leaves, Tess says that was mortifying and Beth replies she should have thought about that before calling her a name. Tess then accuses Beth about being mad about something other than the “psycho” comment.
Being able to relate to Beth I was like, “What look?” But my kid who was in the room while the show was on was totally on Tess’ side and thought Beth was being terrible. We’re both very on-brand.
Beth goes downstairs and tells her mom, Carol, about what happened and “the look” accusation.
When her mom asks her what she can’t let go of, she mentions various things moms do with their straight daughters, like getting ready for dates and walking her down the aisle to her future husband. She thought she let all that go, but I guess seeing her with Alex made Tess’ queer future more real.
Beth’s mom says being a mother is letting go of what you dreamed would be and adjusting to what is.
When I came out to my mom, I am sure she grieved the loss of the straight future she envisioned for me. I bet she dreamed about me marrying a male doctor in a giant wedding. At the time I didn’t think about this at all, but now that I have a kid, I see parenting is all about adjusting. And like Carol says, you don’t want to waste time not adjusting.
Later, Beth lays down the law with Tess over name-calling, but also tells her it’s important she know how she makes her feel.
A year and a half ago, my kid came out as non-binary and came out again as transgender a few weeks ago. It’s been a couple of years of adjusting at our house.
When I was trying to conceive, I had almost no dreams of my kid’s future. I just wanted them to be happy, have a fulfilling means to support themselves as an adult and be in a healthy relationship if they chose to be partnered. I thought I was prepared for any adjustment necessary, but I didn’t anticipate a name change. The name my wife and I chose for our kid was very meaningful to both of us, and now I had to let go of this one dream I had when it came to having a kid.
Recently, I watched Fortune Feimster‘s Netflix stand-up special Sweet and Salty. In the end, she said something like, “The best thing you can do is let your kids be themselves.” She and Carol are so right. Parenting is hard, but my kid is amazing. We are working hard to adjust as quickly as possible and accept the creative, awesome and loving person he is.
His name is Tyler and recently, just like Tess, he said to my wife, “I know you’re trying.” It’s the sweetest thing his 14-year-old self could have said to us.
- Station 19 – Season 4 Episode 10 “Save Yourself” [Live]
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Carina is setting up a popup COVID testing center at Station 19 and being tense and bossy about it.
Maya is trying to make suggestions, but Carina is not open to them.
Maya is stuck in a game of “Is my girlfriend in work mode or mad at me?” when Andy’s lesbian cousin Michelle and her family show up to get tested. Michelle wants to know who Robert (Andy’s newish husband) is because it looks like Andy hasn’t brought him to family dinners.
Okay, that’s cute, but YES she is still dating the Italian!
Eventually Maya corners Carina and makes her tell her what’s wrong.
Why? Why does the show have to do this to us? I don’t want a Carina gets deported story line!! Leave my favorite ship alone!
While riding the firetruck, which is I guess where you have all your serious conversations when you’re a firefighter, Maya tells Andy about Carina’s visa status.
Maya has finally gotten decent at the having a girlfriend thing, please don’t send the girlfriend away!
Back at Station 19, Carina has been talking about how bad the situation is in Italy and thinks its her Dr. duty to back home to help. She is also annoyed with all these firefighters breaking protocol, including Jack.
I snapped my fingers after I saw her say, “It’s Dr. Deluca” especially since she let someone who wasn’t Jack call her Carina earlier. I am actually finding the Carina/Jack interactions very entertaining.
When Maya gets back to the station, she and Carina talk about Italy a little more.
I loved, “Honey, I’m home.” but I did not love the I can’t go to Italy vs. I must go to Italy talk.
At the end of the episode, I guess Maya changed her mind.
Pack your bags and your Italian phrasebook because #Marina is going to Italy!
Are they really going? If so, did they really film on location in Italy or did they recreate Italy on a sound stage? Is this all going to happen off screen? Are they going to be gone for long?
I am STRESSED.
- Home Economics – Season 1 Episode One “Pilot” [Live]
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When I started seeing promos for Home Economics, I didn’t think much of it. The dude from That 70s Show in a sitcom about his and his siblings’ money issues didn’t seem that engaging. Then when I heard one of the siblings is a lesbian mom named Sarah married to Denise played by Sasheer Zamata, AND Ashly Perez was a story editor, I was like, “Okay, I’ll definitely watch.” Still, though, I didn’t have high hopes when we sat down to watch it. Sitcoms are hit and miss and pilots often try too hard and you don’t get hooked on a show until a few episodes in.
We LOVED it.
From the start the writing was so clever and funny we were laughing the entire time. Within the first few minutes of the show, you meet Sarah and Denise.
The moment she said, “…and look at pictures of Cate Blanchett in suits?” I knew we were in on the joke instead of being the joke.
Topher Grace from That 70s Show plays Tom, the oldest brother who is a writer in need of financial assistance while he writes his newest book. Sarah is out of work at the moment, and Jimmy Tatro from American Vandal is Connor, the super-rich youngest brother.
The comedic chemistry between the three siblings is so good.
Btw, I’m an asshole who literally said, “Fewer points.” out loud seconds before Tom said it.
Many sitcoms I like have an end segment on every episode so serious and sappy it makes me cringe. Like The Goldbergs and Modern Family felt the need to end with some “deep” commentary on family or relationships. This started to go there too but was peppered with enough corny-self-awareness to make me laugh instead of cringe. Thank you for that, show.
If you like sitcoms with queer main characters, I highly recommend Home Economics. I think it’s going to be one of my new favorite shows.
- Wynonna Earp – Season 4 Episode 12 “Old Souls” [Live]
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After five years of cancellations and rescues plus a pandemic, the Wynonna Earp series finale (for now at least) finally arrived and so did the highly anticipated Wayhaught wedding.
It was as sweet and beautiful as I imagined it would be.
Sci-Fi isn’t my genre, but I was a devoted viewer. Wynonna Earp gave back to its queer fans with inside jokes and a bulletproof, unkillable beloved queer ship. I am going to miss the characters and their quick wit and most of all I will miss Nicole and Waverly.
LezWatch will love this show forever.
This week: Yesterday was the series finale of Shameless. I’ll let you know how the show ended next week.
