On this chapter of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, I report on what I watched during my Summer vacation like, Irma Vep, The Chi and the Ellen and Pam drama on For All Mankind.
- The Chi – Season 5
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Nothing has changed with Karen and Dre for the last few episodes. I imagine they’re going to therapy and making passive-aggressive digs at each other off-screen.
Meanwhile, Trig started using his given name “Victor” and is running for City Council under the encouragement of Duda and Tracy. They gave Victor a fake girlfriend named Tierra (played by Nia Jervier who was Kelsey in Dear White People) to boost his likability in voters’ eyes. The whole thing is strange, because he has a video on the internets of him beating up a kid. A fake girlfriend is not going to fix that. Also, when it comes to big city-level politics people don’t care that much about your relationships.
In between speeches and photo ops with Tierra, Victor started to strike up a friendship with local journalist, Fatima. Fatima is a proud transgender woman who calls Victor out on his fake cis girlfriend. But you can’t stop love and Victor and Fatima start a romantic relationship.
Fatima saying she’s not going to be a secret sounds like foreshadowing!
I feel confident their relationship is going to be revealed to the public before the season is over.
- For All Mankind – Season 4
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This show is my absolute favorite on air right now. Every Friday I wake up thinking, “It’s Space Show day!”
This season started in 1992 (the year my wife and I started dating!) with Ellen running against Bill Clinton for President. It was gross seeing Ellen be a republican and pick an ultra conservative VP running mate, but last season Regan chose her to be the “new face of Grand Old Party.” Also, I knew the show wouldn’t let us down with the queer content and Ellen would eventually have to deal with being a closeted lesbian republican president.
When Will, a young astronaut, comes out on national TV from Mars, Ellen and Larry are forced to deal with the gay thing. Their party pressures them to punish Will and their consciousnesses push them to do something for their fellow gays. Their solution is to implement their own version of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I LOVED this alt history take.
I personally wanted a Clinton-style affair with a staffer for Ellen, but that storyline went to her gay husband, Larry. When Larry gets outed by a friend of the guy he’s currently sleeping with, the past is brought up and Ellen learns Pam left her because of the pressure of her future political aspirations not because she was going back to her ex-girlfriend.
I guess when you’re the president in the 90s you can stealthily go visit your ex without being on a million security cameras. Ellen drops in on Pam at her house to process their breakup from 10 years ago.
This scene prompted me to go down a hole of watching all of Ellen and Pam’s scenes from season two to remind myself what happened.
In season two, Ellen was ready to do whatever it took to be in a relationship with Pam. She and Larry were making plans for coming out and getting divorced. Then Lee Atwater met with Larry at their house to tell him Regan wanted Ellen to run for congress and eventually be president one day. Pam walked in on this conversation and decided she would only get in Ellen’s way. So she wrote the note Ellen brought to her in present day and left without speaking to her again.
To get a better idea of where Ellen was at, take a look at this video message from the season two extras.
Ugh! SHE WAS READY TO GIVE UP HER POLITICAL CAREER FOR PAM.
It’s fine, I’m fine. I’m “enjoying” the angst and drama.
I think something is going to happen before the end of the season. Maybe Ellen will come out, or Larry’s affair will force them out. The show got renewed for season 4 where it will jump to 2000! Maybe Ellen will be out then.
In other FAM news, Sony Pictures Television sent me this awesome swag modeled by my cute wife, Mia!
Thank you so much! ❤️🚀
- Irma Vep – Season 1
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Y’all. I tried to like this show but at the end of the day I did not. It was pretentious, trying too hard to be artsy and ironic and I just wasn’t into it.
Also, the queer content was cringy. The main character, after pining after her ex-gf all season, decides to tell us she’s not into girls after all in the last episode. She also leads on a couple of the women characters on the show like her assistant Regina and Zoe, the lesbian costume designer of the movie she’s working on.
They also made Zoe out to be a little bit of a cliche predatory older lesbian. Not cool.
Please read this review by Autostraddle writer Drew Gregory.
She expresses exactly how I felt about the show in much better words than I could have ever written.
- Good Trouble – Season 4
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One of LWTV’s favorite actors, Nicole Pacent, showed up on Good Trouble to start some drama!
I love it.
- Motherland: Fort Salem – Season 3
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I barely understand what is happening on this show. One thing I do know is Taylor Hickson, the actress who plays Raelle, was in a car accident early in filming this season.
She was in the first couple episodes, but has been missing since then.
Scylla has been on a relentless search for her girlfriend and was finally able to reach her on a talking flower via a dead animal (I don’t write this).
I was great to see Raelle again and I look forward the big #Raylla reunion!
- Only Murders in the Building – Season 2
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We’ve spent episodes led to believe Alice is or is not the murderer or otherwise does or doesn’t have nefarious motives being in a relationship with Mabel. Now it looks like Alice had weird art motives for getting close to her.
Poor Mabel is having a shit season I hope things turn around for her.
- Queer As Folk (2022) – Season 1
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I’ve watched all the iterations of Queer as Folk. The first US version I watched live and rewatched streaming. I’ll be honest, I didn’t like this one.
I wanted to like it! I thought it would get things more right this time around like the The L Word: Gen Q did, but I just found all of the characters to be so unlikable. And there’s no way a couple with newborn twins would have the energy to have a date night out snorting coke.
Here’s the trailer! Take a look, I’m sure some folks out there will enjoy it.
- Westworld – Season 4
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FINALLY we got actual queer content on this show. It lasted all of 13 seconds.
I’ll take it and I hope we get more before this season ends.
Otherwise, this season has been really good, with Monday morning discussions and theorizing on LezWatch Slack. Lots of reveals and twist and turns. Also, we have been enjoying the SIX out queer actors on this show, even if only two play queer characters.
And LWTV fave out actor, Nicole Pacent, made a guest appearance in a really pivotal role. Not only that, she is forever in a “Previously On” clip with Tessa Thompson.
Amazing job, Nicole! Your performance was amazing and I hope this leads to bigger roles for you!
This week: I can’t wait to see what happens on Space Show!
