On this chapter of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, on Paper Girls, KJ finds out she’s gay in a way none of the rest of us did in the 80s.
- Paper Girls – Season 1 [Streaming]
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I didn’t know anything about Paper Girls going into it besides it was based on a comic book series. I’ll be honest, it took me a few episodes to get into it. At first it felt too confusing…sci-fi plots are really hard for me to follow. But as it went on, the character development and drama kicked in and I was hooked. I found myself thinking of the show during the day and wanting to watch the next episode asap.
The show is about 4 12-year-old paper girls who get sucked into a war between opposing time-traveling groups. They start in 1988 and travel to various points in time in the future. The part I loved the most was the girls discovering things about their lives via their adult selves. Some of the girls actively work with their grown up selves to try to get back to 1988.
Of course, I spent the early episodes trying to figure out who was the gay one. Mac is a tomboy and the obvious first choice, but I figured she was a red herring. It turned out to be Paper Girl KJ who discovers she is a lesbian by seeing her future self with her college girlfriend.
Wow, what a way to find out.
I came out exactly ONE WEEK before the show takes place in 1988, but I was 18 not 12. At twelve, I spent a lot of unconscious and conscious energy trying not to be gay. It was literally the worst thing you could be in Jr. High. I was pretty lesbophobic and if I saw me and my college girlfriend making out I would have completely panicked. I loved this take on the classic coming out story line.
Meanwhile, something is definitely brewing between Mac and KJ. Those of you who have read the comics are probably like, “No, duh.” but as someone experiencing these characters for the first time, I find their chemistry to be A+.
I really hope we get a season two because I am officially invested. In the meantime, I guess we can read the comic books.
This week: Motherland: Fort Salem series finale! I’m curious to see how things are wrapped up.
