Connect with us

Television

FALL ARTS 2019 TV — It’s a wrap for ‘Modern Family,’ ‘Transparent’ et. al.

‘AHS’ revisits ‘80s with new season; ‘Dark Crystal’ prequel is unexpected hit

Published

on

2019 Fall television, gay news, Washington Blade
Ruby Rose as ‘Batwoman’ (Photo courtesy CW); Judith Light and cast in ‘Transparent Musicale Finale’ (Photo courtesy Amazon); and Jesse Tyler Ferguson in ‘Modern Family.’ (Photo courtesy ABC)

The fall 2019 TV season got off to a delightful and unexpectedly queer start with the arrival of “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” on Netflix. A prequel to the 1982 cult classic movie directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, the 10-episode series returns to the world of Thra where a brave band of Gelflings are fighting against the evil Skeksis.

Like the movie, the series uses amazing puppetry (with some mechanical augmentation) instead of CGI. The all-star voice cast includes Taron Egerton, Helena Bonham Carter, Sigourney Weaver, Eddie Izzard, Lena Headly, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alicia Vikander, Simon Pegg, Harvey Fierstein and Awkwafina.

As the series unfolds, it is revealed that Deet (voiced by Nathalie Emmanuel), one of the leaders of the Gelfling rebellion, has two dads. The show also features a lesbian relationship between Tavra (Caitriona Balfe) and Onica (Natalie Dormer).

Described as “’Game of Thrones’ with puppets,” the series has premiered to popular and critical acclaim, especially from LGBT fans.

Netflix has also dropped season two of “Élite,” a Spanish language drama that includes a resident gay couple and frank discussions of sexuality, HIV, polyamory and murder.

The ninth season of “American Horror Story” will start stalking FX viewers on Sept. 18. Inspired by horror/slasher movies from the 1980s, “1984” will star Emma Roberts and openly gay Olympic silver medalist Gus Kenworthy. The cast will also include Sarah Paulson, Billie Lourd, Cody Fern, Matthew Morrison and trans actress Angelica Ross (“Pose”); exhausted series regular Evan Peters is taking the season off.

Pro tip: If you don’t subscribe to FX, you can start streaming AHS season eight (the excellent “Apocalypse”) on Netflix on Sept. 24.

On Sept. 22, ESPN will present “Mack Wrestles,” a 30-minute documentary film about Mack Beggs, a high school transgender wrestler from Texas.

The ground-breaking Amazon series “Transparent” will go out with a big splash on Sept. 27. After the fourth season dropped in September, 2017, the series was buffeted by accusations of sexual harassment against star Jeffrey Tambor, who was fired from the show. Creator Jill Soloway decided to end the series with a feature-length musical instead of the planned fifth and final season. “Transparent: Musicale Finale” will include the death of Tambor’s character, trans woman Maura Pfefferman.

The latest series from gay media guru Ryan Murphy premieres on Netflix on Sept. 27. “The Politician” stars out actor Ben Platt as a ruthless teen who wants to be president of his high school class, and then president of the United States. Gwyneth Paltrow plays his mother; the cast also includes gay icons Bette Midler and Jessica Lange.

Several shows with LGBT characters will be starting their final seasons in September, including “9-1-1” (Sept. 23), “The Good Doctor” (Sept. 23), “Empire” (Sept. 24), “Modern Family” (Sept. 25), “The Good Place” (Sept. 26) and “How to Get Away With Murder” (Sept. 26).

Returning series with prominent LGBT characters include in “The Conners” (Sept. 24) and “Grey’s Anatomy” (Sept. 26) and “Superstore” (Sept. 26).

Meanwhile on the CW, LGBT and LGBT-affirming series new and old will leap into action in October. New to the schedule is “Batwoman,” which stars Ruby Rose as Bruce Wayne’s lesbian cousin Kate Kane. Returning superhero shows include “Supergirl,” “Arrow” (series finale), “Black Lightning” and “The Flash.” Other returning series include “Dynasty,” “Supernatural” (series finale) and “Riverdale.”

Netflix continues to taunt the Academy by offering its movies in (very) limited theatrical release before it streams them. (It’s not clear yet if these movies will hit D.C. theaters.) This fall’s hybrid prestige projects include “The King” with Timothée Chalamet as King Henry V and Joel Edgerton as the troublesome Falstaff (streaming on Nov. 1), Martin Scorsese’s three-and-a-half hour crime epic “The Irishman” (Nov. 27), and Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” with Adam Driver and Scarlet Johansson (slated to stream on Dec. 6).

HBO will air the documentary “Very Ralph” about openly gay fashion designer Ralph Lauren starting on Nov. 12. Other HBO programming with queer content includes the final season of “The Deuce” starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal (already underway) and “Mrs. Fletcher” (Oct. 27). Other notable programming includes “Watchmen,” based on the DC Comics series and starring Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Jean Smart (Oct. 20) and “Catherine the Great” starring Helen Mirren as the imperious czarina and Jason Clarke as the infamous Potemkin (Oct. 21).

Also expected in 2019 is an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy “His Dark Materials.”

Season three of the popular “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” debuts to Amazon on Dec. 6. The series, starring Rachel Brosnahan as an aspiring New York comic in the 1950s, has won awards for its great comedy and its examination of gender and class issues, but queer critics have been disappointed by series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s coy treatment of sexuality on the show. Mrs. Maisel’s manager Susie (the terrific Alex Borstein) is coded as a butch lesbian, complete with a leather jacket, jeans and a fisherman’s cap, but the series has yet to address the character’s private life. Maybe they’ll crack open the closet door this season.

Finally, on Dec. 8, an old favorite returns to Showtime. Featuring a new theme song by Lizzo, “The L Word: Generation Q” revives the lesbian-focused drama that ran from 2004-2009. Returning cast members Jennifer Beals (Bette Porter), Katherine Moening (Shane McCutcheon) and Leisha Hailey (Alice Pieszecki) are joined by several new faces; the action is moved from West Hollywood to Silver Lake.

No word yet on a third season of “Pose” (it’s early, though; season two just finished). “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has been renewed for a 12th season but no premiere date has been announced. Same for “All Stars,” which will be back for a fifth season, probably in 2020. “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK” is slated for an Oct. 3 premiere on BBC Three, an online service. No word yet on Ru’s daytime talk show, which had a promising test run in June. 

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

Television

‘And Just Like That’ ditches preachiness to become addictive TV

Second season wraps Aug. 24 with Samantha Jones cameo

Published

on

The returning women of ‘And Just Like That.’ (Screen capture via HBO)

“Do you know where your children are?” New York TV station WNYW asks the parents in its audience every night.

This isn’t a worry for Charlotte York Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) or Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker) two of the main characters featured on season two of “And Just Like That,” (AJLT), the “Sex and the City” reboot, airing weekly on Max through Aug. 24. Their children (from elementary school kids to teens) are safely ensconced at a posh summer camp. While their off-spring are away, Charlotte, who back in the day ran an art gallery, is having sex so good it’s like fireworks on the Fourth of July with her husband Harry (Evan Handler), a highly successful divorce lawyer.

Lisa, a distinguished documentarian filmmaker, and her husband Herbert (Christopher Jackson), a wealthy investment banker who’s thinking about running for New York City comptroller, devote themselves to their work. And to enjoying the rare treat of having a drink at a swanky bar by themselves (sans children).

Meanwhile, corporate (turned human rights) lawyer Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) knows all too well where her son Brady (Niall Cunningham) is. He’s living with Steve (David Eigenberg), his dad, in their Brooklyn townhouse. Miranda’s relationship with Che Diaz (Sara Ramirez), a nonbinary, bisexual, Mexican, Irish comedian who’s making a TV sitcom pilot with Tony Danza (playing himself), has brought Miranda, Steve and Brady into therapy.

Carrie Bradshaw, writer, (Sarah Jessica Parker), Seema Patel, a hot real estate agent, (Sarita Choudhury) and Dr. Nya Wallace (Karen Pittman), a Columbia Law School professor, are so busy grieving, having exit-out-of-grief sex and mourning stolen Birken bags that they wouldn’t have time for children. Nya is divorcing her musician husband Andre Rashad (LeRoy McClain) after many years of marriage because he wants kids and she doesn’t.

Yes! It’s summer in the city, “And Just Like That,” the fab ladies are back! With less sizzle than in “Sex and the City,” but still fun watch. No matter how hard the writers try, no amount of additional characters could make up for the absence of Samantha Jones, the utterly fabulous PR maven, who was an integral part of “Sex and the City.” Even the highly talented Samantha Irby, a bisexual producer and writer of AJLT, couldn’t create a character as captivating as Samantha, who is slated to make a cameo in the final episode.

But the sophomore season of “And Just Like That” has its share of style and juice. How can you resist a series that, in the seven episodes that have aired to date, has given us a (fictional) Met gala and a “cum slut?”

The first season of AJLT spent much time trying to make “Sex and the City” (SATC) more diverse.

It succeeded in many ways. Che, Seema, Lisa and Nya, the new featured characters of color, have intriguing stories. They have good chemistry with the original SATC characters. Yet, it sometimes felt heavy-handed and joyless.

The current season of the show, mostly, dispenses with the exposition and preachiness of season 1. In this season, sex and glam fashion are back in the city.

The episode of “AJLT,” when Charlotte becomes Harry’s Kegel coach to help him with his “dust balls” when he can’t ejaculate and Carrie talks of “Casper, the friendly cum,” is nearly as good as SATC’s “funky spunk” episode.

The women on AJLT are fab. But one of the most enjoyable characters is Anthony Marantino (Mario Cantone), who runs the Hot Fellas bakery. In one hilarious scene, he turns to his BFF Charlotte when he desperately needs to find a Hot Fella to appear with him on Drew Barrymore’s talk show. This being AJLT, Charlotte instantly finds a hot Italian poet who more than fits the bill. Dressed in his Hot Fellas uniform, the poet’s “package” is so great, that looking at him makes Barrymore sweat.

In another scene, Lisa, wearing a dress (designed by Valentino) with a huge train that won’t fit into a cab, has to walk 10 blocks to the Met Gala. “It’s not crazy,” she says to Herbert, who’s holding her train, “It’s Valentino.”

“And Just Like That” isn’t prestige TV. It’s more important: it’s addictive entertainment.

Continue Reading

Television

LGBTQ critics announce winners of Dorian TV Awards

Wanda Sykes, Jennifer Coolidge among honorees

Published

on

Jennifer Coolidge in ‘The White Lotus.’ (Photo courtesy of HBO)

They don’t get as much fanfare as the Emmys, but the Dorian TV Awards – presented annually by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics – have been offering an important queer perspective on the best in the year’s television for a decade and a half, and they’ve just picked their latest round of champions.

On June 26, GALECA announced a slate of winners for the 15th Annual Dorian TV Awards that represented an even mix of high-profile hits and under-the-radar gems. HBO’s final season of “Succession” was a winner, taking the prize for Best Drama while series star Sarah Snook won Best Drama Performance. ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” star Quinta Brunson’s widely praised mockumentary following a clique of idealistic Philadelphia school teachers, took Best Comedy Series.

Less in line with mainstream Hollywood priorities, perhaps, many other awards went to an assortment of under-seen standouts. Amazon Freevee’s audacious prank show “Jury Duty” was named Best Reality Show, with Max’s absurdly snarky showbiz satire (and sadly, now-cancelled) “The Other Two” winning as Best LGBTQ TV Show and HBO comedies “Somebody, Somewhere” and “Los Espookys” taking Best Unsung TV Show and Best Non-English Language Show, respectively. Director Andrew Ahn’s cinematic “Fire Island,” Hulu’s smart queer spin on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” penned by star Joel Kim Booster, scored as Best TV Movie or Miniseries.

GALECA voters seemed to favor dry-but-witty women in most of the performance categories; Bridget Everett of “Somebody, Somewhere” was awarded Best Comedy Lead, Jennifer Coolidge for Best Supporting Drama performance for her instantly iconic return trip to “The White Lotus,” and Ayo Edebiri of FX on Hulu’s restaurant comedy “The Bear” for Best Supporting Comedy performance. The trend extended to the award for Best TV Musical Performance, which went to Ariana DeBose for her well-intentioned but controversial rap tribute to Angela Bassett and other nominees at the BAFTA Film Awards last March.

Other noteworthy wins: Satirist Ziwe Fumudoh’s (also recently cancelled) Showtime series “ZIWE,” a mix of commentary, sketch and topical interviews, received the Dorian for Best Current Affairs Show – its third win in the category; HBO Max’s female superhero series “Harley Quinn” was named Best Animated Program.

Horror was also a running theme, with Shudder’s documentary “Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror” (from TV mastermind Bryan Fuller) taking the Dorians for both Best TV Documentary and Best LGBTQ Documentary, and HBO’s apocalyptic limited series “The Last of Us” impressing GALECA voters as the year’s Most Visually Striking TV Show.

Season Two of Apple TV+’s musical spoof “Schmigadoon!” was named as Campiest TV Show, an award unique to the Dorians, though that might go without saying.

In other honors, the GALECA membership gave Coolidge another win by naming her as TV Icon of the Year, an award whose past recipients include Christine Baranski and Cassandra Peterson (a.k.a Elvira). Elliot Page, whose superhero character Viktor Hargreeves came out as trans in the most recent installment of Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy,” was named as the year’s LGBTQIA+ TV Trailblazer, an award given to entertainment figures who create “art that inspires empathy, truth and equity.” He joins the ranks of former winners Michaela Jaé Rodriguez and Jerrod Carmichael.

The Wilde Wit Award, designated by GALECA for “a performer, writer or commentator whose observations both challenge and amuse,” went to Wanda Sykes, the venerable comedian whose year has included memorable roles in “The Other Two,” Hulu’s “History of the World: Part II,” and Netflix’s “The Upshaws,” as well as voicing a charater in HBO Max’s “Velma.” After all those, she triumphed with a Netflix stand-up special – “Wanda Sykes: I’m an Entertainer,” featuring her takedowns of everyone from Kyrsten Sinema to MAGA conservatives afraid of Critical Race Theory.

It’s worth noting that out of the 18 programming categories, HBO (and Max) won nine, with Hulu (including FX on Hulu) and Shudder each grabbing two – a clear victory for streaming platforms over traditional network TV.

For those unfamiliar with the Dorians, in addition to its TV awards GALECA (originally founded in 2009) also honor the best in film and – starting this year – Broadway and Off-Broadway Theatre. They bring recognition to excellence in these three fields at separate times of the year, chosen from mainstream and queer+ content alike by a voting body of over 480 active critics and journalists. Via the Dorians, the group endeavors “to remind bullies, bigots and society’s currently beleaguered LGBTQ communities that the world has long appreciated the Q+ eye on everything entertainment—not only on hair and clothes.” The organization also advocates for better pay, access and respect for its members, especially those in its most underrepresented segments, and sponsors the Crimson Honors, a public college criticism contest for women or nonbinary students in the QTBIPOC rainbow that awards scholarship funds provided by film and TV review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.

Entertainment and media fans can find out more and support the members and causes of GALECA by following @dorianawards on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – and of course, by visiting GALECA.org.

Continue Reading

Television

‘Casa Susanna’ reveals 1950s underground safe haven for trans women

PBS doc tells story of LGBTQ history that has long been invisible

Published

on

(Image via PBS)

In the 1950s and 1960s, you could lose your job, scorned by your neighbors, arrested and/or institutionalized, if you were openly trans or cross-dressed in public.

Yet, during this draconian – anti-queer time, an underground network of transgender women and cross-dressing men found a safe haven in a modest house in the Catskills in New York. For a few days, they could live in this house, known as Casa Susanna. There, they could fulfill their dreams and discover their true selves. In a rare reprieve from hiding, they could meet other people like themselves; and live and dress as women.

“Casa Susanna,” an engrossing, moving documentary, which aired on June 27 on PBS’s “American Experience,” offers a revealing look into this underground network. The doc, directed by filmmaker Sebastian Lifshitz (“Wild Side,” “Little Girl), and executive produced by Cameo George, tells the story of a chapter of LGBTQ history that has long been invisible. “Casa Susanna” will stream on PBS platforms, including pbs.org and the PBS App, through July 26.

The documentary uses a trove of color photos of the people who sought refuge at Casa Susanna, archival footage and personal remembrances to tell its story.

The photos of life at Casa Susanna were found by collectors Michael Hurst and Robert Swope at a New York flea market. In 2005, Hurst and Swope published the photos in a book titled “Casa Susanna.”

Queer icon Harvey Fierstein wrote a play “Casa Valentina” that was inspired by Casa Susanna. The play was performed on Broadway in 2014.

In the documentary, we learn about what queer life was like at Casa Susanna from four people who were there in mid-century.

This isn’t a fast-paced, action-packed doc. But, it’s far from a “teachable moment. Watching “Casa Susanna” is like seeing photos of long-lost relatives.

The 137-minute doc’s slow pace is captivating. “Casa Susanna,” now, is just a few empty buildings. But in its heyday, it pulsed with queers.

In other places in the Catskills, hetero Borscht belt comedians entertained. At Casa Susanna, trans women and cross-dressing men performed. Not always as showbiz stars. Often, they dressed as who they wanted to be: ordinary women such as housewives.

The most moving story is that of nonagenarian Katherine Cummings. At the film’s beginning, Cummings, a trans woman, visits the old Casa Susanna buildings. Though, all that’s visible are the facades of empty buildings, she recognizes the theater where trans women and cross-dressing men performed decades earlier. Cummings was born in Scotland in 1935, and raised in Australia. Born as a man, she moved to Toronto. From there, she went to Casa Susanna to meet people like herself. While she lived as a man, she was named John. As John, she married and had three children. Cummings died in 2022. The documentary is dedicated to her.

“People used to love to be here,” Cummings says, “They had total freedom. A total chance to be themselves.”

Another elder, Diana Merry-Shapiro, a trans woman born in 1939, tells an engaging story. She was born in an Iowa farm town and later lived in California and New York. During her life as a man, Merry-Shapiro, then named David, married a woman and was a cross-dresser. After the marriage ended in divorce, she had gender affirmation surgery. She then married a man. After that marriage broke up, she was a computer programmer at Xerox. She married Carol, a woman, in the 1990s. The couple live in New York.

Another of the documentary’s storytellers, Betsy Wollheim, born in 1952, cisgender and president of Daw Books, is, at times, refreshingly angry. Donald Wollheim, the science fiction writer, was her father. A cross-dresser, he along with his wife (Betsy’s mother), went to Casa Susanna. This was kept secret until Betsy’s mother was dying. Betsy reveals that her father sometimes was abusive toward her. She believes this may have been because he had to be closeted about his cross-dressing.

The fourth storyteller, Gregory Bagarozy, a cisgender, hetero man, is personally connected to Casa Susanna. The (now-deceased) Marie Tonell, who co-owned Café Susanna with her spouse (the late) Tito Arriagada, was Bagarozy’s grandmother. Arriagada, first a cross-dresser, later lived as a trans woman named Susanna Valenti.

If you’re sensitive to language, be warned. Often, the people who tell their stories in “Casa Susanna” use terms that were said in the 1950s and 1960s. Words like “transvestite” and “transexual,” which aren’t used today, are used.

Though some of the storytellers in the doc, later, were in same-sex relationships, in mid-century, Casa Susanna didn’t welcome gay people. This is part of the extreme homophobia of the time of the Lavender Scare, Bagaroxy says.

“Casa Susanna” is a fascinating window into hidden queer history.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular