Is April still the cruelest month? Not with the kind of bangin' TV that's out there.
Season four of "Star Trek: Discovery" had Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery facing a threat unlike any they've ever encountered. With Federation and non-Federation worlds alike feeling the impact, they must confront the unknown and work together to ensure a hopeful future for all.
Now in its final season, "Star Trek: Discovery," is going out with a bang. Season 5 has all the things: gays, NBs, two inter-species relationships. The anti-woke incel crowd is furious, but then, aren't they always? So mad, so sad. (www.thegamer.com)
This time Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncover a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well, dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it.
"Star Trek: Discovery" Seasons 1 through 4 are currently streaming exclusively on Paramount+.
Reaching
Actor Alan Ritchson, star of the "Reacher" series, gave a searing interview to The Hollywood Reporter for their April 10 cover that has been generating a lot of buzz and winning the actor some surprising new fans, like us.
In the interview, Ritchson talked about having bipolar disorder, adult ADHD, being a survivor of a suicide attempt and of sexual assault in his modeling days. It's an incredibly brave and revelatory interview which should help many come to terms with their own painful pasts.
What has made some cheer and others express outrage is what the devout Christian Ritchson said about GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
"Trump is a rapist and a con man, and yet the entire Christian church seems to treat him like he's their poster child, and it's unreal. I don't understand it," said Ritchson.
"Christians today have become the most vitriolic tribe. It is so antithetical to what Jesus was calling us to be and to do," he said.
Ritchson also excoriated the police officers who shot Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black EMT, during a no-knock raid on her apartment. Taylor was shot eight times, and while the city of Louisville settled a wrongful death complaint with Taylor's family in the millions, no one was ever charged in her death.
"That was a tragic case," said Ritchson. "Cops get away with murder all the time, and the fact that we can't really hold them accountable for their improprieties is disturbing to me. I mean, you shouldn't have to spend more time getting an education as a hairstylist than as a cop who's armed with a deadly weapon. We should make it very hard for people to make mistakes or abuse power in our institutions."
Powerful stuff. When ultra butch men come out against toxic masculinity, the world gets a little safer for everyone else.
Delicate essence
Okay, so we have had approach avoidance to the "American Horror Story" franchise for a long time, and can't remember when we last finished watching an entire season, but it might have been as far back as "Hotel." But the twelfth season of "AHS," "Delicate," is different.
Based on Danielle Valentine's book "Delicate Condition," it's the first season of the series to be based on a novel instead of having an original storyline.
Is this why we love it? Hard to say.
We do know that we are surprisingly captivated by Kim Kardashian's over the top 'Is she friend or foe?' characterization of Siobhan Corbyn and we truly want to save Emma Roberts as the sweet, vulnerable actress Anna Victoria Alcott, who just wants a baby.
Also, we used to love Matt Czuchry in "The Good Wife" and here he plays Anna's husband, Dexter Harding Jr. and he may or may not be a villain, but his father Dexter Sr. definitely is a villain and that's a problem.
This is a timely story, with In-Vitro Fertilization at the core. The baby lust that permeates everything for parents who want to conceive is what propels the storyline and makes it so hyper-real. Fold in the obsession with celebrities, the way social media creates false intimacies with celebs, and the story almost writes itself.
Oh, and there's a cult, because everyone looks good in black. And there are insects. And maybe a little "Rosemary's Baby" thing happening. Maybe. Because nothing is as it seems in "Delicate."
As for Kim, in her role as Anna's publicist, she slaps people, she kisses women, and does a lot of things we don't associate with the "KUWTK" franchise. It's wild. We cannot get enough of her and hope she becomes an "AHS" regular.
"Delicate" also stars some of our fave Ryan Murphy folks; Denis O'Hare, one of the great gay actors, plays Anna's fertility doctor. Yeah, that's not good.
"Pose" star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez plays Nicolette, who works for Anna and Dex. Cara Delevingne plays Anna's stalker, Ivy , along with other "AHS" regulars.
It's a hugely queer, NB and trans cast and a truly wild season. "Delicate: Part Two" just dropped on FX/Hulu. Watch. (But you must watch "Delicate: Part One" first.)
Alaskan laughline
"The Great North" is the cutest animated comedy show. Beef Tobin is a single father living in the fictional town of Lone Moose, Alaska with his four children Wolf, Ham, Judy, and Moon, as well as Wolf's wife Honeybee. Beef's life is centered on raising his kids and keeping the family together. He is sometimes overbearing and smothering, but his deep love for his family is a central theme in each episode in the series.
In the current season 4, episode 8, Ham Tobin (Paul Rust), the family's gay teenager, takes his lesbian Aunt Dirt (Jane Lynch), who's been living in an underground bunker for decades, on her first trip to the Alaska town's gay bars.
The series also stars our fave straight allies, Nick Offerman as Beef and Meghan Mullally as Alyson Lefebvrere. Dulcé Sloan plays Honeybee. It's fun and has been renewed for a fifth season, so it's safe to fall in love with it. On Fox, Hulu and Amazon.
Get Ripped
We were going to do a whole Patricia Highsmith deep dive with the new "Ripley" series on Netflix, but Joshua Polanski got there first, so be sure to check out his hot take on the latest iteration of Highsmith's classic amoral queer hottie, because you do not want to miss this series. In black & white as the noir gods intended.
And you can read us on Highsmith herself at QueerForty.com, where we take you inside the lesbian crime writer's diaries and write about the letters and diaries of America's lesbian master of psychological thrillers, which are as gripping as any of her fiction.
We also highly recommend Starz' "Mary & George," what B.A.R.'s Brian Bromberger calls "the gayest, bawdiest series ever screened on TV. It raises carnal intrigue and scheming within a monarchy to new heights of audacity and salaciousness."
With the fabulous Julianne Moore and the super-hot Nicholas Dimitri Constantine Galitzine. (You should know all his names, because he is royalty, dear readers.)
Saving Ryan's ...
"Saturday Night Live" is hit or miss and you just never know which it will be, but the April 13 had the always reliable Ryan Gosling as host and he was, in a word, great.
You can watch the entire episode on Peacock, but the cold open was hilarious with our fave lesbian comedian and "SNL" alum Kate McKinnon reprising her role as a trailer trash alien abductee with a very foul mouth. We don't want to spoil it, but she does play around with Gosling's Area 51.
Then Gosling did his monologue in which he sang and played piano, with a surprise cameo from "Oppenheimer" star Emily Blunt, and it was fabulous.
Johnny boy
"Hacks" star Johnny Sibilly, also known for "Pose," and for playing Noah Hernandez in Peacock's "Queer as Folk" reboot, has been cast on ABC's "Station 19." That series is now in its seventh and final season. Sibilly's character Dominic is, according to promos, a "recently single, charming, charismatic EMS firefighter whose calming nature puts people in crisis at ease." Sibilly made his "Station 19" debut April 11.
So for fun, frolicksome and feisty, you really must stay tuned.
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