Boom, clap, the sound of our hearts. That is the general consensus about ABC's How to Get Away with Murder, or as it's known at our house, How to Get Away with Showing Hot Gay Men Having Oral and Anal Sex Together Every Week on Network TV.
The gay sex is so hot on HTGAWM, even The New York Times noticed (Nov. 12, "Racy Gay Scenes in 'How to Get Away With Murder' Draw a Following") and had to go out and check the clubs where it shows every Thursday night to adoring gay men. Of course, that article ran in the Style section, because in 2014 gay sex is still a "lifestyle" choice, dontcha know. Insert eye-roll here.
The article also refers to Connor Walsh's (Jack Falahee, who was talking up his gay sex scenes in Cosmopolitan, too) "aggressive sexuality." This is the same paper that created a Twitter firestorm by referring to the show's star, Viola Davis, as "not conventionally beautiful," and Shonda Rhimes as an "angry black woman." The author of the piece also refers to HTGAWM as in the "tradition of campy TV shows" that draw a wide gay audience, referencing Dynasty, Dallas and Falcon Crest. Dear Lord, these people live in New York. They need to get out more. Do they know there's an Internet and Netflix, and that those shows ran more than 30 years ago? But if even the NYT is noticing the gay sex on HTGAWM, then you know it's moved to iconic status.
You have to give Peter Nowalk props for putting real gay sex on the small screen in as hot a manner as the str8 sex we have all been forced to watch since we were old enough to say Ew! And for goddess sakes, someone give Rhimes another GLAAD (or something better) Award for exec producing this show and for keeping gay sex front and center on both Grey's Anatomy and Scandal. No neutered gay men and lesbians on her shows.
Kim Kardashian may have thought she could break the Internet with her giant baby-oiled-ass, but Thursday nights, #TGIT is alive on Twitter, and HTGAWM is as hot now as Scandal. As the season finale of HTGAWM approaches (there will be a holiday hiatus between the Nov. 20 episode and Jan. 29) and we await the reveal of #WhoKilledSam, the buzz is all about out gay showrunner Nowalk and how he's breaking new ground on the small screen. Hollywood Reporter and EW both announced on Nov. 4 that Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden has been signed to the show for 2015. Harden most recently starred in the short-lived but funny Trophy Wife, also on ABC.
Gay sex has been the main sexual headliner on Scandal this season. Cyrus (Jeff Perry, who never gets the press he deserves) has been drowning his sorrows over his husband being murdered last season with Michael (Matthew Del Negro). Michael is the sex worker hired to squeeze secrets out of Cyrus by Elizabeth North (Portia De Rossi), head of the RNC. Michael is doing a lot of squeezing. Viewers might remember the 6'4" and oh-so-ripped former lacrosse star from a slew of other fab shows, including West Wing, Sopranos, United States of Tara, Good Wife, Mistresses, and as Rafael on Teen Wolf. He's not gay in real life, but he sure does gay-for-pay really well.
While we don't like seeing Cyrus manipulated in this way, we do like seeing the two men in bed together, both having sex and lying around watching TV. You know, like str8 people do. The normalizing of gay and lesbian sex, and gay and lesbian desire, on the tube is essential. The more we see gay men and lesbians having sex on TV, the more comfortable the non-gay world will be with it. And the less (we hope) they will stop conflating it with bestiality and pedophilia.
We liked a recent throwaway on Scandal where First Lady Mellie (Bellamy Young) tells Elizabeth North (Portia De Rossi) that the minute we have our first woman president, the job of First Lady will be a paid position. We also liked the short but powerful story arc on Scandal related to Abby's (Darby Stanchfield) abusive ex coming to Washington as a congressional hopeful after a senator has to resign due to a sex scandal. This sex scandal involved video of the senator diapered up and pooping for the camera. We hope everyone who saw this episode was reminded of a certain Louisiana senator's proclivities. He's still in office, because Republicans get away with more than just elections, and is planning on running for governor next year.
Abby's fear is palpable when she sees her ex in the Oval Office with the president. It's a chilling moment because we remember just how violent he was with her. In case we don't, she recounts some of her injuries, like the pin in her jaw, which was shattered and had to be wired shut. At one point her ex confronts her and she gets her handgun and threatens to kill him. We know this would ruin her life, which is the only reason we weren't chanting "shoot him" at the screen. This storyline reminds viewers of just how insidious domestic violence is. Although the two have been divorced for years, Abby has never felt safe with a man since.
While Scandal and Shonda Rhimes continue to tackle our most serious issues, HBO's Girls creator Lena Dunham, the 28-year-old self-described voice of her generation, has been taking heat for some controversial statements in her New York Times best-selling memoir Not That Kind of Girl, for which she received a $3.5 million advance. We have noted before that Dunham's Girls is racist, classist and homophobic. Her white-centric New York places Girls squarely in the pantheon of icky white privilege that was de rigueur 25 years ago on Seinfeld, and 20 years ago on Friends, where no people of color appeared in the iconic sitcoms set in New York City, a city over 50% people of color. And we have noted that since NYC has the largest LGBT demographic in the country, Hannah Horvath (Dunham's character on Girls) should have at least one lesbian friend. The current controversy has served to highlight Dunham's racism, classism and ignorance of LGBT lives. Passages in her memoir referring to a 10-year spate of sexually abusing her younger sister, Grace (now a self-IDing lesbian), have become a story that won't go away. Dunham writes salaciously about probing her sister's vagina, kissing her, dressing her up in sexy clothes and make-up, masturbating next to her in bed (when she was 17), paying her to lay on top of her, and other questionable acts. Yet reporting on the controversy, CNN ignored the commentary from everyone but Dunham.
Activist Deva Cats-Baril started the #DropDunham hashtag on Twitter out of frustration over white feminist dismissal of Dunham's latest actions. The twittersphere was flooded with tweets from women of color, lesbians and other women adding their call to have HBO drop Girls. HBO responded by ignoring the controversy (as did Dunham's publisher, Random House) and announcing that the new season of Girls will start Jan. 11.
Gay men and lesbians are often accused of being potential child abusers. Yet there is Dunham describing in her own words how she manipulated her much younger lesbian sister for a decade, then wrote about it, then asked her sister to explain that it was really okay. and she gets not just a pass, but support from people who are supposed to be supporting victims, not perpetrators. We don't get it. But you might want to send an email to HBO asking if Dunham were a gay or str8 man and described the same behavior if their show would have been renewed. We're pretty sure the answer would be a bit fat no.
Mississippi burning
An ad campaign for 2016 was launched this week by HRC. The campaign, highlighted by ABC News, will focus on equality issues and is focused on the Deep South, debuting in Mississippi. The TV commercials feature a mother of two gay sons. ABC News reports the commercials will begin airing two days before a federal court hearing in Jackson on a Mississippi law banning same-sex marriage. In November 2004, Mississippi voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Similar laws, like the one in Pennsylvania, have been overturned in recent months.
HRC chose to focus on the most religious states where people are least likely to report knowing someone who is gay or lesbian. Tim Wildmon, president of the extremist anti-gay group American Family Association, has predicted the campaign will be a failure, noting the Bible states that "homosexuality is unnatural."
The campaign follows the recent airing of L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin, a new documentary that premiered on Showtime in August. L Word Mississippi, from the creator of the iconic Showtime series The L Word Ilene Chaiken, explicates clearly why the HRC campaign is necessary. It's not all San Francisco and New York City out there in the LGBT heartland, as the disturbing tales of lesbians in Mississippi make quite clear. We lived in the Deep South for a while, and we can attest to the difficult reality in the states where Stonewall has yet to be fully realized.
As the holiday hiatus yawns wide, there are shows to catch up on until faves return with new seasons in the new year. Looking returns Jan. 11, and season 2 will have more episodes than season 1, so if you liked it (or just liked seeing the guys roaming your city), set your DVR now.
One show we expected to hate was the CW's new series Jane, the Virgin, which has been a surprise hit. As the CW describes it, "the series details the surprising and unforeseen events that take place in the life of Jane Villanueva, a hard-working, religious young Latina woman whose family tradition and a vow to save her virginity until her marriage to a detective is shattered when a doctor mistakenly artificially inseminates her during a checkup."
What that squib doesn't say is that actress Gina Rodriguez is extraordinary. Or that the reason Jane gets accidentally inseminated is because her lesbian doctor, Dr. Luisa Alver (Yara Martinez), is upset over discovering her partner cheating and gets distracted. The legal issues that will arise over Dr. Alver's error will bring her ex, Rose (Bridget Regan), an attorney, into the picture.
Jane the Virgin was created by Jennie Snyder Urman (Emily Owens, MD), who has a long history of gay-friendly TV. Urman is quoted in a recent interview saying, "I like to write female characters, of every sexual orientation. I just love writing female characters. One of my characters always is [gay]. There's always one in the friend group I write." Urman is also a consulting producer on the CW's Reign, which just began its (sexually fluid) second season, and has just been signed by CBS for more work. We'll be looking to see what else she brings to the LGBT ally table.
As for Reign, we've always had a thing for female monarchs, so the young Mary, Queen of Scots (Adelaide Kane, who off-screen is a strong proponent for marriage equality and other LGBT rights issues): oh yes. And then Catherine de'Medici (Megan Follows)? Double that yes. It felt like a long hiatus between seasons, but Reign is back, and the feminist streak in the show is trending upwards, as befits the actual history of both Mary and Catherine. Of course, this being the beautiful people network, the show is populated with gorgeousness, women and men, and who can resist that? Plus, none of the smells of the actual 16th century, so that's a blessing. And if you were expecting a gaggle of simpering idiots as Mary's ladies in waiting, disabuse yourself: these are smart, calculating women who are as eager to live their own lives fully as is the Queen herself.
What court would be complete without an out queer actor or two? Reign has that. The drop-dead gorgeous and out bisexual Caitlin Stasey plays Kenna, the most sexual of Mary's ladies (there was a furor last season when a scene of Kenna masturbating was cut from the aired show, available in the online version). Kenna has also had lesbian sex on screen. Buzzfeed noted after the season finale that Kenna was a vital character on the Reign and TV landscape because of her unapologetic sexual appetite and desire, which includes self-pleasure, still a huge taboo for women.
Stasey is doing for young women what Nowalk is doing for gay men: making real sex, the most taboo sort, palatable for audiences. Stasey told Buzzfeed, "I call [Kenna] the clitoris of the show. Almost consistently for every episode I was doing something sexual. I was naked, I was doing this, I was making out with this person, I was having a threesome here, and I realized that was my position. Which is fine. I'm totally fine with that. It's great. The more normal it is, the more it's perceived as just an everyday way of being, the less scary it's gonna be for girls, obviously." So put this on your binge watch for the holidays. The beauty is breathtaking, and the storylines are, well, historic.
With the holidays approaching faster than we are ready for, it's time to focus on cooking shows. National Geographic can get you in the mood with Eat: The Story of Food, a three-day event starting Nov. 21 (it also repeats). We're also in love with Master Chef Junior, where cooks between the ages of eight and 13 wow the Michelin-starred chefs. These kids are amazing. The boys all seem a bit gay (we'll check back in five years), while the girls are all driven. Our money is on Oona as this season's winner. The nine-year-old is a brilliant chef with a keener palate than the majority of adults. This girl is going to have her own restaurant before she hits puberty. It's an extraordinary cooking contest because these are still kids, yet their level of food sophistication is something that we can all learn from (or be shamed by).
If you are tempted to eat your way through the holidays as many of us have been known to do, we suggest checking out Showtime's 7 Deadly Sins to see what happens when a woman eats her way to over 700 lbs. If it doesn't send you running to the gym, seek help.
Finally, Sesame Street turns 45 this month. Hard to believe, yet it's true. Congratulations to the show that has raised consciousness for kids worldwide, not just about letters and words and the all-important manners, but about race, gender and sexual orientation.
So for more hot gay sex on #TGIF, looking forward to Looking, bisexual ladies in waiting and calling out abuse where we see it, even when the stars are doing it, you know you really must stay tuned.