Gay private investigator Donald Strachey is the invention of author Richard Stevenson. Played by openly gay actor Chad Allen, Strachey turns up in April on Here! Television in adaptations of two of Stevenson's seven novels, Third Man Out and Shock to the System. Struggling to find intelligent gay programming and attract an audience, Here!'s Strachey films are definitely a cut above its brain-dead Dante's Cove .
There is other good news: Chad Allen charms as the Albany, New York dick with a fondness for dick. Short, with dishwater-blond hair, Allen is sort of an Alan Ladd for the new gay millennium. Thin-lipped and wiry, Allen's Strachey drives a beat-up Toyota Tercel, sports tattoos, and has a great set of pecs with large, flat nipples. He doesn't look like the perfect matinee idol, but his youth and optimism make for a highly edible gay antihero. Allen makes Strachey contemporary and sexy, especially when he and Sebastian Spence (playing Strachey's lover Tim) start doing their gay version of Nick and Nora Charles.
The first made-for-TV Strachey adaptation is Third Man Out, in which the gay dick investigates the death of Internet blogger John Rutka, who specialized in outing closeted homosexuals. Third Man Out has Sean Young as the blogger's sister, and an assortment of attractive gay men in supporting roles. Among them, the totally nude Matthew Rush makes a brief appearance as (what else?) a gay porn star.
The more recent two-hour installment is Shock to the System (also available now on DVD), in which Strachey tries to find the killer of a young man who was trying to break away from a gay conversion therapy program. Less interesting than Third Man Out, Shock features the always superfluous Morgan Fairchild as the deceased's mother, as well as the requisite amount of gay eye-candy.
What makes this series interesting is the fact that the stories deal intelligently with real social issues of particular interest to gay people. The screenplays have lots of dry humor, a natural display of same-sex affection, and there is real chemistry between Allen and his onscreen lover, Sebastian Spence. The traditional Sam Spade/Ellery Queen formula gets a shot in the arm via its reinvention as a gay genre.
The bad news about these first two episodes (both filmed in Canada) is the deadly pacing director Ron Oliver brings to the proceedings. Events unfold with such a leisurely pace many viewers will get bored and fall asleep, or turn off the television. The whole definitely ends up less than the sum of its many delightful parts. Hopefully, the producers will be able to pick up the tempo of the series and give Donald Strachey — and Chad Allen — the star treatment they both deserve.
Third Man Out and Shock to the System both air in April on Here! Television.