June is Pride Month. We would love to see LGBT programming all over the tube, but alas, the portal to that parallel universe has yet to open, even on a Joss Whedon show or Orphan Black. The gayest thing you are going to see for Pride is season 3 of Orange Is the New Black, which debuted ahead of itself on June 12 and which you can see any time you want, episode by episode, or binge the whole season on Netflix. The show that launched Laverne Cox (and put her in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum this week) and a host of other relatively unknown actresses of color is back with a vengeance. We love OITNB, and we are oh-so-happy that Netflix brought the new season out for Pride.
Other than OITNB, there is a wee bit of Pride programming on the tube, but like Netflix, you'll have to search for it and pay for it. Nevertheless, some of it might just catch your (gay) fancy. According to Comcast, "Frameline has selected an eclectic mix of LGBT independent film titles that will be made available to Xfinity TV subscribers on Xfinity On Demand, and online to the general public at Xfinity.com/LGBT."
HBO has always had some gay programming over the years. For Pride month they are hawking their classic gay wares by giving us glimpses on YouTube and Twitter that showcase previous LGBT movies and specials with gay (and one lesbisexual) narratives under the heading LGBT on HBO: Every Story. Every One. It's not a lot, though, and hardly "every story," so don't get too excited. Plus, HBO is still pushing Girls as their "lesbian" show. Uh, no. Not even close. Just because women are having sleepovers doesn't mean they are actually lesbians, no matter what Lena Dunham thinks "queer" is.
HBO is going to be airing some of these past treasures (check your listings). They tout Looking, of course, Girls (see above), and Angels in America (fabulous, but really, how many times can you watch this without the ugly cry?), as well as some documentaries (The Out List, and previews of the upcoming Larry Kramer documentary). There is also the Emmy-winning feature film The Normal Heart, and HBO's big les-bisexual bio pic about Bessie Smith, Bessie, which debuted on HBO to almost no fanfare last month (why didn't they just save it for Pride month?) when we were in ICU with a pulmonary embolism.
Bessie was directed by black director Dee Rees, who previously directed the lesbian feature film Pariah, which we loved. That film debuted at Sundance and won numerous awards, including the 2012 GLAAD Media Award. Rees' new film, the story of which was written by her and the renowned Horton Foote, is a star vehicle for Queen Latifah, an icon in her own right, as the famous bisexual blues singer. Oscar winner Mo'Nique plays Ma Rainey. Khandi Alexander, who tore up the small screen last season as a terrorist who was also Olivia Pope's mother on Scandal, plays Bessie's older sister, Viola. Rees wanted to incorporate Bessie Smith's bisexuality into the film, and in an interview last month with HuffPostLive and another with BET, Rees said she created the character of Lucille (Tika Sumpter), one of Smith's lovers in the film, to give viewers a picture of Smith's bisexuality and her love for women as well as men.
"Lucille is a composite character, kind of a made-up character," said Rees. "I knew that Bessie had had relationships with both men and women, and I wanted to show her as a woman who took humanity on a case-by-case basis. She loved who she wanted to love."
Rees also noted that the fluidity of sexuality among black entertainers in the 1920s was well-known and not hidden. "People, especially entertainers, I think they exhibited this freedom that really empowered them. They all have lyrics about gay and lesbian people," Rees said. "It's interesting because I feel like maybe in some ways they were more freer with that expression back then than they are even now."
Bessie is definitely worth watching for Pride month or any month. Queen Latifah is just extraordinary. As good as she was in Chicago, she is all that and more in Bessie.
Lesbian view
ABC's The View is still playing musical hosts as the network decides whether or not to scrap the long-time ratings- and Emmy-grabber. But the short-lived return of Rosie O'Donnell and other flare-ups at the show have made for a dicey season. Yet just in time for Pride month, The View has brought in a new lesbian co-host, the highly controversial Raven-Symone of The Cosby Show and That's So Raven fame and just this season, Fox's hit drama Empire .
Raven-Symone has been a guest co-host 37 times, and at 29, now joins Whoopi Goldberg, Nicolle Wallace and Rosie Perez as the youngest member of The View team. Although Raven-Symone famously angered both the LGBT and black communities by telling Oprah that she doesn't like labels and doesn't like to be called either African American or lesbian, she is both, and that should, along with her dramatic hairstyles and flair for doing some out there things on the show, bring in the missing demographic The View has been searching for.
Also on the tube for Pride month is the return of gay showrunner Bryan Fuller's Hannibal on NBC, which debuted season 3 on June 4 to overwhelmingly rave reviews. We were an early fan of this show, which is not like anything else on the tube. Beautiful, lush, interior, grisly, intensely homoerotic, Hannibal is not just a cannibalistic feast, it is a sumptuous visual, aural (that Brian Reitzell score is extraordinary) and intellectual repast.
Yes, Hannibal is a horror show. But the interior landscape of the show (the June 11 episode had virtually no dialogue over the course of its dreamy, surreal hour) and the cinematic quality pull the viewer into this shadow world where law enforcement fails to enforce and has no power over the consummate (and consuming) mass murderer that is Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Mads Mikkelsen is simply genius as the cannibal who feeds his men and women bits and pieces of his enemies, his friends, themselves. His is a brilliantly understated performance. Where Anthony Hopkins camped and vamped up Hannibal, Mikkelsen goes in the opposite direction. His Hannibal is calm at all times. In the opening scene of the June 11 episode, Mikkelsen's Hannibal takes a small, scythe-like knife and pulls Will (Hugh Dancy) to him in the most visceral of embraces. He holds Will tight, tighter, tightest. His hand grazes Will's face, his mouth brushes his neck, all as he plunges the knife into his liver in the most sensual and sexual of scenes. Make no mistake, this is erotica of a highly stylized and, if one looks too closely, deeply disturbing nature.
As children we hear relatives say that they could "eat us up," we are so adorable. Hannibal never got out of that phase. But unlike the crass utterance of Hopkins' Hannibal "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti," or his crasser commentary to Clarice Starling that he could smell her c***, Mikkelsen's Hannibal is a Michelin star chef. His meals are prepared with the delicacy of a Renaissance man. No matter how offal the dish, it is presented exquisitely, with sauces au jus, edible flowers and brightly colored heirloom vegetables. A ceviche with a fern frond and a cannabis leaf. A pate of liver (human liver) with a bed of plum-colored lettuce, ripe, sensual figs and an artful scattering of blackberries. A darkly comedic pot pie with the lid removed. Only if we look closely do we see it is a miniature pastry replica of Hopkins' Hannibal's face mask, propped against the meaty stew inside the pastry shell.
Hannibal spends hours on his feasts, and presentation is everything. The incomparable beauty of the dishes somehow cuts the horror of watching his guests eat other humans, unknowingly. Even Eddie Izzard's Dr. Abel Gideon ate his own flesh in the season 3 opener. We understand that Hannibal might not be for everyone. On some level the homoerotic dance between Hannibal and Dr. Will Graham is so deeply closeted that we should be bothered by it; yet their obsession with each other and Will's repeated failed attempts at heterosexuality are just so compelling.
If you need non-stop action, lots of dialogue and interstitial comedy, Hannibal is not the show for you. We understand that Dialogues with the Cannibals might not be everyone's morsel of marrow. But if you are willing to let this show wash over you in all its visceral glory, you will be rewarded. It's just the most extraordinary drama on the tube. Fuller's mad genius is indeed mad. But intensely, breathtakingly mesmerizing.
We just have to say how much we enjoyed the tres gay 2015 Tony Awards on CBS. Tony winners Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth had pitch-perfect chemistry and camped it up brilliantly. Cumming, one of our fave gay stars, opened the show wearing a lavender shorts suit and said, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and those of you who don't identify as either." Perfect. Chenoweth, who has always been a friend to our community, was the perfect foil to Cumming all night, lost graciously in the midst of the evening (she was up for her role as Lily Garland in On the 20th Century), and moved seamlessly on.
For us, the five big wins for our old pal, lesbian cartoonist, memoirist, MacArthur fellow and all around Dyke To Watch Out For Alison Bechdel, for Fun Home, was fantastic. Bechdel's lesbian memoir turned musical, about growing up lesbian with a closeted gay dad, took best musical, best book, best direction and best actor in the brilliant Michael Cerveris (who also co-starred this past season on The Good Wife).
One of the most moving scenes during the Tonys was Sydney Lucas, the 11-year-old actress who plays Small Alison in Fun Home, singing about the excitement of seeing her first lesbian. It's a remarkable performance, and for those of us who are gay, just emotionally gutting. Every so often we win, and win big. Bechdel's win, Fun Home's win, was a win for our people. If you missed the Tonys, some of the best bits are available on YouTube, including Cumming and Chenoweth reversing roles for The King and I, with Chenoweth, 4'11", as the King, and Cumming, just under 6 feet, in a lavender ball gown with a bonnet as Anna. Priceless. And oh so gay.
Speaking of gay, we were sorry to see the black lesbian chef T Gregoire not win Hell's Kitchen this week (she came in second to the unbeatable Meghan Gill, who was incredible). It would have been a great Pride month moment. But we have to say how much we appreciate how there are always lesbian and/or gay contestants on Gordon Ramsay's cooking shows. This season of Hell's Kitchen had several gay contestants, including Nick, who made it to the final six, and there are gay contestants on Master Chef.
We loved watching the butch T rule the kitchen, and we loved seeing her partner and daughter in the family segments and the finale. These moments of realness matter to us, and are an aspect of Pride we know matter to those still hanging close to the closet as they watch from Middle America. So brava to T Gregoire for being out and proud and getting this close to the win.
Finally, Pride month may be half over, but the summer season is just ramping up, and new shows and returning faves will continue to air throughout the coming months. One of the best dramas debuted June 13 on BBC America and should not be missed. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a limited series based on the stunning first novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. The book, which we loved, is "an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars, based on the premise that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange." Peter Harness (Wallander) has adapted the quixotic 1,000-page novel for the small screen, and it is brilliant. The perambulations of the two men of the title, the way fantasy is melded into everyday life, the suspension of disbelief in which magic is a very real if covert art �" it is all compelling. With Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan) as Mr. Norrell and Olivier-winning and Tony-nominated actor Bertie Carvel (Miss Trunchbull in Matilda on Broadway) as Jonathan Strange, this is a tour de force.
So for as much gay as you can find here and there, for the new and the returning, for a riveting performance by Queen Latifah (when, oh when, will she come out?) and for some sumptuous eats on Hannibal, you know you really must stay tuned.