The current political landscape will likely be the subject of the cold open on the premiere of season 50 of "Saturday Night Live." The hit sketch comedy show will debut the new season on Sept. 28 at 11:30p ET/8:30p PT Live on NBC and Peacock. The host and musical guest for the first episode have not yet been announced.
Three new comedians will be joining as featured players for this historic season; Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline. Per NBC's media release, Padilla, a Bay Area native, has been a member of the comedy troupe Groundlings Main Company since 2021. Wakim is a Lebanese-American comic and was selected as a New Face of Comedy at the 2022 Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. Wickline was a cast member on TikTok's live show, "Stapleview," and performs sketch comedy on tour. Out gay cast member Bowen Yang returns for a fifth season.
Brian Jordan Alvarez exemplifies that axiom "it gets better." Bullied for being gay as a kid in Tennessee, he's now starring in his own FX series he created, "English Teacher."
FX's "English Teacher" stars Alvarez as Evan Marquez, a high school teacher in Austin, Texas who often finds himself at the intersection of the personal, professional and political aspects of working at a high school. Evan wants to be a principled person but often runs into trouble because of it, striving to meet the conflicting needs of students and parents amidst ever-changing rules.
By Evan's side at Morrison-Hensley High is his friend group of other teachers. Chief among them is his best friend Gwen Sanders (Stephanie Koenig), the eager and optimistic history teacher who tends to see the best in people, even when she probably shouldn't. Then there's PE teacher Markie Hillridge (Sean Patton). Though he can seem gruff and abrasive, beneath the surface, he possesses a knowledge of human nature that often proves valuable to Evan. When they aren't disagreeing, Markie and Evan share a genuine bond, but they're usually disagreeing.
Principal Grant Moretti (Enrico Colantoni) wants nothing more than peace and the path of least resistance, a path Evan is rarely willing to take. While Grant keeps his own opinions close to the vest, he respects Evan's passion, even if it makes his own job more difficult. Guidance Counselor Rick (Carmen Christopher) barely wants to be at this school. He sees himself as an entrepreneur, but still loves hanging out with the other teachers. Evan's boyfriend Malcolm (Jordan Firstman) is a former teacher at Morrison. Wild and free-thinking, Malcolm often draws Evan back into a pseudo-relationship.
When Grant informs Evan that he is being placed under investigation for a long-dormant incident where he and Malcolm kissed in front of students, Evan suddenly feels that he's under a microscope and is being targeted for his sexuality. Evan is left with one rule to abide by: no relationships with faculty, only to meet Harry (Langston Kerman), a charming new teacher who seems to be interested in him.
Over the eight-episode season, Evan navigates his relationships, his students and his fellow faculty and tries to answer the question: can you really be your full self at your job?
Out gay actor Zachary Quinto stars as the eccentric Dr. Oliver Wolf in NBC's new medical drama "Brilliant Minds." NBC describes the series as focused on "a gifted neurologist who uses his unconventional approach to treat puzzling psychological cases."
The series is inspired by the books by gay neuroscientist Oliver Sacks, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and "An Anthropologist on Mars." "Brilliant Minds" premieres Monday, Sept. 23 at 10/9c on NBC and streaming next day on Peacock.
Is it possible we have three new fall dramas starring out queer actors? It is! Niecy Nash-Betts stars in the new FX horror series, "Grotesquerie" created by Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz, and Joe Baken for FX. "Grotesquerie" premieres Sept. 25 on FX and streams on Hulu.
FX notes, "Evil is all around us." (Too right!) In Murphy's 10-episode "Grotesquerie," a series of heinous crimes have unsettled a small community. As FX details, Detective Lois Tryon (Nash-Betts) feels these crimes are eerily personal, as if someone, or something, is taunting her.
At home, Lois grapples with a strained relationship with her daughter, a husband in long-term hospital care and her own inner demons. With no leads and unsure of where to turn, she accepts the help of Sister Megan (Micaela Diamond), a nun and journalist with the Catholic Guardian. Sister Megan, with her own difficult past, has seen the worst of humanity, yet she still believes in its capacity for good. Lois, on the other hand, fears the world is succumbing to evil. As Lois and Sister Megan string together clues, they find themselves ensnared in a sinister web that only seems to raise more questions than answers.
The series also stars Courtney B. Vance as Marshall Tryon, Lesley Manville as Nurse Redd, Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Father Charlie, Raven Goodwin as Merritt Tryon and Taylor Swift's squeeze, Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce.
Written and created by Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken, "Grotesquerie" is directed by Max Winkler, Murphy, Alexis Martin Woodall and out gay filmmaker Elegance Bratton.
If you like hot bodies and gorgeous vistas, there's "Rescue: HI Surf," which follows the personal and professional lives of the open-water lifeguards who patrol and protect the North Shore of O'ahu, the most famous and dangerous stretch of coastline in the world. Each episode features dedicated, heroic and adrenaline-seeking first-responders saving lives in the difficult and often life-threatening conditions of Hawaii's Seven Mile Miracle. May be "Baywatch" 2.0, but who's complaining? It premieres Sept. 22 on Fox.
Polarized politics
America is still trying to decide everything at the end of a gun and on Sept. 15, as most of us queer normies were getting ready to watch the Emmys, Ryan Wesley Routh was poised with an AK 47 outside Donald Trump's Palm Beach golf club. The Secret Service intervened and Routh was taken into custody.
Thinking the answer to Trump's hate is assassination is wrong on every conceivable level. Murder is never an answer and shooting Trump elevates him to a level of martyrdom. All aspects of gun violence are bad for America and this perhaps most concerning of all.
Literal hours before this latest assassination attempt, the worst fall series was the Donald Trump and JD Vance traveling circus. If only half the country weren't devotees of this sh*t show. Touting false racist narratives and spewing other unseemly rhetoric, the GOP ticket tries every day to best itself as more repugnant and neo-Nazi than the day before. As Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said on "Meet the Press" Sept. 15, false claims about Haitian immigrants promoted by Trump and Vance are a strategic move to distract voters from "their actual record and agenda."
(www.nbcnews.com)
Buttigieg reiterated his points on Twitter/X for those who missed his "Meet the Press" interview. Buttigieg likened Trump's most recent actions, which include attacking Taylor Swift and hanging out with extremist conspiracy theorist who made Marjorie Taylor Greene call out the racism, to the bad final season of a TV series, noting, "Cats! Dogs! Geese! Laura Loomer! Look, now he's attacking Taylor!
Like the last season before a show gets canceled for getting over-the-top and, at the same time, boring. This election is about jobs, wages, climate, health care, abortion. Not his show. Your life.
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