Get ready. “Hacks” returns for its fourth season. Martha Stewart cohosts a new cooking show. “Elsbeth” ramps up to murder mystery camp, plus reality shows and recent news are covered by our prolific Lavender Tube columnist Victoria A. Brownworth.
April has flown by in a blur of wild, outrageous news and May is almost upon us. Some fun reality series with queer contestants and powerful, engaging hosts offer the best antidote to all that.
Hacks; she's sacked?
HBO’s Emmy-winning dramedy “Hacks” is back for a fourth season. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder star as longtime comedian Deborah Vance and her new assistant Ava Daniels, whose role is to introduce Vance to a Gen Z audience as she finally snags a long-sought gig as a late-night talk show host., with Ava having blackmailed her way into being the show’s head writer.
Vance is resistant but doesn’t want to lose her position. For her part, Daniels has been unable to find work due to a bad tweet and a reputation for being arrogant and self-absorbed. But the two begin to eke out a relationship, and therein lies the fun.
Einbinder is the daughter of Larraine Newman, one of the original cast members of “Saturday Night Live.” She is bisexual and received the Human Rights Campaign’s 2025 Visibility Award for her work on “Hacks” and her outspoken commentary on the war on Gaza. In her speech to HRC, Einbinder said, “To me there are traditions of humanity, of care for human life. For all human life equally.”
Einbinder said, “as a queer person, as a Jewish person and as an American” she was “horrified” by the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.
“Hacks” is stellar. The writing is superb, Smart and Einbinder have great chemistry, the show is funny and sad with a lot to unpack. There’s a reason both Smart and Einbinder have been nominated for and received so many awards. You want to watch. This is truly great TV, on Max, Hulu and paid YouTube.
https://www.max.com/shows/hacks
Martha, my dear
We have been a fan of Martha Stewart’s for decades. A true icon, Martha Stewart has done it all. She’s built a multimillion brand, hosted multiple TV series, published a raft of bestselling books, published Martha Stewart Living magazine, created an aura of beauty, perfect food from salads to desserts and built gardens galore. Oh, and she also makes stuff.
In 2001, Stewart was accused of fraud and obstruction of justice for insider trading of $45,000. She was prosecuted by James Comey. A six-week trial resulted in Stewart spending five months in federal prison in West Virginia. She had been on the SEC and had to withdraw. The assertion by everyone was that she could never rebuild her brand.
But she did. She launched a new TV series and came back as a beloved fixture for gay brunchers, lesbian lunchers and anyone who wanted to experience the perfection Martha Stewart offered with everything from food to housewares to weed. Yes, weed.
Stewart was the subject of several documentaries and currently has her own podcast as well as a regular spot on “CBS This Morning.”
In 2023, at 81, she was the oldest woman to be featured in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition. She looked fabulous.
Stewart has taught us so much about setting the perfect table, caring for cats and dogs, gardening, making any and all food. She was a frequent judge on Food Network’s “Chopped” where she always eats with chopsticks and was no-nonsense with contestants.
Now Stewart is teaming up with Chef José Andrés in a new NBC/Peacock series, “Yes, Chef.”
The show’s premise is that being a chef is super stressful, as in the Emmy-winning narrative series “The Bear,” and chefs must learn to control their emotions to make everything work.
While Chef Andrés is a Michelin Star chef for his restaurants, he has been known best for the NGO he founded, World Central Kitchen (https://wck.org/). WCK feeds people during natural disasters. Andrés has helped people in both the U.S. and a myriad of other places, including Gaza.
When several WCK workers were shot to death by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza, Andrés called it a targeted attack, despite the U.S. and Israel claiming that the killings were accidental. The WCK cars were clearly marked. Andrés has since called out the inhumanity of the war on Gaza (BBC).
This new series with Stewart is a very different role for Andrés, who is best known now as a humanitarian. In a recent interview about the series, he spoke about his work with WCK, which has raised more than $500 million in donations.
Of Stewart, Andrés said the two seem to agree even when they disagree and said, “What a lady. She’s one of the best.”
He also spoke about what a dynamo Stewart is, always going out for dinner after the day’s wrap, despite their 30-year age difference. Andrés said he would be exhausted and she would be headed out, “to a sushi place or a cocktail place,” despite filming starting again at 8 a.m. “I would say, ‘Who are you?’”
Andrés said that the stresses of the job of chef begin the minute the doors open and everyone is ordering everything all at once, often with changes like, “when they order garlic shrimp without the garlic and without the shrimp.” He said he’s never lost control with a patron but that he has certainly felt it.
The series has some queer contestants, of course. But with these two iconic hosts, you know you want to watch. The series premiered April 28 on NBC.
https://www.nbc.com/yes-chef
Carrie, on
Carrie Preston has played quirky for years on several series, including “True Blood,” “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight.” She’s doing it again on CBS’s new series, “Elsbeth,” in which she plays Elsbeth Tascioni, the same character she played in the two other series. As an unconventional attorney, now in New York, not Chicago, Elspeth works with the NYPD to solve high-profile murders with her unconventional skill set.
Preston’s real-life husband, Michael Emerson, with whom she has co-starred previously on “Lost” and “Person of Interest,” plays a corrupt judge on “Elsbeth.”
Ben Levi Ross, a non-binary theatre actor, plays Elsbeth’s gay son Teddy on the series. He and his boyfriend Roy (Hayward Leach) have some very moving scenes with Preston that speak to the complicated nature of the relationship between parents and their queer kids.
“Elsbeth” is well-written and acted with several other stellar cast members like Wendell Pierce and Gloria Reuben, and guest stars like Nathan Lane and Vanessa Williams. The series also has some recurring characters played by actors we all love, like Margaret Cho. It’s well worth your time; on CBS Thursdays.
Pump you up
“Vanderpump Villa” is everything you would imagine; super gay and lots of fun. A spin-off of “Vanderpump Rules,” the series is the latest in Lisa Vanderpump’s retinue of TV shows she’s been parlaying since she was on the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
In “Vanderpump Villa” harried (and very gay) staff try to accommodate guests and give them the best stay--one that is relaxing and full of great food and maybe a little romance.
There is romance afoot from more than just the guests and there are personality clashes galore. The drama is high, which is how we like it. “Vanderpump Villa” is a fun and frolicsome offering from the doyenne of reality TV; on Hulu.
https://www.hulu.com/
Bella Ramsay, the Emmy-winning star of “The Last of Us,” is getting a makeover of sorts. Ramsay will be the first nonbinary person to be depicted at Madame Tussauds’s wax works museum in London. Brava, Bella.
https://www.madametussauds.com/london/
Finally, there was non-stop coverage of the death of Pope Francis this past week. Francis did so much to shift the Catholic Church’s perspective on LGBTQ people, (www.epgn) speaking regularly of the importance of embracing LGBTQ Catholics and calling anti-gay laws inhumane.
He invited gay couples to be blessed and said trans people could be godparents. He said gay priests should not be judged while also asserting predatory priests must be removed and their victims treated with respect and dignity.
Francis’s stance on LGBTQ people outraged many in the Church hierarchy, but Francis brought in Jesuit priest Father James Martin as his emissary to the community. Martin told ABC anchor David Muir that when Martin asked Francis what he could do for him, Francis said to keep ministering as he was.
A man of grace, compassion and kindness who was aggressively progressive on a myriad of issues including the environment, immigrants, and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Francis was dedicated to the poor and the vulnerable. He said Donald Trump could not be a Christian while deporting people.
We shall not see his like again. So, for the sacred and the profane, you know you really must stay tuned.
