Theater Thursday: Buffy, Drag Queens and Angelina Jolie

Oh, the pangs of actually having to work and getting caught up so I can't post during my lunch hour... Anyway, so I'm a little late with the post. Y'all just get a less formatted version of the post because I get to write it on my iPhone!

Television

Two gynormous TV events for me this week! First, the premier of Ru Paul's Drag Race season 3! I am pumped for the show. We actually started watching the first two episodes last night and I only made it through the first and half way through the second before I fell asleep. Not that it was boring, but I was T-I-Red. I'm excited for the competition this year though, much more so than I was for last years cast, so you can bet you'll see plenty updates from me as the season goes on!

The second big event was that I finished my re-watching of Buffy season 2. I forgot how important this season actually was: Angel's curse revealed, The cementing of the scoobie gang's roles (Xander the protector, etc), Willow dabbling in witchcraft, hearing the familiar refrain that Buffy really is alone... Those are all things that become themes throughout the rest of the series. And still, more than a decade later, the show can find a way to pull at my little heart strings.

On a less monumental scale, let me just state, for the record, that Scott Caan is one sexy, furry, little man. I had avoided Hawaii 5-0 for as long as possible, but when it came on this Sunday I just couldn't resist... And now I may be hooked. Not because it's a great show or anything, but I will take any opportunity to ogle that man shirtless or in tight, ass-hugging slacks.

Movies

We didn't really watch much. The husband watched Salt while I played on my laptop, but I wasn't too drawn in to the movie. He enjoyed it though. Action, Angelina, Liev Schreiber (ok, that part I did enjoy), those all spell "movie husband enjoys." I just didn't get pulled in to the story.

I did make it half way through some super indie (read: no budget) gay flick called Issues 101. The "plot" was some kid going off to college, realizing he's gay, then rushing a fraternity. But when it became a poorly executed soft-core fantasy porn, I cancelled the play back and went back to gaming. I guess that should teach me that an average 1 star review on Netflix is probably more accurate than not.

What Did You Watch

So, what was on your weekly viewing plate? Any of your stories start up this week? Let me know in the comments!

Crazy Be Crazy: Politics, Apathy, And Michele Bachmann

Call me crazy, but I am WAY more excited to watch the utterly insane Michele Bachmann (the link is great, if a tiny bit NSFW) give the Republican rebuttal than I am to watch Obama's actual State of the Union address tonight. I mean, she's crazy. Scary… but just plain out there, which should hopefully provide lots of fun for everyone to pick through!

I can't quite pin down why, but I'm just not so very excited about the State of the Union address tonight. Maybe it's because I don't expect to hear anything good (or anything at all) about the things I care about: LGBT equality, healthcare, and education. Maybe it's because I'm afraid the President will spend his time pandering to the Right. Or maybe it's because I'm starting to care less and less about politics of late.

Ah… ye old political apathy. The most vile villain of all campaign managers! If someone doesn't win an election, they blame it on voter apathy. Obviously it's the voters fault that the politicians can't seem to excite them anymore. Perhaps AstraZeneca can come up with a political Viagra to help out with that problem…

But I'm having a hard time wondering why I should get so passionate right now. I was passionate during the Bush era because he was actively working against my interests. I was passionate during the 2008 election because the alternative to Obama would likely have put me on a big game preserve for future hunting shenanigans. I was passionate during the Prop 8 lead up because it could directly affect me.

Or maybe it was just because I was in my early 20's. Who knows?

What I do know is that right now I don't feel driven to fight and care deeply about politics. I've accepted that nothing good will be accomplished in the next two years, if anything is accomplished at all, at least on a Federal level. In city politics, I should be fired up about the mayoral campaign, but really… in a city where the mayor just tears down private property in the middle of the night and gets away with it, does what I want really matter? Yes, the Rahm situation is quit hysterical, but all the other candidates are laughably under-funded and under-impassioned.

So while I realize that I might be called a "bad citizen" by some of my more politically motivated friends for just not caring about the state of political affairs at the moment, I just don't see the point in getting all wrapped up in something that ultimately won't lead anywhere. Rahm will go all Bush v Gore if he needs to steal win the election here in Chicago and nothing is going to happen on a Federal level except a bunch of posturing. And none of that gets my belly all tickly at all. I mean really, Mitch McConnell strutting his stuff usually results in explosive vomit on my end.

In the meantime, I am more than happy to sit back and watch a crazy woman be crazy on a national scale. Believe me, her rebuttal will be the most entertaining thing on TV tonight, and I just can't wait!

Once Again, It's Time To Lipsync... For Your LIFE!

Oh, I am so ready for some new TV! And first up is the new season of Ru Paul's Drag Race!

Yes, I am so frakin' ready to show the world my Curage, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent… er, rather watch other people's C.U…. Ok, well, you get the picture.

I have not gone out to see the pre-season videos this year, mostly on purpose. I know the type of drag queen I enjoy seeing perform so if I just look at the girls' pictures I know I'll form a bias right off the bat. I'd like to go into this season with an open mind, learning about the performers as the season progresses.

And I'd just like to point out that the show is always available right from the Logo website, so everyone that complains they don't have Logo you've got no excuse now! That's actually how me and my husband watch the show, so we're familiar with the whole she-bang. The player kind of sucks, but it's definitely workable.

In any case, y'all better get ready, because the divas are back!

Theater Thursdays: Memory Lane Edition

It's been a slow television watching week, but that doesn't mean we haven't dug in to a few things here and there. Once shows start to come off their winter break I'll be a bit more involved in Stories, but until then here's what I've been watching.

Television

I'm still making headway through Buffy Season 2. I'm getting up near the end of the season now and although I remember most of the story lines, it's great to see it through again so that I can remember some of the smaller details. This week brought some pretty classic moments: Angel telling Buffy he loves her, Angel turning evil again after he and Buffy do the dirty nasty, and learning that Oz is a werewolf. It seems to me that the second half of Season 2 is really where the show caught it's stride, with the trademark humor and the whole cast finally clicking into character. I may have also convinced the husband to watch the show with me too!

We also caught an episode of the new Restaurant Impossible, which is a blatant and total rip-off of Tabatha's Salon Takeover… except in the restaurant world. I admit that I actually like Tabatha's show (though not so much her), but this episode of RI failed to impress. This is a guy who is suppose to be rejuvenating a restaurant to make it profitable again, yet he turned around and ordered plastic lawn chairs for the new dining rooms? Really? Plus he's no where near as genuinely condescending and confrontational as Tabatha. This guy, Robert Irvine, is just a whiny prick that throws temper-tantrums. If I wanted to see that, I'd watch Flipping Out… but I don’t.

Finally, I watched a few words of The L Word with the husband. I think it's more of a "him" show than a "me" show, but I have enjoyed the episodes I've seen so far. Poor guy has to explain to me what's going on whenever I catch an episode, but we've nicked-named one of the girls Pixie… and that's about all I can remember of the characters. Pixie is crazy possessive and also kind of my hero for being out and proud insane.

Movies

The A-Team came in the mail from Netflix. My husband is a huge action fan. If there's explosions and bad acting, he wants to see it. And even though we successfully dodged A-Tem in the theaters, it was only inevitable we'd watch it at home. And watch it he did while I tried my hardest to bury myself in World of Warcraft. The thing with A-Team is that Bradley Cooper is so hot that I can't help but stare at him, so I ended up watching it a little. I'm pretty horrible about movies because I'm that guy that goes "that is so not real, it could never happen!" Of course I never say that in movies I'm liking, but still… In any case, I had to remind myself that The A-Team never purported to be realistic, so saying whatever action shot just happened isn't real was pointless.

And just for shigiggles, we also watched X-Men 2. That has to be my favorite of the three actual movies, so I always enjoy spending a couple hours watching that flick.

What Did You Watch

So what's on TV that I'm missing, or what movies do I need to add to the queue? I'm excited for Ru Paul's Drag Race to start up again soon, and of course our regular stable of shows will be back shortly, but what are you looking forward to starting back up?

Theater Thursdays: Not So New Edition

Well, it's not quite theater centered, but y'all should already know I love me some alliteration.

I figure Thursdays, for all my love of the day, would make a perfect day to discuss what I've been watching in the realm of television, movies and theater (whenever we get the chance to go). I don't think I'll take this column as a critical analysis (or hack-job analysis as is more likely with one of my pieces), I do think it'll be fun to discuss what I've been watching. There will likely be spoilers, but considering I'm almost always behind on my TV watching and what not, I doubt that there will be too many. Join me and discuss what you've been watching in the comments!

I'll be honest and state up front that I'm just not much of a TV person. There are a few shows that I love and will watch regularly, but in general I just turn on Comedy Central of MSNBC and let it go in the background while I'm on my computer gaming. My husband watches far more TV than I do, which in turn means I get caught up on a few more shows than I would on my own devices.

Finding myself drawn into his Stories is a side affect of living with a TV watching person though. I would not watch Grey's Anatomy on my own, but since he watches it I find that get more and more interested in his shows. Keep that in mind as we dive into what I've been watching this week!

Television

First, I've started re-watching Buffy on Netflix. Yes, I am one of those geeks that thinks Buffy could be the best show that ever existed, and it is possibly one of only two shows that I've cared to go back and re-watch again and again. I'm in the middle of Season 2 and just watched the Halloween episode where Xander runs around in his camo's with a tank top on most of the show and… wait, where was I? Hmmmm… anyway!

The L Word has also been playing in our house this week. My husband has been getting into the show, and I've caught on to it after a couple episodes as well and have so far been enjoying it. I think we're both big fans of Shawn and her bad girl with a heart appeal, but we're already getting annoyed with the petty, controlling characters on the show. I suppose getting to a point where you have strong opinions about the different characters is a good thing though as it means your getting invested!

We also watched Grey's Anatomy this week. I'm not exactly sure how far behind we are with this season, if at all, but the episode we watched was the episode about a school shooter that opened fire on his campus and, of course, all of the victims came to the hospital that is obviously close to everything. It was a rather timely episode given the shooting in Arizona this past weekend. What stuck out to me in the episode was the mother of the shooter and her reaction to the whole event, as well as people's reaction to her, then drawing the parallel to the Arizona shooter's family… It wasn't super happy fun TV, but it was interesting and poignant.

Movies

Netflix brought us two movies this week: The Expendables and The Sorcerer's Apprentice. We saw Sorcerer's Apprentice at the movies when it released and I had just about the same impression of it at home as I did on the big screen. It's enjoyable and fun, but nothing I care to cherish forever or watch again. The fact that Nicholas Cage was in it and he didn't annoy the hell out of me actually speak volumes for the movie, but he is still in it, so it can't really get over that hurdle.

The Expendables… was not at all what I thought it was going to be. I truly lost track of the movie half way through and just focused on my laptop because it just stopped making any sense whatsoever. I was expecting an action-comedy, but was getting a "serious" action movie vibe instead. In a movie filled with action stars, I do expect to see some great fights, explosions, etc., and those were all present, but I do also expect a bit of self-awareness and in-jokes, perhaps some subtle jabs at the genre itself. Instead it felt like they wanted it to be a for seriousness movie with a bunch of not-for-seriousness actors.

What Did You Watch

That's what I watched this week. Most of our regular Stories are on winter break still and since it's Oscar season, not many movies have bee released that appeal to us. While I enjoy a good drama, my husband is not a big fan of any movie that is too serious, so Oscar season is usually a bust for us.

But what have you been watching? Tell me about it in the comments!

Why The Hate Against The A-List Is Pointless

Yesterday I wrote about The A-List and why I really enjoyed the series. In short, it's campy, it's gay, it's bitchy and it's cathartic to watch a bunch of privileged Marys be reduced to catty divas. I also mentioned that there was a lot of criticism of the show and I touched on it just a little bit. However, I feel the hate against the show deserves its very own post… so here it is!

Haters Gotta Hate

Plenty of Gays absolutely hate this show, and for various reasons. Some people just don't enjoy this type of "Real Housewives" style reality show, or just despise reality shows in general. That's fair. If a viewer doesn't enjoy this type of show there isn't really a chance that they'll like this specific show. So we'll move past those criticisms because there's no arguing taste.

The hate that I've seen spewed at the show though has nothing to do with the type of show it is, but the content of the show. I've read time and time again that the show focuses on such negative portrayals of gay men, and that the show is not at all representative of gay life, and that the show is all about privileged queens that don't have to experience real life as a gay person. And that's just the beginning of the hate. As they say in the commercials, "but wait, there's more!"

The Gays Are All Super Positive, Happy People

Lets start the deconstruction of the anti-A-List arguments. First up: The show paints Gays in a very negative light.

For me to believe that the A-List paints Gays as a whole in a negative light, I would first have to assume that all gay men are privileged and only spend their time doing wonderful, fabulous things in high-rises with panoramic views or being swept off to private parties on Fire Island every other weekend. Which I don't believe, namely because I can speak from personal experience that all us Gays are not that kind of Gay.

So now that we can accept that The A-List, a show specifically designed to not show average gay life, does not represent normal gay life, can we all agree that the show doesn't portray Gays in a negative light? Sure, it paints Reichen as an idiot, Austin as a drama queen, and Derrick as a self-involved douche, but those characters are not ALL THAT IS GAY. Shit, those portrayals probably aren't even accurate for those people, much less for Gays as a whole.

And if you're worried that non-Gay people or even anti-gay people will use A-List as a talking point when describing the evils of gay life, then you're missing the point. Those people will always look at gay life as evil, even if we had a Mother Theresa in our ranks. So who cares what they think of a show that they shouldn't be watching if they are as offended by homosexuals as they say they are?

That's Totes Not What It's Like

Now then, let's tackle the notion that the show isn't representative of Gay Life. In short, I'll say this: Bull Shit.

We all know these queens. Whether we know them as Reichen, Jeff, Frank, Julio, (insert random name here), it doesn't matter. And whether we chose to associate with those people is also irrelevant. The fact is that people like this exist and they are part of the gay community, like it or not. We can chose whether to be friends with these people, but we can't erase them from existence.

Are they representative of ALL gay life? Nope, they sure aren't, just like I mentioned in my previous point. The show never purports to tell the story of all Gay Life either. It is presenting these guys as part of the rainbow we all live under. Nothing more, nothing less.

We're The Real Gays, Not Those Pompous Pricks

Last, but not least, I want to take on the idea that the show is irrelevant and terrible because it doesn't portray real gay life, as it only shows privileged gays living unrealistic lives of fancy.

Well… yes, frankly that's true. The whole idea of the show is that it is about well-to-do gays in New York City. It is not a documentary on everyday gay life. It's a reality show based on the lives of the rich 'mos of NYC. Soooo… I'm left wondering why people are that surprised or offended when a show called The A-List isn't all about very non-list lives?

Let's also be real for a moment: do you really want to watch a show about your every day life? Do you really care to see 6 gay guys doing the same exact shit you do every day, going to similar boring jobs, staying in on weekend nights to watch trashy reality shows? No… no, you don't. You want to watch something that takes you out of your element. And A-List did just that.

Perhaps We're Being Just A Little Sensitive

Frankly, I have to wonder why there is even a controversy. Perhaps it's still so unusual for LGBT people to see ourselves spotlighted as the sole focus of a TV show. Perhaps we have become so accustomed to be the gag characters in TV and film that we're afraid that secretly The A-List is just another attempt at making jokes out of us. Or perhaps we have a collective need to tear down those of us who are famous (or quasi-famous… staring in a Logo show is about the equivalent of being a YouTube star) because we're secretly jealous it's not us in the spotlight?

Whatever it is, it's all silly and quite pointless. The A-List is a trashy reality show at it's heart. Hell, it's even produced by the same company that produces Real Housewives of Atlanta, and anyone who has seen that show knows what trashy reality shows are like. To pretend that A-List is somehow culturally significant or representative of anything other than the cast of characters is placing WAY too much importance on the show! We likely won't remember or care about A-List in 10 years, so why should we focus so much attention on it now when it is clearly meant to be momentary entertainment?

Sometimes, we as a Gay Community get far too worried about what Straight People think about us, or how we present ourselves. We get concerned that if a bad story about any of us gets out that the whole of the world will seize that as The Reason queers should be discriminated against. But that really doesn't give the straight world much credit, now does it? Like I said earlier, there will always be nut jobs that take every opportunity to point out what they think is crazy gay behavior, but everyone else knows them to be nut jobs. Most people, in fact almost all people, recognize reality shows for the fantasy that they are. They are about as representative of real life as marshmallow chicks are of real chickens.

And straight readers, I have to ask perhaps the key question here: had you even heard of or watched The A-List until I posted about it?

We don't watch the Real Housewives and presume that is what being a well-to-do Housewife is… do we? Or watch an episode of Real World an assume that all young men and women are like those drunken fools… do we? If you do, then perhaps it is you who needs to get a grip on reality.

It's All Politics

I said in yesterday's post that the most significant objection to the show was political and I stand by that. All the reasons discussed above are all political objections to how we feel we are being portrayed and being seen, which is a legitimate concern. We should be concerned with how LGBT people are being represented in the media. But if we're being honest with ourselves, we'd see that our reaction to the show is more endemic of our politics than the show itself. We are so concerned with how we're seen by others that we forget to see ourselves sometimes.

We are diverse. We are not all Ricky Martins or Reichens or Elton Johns or Ellens. We have lots of different stories to tell. But we cannot be so damn sensitive as to not see a show like the A-List and smile about it. It's not you or me, but it is somebody. It's not all gay life, but it is some gay life. It's not at all representative of who we are as an LGBT people, but it is how some of us are.

We have to be OK with that, because when we throw fits and temper tantrums about TV not representing everything we are right now, this very instant, we start to look like petulant children. While a show like the A-List may make its cast look like whiny brats, all of the pompous declarations and angry letter writing over something so silly (and honestly not damning or offensive) does make the community as a whole look like crying children.

We need to get over it, and not just about The A-List. We need to get over these hang-ups we have as a community and embrace ourselves with open arms. We have bitchy, queeny, catty, vapid wretches in our midst just like we have sweet, honest, saintly, genuine people in our little niche. We have fat people and skinny people, lethargic people and motivated people, butches and femmes. And even beyond that, a TV show that is built from the ground up to be tongue-in-cheek cannot continue to offend us. Smile, point and laugh, critique individual behavior, do all of that, but don't internalize those images as a reflection of yourself if they aren't. But do realize that may be the reflection of your friend or neighbor, and that's OK. There's nothing wrong with it.

The Amazing A-List

Going back through my posts I have noticed one glaring hole: I haven't even touched The A-List! I really don't know how I let this show slip by without comment, but I did and I feel terrible about it… so I'm going to rectify that right now!

What In The World Is A-List?

To imagine what exactly The A-List is, first picture The Real Housewives of whothehellcares. Now imagine those housewives went out and had a sordid affair with some Brazilian gardeners. And that copulation made a baby. So then the Housewife tried to hide the baby by sending it off to live with her sister in East Bufu. But then that child comes back to the family as an emotionally stunted adult and tries to raise hell. Oh, and he's gay. Like, really gay…. Pony rides on rainbows in waterfalls of raining men gay. That's The A-List.

In a more concrete sense, the A-List is a reality show based on the lives of a few well-off New York gay men. It is a direct rip of the Real Housewives series without apology. In fact, when it was originally conceived it was called Kept and was going to be about gay men of affluence who rely on their partner for income. But somewhere along the way that idea transformed into the monstrosity that is A-List, and I couldn't be happier.

The theory goes that these fellas are the crème de la crème of New York gay society. They exist above the fray, only attend the classiest of to dos, and dare not mingle with the common non-pretty folk. As a result, their lives are full of whimsy and fabulousness. Of course, as is the case for all reality shows, we are shown that these boys are about as posh as bringing a six-pack of Heineken to a wine party, at that's truly the fun of it all.

Oook… And That Was Entertaining?

The show was pure magic. The cast interacted in fun, dramatic, and catty ways, the production value was pretty solid, and even the scripted events weren't too terribly obvious. There wasn't much about the show I would change, to be honest. Well… perhaps there is one thing I would change: if you are going to call your show A-List and then have half of the cast be job-less, getting fired from jobs, or just generally being a normal everyday gay, you should probably find a more appropriate title. But that's just semantics because the show was a blast.

I've said before that the way to my heart with television shows is to relate it to me somehow, and a show pack full of gay does that pretty well. So I may be a bit bias when I say that I think the show was highly entertaining. I found myself tuning in every week just to see the newest drama between cast member Austin and whoever bothered to talk to him, or to watch in amazement as yet another person let Reichen just glide through life on nothing but his aging baby blues, or to take notes as Ryan effortlessly floats in the background stirring the proverbial pot, all the while staying out of the fray and looking angelic.

The lure of reality shows like this is simply that we, the average folk, get a peek into the lives of those more financially privileged than us and see that they tend to be just as screwed up and possibly twice as insane as we are. And A-List delivered on every front. A former model that acts like a raging diva at every turn, a former reality show winner who's self-importance is constantly fed by his remoras, a successful talent agent who can't seem to form meaningful relationships because he sees average people as beneath him, a well-off socialite who relies on his less-well-off friend/employee to do his dirty work… I mean, this is just great stuff!

Only one cast member managed to stay out of the fray, and the producers rightly minimized his role in the show. Mike Ruiz is actually successful and actually well connected, and he decided that to stay that way he should avoid the pit of vipers at all costs. Good for him, but that's just not very entertaining television.

But Should You Watch It?

The show hasn't come without it's share of controversy. I'll talk about the validity and complete ridiculousness of the controversy surrounding the show in another post, but I feel that it bears mentioning that there are some gay folk who are not fans of the show. At all. And not because they don't appreciate the genre or they thought the quality was poor. No, their dislike was mainly political, but I'll get into that another time.

I liked the show. I really, thoroughly enjoyed it. Generally I dislike the "Real Housewives" genre of reality TV, but I enjoyed A-List. That said, I would recommend the show to anyone needing some filler content between now and when your regular stories start back up in January and February. I'm not sure if it works outside of the US, but if you're in the US you can watch the whole show on Logo's website. It's only 10 episodes long, so there's no huge time commitment, but what is there is quite fun. Enjoy!

When A Man Loves A Werewolf

Can we just stop the entire storyline of True Blood and put this guy on screen for an hour every week? Of course, he would not be allowed to wear any more clothing than he's wearing in this photo, but he is certainly welcome to wear less!

This show is full of absolute, pure, utterly adolteraded essence of Win. I think I heard it best describe as goth-chic softcore porn.

Drag U: First Impressions

The husband and I sat down to watch Ru Paul's new show on Logo, Drag U, last week. Being big fans of Ru Paul's Drag Race, we were very excited to see the new show, if only because it brings some of our favorite queens back to the mix like Ongina and Nina Flowers. While the show was fabulously campy and perfectly low budget, I have to say that it rather annoyed me at times, but I'll get that in a moment.

The basis of the show is that Ru Paul has recruited his favorite (or the fan favorites at least) drag queens from the past two seasons of Drag Race to give biological women drag make overs. In the first episode they transformed three deliciously tomboyish ladies into wonderfully draggy divas! As I said, it's campy, as a show about drag queen performers almost has to be, and fun, as a makeover show should always be. But what was missing was the chance to focus on real human drama.

Some of these women had some serious psychological issues with being feminine. One wanted to spice up a failing marriage and another blamed her former femininity as the reason for being sexually assaulted. And while the producers made mention of these things, they chose not to focus on what their drag transformation might do to positively impact these women, which is a HUGE missed opportunity. That is real drama and the chance to show that these drag divas are more than just stereotypical drama queens was completely missed. Instead the producers focused on made up, scripted, trite "drag drama." "This bitch stole my wig," or "that gurl called me fat" were unnecessary additions to this show and only served to undermine the potential of it.

I was also slightly bothered by the judge's panel. These women are trying to make themselves feel better about themselves and having the judges rate them afterward really undermines that ultimate goal of helping these ladies. If they feel the need to judge anyone, they should judge the queens assigned to the women, as they are the ones ultimately responsible for the new look.

What is great is seeing the family and friend's reaction to their loved one's transformation. Getting a make over from a drag queen is quite different than getting a make over from the Queer Eye team. I also really enjoyed the bits of human drama that were tossed in. I also really like that this is a show that has the potential for a full season filled with cast members I actually like. Speaking of, I do really LOVE seeing my favorite divas again without having to look at that vicious Tyra Sanchez again.

All in all, it's a decent show. I hope to see more variety as the season progresses and I hope they take the time to change up the focus, but I'll give it a few more episodes before I give a final verdict.

How To Gay It Up In Class, Sci-Fi Style

Or SyFy style… however the kids are spelling it these days.

A few weeks ago, the fiancé and I sat down to start watching the new SyFy show Caprica, which is a spin off of Battlestar Galactica. Battlestar is quite possibly one of the best science fiction shows to have graced cable TV, a show which explored the depths of human nature, what it means to be human, and what it means to fight for survival. Caprica is a prequel to Battlestar and explores the society that created the Cylons to begin with, and looks to be the story of how the Cylons came to be and what leads to their eventual rebellion. (If that didn't make sense to you, you need to go get the complete series of Battlestar on Amazon and start watching today!)

Caprica has been getting a luke warm reception from the Battlestar fans and mainly because so far we're seeing much less "action" than we did in Battlestar. In Battlestar, we saw explosions and drama and fights, but so far in Caprica we've only seen character exploration, some drama, a tiddley bit of fighting and one explosion. But what can you expect from the first few episodes of a series? This is the exposition, the start of the tale, the part of the story that needs to be drawn out so that later pieces make sense. Regardless of the reception though, SyFy is remaining publicly committed to the show, noting that they never expected huge ratings right off the bat and that they knew going in that the series would take some time to grow. This is great news, not just for fans of great science fiction, but also for fans of well-rounded characters and gay-inclusive shows.

One of the main characters in the show, Sam Adama (pictured right), is tough, strong and a bit of a strong arm. Oh, he's also in the mafia. Well, Caprica's version of the mafia: a group of Taurons, or people from the colony of Tauron (in the Battlestar lore, there are 13 colonies one different planets each named after a Greek God/Constellation). He's the go-to guy it seems, the guy that actually does things like roughing people up or potentially killing mob targets. In short, he's a force to be reckoned with. And he's gay.

I was supremely impressed with how they "revealed" this character to be gay. With the way we are programmed in our society, we often just assume a character is straight until told otherwise, so there had to be some sort of "reveal," but the way they handled this on Caprica just blew me away. Basically, there was no reveal. There was no big moment or conversation or argument, it was simply presented in a way that helped characterize the character and society as a world where sexuality is completely a non-issue.

What was the reveal? Sam was walking through Little Tauron with young William Adama (who is the commanding General throughout Battlestar Gallactica), introducing him to the Tauron culture that Will's father (the smoking hot Esai Morales of NYPD Blue fame pictured right) had been depriving him of, and Sam told Will that he and Joseph (Will's father) use to come to a market there when they were younger and Sam would try to pick up guys while Joseph would walk away with girl's phone numbers. That was it. Just a casual reference to their lives as kids with not a single moment of shock or having "the talk." It was brilliant.

Since that episode, we've seen Sam with his husband a couple of times and Sam has made mention of his husband in a few conversations and not a single issue has arisen in the show as a result of it. And it's not because people are afraid to say something to the gangster, it's because it's simply not a characteristic that would cause problems.

TV producers should be taking notes at this point as this is how you handle gay characters, particularly in Sci-Fi. The occasional "gay as victim of our cruel society" is appropriate because that still happens these days, but portraying every gay character as someone that has to face insurmountable societal pressures is getting a bit old. Not to mention that when I watch fantasy television about a future society (or previous society, depending on your take of Battlestar lore), I like to think that society will have progressed beyond many of the issues we still face today and that sexuality will have become a non-issue. Sex, on the other hand, will likely always cause issues, but sexual identity should not.

Bravo, SyFy! Your rebranded name still sucks, but this show is a great success in my eyes, both for presenting gay characters in a fantastic manner and for being a overall captivating story.

It's Time To Lip Synch For Your Life... Again!

Just wanted to drop a note saying that the new season of RuPaul's Drag Race starts tonight on Logo! For those of us out there that don't have Logo (or have the desire to pay for the damn channel because it never seems to be included in the basic cable package…), last season was available on Logo's website to stream usually the day after episode aired, so I'm hoping they'll do the same this year.

I loved last season. It was just a brilliant show and they did A LOT with the bare bones budget they were given. It looks like they were given a much bigger budget for the show this year after the break-out success of the show last year. Certainly they've put a lot of ad money behind it because I've seen tons of ads for the show here in Chicago. Even the bus stop in front of our condo has a giant poster advertising the show, which is both awesome and inspiring. It's also the first show from Logo that I've seen a major ad campaign for, which is great news for the show and the network.

In any case, I'm certainly looking forward to the insanity of this year's show. I have a feeling I'll be posting quite a bit about this year's competitors!

Dollhouse Season 2 Starts, Fox Must Have Forgetten To Mention It

So, um… Dollhouse started back up. Yeah, was anyone else aware of that? No? Yep, didn't think so.

I love Dollhouse. I love Joss Whedon. I love the concept, I love the writing, I love pretty much everything about this show. So when I see things like people complaining or laughing that the Season 2 premier did not even do as well as the Season 1 finale, I'm taken aback a little. Of course the premier didn't do as well! Who on Earth even knew it was starting back up?!

I knew it had a second season in line, but I figured it would come along with the Spring line up just like the first season. Instead, they slot it into the Fall season, in the same terrible time-slot. On top of that, they don't even bother telling people that it's starting! You know how we found out? It magically popped an episode into my fiancé's Hulu queue that said Season 2, Episode 1.

I'm starting to think that Fox really wants this show to fail miserably, and I can't figure out why. Whedon offered up one of the best shows to hit TV with Buffy, which by the way is still a huge cult hit and selling DVD seasons, and the network can't even bother to give him support for this show? Sure, Firefly got canned, but if we're being honest with ourselves it wasn't that great. Space hookers just don’t make me that excited. But Dollhouse is a show that's managed to survive trial after trial and get a second season, and still Fox doesn't really give a hoot.

Whedon's fans are geeky and tech savvy. They are on the internet, watching the show on Hulu or Tivo. And they likely aren't making their friends wait around on a Friday night so that they can catch up on what's next for Echo. But they are loyal and they are consuming every single minute of this show.

So Fox, get you shit together and give Dollhouse some credit please! I know, this post is a little nerd-ragey and you're probably wondering why the hell I care about the survival of a TV show. The thing is I just don't watch much TV anymore. Nothing interests me. I'm watching Dollhouse, Glee and Heroes now. That's IT! And when it comes to Heroes, I'm not even sure I'll watch the whole season because I'm afraid it'll take a disastrous turn like it did last year. But I really want Dollhouse to succeed, otherwise I'll only have one show that I'm watching for sure.

(By the way, Hulu, you should really work on your SEO issues. If I Google Dollhouse and you Dollhouse page doesn't come up in the top three results, much less the front page, you're doing it wrong.)

I Love Glee, But...

I need to preface what I'm about to write with a disclaimer: I love Glee. I love, love, love the show. It's a bit of bright, shiny happiness in the dullness of the week. The show is upbeat, it's well-written, well-performed and… well, it's a musical TV show, so it's about as gay as a Prada bag full of rainbows.

I do have one bone to pick. While I do love that the show has not just one, but two out-in-the-open gay characters, I do have to question why both of them are raging stereotypes. One is a queeny, young twink that wears nothing but top designer fashion and leotards while prancing in front of a camera performing Beyonce's Single Ladies to the step, and the other is a bitter, jaded old 'mo that wears flashy, loud colors while lisping, living all by his lonesome because he's old and collects dolls as a replacement for real emotional attachment. That's kind of shady.

Granted, the show is full of stereotypes, and we're only on Episode 4. There's plenty of time for the writers to take the two gay characters to new heights, or introduce another LGBT person to the cast that doesn't ring completely of stereotyped dribble. But as it is, the show is simultaneously putting gay people front and center in the public eye, which is good, and reinforcing negative images of our people, which is bad.

When people my age were growing up and dealing with our sexuality, we had a hard time coping with it because the only media images we saw of gay people were sad, sappy movies where all the gay people die of AIDS, crappy news stories about how evil gay people are and how we need to be regulated out of basic human rights, and stories of young gay men and women being beaten to death by drunken hillbillies. For sure, we at least had images of Gays In The World, but nothing that made us jump for joy with excitement about joining that culture. With the generation that's coming up now, they don't even want to identify as Gay because there are just too many negative connotations that go along with it, and will portrayals of all gay men as effeminate, lonely, and disturbed really help to fix that issue?

It's possible I'm taking this too far. It's a TV show, it's fun, I love it, all my gay friends and almost all my straight friends love it as well… I should just let it go and enjoy it for its entertainment value. And it hasn't really had time to fully explore the characters just yet. But all I'm saying is here's to hoping the can pull the show's cast out of stereotype land and deliver them to a place that's full of interesting, deep stories that can only be told with the help of 3-5 songs a week.

You Gotta Watch It!

All I want to say is that True Blood is a frackin' amazing show and you should stop what you're doing and go watch it right. Now.

The fiancé and I just watched the Season 2 Finale last night and we were both blown away!

I love the Charlaine Harris books this show is based on, and I absolutely love the story she tells in the books, but I'm also really enjoying the slightly different story presented in the show. It's almost like a reimagining of the story in the books. Mostly, I'm glad their doing to their doing a different story because I can enjoy the books then enjoy the show and get different experiences from both.

Go order the first season or the books if you don't have them yet. You won't regret it!

Won't You Be My Angel

To anyone looking to get me something just for shigiggles, or, you know, because my birthday is coming up in less than a month... just saying. Amazon has the box set of Angel, all five seasons, on sale today only for $56.99! That's five whole seasons of David Boreanaz sexiness. Yes. please!

It's Time To Lip Synch For You LIFE!

The boyfriend and I watched the finale of RuPaul's Drag Race last night, and I absolutely loved it!

STOP NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!!!!

OK, with that out of the way, I have to say that although I really like Bebe Zahara Benet, I enjoyed Miss Nina Flowers more. So did the boyfriend. Not that either of either did not like Bebe, and not that we aren't happy for her, it's just that I felt Nina had more range and stage presence, and in general was just an all around nice, humble, unassuming person. Add to that I prefer the more androgynous look in my drag stars, and Nina makes a natural choice for me. Of course, Ongina was my personal favorite with her androgynous style, bubbly personality and outrageous costumes.

I'm really glad that this show made it to the air waves. It was campy, it was silly, it was high gloss on a dime (a rusty ass dime at times…), but that's drag. Drag is such an important, yet dismissed, part of gay culture and I'm very glad to see drag get it's day in the sun again. Sure, we've had movies like Bird Cage and To Wong Fu, which were great in their own rights, but the both explored characters. RuPaul's Drag Race opened up the doors to the actual people and everything that goes in to being glamorous.

I know there are some queens out there that will say that drag isn't all the gays are about and that it shows the gay community in the wrong light, etc., etc. I've heard it all. It's all BS. While not every gay man dresses in drag, the fact is that drag is a very huge part of the community. Drag queens lead our parades, host our parties, spice up our dance floors and provide outlets for us that we couldn't otherwise explore. And they are outright glam!

I'm also happy to see that LOGO has picked up the show for another season. The show has been a bit of a break-away hit too, since it's also broadcast on Logo's sister station VH1. I know plenty of people have been watching it, and from my Facebook feed, it's not just the gays. While this season was fantastic, I'm hoping the next season is a bit more polished and definitely longer!

Time For Another Gay Ol' Story

I'm not sure what is happening lately. Either I'm spending more time actively chasing down gay content or gay-accessible pop culture is just becoming more prevalent.

This weekend, I finally got the chance to watch Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. If you haven't seen it yet, it's a pretty solid movie. Cute, full of high-school angst and growing pains, but hopeful. So what's really queer-friendly about a love story between a teenage boy and girl? The male lead is in a gay rock band. He's just not gay. But the rest of the band (and the supporting cast for the movie) is gay, and it's just that simple. There's no long, drawn-out explanation as why he's there or over-testosteroned attempts for the male lead to prove his heteroness. The sexuality of the kids is handled as casually as the sex lives of the hetero characters, which is certainly a nice change of pace from what we've come to expect of movies and gay stereotypes.

I also finished Hero by Perry Moore the other week. Hero is a novel about a young queer boy growing up in a world where super heroes simply exist. The League is thriving and thwarting enemies on a daily basis, while characters like Justice, who crashed landed on Earth after his home world was destroyed only to be raised by farmers (ahem… not familiar at all), fly through the sky protecting the planet from peril. The boy goes through a small bit of pain about his secret homosexuality, but soon learns that his secret powers are what will make the biggest difference in his life. Why is this important from a pop culture perspective? It was a successful book, and considering that Peter Moore is the executive producer on the Chronicles of Narnia series of movies, I'd say his chances of green lighting his novel into a movie should be pretty good, or even a TV series if the current round of rumors are to be believed.

In a few weeks, The Watchmen will be released in theaters. The Watchmen has been heralded as one of the greatest works of fiction, and is easily the best example of what a graphic novel can be. The novel doesn't expressly focus on anything gay, but you do come to learn that two of the characters, minor as they are, are gay and that news is handled as matter-of-factly as the fact that the are masked adventurers. Whether this tacit acceptance and normalization of the gay characters will persist into the big screen isn't quite clear yet, but the portrayal in the book is pretty great.

So what's going on? Am I hunting down LGBT-related content, or is it finding me? I think a little bit of both, to be honest. I want to know my community better and I want to consume material that I can relate to, so I know that I'm on the look-out for more gay content. However, I believe that the tide of queer equality is approaching faster and faster, even if only in the pop culture frame.

Weekend Update With... Just Me

This weekend we decided to have people over to our place for fun and frivolity. We hadn't had an official house warming party, and this technically still wasn't one, but everyone that came over brought drinks and ended up leaving plenty, so I suppose that counts as gifts, and thus a house-warming party!

One of our friends wanted to watch SNL before things really picked up, so we decided to flip on the TV and pull up chairs. My TV is a bit old, and has issues with reception from time-to-time. Usually, you just jiggle the back where the cable and coaxial cable connector meet, and you're all set, but on this particular occasion when we jiggled the cable jack, the whole coax thing came off the back of the TV. Completley. Just popped right the hell off.

I would say that I was pissed, but it's an old TV that pretty much sucks anyway. We can still use it for video games and movies and such, but there's just no way to get the cable to it now.

Me being the techy I am said that this would be the perfect chance to get a new 1080p, 120 MHz refresh, 40-inch delicious viewing box. But after talking with the better half, we both realized that we don't necessarily need the TV. Don't get me wrong, we want it, but with all the TV shows we watch being posted on-line (except True Blood, but that's what Bit Torrent is for... not that I would ever support less than legal means of obtaining digital media...), we've decided to try and go TV-less for the time being.

This could be an interesting experiment, for sure, but we'll see. The only reason I want the big, new, shiny TV is for my games, but I've found myself unable to pull myself away from Spore and Warhammer Online on my PC, and if the better half can watch his TV shows on his computer (without the need for a DVR, mind you) then why not?

We'll see how this week goes... the credit I have with Dell that I was saving for a new laptop may just get used for a TV instead if I just can't go without.