Friday, October 6, 2006 (page 3)

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FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE
Two animated series with gay characters aired this week. Freak Show, yet another Superhero show, is on Comedy Central every Wednesday and features Log Cabin Republican who morphs into Burly Bear. I watched the premiere and if you don't have anything better to do—say, clean out the hamster cage, or eviscerate yourself with a rusty switchblade—you might check it out. Or not.

The show manages to have not one, but two offensive gay characters wrapped in one. Lisping, limp-wristed Log Cabin Republican who becomes the leather clad Burly Bear. What's troublesome here is that the other “minorities”—the conjoined twins, the bearded clam lady, premature baby, and the really tall Nebraskan—aren't exactly real life minorities with real life stereotypes. Where is the immigrant laborer character or Down Syndrome baby? I guess it's the only the gays who can safely get mocked this way.

I know some folks find Xandir on Drawn Together to be rather offensive and stereotypical, but to my mind Xandir really is one amongst equals and homophobia gets made fun as much as anything. Plus, the show is funny, something Freak Show wasn't, at least not in the pilot. Drawn Together now airs on Thursday nights at 10:30 PM.

Logo is airing an interesting documentary on Saturday night at 9 PM about queer rappers. It's called Pick up the Mic and has the gay rappers rapping and talking about their experiences trying to make it in one of the most homophobic musical genres. I bet the Dixie Chicks can relate.

Tom and Terry barely survived on Amazing Race even though it looked like they were going to finish in second place. Turns out riding a scooter in Vietnam is a no-no, landing the boys a thirty-minute penalty. Fortunately for them, Lauren (she's gay as well) and her dad made some bad choices (okay, he did) that caused them to finish in last place even with Tom and Terry's penalty. Waiting to see if they were going to get eliminated, I thought for sure one or the other was going to break into tears and I really felt awful for them. (BTW, AfterEllen has an interview with Lauren and her dad about what being on the show did for their relationship). Tom and Terry try to rally from last place on this Sunday's episode.

Also on Sunday night, Andrew is back on Desperate Housewives and Bree reportedly comes to his rescue when she sees him on the television. Given Bree's concern for her reputation, it will be interesting to see if she goes to Andrew's aid out of remorse for dumping him alongside the road or because he's talking about hustling.

No word about this Sunday's episode of Brothers and Sisters, but the Walkers are still dealing with the ramifications of Tom Skerrit's character dying. I imagine it'll be a bit yet before we learn much about who Kevin (the gay brother) falls in love with.

We're down to the final two weeks on Project Runway. Did you happen to catch Malan on the Reunion episode? He spoke movingly about growing up gay and fearing his parents' reaction to his coming out. BTW, are consternation and ambivalent truly such difficult words to warrant so much fuss? I find symposiarch Tim Gunn's expansive vocabulary to be surpassingly amusing and edifying every week. (BTW, have I ever mentioned how popular I was in high school?)

Lost finally found a gay character. It's Mr. Friendly, one of The Others. Turns out Mr. Friendly isn't quite so congenial, or at least not toward members of the opposite sex. When Kate fretted over disrobing in front of him, Friendly assuaged her by saying she wasn't really his type. Presumably this means he isn't into women in general as opposed to plane crash survivors or skinny Hollywood actresses. Scuttlebutt has it that episode three does have more in the way of queer content, but it's lesbian in nature. Who knows with Lost?

BTW, we'll doing a two part, ten-page interview with the actor playing Mr. Friendly about the significance of his character on Lost, how it's a breakthrough for gays on television, and how he feels about playing a gay role. (I'm joking, but you knew that, right?)

Last week I forgot to mention that The Wire added another gay character to its cast when it was revealed William Rawls (played by John Doman), one of the cops, is living on the down low. And Degrassi: The Next Generation started its new season with Marco headed off to college.

This week on DVD we've got Art School Confidential (minor gay character), The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green, Fixing Frank (starring Frasier's openly gay Dan Butler), and Hilde's Journey.

Finally, check out GLAAD's latest Be a Friend and Ally public service announcement running over on the N Network during the teenage and very gay friendly South of Nowhere.

Now I'll shut up so you can have the BEST.GAY.WEEK.EVER!

That's it for this week! Check back next Friday for a new installment of Best. Gay. Week. Ever., or read previous installments here.

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