Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (July 11, 2008)

IMHO - THE WEEK IN GAY TELEVISION
Now we get to the part where I talk about the stuff I had to watch this week lest the AfterElton.com Dementors be unleashed to suck the life out of me ... before the umteenth reality show has the chance to do the same.

As the World Turns: Oh, please. This week's bizarro 24-hour Army bug was beyond redonk. I honestly just don't get what the point was ... did somebody just want an excuse to put Berto from Viva Hollywood! in uniform? I mean, not that I'm gonna complain about that part or anything...

Anyway, while the show did a surprisingly good job of not demonizing the men in the Army for Don't Ask Don't Tell (the recruiters couldn't care less) and going after the policy itself, nothing else made a lick of sense. And poor Luke having to beat on the windows of the molester van like that guy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Ugh ... Van, I hope you are well-paid for this stuff, that's all I gotta say. After last week's Pridefest, this was a downer.

Shear Genius: Really not much going on in terms of drama for the gays this week ... which is a good thing, really. In terms of performance, gay Charlie (hey ... would that make Jacqueline his "angel"?) once again won the challenge with his rather fierce Chloe Sevigny 'do, which looked a tad slick and synthetic (kinda like her head went all Terminator 2 for a second and spilled over her back) but was otherwise killer. And gay Paulo (whom snicks brilliantly dubbed a "half-transformed werewolf" in his recaps) was almost booted ... again. Does he just not have the stuff? If Kim Vo hadn't stood up for him he woulda been out.

Anyway, by this point they've cleared out all the straight men, three weeks in a row, bing-bing-bing, so they get an up-arrow. Go Team Gay!

Flipping Out: Okay, Jeff Lewis has totally lost his marbles. Which is of course exactly what we want to see, right? The thing with Jeff is, I think that, to a good extent, he's in on the joke. We've interviewed him and I've seen him on red carpets, and he's very, very smart and very clever, and extremely funny.

Yes, he's also a bit of a lunatic, but hey, he has a lot of work to get done. So while I think there's a seed of tragedy in this whole nanny cam development and his handling of it ... I really don't think it's going to amount to anything serious. And really, the more stressed out and crazy Jeff gets, the funnier I find him, and not in a "ha-ha, look at the crazy guy" kind of way. As Pedro Almodovar taught us, some people are just zippier when they're on the verge of a nervous breakdown!

Oh, and it turns out Gay Chris came through NannyCamGate smelling like a rose, so that's another reason for an up.

And just because I can't bear to have this so reality-heavy...

I'm officially claiming Swingtown for the gays. Come on, it has a gay creator, it's all about sexual liberation and it's got more kitsch than Friday Night Lights. (Ba-dum-bum!) This week's episode was solid, but nothing terribly exciting, especially compared to last week's pot-brownie-fueled, clothing-optional tomfoolery. But this week did have a message of freedom of expression in its handling of the controversy surrounding Deep Throat, arguably the first porn to be embraced by the mainstream.

The real Harry Reems

In this episode the Deckers hold a benefit party to raise money for the legal defense of Harry Reems, the lead actor from Throat who was arrested by the Feds for obscenity. I actually remember reading an interview with Reems in a stolen Playboy when I was about 8 (I really was reading it for the articles!), so this one had special meaning for me. And come on ... that's some serious 70's handsome goin' on there!

But beyond that, good but not a significant improvement ... can't wait to watch last night's episode!

(PS - If you haven't gotten into the Swing and would like to, the full eps are available online.)

Next page! Hot elves, prison romance, and a heapin' dose of reality!