Gay TV Recap: ER and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Last night's ER laid out some promising seeds for future gay storylines on the long-running doctor drama. We saw the return of Chaz (Sam Jones III), Dr Pratt's gay brother who has just started duty as a paramedic after completing his training. At the same time, Javier, another gay man, has started as a desk clerk. That's right -- another gay desk clerk. Quelle coincidence.

While Javier fits right in with the secretaries, not only gossiping about who is hot, but about crazy rich, white people, Chaz has a harder time. He's a rookie and as happens with a lot of male dominated jobs, rookies get hazed -- a lot. In this case, the hazing is done by Zach, Chaz's paramedic partner who finally pushes Chaz too far by mocking his sexual orientation.

Zach sets Chaz off when he leaves women's underwear in the ambulance for Chaz to find and suggests giving them to his boyfriend. Seeing Chaz confront Zach over the harassment, Pratt (Mekhi Phifer) rushes to his brother's defense and punches Zach. Chaz doesn't appreciate his brother's interference and later explains that he needs to fight his own battles to earn the respect of his peers.

Meanwhile, Javier is quick to make friends, thanks to his funny and gossipy nature. Javier also asks Dr. Pratt if his brother is single. I'd like to think we're headed towards Javier asking Chaz out which would be interesting as I got the impression that Chaz is the type of gay man who has issues with less traditionally masculine gay men like Javier who reinforces the kind of gay stereotypes that lie at the root of the kind of teasing Chaz received. It could be very interesting to see how the two deal with each other and ER just might be a show to watch this season.

Meanwhile, if It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia certainly emphasized its misanthropic tendencies. In last night's episode, a serial killer is stalking the streets of Philadelphia and Mac's odd behavior gets the gang to suspect him of the horrifying crimes. If you haven't seen the show, the speed at which these characters decide their longtime friend is a vicious killer summarizes them succinctly -- not only are they disloyal, they suffer from incredibly short attention spans and are terrible judges of character.

While Frank jumps at the chance to prove Mac's suspected guilt (hoping for the opportunity to torture a confession out of him), Charlie thinks he can use what he learned about criminal law from Law & Order to defend Mac. Dennis and Dee seek to prove Mac's innocence -- not out of any sense of friendship, of course, but rather just to prove that he's not smart enough to get away with multiple murders.

Unknown to all of them, Mac's secret is that he's once more dating Carmen, a transsexual woman he dated in the first season. By the end of the episode, Mac's refusal to go out with her in public breaks them up, though that doesn't happen soon enough to prevent Frank, Dennis and Dee from setting up an inept "To Catch a Predator"-type sting for Mac.

For the most part, Carmen's return wasn't very different from her first appearance. Carmen still comes off as a confident woman who believes in herself and finds Mac charming. Mac, meanwhile, is motivated by his need for validation. He may be uncomfortable with being involved with a transgender woman, but that discomfort is overcome anytime Carmen compliments his appearance. The humor focuses on Mac's poor self-esteem and on Three's Company-style misunderstandings with some new subjects for innuendo. Carmen isn't the joke in this episode, she just inspires the gang to behave stupidly.

Below, you can check out a clip of Frank and Charlie breaking into Mac's apartment and looking for clues proving Mac's guilt: