The Week in Gay TV: Ryan Carnes is "The Phantom", Eurovision gets some "Beautiful People" and back to the "Futurama"

Welcome to another edition of Week in Gay TV, your guide to the shows that will be battling for your attention in the coming week including Beautiful People’s Eurovision turn, ABC’s new Sunday dramas, a new take on The Phantom and the return of Futurama.

On Friday night BBC America says goodbye to Gavin & Stacey with the series’ final episode. This one promises some closure with the characters and that includes Stacey’s gay brother Jason, who tries to put that incident with Uncle Bryn behind him.

Gavin & Stacey's Jason and Uncle Bryn: Still awkward after all these years

A new Shameless has the residents of Chatsworth getting into fancy dress for a James Bond-themed party, where Mickey finds himself an ideal girlfriend. He’s got a lot of Maguire family drama to deal with, however, as they face another tragedy. While Mickey’s still isn’t very prominent, it’s been great seeing him try to find his own path now that Ian isn’t around any longer.

I suspect you wouldn’t be surprised if I told you Jamie Maguire looks incredibly fine in a tux.

...or, even less surprisingly, out of a tux

The SyFy Channel has the last of Friday’s British shows with a new Merlin. Mordred returns hoping his connection to Morgana will help him steal a magical artifact that could destroy Camelot. Finally, Friday also has a new Party Down, which sees the Party Down team working at a college football player’s party. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get drafted, which was the entire reason for his party. That sounds like fun place to be.

Logo’s new Saturday night comedy line-up continues with a new Beautiful People. I enjoyed the first season of this lively and quirky britcom quite a bit but if last week’s premiere is any indication, this season is going to be even more fun going forward. From Debbie’s attempts to pass off Princess Di’s wedding as hers to the performance of the local Enya tribute band, Beautiful People has an energy and spirit that is positively addictive.

That looks likely to continue this week, as Simon and Kylie try to form a boy band to impress their Eurovision-obsessed music teacher. Things get awkward, however, when Andy invites his new guy-friend over to dinner. Not only does Andy’s new friend turn out to be gay, his boyfriend is Simon’s teacher.

Unfortunately, I’m not feeling so positive about Beautiful People’s follow-up, The Jaquie Brown Diaries. It’s a case of “David Brent syndrome” for me, as The Jaquie Brown Diaries doesn’t quite get the tone right and making me laugh at Jaquie more than I end up feeling annoyed by her behavior. Perhaps if everyone around her were equally flawed, it would be easier to laugh at her antics. Would AbFab be as much fun if Saffie patiently kept trying to get Edie to sign up for rehab and Bubble were an efficient assistant whose skills were taken for granted?

Saturday also sees The Doctor face off against the Sulurians in a new Doctor Who, Kelly Rowland visiting The Graham Norton Show and more pop culture snark delivered by Danielle Fishel on The Dish.