I do like Chad Allen as Donald Strachey. Can't think of a gay character in film or TV remotely like him. I even like the low-budget kinda semi-noir claustrophobic set style of the series.
Joshua Tree, 1951. A black-and-white art style film about James Dean. Not bad. (I liked The Roomate better.) I have two degrees of separation from the rebel without a cause. My sister --who died nine years ago today-- bought her house from a old New York actor who had a fling with him back in the 50's. My parents' place is right next door. So I got invited over for drinks one evening. That evening also gave me two degrees from Elizabeth Taylor. Eventful :)
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3 comments:
Will have to give that series a look. So hard to find gay characters in television who are written as characters who just happen to be gay, as opposed to a tired cliche, but they do exist.
To illustrate: One of the agents on USA's White Collar is a partnered lesbian, but her sexuality is such a non-issue that it rarely comes up, unless it gets mentioned in passing.
And then there's the entirety of the gay cast on Glee: An androgynous countertenor who wears Lady Gaga costumes; his bowtie-wearing "straightish" (yeah right) boyfriend; the sassy, bitchy hispanic lesbian; the slutty bisexual dumb blond cheerleader; the vampiric twink; the cross-dressing black boy. I think a person could make a strong case for calling Glee the most homophobic show on tv.
The only character I did not despise on Glee was the football player Karofsky. He played into the self-loathing jock stereotype, but the character was really elevated by the actor: insightful, vulnerable, scared, seemingly put off by the flamboyant side of the gay community. I recognized myself in him a little. But instead of showing that not every gay person enjoys the gay community (and everything that goes with it), the writers made him a popular "bear cub" in the local gay bar and then packed him off after he attempted suicide with a happy ending in the form of a fantasy set ten years in the future. Way to go, Glee. Ugh.
-Sean
Re the Strachey series, the plots turn around predictable gay victimization issues, but the Strachey character, even when the script has him buy into it, manages to redeem a lot of it.
As with JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, the moralism underlying it all gets transcended by the characters and the inventiveness of the world she creates.
Missed that post. Karofsky was the only reason I watched the show. And only the episodes in which he appeared. Otherwise, forget about it. An awful show. It's bad when fanfiction surpasses the quality of the source material. Good Lord.
-Sean
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