Gay TV, Movies, and Books

[W_L]

I am enjoying this off-beat urban fantasy Queer series right now called The Daily Grind, it's about a group of friends who find an extra-dimensional dungeon in their office building. The monsters look like staplers, ferns, copiers, old-fashioned desktop computers, and snake-like wires  It's a great escape for office workers to imagine things in our daily lives that we have a love-hate relationship with try to kill us, very creative and I enjoy the social commentary aspect. The main character is pansexual and in a loving poly relationship with his boyfriend and girlfriend, but the romance is low-key in the story

Spoiler

("cough" Royal Road's incel homophobes "cough")

.

Also, it's the first time I've seen a good positive use case for the "Utopian Fallacy", kind of a counter to the realist use. Essentially, the author figured out a way to fight unhappy realism through fun fantasy.

For those who want to know what I mean, the utopian fallacy is

Quote

Acts as if the ideal is immune to refutation. “The ideal remains forever on the horizon of our experience, unsullied and untried.” Therefore, the utopian ideal serves as an “abstract condemnation of everything around us, and it justifies the believer in taking full control.”

 

[Joie J.]

5 hours ago, Krista said:

So, Season 2 of Prisma debuted on Amazon Prime, but only in Italy. I have waited patiently (don't let wildthing spread lies, I am patient) for this second season for ages. It is being shopped for international distribution through a German company. I have checked at least once a week for it to be available somewhere. 

If you have access to it right now, please tell me that it is worth the wait... I am suffering.

Also, the only thing I've watched in ages has been season 3 of Bridgerton. I should have known that eventually the writing would cause the trainwreck that would take my interest away. It was just a guilty little pleasure for me as it was, as I like a period piece every now and then. Season 3 was a cluster duck  of small stories that took away from the two main themes of the season. It was also split up into two parts, which I feel made it worse. There was a sex scene that made no sense, it broke the timeline, as it seemed to span days, as the scenes it kept interrupting took place in daytime, and at night? lol... it was so odd. Literally, there was a mini-social media trend where people thought they had accidentally hit the reverse/rewind button on their remotes. I don't know how editing went with that to begin with. It was also a MMF threesome, so I guess we're just going to start openly baiting audiences with stuff that doesn't go anywhere, while writing in Gay themes where we never wanted it in the first place as in Francesca's storyline in Season 4, if the writers decide to go there. I hate poor plotting in writing. 

-- And I am well aware where I posted this, I don't know if there are any Bridgerton fans on here.. but season 3 was painful, where it should have been a nice and easy season based on source material. 

Say Yes, I made the attempt to watch a month ago, as I knew it was going to be awful after I read the description. It is about a woman dying of cancer attempting to convince her husband to fall in love with, and begin a relationship with her twin brother. Like sexuality and consent didn't exist in this woman's brain. As she was relentless, even sending her twin brother into the bathroom to seduce her husband while he tried to enjoy himself a bubble bath. The poor husband was reduced to watching gay pornographic material to see what the fuss was about... and she encouraged him when she caught him. The husband and brother also had sex right after she died... so there's that. Literally right after they called family and friends to announce her passing, it was terrible. The casting was also weird, as they were supposed to be twins, but they didn't look racially similar. 

What makes this worse is there is a Sequel, which I will not watch.

Whomever decided this was a good idea, obviously doesn't understand a thing about sexuality. A happily heterosexual man is not going to date a man just because his dying wife wants to manifest it into being. If anything, the response should have driven them apart in a time in her life where she would have needed him and his support the most. 

Mysteries of Pittsburg is still as artsy and boring as I remember it.

Have suffered Bridgerton S3 and I totally agree with you on this. Even Wistledown's articles weren't that interesting! 😒 In fact, I was more interested in Benedict's storyline somehow. But that too ended up a little meh! 😑

The others I haven't watched but thanks for doing the dirty job for us. Now I can happily scratch out names from my watch list. 😇

[Zuri]

Not gay specifically, but queer:

 

[Krista]

I tried to get into Sense 8, but it just got a bit boring and too cerebral at times. It looked really good. The writing didn't hold up in bits and pieces of it. I got halfway into season two before I gave up. I know my attention span is the problem with a lot of television shows, I am far more likely to stick with a film than I ever will a television series.

I got three seasons into Grey's Anatomy, about five into NCIS, for example. I can't imagine starting those two series from scratch and watching them all the way through.

Prisma might have been the show that kept my interest well past the second season, but alas I may never know since it still isn't available here. *sigh* 

Detroit would look more interesting if it had a budget, but it was a "free" film for youtube, so it gets a pass.

I never watched the other show, but it always looked interesting. I may give it a go, at least the first season, with the track record that I have.  

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On 7/3/2024 at 1:16 AM, Joie J. said:

Have suffered Bridgerton S3 and I totally agree with you on this. Even Wistledown's articles weren't that interesting! 😒 In fact, I was more interested in Benedict's storyline somehow. But that too ended up a little meh! 😑

The others I haven't watched but thanks for doing the dirty job for us. Now I can happily scratch out names from my watch list. 😇

The writing for Benedict's character has always been lost. You can tell with how they did him throughout the seasons. Season 1, they wanted to make him interesting, and they gave it an honest attempt. We knew we were getting a possible bisexual story arc with him, he was legitimately interested in what was happening in the unseen world around him. If that had continued better into season 2, he would have been far more fleshed out and ready for Season 3. He was not, the latter half of season 2 he regressed, and he was barely present in the first half of Season 3. When they finally got back to him, it was just a cluster of distractions. I lost all interest in his story.

And, I think some of the reason why he was lost, was because they forced the attempt at a heel turn for Cresseda *spelling, where it needn't have went at all. It would have been FAR more interesting of a season if they never touched the fraud story-line they picked for her character. The Blackmail that led to the outing just didn't hit. If that happened in the source material/books, fine then it should have been implemented better. Worse when it was literally interrupted by Benedict's lack of character development leading up to and during the Polyamory story-line. Which ended with more screen time than how it started, to be honest... and that was the major flaw of it. 

And I still hate they're pulling Francesca into a 'queer' storyline. Especially when Benedict's was already going to be the more interesting one if they had put in the work. Now I feel both characters will fail, when they should have easily flourished. 

Eloise's character also took a hit, and her and Benedict were the two characters I always looked forward to most on my screen when I watched Bridgerton to begin with. Queen Charlotte, Violet Bridgerton, and Lady Dansbury being closely behind them.

---

Edited to continue my rambling:

I also watched Barrio Boy last night. Awful. It has moments of nice wrapped up in a jumbled up annoying mess. It is based on a short-film of the same name, I think. Also, the film was made in 2022, but the intimacy level between the two main characters were very sub-par at best. If you're going to make a gay film, make a damn gay film. I don't think the two main characters ever full on kiss.

The film doesn't stand alone either, I was confused as to why the main character was so entranced by the irish guy. He kicked a ball over the fence and then BAM, all he could think about was that guy. In the short film, the way the characters meet is that the main character, a barber, cuts the other character's hair. That isn't how the film began. That is probably 'how' the film should have, it wouldn't have looked more like an infatuation. There was just little substance as to why the main character was so motivated in finding the Irish guy. If we knew they had made some sort of prior connection, or had one on screen to begin with, it might have saved the film a lot. 

Also, the latter half of the film just sucked. The only thing going for the film throughout was that it was nice to look at. All the characters were done well, aside from "Cuz," the drug dealer, he was laughable at best, as he was supposed to be scary, but I just kept rolling my eyes at his antics. Or maybe I'm just not as easily moved when a grown ass man throws a temper tantrum that's supposed to be threatening. 

Edited July 8 by Krista

[Joie J.]

@Krista have you seen (or read) 'My Secret Agent Husband'? What's the buzz about?

[Krista]

On 7/21/2024 at 6:52 AM, Joie J. said:

@Krista have you seen (or read) 'My Secret Agent Husband'? What's the buzz about?

No, I haven't. I've been at a real and true loss for good gay media of late. 

[W_L]

Has anyone seen the netflix miniseries "Someone Has to Die"?

It's set in the 1950s Fascist Spain under Franco-Regime with a gay relationships and desires hidden among the wealthy elites.

[Page Scrawler]

"Accidental Demons", by Clare Edge. It won't be available until September 17th, but I'm already anticipating the read. It's a middle grade story, tagged as LGBT on Goodreads. 

As if a recent diagnosis of diabetes wasn't difficult enough, Bernadette has a problem: she's also a witch-in-training. Now, every time she pricks her finger to test her blood sugar, she accidentally summons a low-level demon. Fortunately, her sister, Maeve, is there to help her clean up the aftermath. But, when their plan to use a demon as a blood sugar monitor goes awry, the consequences could shake the magical world to its foundations....

[Krista]

On 7/25/2024 at 11:09 PM, W_L said:

Has anyone seen the netflix miniseries "Someone Has to Die"?

It's set in the 1950s Fascist Spain under Franco-Regime with a gay relationships and desires hidden among the wealthy elites.

I did, I found it boring up until the final part, then it all went too fast paced. It has been a bit since I watched it, so it isn't the most fresh in my mind. But yeah, the dragged out pacing in the beginning, and then the fast pacing in the end just didn't work well for me. I also knew it wasn't going to end well, but I didn't like it. 

[W_L]

34 minutes ago, Krista said:

I did, I found it boring up until the final part, then it all went too fast paced. It has been a bit since I watched it, so it isn't the most fresh in my mind. But yeah, the dragged out pacing in the beginning, and then the fast pacing in the end just didn't work well for me. I also knew it wasn't going to end well, but I didn't like it. 

Thanks for the thought, I was reading some reviews and it sounded like a romantic comedy setup, but more dark and authoritarian in nature based on its subject matter. Historical drama is interesting, especially lesser known things, no one ever mentions the Franco regime of Spain nowadays.

As a student of history, the film's period was an era of unbridled economic development for Spain, which was known as the "Spanish Miracle" (just like Japanese Miracle on the other end of the world), but behind economic liberalism that saw wealth and prestige, there was a conservative cultural undercurrent from Franco's ideological social conservative views. The entire thing crashed in the 1970s towards the end of Franco's regime. 

Edited July 28 by W_L

[Page Scrawler]

 

[Krista]

On 7/27/2024 at 11:35 PM, W_L said:

Thanks for the thought, I was reading some reviews and it sounded like a romantic comedy setup, but more dark and authoritarian in nature based on its subject matter. Historical drama is interesting, especially lesser known things, no one ever mentions the Franco regime of Spain nowadays.

As a student of history, the film's period was an era of unbridled economic development for Spain, which was known as the "Spanish Miracle" (just like Japanese Miracle on the other end of the world), but behind economic liberalism that saw wealth and prestige, there was a conservative cultural undercurrent from Franco's ideological social conservative views. The entire thing crashed in the 1970s towards the end of Franco's regime. 

Yeah, I remember it being oddly marketed as a Comedy, but thinking it was too dark. Which, I wouldn't even call it a dark comedy either. It was just 'odd' all around, to be fair. It wasn't something I would honestly like if it was done well, which I don't think it was. 

[Zombie]

Beautiful Thing (1995)

11.10pm tonight  Sunday 11 August, on Film4  (UK-only tv network )

only ever seen this on mp4 download from some long-gone gay movie website and cannot remember it being shown on network tv before (it has been - Channel4 made it as a tv movie and it was so successful it was released in cinemas) so it’ll be great to watch it in hd on a decent screen

I remember it depicting a convincing mix of brutal, harsh working class life, rejection, acceptance and joyous romance (between actual teenagers, one of whom is gay in real life - Ste - , not adults pretending to be teens), with the happy ending most of us crave eschewing the hackneyed, worn out +depressing trope of dismal gay tragedy.

We all need positive life-affirming entertainment and I’ve booked my seat for tonight! 

 

[Slytherin]

3 hours ago, Zombie said:

Beautiful Thing (1995)

11.10pm tonight  Sunday 11 August, on Film4  (UK-only tv network )

only ever seen this on mp4 download from some long-gone gay movie website and cannot remember it being shown on network tv before (it has been - Channel4 made it as a tv movie and it was so successful it was released in cinemas) so it’ll be great to watch it in hd on a decent screen

I remember it depicting a convincing mix of brutal, harsh working class life, rejection, acceptance and joyous romance (between actual teenagers, one of whom is gay in real life - Ste - , not adults pretending to be teens), with the happy ending most of us crave eschewing the hackneyed, worn out +depressing trope of dismal gay tragedy.

We all need positive life-affirming entertainment and I’ve booked my seat for tonight! 
 

 

I saw this a few years ago on Swedish television and I loved it. The music in the film was also very good I remember   Enjoy Zombie 

[Mancunian]

3 hours ago, Zombie said:

Beautiful Thing (1995)

11.10pm tonight  Sunday 11 August, on Film4  (UK-only tv network )

only ever seen this on mp4 download from some long-gone gay movie website and cannot remember it being shown on network tv before (it has been - Channel4 made it as a tv movie and it was so successful it was released in cinemas) so it’ll be great to watch it in hd on a decent screen

I remember it depicting a convincing mix of brutal, harsh working class life, rejection, acceptance and joyous romance (between actual teenagers, one of whom is gay in real life - Ste - , not adults pretending to be teens), with the happy ending most of us crave eschewing the hackneyed, worn out +depressing trope of dismal gay tragedy.

We all need positive life-affirming entertainment and I’ve booked my seat for tonight! 

 

 

7 minutes ago, Slytherin said:

I saw this a few years ago on Swedish television and I loved it. The music in the film was also very good I remember   Enjoy Zombie 

I've watched this film many times and recommend it to everyone. I've also seen two stage versions and loved them too. If you get a chance to watch it on stage, go, you will not regret it.

[Krista]

That was always one of my favorites to watch growing up...  

[W_L]

6 hours ago, Mancunian said:

 

I've watched this film many times and recommend it to everyone. I've also seen two stage versions and loved them too. If you get a chance to watch it on stage, go, you will not regret it.

Agree completely, Beautiful Thing is an amazing film and way ahead of its time as a gay coming of age movie with a well-acted cast and good plot. 

Modern audiences will probably gravitate towards streaming shows like Heartstoppers, which shares similar themes and concepts. However, if you like the latter you should give the former a watch and I think fans of the former should see the series as well.

[Joie J.]

Sebastian (2024)

Writer - Director: Mikko Mäkelä

Premiered in Sundance 2024 World Cinema Dramatic Competition, Sebastian is a tender story about a young and passionate writer who embarks on a journey to write his first novel by living a double life as a sex worker to research on his material.

A beautifully crafted film that explores exhilaration, hesitation and danger of a digital-age sex worker, brilliantly juxtaposed with a new writer's struggles.

And I must mention the debutant actor Ruaridh Mollica, who played the lead Max / Sebastian is someone all cinema lovers should keep an eye out for. 

For those who have already decided to skip this one for it seems like another "sex worker" movie, you should know that they kept the tone of the film tender and the style has enough commercial touch to it that it can cater to a larger audience.

Also, if it helps, the story doesn't end with a tragedy but a victory.

[Krista]

8 hours ago, Joie J. said:

Sebastian (2024)

Writer - Director: Mikko Mäkelä

Premiered in Sundance 2024 World Cinema Dramatic Competition, Sebastian is a tender story about a young and passionate writer who embarks on a journey to write his first novel by living a double life as a sex worker to research on his material.

A beautifully crafted film that explores exhilaration, hesitation and danger of a digital-age sex worker, brilliantly juxtaposed with a new writer's struggles.

And I must mention the debutant actor Ruaridh Mollica, who played the lead Max / Sebastian is someone all cinema lovers should keep an eye out for. 

For those who have already decided to skip this one for it seems like another "sex worker" movie, you should know that they kept the tone of the film tender and the style has enough commercial touch to it that it can cater to a larger audience.

Also, if it helps, the story doesn't end with a tragedy but a victory.

I must admit, I was going to write this one off based on the description. If it is a refreshing take on the very over used sex worker trope in Gay film genres, I will give it a go. Especially if it foregoes the usual endings to those types of films as well.  

[Krista]

On 8/11/2024 at 11:27 PM, W_L said:

Agree completely, Beautiful Thing is an amazing film and way ahead of its time as a gay coming of age movie with a well-acted cast and good plot. 

Modern audiences will probably gravitate towards streaming shows like Heartstoppers, which shares similar themes and concepts. However, if you like the latter you should give the former a watch and I think fans of the former should see the series as well.

I like Beautiful Thing better than Heartstoppers. Heartstoppers had one good season, the first one. After that it fell into way too many pet peeves of mine. Netflix needs to understand, or seems to fail to understand - that groups of friends with LGBTQ+ representation, doesn't have to be 100% of that representation to exist. There is not a single straight person in that show anymore - aside from the jackass bully - but I'll put 20.00 on the new season introducing his bullish behavior as a defense mechanism for his homosexual tendencies.

It also is attempting unsuccessfully to fill airtime with too many subplots. Sometimes it is better for a show to end when the main plot has become too fleshed out, than to drag it along creating sub-plot after sub-plot to create small tensions. For example: We did not need to know the sexual orientations or sexual relationship of any of the faculty, yet we do and they spent numerous minutes of episodes to bring that to us.

[W_L]

1 hour ago, Krista said:

I like Beautiful Thing better than Heartstoppers. Heartstoppers had one good season, the first one. After that it fell into way too many pet peeves of mine. Netflix needs to understand, or seems to fail to understand - that groups of friends with LGBTQ+ representation, doesn't have to be 100% of that representation to exist. There is not a single straight person in that show anymore - aside from the jackass bully - but I'll put 20.00 on the new season introducing his bullish behavior as a defense mechanism for his homosexual tendencies.

It also is attempting unsuccessfully to fill airtime with too many subplots. Sometimes it is better for a show to end when the main plot has become too fleshed out, than to drag it along creating sub-plot after sub-plot to create small tensions. For example: We did not need to know the sexual orientations or sexual relationship of any of the faculty, yet we do and they spent numerous minutes of episodes to bring that to us.

I do agree, Nick and Charlie's relationship made the show work in season 1 (the books as well, though Charlie's Ace sister, Tori, also helped things along.)

Personally, I like Isaac among the group of LGBTQ+ friends, quiet and bookish ace-queer boy with a broad range of literary interests. I wish he and James (autistic and queer) could be an item, even if it's not a traditional romantic pairing. Ace people can form deep relationships with same gender and opposite gender partners, it's not gay/straight/bi, just interactions and reactions that develop.

As for over-representation, it's a bit of the producers taking a literal perspective from Alice Oseman's webnovels and novels. The books were very LGBT+ represented, so it's not that far off. However, in terms of realism, it's akin to some of our own stories that overloads on representation due to the lack of it in reality. For readers of the novels, along with continuing fans of the show, it's an escape into a world where you can find friends you can identify with, a community that you wish to exist.

As for Netflix's track-record with LGBT+ shows, I wasn't that happy with the inconclusive ending to Special, which I was following after a stellar 1st season as well. As a gay blind guy myself, it's rare to see disability and gay representation combined like that anywhere (we're not that different from your normies, though still a bit off  ). Problem is that while I love the fresh take and exposure, it's pretty inconclusive in the end with a real-life no solution plot. It's the opposite of Heartstoppers fantastical scenario with its grounded disabled gay main character, maybe you will enjoy it more @Krista He doesn't find the answers, he just put one foot forward and continues to move on, real-life basically. Not great, not bad.

Edited August 17 by W_L

[Joie J.]

3 hours ago, Krista said:

I must admit, I was going to write this one off based on the description. If it is a refreshing take on the very over used sex worker trope in Gay film genres, I will give it a go. Especially if it foregoes the usual endings to those types of films as well.  

Trust me, this one's different. It didn't go to the all dark and dingy path. Give it a try and you will know with in first 15 minutes that this one has a different tone.

Have you seen Charlotte Wells' Aftersun or Celin Song's Past Lives? Sebastian has that similar sort of urban loneliness tone and texture that also ends with a happy note.

[N K]

On 8/17/2024 at 1:08 AM, Joie J. said:

ends with a happy note.

That's a little spoiler, but I would rather be sure that I'm watching for a happy ending and I'm not going to be left in shambles at the end of it and then be forced to live a normal life

[Joie J.]

15 hours ago, N K said:

That's a little spoiler

Sorry 😓

 

15 hours ago, N K said:

I would rather be sure that I'm watching for a happy ending

You're welcome 🤗 

[Page Scrawler]

Desert Echoes, by Abdi Nazemian.

Fifteen-year-old Kam is head over heels for Ash, the boy who swept him off his feet. But his family and best friend, Bodie, are worried. Something seems off about Ash. He also has a habit of disappearing, at times for days. When Ash asks Kam to join him on a trip to Joshua Tree, the two of them walk off into the sunset . . . but only Kam returns.

Two years later, Kam is still left with a hole in his heart and too many unanswered questions. So it feels like fate when a school trip takes him back to Joshua Tree. On the trip, Kam wants to find closure about what happened to Ash but instead finds himself in danger of facing a similar fate. In the desert, Kam must reckon with the truth of his past relationship—and the possibility of opening himself up to love once again.

My review

Spoiler

Right from the start, I could tell there was something "off" about Ash. Something dark and erratic, that he was keeping hidden, even from Kam. Even when the truth comes out, I just...never really liked Ash very much. I always looked at him as someone to be pitied, not admired.

From the very first page, I could see how brightly Bodie shines for Kam. Always hugging Kam. Protecting Kam. Making Kam laugh right when he needs it the most. The way they finish each other's sentences, and make up games that only they know how to play. An example is "Scooby-Doo"; they each look at a dog and call out the name of a celebrity they think the dog resembles. Things that only two soulmates could understand about each other. I love the relationship between these two characters, even if they are a bit co-dependent on each other.