Faulkner

More of Adrian 🇺🇸

Michael from 🇺🇸

Yeah. The lip service is so disingenuous. I’m not loving GH these days, so I’m not watching as much, but it seems like a lot of the time I tune in, I see a lot of people *talking* about Trina, but I don’t actually *see* Trina. Feels like she’s a bystander in her own story.

Kristina Wagner’s acting 😬 You’d think Esme were the heroine of this story with the level of access we’re getting to her inner world.

That was a cute nod to the original. But yes, everyone effing each other felt really desperate this early on.

Shame that she couldn’t replicate that dream run to Olympic gold elsewhere.

Totally agree with this, by the way. The trauma would have had a greater impact if we knew the characters involved. But there’s a sense here that all the characters are defined by their traumas. And the shooting apparently was a key selling point to getting this reboot made, which is telling about how TPTB view queer lives. One thing I miss here is that both previous versions presented characters as rooted in a larger context. They had jobs and other connections. (They made a big deal about hiring Ed Begley, Jr. for this new series, and he’s barely shown as Brodie and Julian’s dad.) Aside from the brief aside about Noah’s lawyering job (and not making partner due to his rampant meth habit, an addiction which was largely dropped as a story), Ruthie’s teaching (which we don’t really see), and Julian’s quest to be a flight attendant (which we don’t see), the characters’ lives outside of screwing and clubbing go unexplored. Did you finish?

Word. And they still keep handing out contracts for straight white male characters like dinner rolls at the Olive Garden, instead of investing in the LGBTQ+ characters that the audience is already invested in.

He was lovely and poignant in Magnolia.

“Running Up That Hill” rises to No. 4 this week. Kate Bush has her first U.S. top 5 hit:

This show is a mess.

Tony nominee Sidney du Pont serving body.

Very sad. She says she’s on the road to recovery, which is great.

Jason from Taiwan 🇹🇼

I love Marci Miller, but that dress looks like something my aunts would have worn on the farm. I guess it’s better to catch any spit-up.

Ohhh God. Oof. Such cringe at what happens with her character.

They do have one episode where the city is really well-used late in the season, but where are the accents? There’s a unique feel to NO that the show doesn’t tap into. It is worth a watch, I’d say, and some people seem to really enjoy it. I found it a letdown.

Watched all eight episodes. It’s a mess. It wants to capture this moment of inclusiveness and some of the varied experiences not usually portrayed in gay media (particularly surrounding characters with disabilities), and that’s all honorable, but it winds up biting off more than it can chew, and does its characters a huge disservice. They tap into a black queer drag community that comes through vividly, but the show pushes them to the margins. The characters QAF does focus on are rather flat and boring, aside from Jesse James Keitel’s trans character Ruthie. They try to introduce soapier elements (borderline incestuous love triangles), but it all feels so desperate and forced. There’s one love triangle that happens late in the season that’s a real WTF. And what a shame to have a show set in New Orleans and not make more use of it. The lead is the weakest of the cast (neither Brian nor Stuart were this unlikable and you could understand why they commanded such power over men—this guy Brodie just seems like a petulant child).