Let’s see what happened on our screens this week! Drew interviewed Baby Reindeer’s Nava Mau and it’s gone viral (that’s a hot tip) so you should be one of the cool kids and read it! Valerie says that Dead Boy Detectives has the Big Three: a goth lesbian butcher, gay ghosts, and a Cheryl Dunye-directed episode!! Hacks is back for Season Three, and Kayla says it’s better than ever!
The annual GLAAD media report came out and guess what — LGBT characters are getting cancelled left and right! Unfortunately, that’s not enough for some homophobes who still think there’s just too many queer people on TV. Riese rounded up a few of their comments, just so you can have a good laugh. Velma has returned for its second season, which is less problematic, but somehow that made it even worse? Tonight you can watch the latest teen comedy Prom Dates on Hulu, which tries very hard to be Superbad for queer girls. Queer indie darling I Saw the TV Glow has started its rollout into theaters, so its a great time to revisit Drew’s review. She also interviewed Brigette Lundy-Paine, who stars in the film, on what it means to make their own kind of trans art. Last but not least, did you hear that Kristen Stewart is returning to her roots and making another vampire movie? But what Kayla really needs to know is: WILL THERE BE BASEBALL??
It’s May and that means we have your streaming guide!! Riese has lovingly put together everything that you can find this month on your various platforms. Speaking of Riese, we have some BIG NEWS which is that we’re debuting some brand new newsletters this month for AF+ members including one about TV from me and one about film from Drew and if you wanna get on those lists, you can do so right here.
+ Yasuda and Helm are still fighting on Grey’s Anatomy (well, Helm is trying to apologize. Yasuda isn’t yet ready to forgive her for blocking Yasuda from a great case to force her instead to work the pitch. This all happened before the hiatus, you’re forgiven if you don’t remember). But once the show gives them anything significant to do beyond sharing a quick line together at the top and end of the episode, you can bet I’ll be all over it! — Carmen
+ I’m a little dismayed to report that Rasika Venkatesa’s run in the Top Chef competition is officially over, as she lost her first match-up in Last Chance Kitchen. To go from winning all those early challenges to being out entirely after two back-to-back losses… it’s quite the emotional rollercoaster. I hope that this isn’t the last we’ll hear of Rasika…or, at the very least, that I’ll one day get to enjoy her food. — Natalie
+ There was a really cute baby gay storyline on Alert: Missing Persons Unit a few weeks ago, and one of the gay teens is back this week! She was kind of given the advice to put her head down and power through the homophobic school she was sent to, which isn’t ideal, but she did help them solve a case so I’m hoping our little Nancy Drew will stick around for a while. — Valerie Anne
Before anyone gets mad at me, please know that I love Station 19. I have been covering the show for its entirety, I was the one that first broke the news to Autostraddle readers that Maya was bisexual way back when. I love Carina DeLuca. Captain Olympian Bisexual and Doctor Orgasm are, as far as I am concerned, an all time GOAT of Shondaland couples. And in terms of queer couples, they are near the front of those history books in my mind — someplace riiiight behind Calzona, but most certainly ahead of every other contender in the pack. I don’t usually lay all that out there, but I felt like I needed to today, because I want anyone reading this to know that my disappointment comes from a place of deep love.
What on earth is going on here??? Last season the Station 19 writers gave Danielle Savre and Stefania Spampinato some of their best work to date, between Maya’s mental health crisis, and Carina’s difficult but necessary boundary setting, and both of them finding their way back to each other through it all. It was gorgeous, brave, unflinching. But this season, Station 19’s last, at a time when I would expect the writing to pull out all the stops… it feels like instead, Maya and Carina have completely stalled.
I’ve had my critiques of how Station 19 has approached its pregnancy storylines for Maya and Carina in the past, so perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that I found myself frustrated that last night, during one of the better episodes of the season, a really painful look at homelessness and veterans care, Maya and Carina found themselves on the sidelines of the action. But believe me, when Season Seven premiered, I was onboard for the addition of Baby Liam into their little family! If this is going to be Station 19’s last season, I want for Maya and Carina to have their happy ending. I had just hoped that babies and family planning wouldn’t be the only thing they talked about.
In last night’s flashback-heavy episode, Vic, Sullivan, and Herrera worked through the intricacies of what support for our unhoused neighbors truly looks like, and the limitations of their roles in the field. Meanwhile, Maya and Carina sat at Joe’s Bar perfectly boring and cute, nuzzling noses and dreaming of their future baby. When it turns out that Ben Warren is on testosterone to help with his strengthening on the job as he gets older and recovers from injury, we are treated to an epic-level Danielle Savre meltdown about the effects of her pre-IVF estrogen shots. It’s not that Savre didn’t do a magnificent job hitting all the drama and humor of Maya’s notes, it’s that I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’ve been here before.
Maya and Carina have been trying to have a baby since Season Five, immediately following their wedding. It’s been two years of going around and around on this. And of course having a baby as a queer couple in real life takes years and years of careful planning and heartbreak and trying again — but on television that level of repetition can become.. well.. stagnant.
All is not lost! Preview’s for next week’s episode indicate that we’re going to be returning to Maya’s brother, Mason, who is also unhoused and has some mental health difficulties (we also seemingly saw Mason earlier this season, during Station 19’s Pride episode, where he had joined a group of white supremacist and homophobic agitators). I’m hopeful that one day we’ll return to the storyline of Carina being sued by her patient. I’m really hopeful that we’re going to get a few more hot sex scenes before the fire soap’s final bow in a few weeks.
Before I hop into my recap, a brief aside: NCIS: Hawai’i was cancelled last Friday. As someone who jumped on the Kacy bandwagon early, I’m heartbroken that we won’t get see their relationship grow. My disappointment’s been compounded by fans who insist on affixing blame to The Equalizer, the last CBS show to secure its renewal. If a fan is devoting their energy to attacking a show with LGBT representation that’s fronted by an actual black queer woman, I suspect NCIS: Hawai’i‘s representation wasn’t the thing they were truly invested in. Besides, the NCIS spin-off, fronted by a white man with a history of sexual harrassment, is far more deserving of your scorn.
As if The Equalizer anticipated the pushback, this week it delivers its queerest episode to date…and perhaps the queerest thing to air on CBS since Doubt. The episode borrows its name and its subject matter from HBO Max’s prematurely cancelled show about voguing and ballroom culture. Admittedly, the writing in this episode disappoints — to my knowledge, no trans writers are credited — but the casting is top notch: we get introduced to a lot of new trans talent.
One of Dee’s friends, Raya (Avery Sands), is missing. Dee admits to seeing Raya arguing with another girl at the park the previous day and worries that the fight is the reason Raya didn’t come home. She recruits her mother to track the teen down and insists on accompanying Robyn to talk to Raya’s mother. I appreciate the episode’s scenes with Raya’s mom because it’s still so rare to see a parent equivocally supporting their trans child on television. They’re pointed in the direction of Raya’s new chosen family, the House of DuBois, and its mother, Liberté (Simone Tisci). Initially, Liberté is reluctant to talk and orders Dee and Robyn out of her practice space but once she realizes that her daughter could be in real trouble — Dante finds evidence of Raya having been kidnapped — she offers them all the access they need.
Turns out, the girl Raya was arguing with in the park was her sister, Angie (Quei Tann). She explains to Robyn and Dee that she was just urging Raya to steer clear of her overly aggressive ex-boyfriend. Harry tracks down the address of Raya’s ex and Robyn and Mel go to confront him. He admits that he was the last to speak to Raya but his responsibilities at work kept him from their scheduled 10PM meet-up. Harry tracks down video of the pizzeria where Raya and her ex were slated to meet and find evidence of the kidnapping. And it’s not just Raya that’s been kidnapped, the video reveals another girl, bound, inside the van. Robyn begins to suspect that they’ve been taken by human traffickers.
But what Robyn ultimately discovers is that Raya and Stella (Nicole Talbot) weren’t taken by traffickers, they were taken by a conversion camp at the behest of their families: Stella was sent there by her parents and, as it turns out, Raya was sent there by her grandfather. Robyn and the crew head up to the camp and rescue Raya, Stella, and the other kids from their captors. The illegal camp is shutdown and all those involved are carted off to jail. Raya returns to her mother’s arms and Stella finds a new, accepting home at the House of DuBois.
Since Coop rebuffing her drunken attempt to rekindle their romance, Patience has been MIA. Olivia recalls her history of addiction and her propensity to make some questionable choices during her worst moments, so she commends Coop for her restraint. Coop hopes that one day Patience will be able to see it from that perspective. She puts aside that relationship drama and heads to class where Laura Baker is slated to give a guest lecture. Coop insists that she wants no preferential treatment from her boss-turned-housemate. When she shares that wish with Laura, the guest lecturer readily agrees: as soon as they walk through the classroom doors, they’ll be virtual strangers.
But Coop’s attempt to keep her personal and “professional” lives separate is thwarted when Laura gives a test case to the class that feels very familiar. In the case, a well-known actor who initially befriends a superfan with good intentions. Things go awry and the superfan feels rejected by the actor and ends up tasering him. It’s Patience’s case, with a few details changed to mask her identity, and Coop takes umbrage to Laura using the experience as fodder for class. She confronts Laura during the class break about co-opting Patience’s story, rather than using a case from Laura’s history. The former District Attorney takes offense to Coop questioning her authority. She assures Coop that she’ll understand the point of it all when she’s ready for Coop and the other students to learn it.
In group discussions, one student argues that the actor is partially responsible for what happened. He calls the actor a narcissist and Coop takes offense, on Patience’s behalf, and pushes back, strongly. Laura overhears and orders Coop to leave the class. Back at the Baker mansion, Coop offers an apology to her guest lecturer. She admits to being triggered by the fact that people could shred Patience’s defense so easily. She’s worried that the same thing will play out in a real courtroom. Laura points out that that was exactly the point of the exercise. She pushes Coop to channel her passion for Patience — and her case — into creative problem-solving.
So, we’re now four episodes deep into the new season, and while she sometimes appears in a flickering hologram or a shattered memory, it does seem as though Aster is well and truly gone. However, they didn’t leave Halan alone on Beacon 23 for long, because now he has a new pal in Iris.
But what’s interesting to us, specifically, and why I’m here once again talking about this show I have a contentious relationship with, is because this season we meet a new character named Dev. Harmony meets Dev at AI HQ, as they are part of the internal affairs team that tries to keep Harmony from going back to the Beacon after learning she somehow imprinted on Halan while she was imprinted on Aster, despite AIs supposedly only being able to imprint on one person at a time. Dev is a non-binary AI (which I find hilarious and absolutely perfect since they literally communicate in binary code) and is played by nonbinary actor Noah Lamanna and they are killing it. Dev is confident and disarming and Harmony is desperate to keep them from imprinting on Iris but Dev is confident they’ll be able to do it anyway. They are a haunting presence but in a tempting way, and Iris seems to be slowly getting hypnotized by their charm.
Harmony tries to warn Halan and Iris about Dev, but only after spending a lot of time trying to deal with them on her own, so it might be too late for Iris. Then again, Dev makes a suspicious comment about letting “their person” in right before someone falls out of a goo portal (listen, I barely know what’s going on in this show at any given moment) so who’s to say what Dev’s endgame is here. Guess we’ll find out soon!
