Boob(s On Your) Tube: Yep, “Jane The Virgin” Is Still The Best Show On TV

Allow me to warmly welcome you back to Boob(s On Your) Tube, the place where we talk about all the queer stuff happening on our teevess. Did you check out GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV report that was released earlier this week? It’s a doozy. The short story is that LGBTQ TV got a lot better in 2016, except for lesbians who mostly just got murdered. Valerie Anne brought us another week of recaps about the CW’s DC lineup, most notably MAGGIE AND ALEX. Ashley, whose Queen Sugar review will be ready for you next week, got us psyched for the forthcoming web series Brown Girls. And Stef is keeping us up to date with what’s happening on the shows that are too bloody for me to watch:

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Here’s what else happened on TV this week.


Jane the Virgin

Mondays on The CW

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Jane lost her virginity on this week’s episode of Jane the Virgin and I honestly cannot believe how well the show handled it. (Which says more about how many times I’ve been burned by TV I love than about Jane the Virgin, the most consistently well-written feminist show on TV.) Jane had a crisis because she lost a part of her identity that she’d been clinging to ever since Alba showed her that perfect flower when she was just a little girl, and then crumpled it up to illustrate sex. What Jane didn’t have was an orgasm. In fact, she faked it. Which is brilliant. On a show that always splits the difference between a romance novel and a telenovela, the heroine finally made love with the man of her dreams and she couldn’t get off. And even after she told him, and they tried other stuff, she still couldn’t orgasm. She and Michael talked about it and talked about it and he even watched the sex tape they accidentally made so they could walk through what worked and didn’t work. When Jane finally got there, at the end of the episode, it was an animated trip around the world, into space, down into the sea, into a whale’s mouth and then out his blow hole. It was the most perfect straight people sex I’ve ever even heard about.

In the time it took Jane to arrive at her destination once, Rose and Luisa circled the Great Barrier Reef 153 times. The animated “Great Barrier Reef” is maybe the funniest sight gag Jane has ever done, and that’s saying something.

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As much as Luisa loves Rose and loves circling the Great Barrier Reef with Rose (both metaphorically and literally in her submarine lair), she’s having a hard time moving past the fact that Rose murdered her father. And wore a mask and a voice modulator and made Luisa fall in love with her as another person. A person who also shot the husband of her brother’s ex-girlfriend. Rose thinks she can get past it if Rose will just let her see her murder list (which, Rose helpfully notes, is longer than the list of people she’s slept with). But Luisa can’t. The submarine surfaces and she finds an email from Rafael wishing her a happy birthday, so she goes home to Miami and tells him everything.

OR DOES SHE? Maybe she’s playing a long game with Rose! I don’t know! Either way, Rose and Luisa’s hot as hell totally dysfunctional relationship got more screentime than ever this week and I love how the show continues to juxtapose them with Michael and Jane. It’s so fucked up and so very watchable.


Grey’s Anatomy

Thursdays on ABC

All my worrying last week was for naught! Arizona does have a new love interest but it takes the form of Dr. Eliza Minnick, a residency program Fixer who has arrived at Bailey and Catherine’s behest to make Seattle Grace’s teaching system functional again. Minnick isn’t a hit with the attendings right out of the gate because she keeps barging into surgeries and forcing them to let their students do stuff. Maggie definitely borrows (steals) Minnick’s notebook, which includes a list with most of the doctor’s names on it. They assume it’s something she’s compiled to rank them from best to worst. Maggie gets a jolt when her name is at the bottom. Arizona gets the biggest jolt because her name isn’t even on it.

So you know what Arizona does. You know what she’s going to do before she even does it. She rushes Minnick in the elevator when she’s leaving for the day and tells her she is “a rare, exotic bird” because she’s one of the only fetal surgeons on earth and if Minnick leaves her off the list and doesn’t let her teach, the whole planet is going to suffer due to her extinction. “I may be the last of my kind!” Arizona yells. It’s so wild and awkward, so classic Arizona, I almost burst into tears when she started in on her new lady love. It gets even better, though, because Eliza tells her it’s just a list to help her remember people’s names.

“Arizona Robbins. That name attached to that face. No, that’s not one you forget.”

Arizona’s eyeballs get so big when Eliza says it! The elevator door shuts in her face and as it’s sliding past you can see her still standing there in a stupor.


Rosewood

Thursdays on Fox

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Aww, y’all. Pippy and TMI are dating other people. LOL, JK, they’re obviously dating the same person. They find out in an awkward moment that turns sweet when this girl TMI went out with two weeks ago shows up at the office and TMI’s like, “I don’t remember emailing you back?” And Pippy’s like, “Right. She’s here for me.” The girl leaves them alone and they’re a full screen apart but they keep getting closer and closer as TMI calls out Pippy for going for this girl just because of her shoulders in her profile pic on Tinder, and then warns her the girl doesn’t pay on dates. They tell each other they’re both tough acts to follow. They touch each other’s arms. They look in each other’s eyes and then they look away. Sigh. I love them. It’s so weird that I started loving them! I hope they keep that slow reconciliation burn going. It feels good to my heart.


Younger

Wednesdays on TV Land

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Well, well, well, Maggie’s got herself a real girlfriend. Her girlfriend is Jewish and her girlfriend’s ex-girlfriend (now best friend) is also Jewish. For some reason, Maggie gets it into her head that a mikvah is just like a bath house situation so she recruits Liza and they hit it up on a Friday night and as soon as the Jewish women in the bath see Maggie’s crucifix tattoo, they evacuate like it’s a shark (they way it’s filmed is the funniest thing that has ever happened on this show) and drain the water. Maggie’s new girlfriend tells her not to worry about it but that she does want her to attend this whole other ritual with her on Friday night. It’s the ritual of lesbian softball in Prospect Park. Maggie goes because Maggie is in loooooove. It’s the first time we’ve seen it. I want more of it.


Masters of Sex

Sundays on Showtime

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Written by Stef

Since Helen’s parents have taken her baby with Betty and are trying to force Betty out of her life, Betty finds good ol’ Austin (the baby’s biological father) and presents the exact harebrained scheme all the commenters last week assumed she would concoct: she and Austin will get married, they’ll fight for custody of the baby, and then they’ll divorce, since Austin is clearly an unfit parent. This whole charade is predictable and lame, and Betty deserves better than this.

In the meantime, Dr. Masters has started working with Al as his partner instead of Nancy, and Al brought up a fascinating concept he’d learned about at the Kinsey Institute: the Kinsey scale. Dr. Masters has never considered there being anything in between homosexuality and heterosexuality, and this whole idea has blown his research wide open. Will it matter? I’m not sure how much of this show is still even pretending to follow the actual story of Masters and Johnson and their actual research at this point, and I’m not actually sure it matters. If it were not for Virginia, Barton and Betty being so damn charming, I would have stopped watching this show two seasons ago.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1719 articles for us.

43 Comments

  1. ‘where mikvahs are performed’

    I feel like the most pedantic asshole in the world for saying this, but a mikveh/mikvah is a structure, not a ritual. The pool is the mikvah, what happens in the mikvah is not also called a mikvah. Perhaps this is the most insignificant correction ever, but IDK. I just felt deeply called to point this out? The more you know and all that.

    Also:
    Thank you for your TV roundups Heather, they are delightful :)

    • Correcting people’s grammar is pedantic – correcting people’s misunderstandings of important rituals from minority religions is not. Don’t feel bad. I’m sure as soon as Heather sees your comment she’ll go edit the recap. Thanks for jumping in with the correction.

      One of my biggest pet peeves is when shows toss in Jewish characters for the sake of “diversity” and then never let them actually BE Jewish, so it’s super exciting to me that Younger actually went there. I haven’t been watching it, though it’s on my list, but this might make me move it up a bit. I am SO HERE for queer Jewish women (especially those who are better people than the ones on Transparent).

    • Seconding the not pedantic at all.

      The washing is the ritual and that’s called tevilah? Do I have that close to correct?

      I’m very not Jewish, just my Catholic school really liked to connect all the roots between the people of the book when teaching use the Catechism And I sing Sefardi folk music in the original Ladino.

      • Tevilah is indeed correct – that’s a full ritual immersion in a natural body of water or a mikveh :)

  2. Re: Grey’s Anatomy

    I may be the only one, but while I’m happy that Leah’s not gonna be Arizona’s new love interest, i wasn’t entirely sold on Dr. Eliza Minnick. For one thing, i didn’t think the actress fit well with the rest of the cast – she seemed to be playing an entirely different genre, I don’t know what it was, but her tone just seemed, off, somehow. Maybe that was intentional, she’s the new kid in the hospital, but it felt weird. For another, it was strange to see Arizona be that awkward and uncool. Usually, SHE’S the one who’s smooth. Remember when she came on to Callie? I don’t know, this felt like a weird reversal to me, like the show has forgotten who Arizona IS. I will await further episodes and further interactions between the two of them before I make a final decision though.

    • Oh that’s an interesting take! I kind of fell in love with Eliza right away, if only because I was *so* *so* *so* happy that her introduction made it super clear that Leah wasn’t going to be AZ’s love interest after all.

      You bring up a lot of good points though! I definitely think that the “clashing” feeling was purposeful. She was very much an outsider who threw everything off balance, but I think she’s supposed to be?

      That said, I’m going to rewatch the episode at some point this week with your thoughts about awkward/ uncool Arizona in mind. I think that raises a lot of questions that I didn’t think to ask the first time around!

      • Okay, I thought about it some more, and I realized that Arizona wasn’t coming on to her, she was approaching her as if she was an authority figure, someone with power over her job. And we know that Arizona has trouble confronting authority figures :P So I guess in that sense it does stay true to her character. But I would expect her to be much less squirrely and awkward around her in the next episode.

        I do still think that the actress’ tone didn’t fit in with the show. It wasn’t just the character, it was the way the actress was playing her. She wasn’t BAD, she was just, different. Like she was playing camp on a show that’s all melodrama. It just didn’t seem to fit.

    • I definitely agree with you that something seemed off about the actress. I personally don’t think she’s bad since I liked her when I saw her way back on Brothers and Sisters but I don’t know, her line delivery on Grey’s just felt off. But I do hope she gets better in her next episode and I’m excited to see what happens with her and Arizona (especially since it means Leah and Arizona won’t be happening).

  3. Re: HTGAWM

    I know there was no Eve in this episode, but can we talk about it anyway? I thought the way the show handled Oliver revealing his HIV status was AMAZING. It’s really unfortunate that his date acted the way he did, but the show was very quick to condemn Thomas for that. And then Ollie and Connor reconnecting was so wonderful, even if it will probably lead to more heartbreak for both of them in the future. I really hope Conor’s not dead.

    • Just wanted to second everything you said here.

      Also, am I the only person who sees chemistry between Annalise and her boss who goes to the same AA meeting? I didn’t see it before, but in the past couple of episodes I thought maybe they were teasing us with a possible future hook up between the two.

      • Oh thank God someone else has seen it too! I’ve gotten some interested-in-annalise vibes from the boss almost this whole season, and especially these past few episodes, but since no one else said anything about it I was scared I’ve just been projecting.

        • I know what you mean about thinking you might be imagining things like this. On some shows, I think I do get my “queerdar” into hypermode, just because I’m stretching to identify. I also think a lot of shows put subtext in there to keep people like us interested, even though they have no intention of following through.

          But on HTGAWM, I think they are a show that would not just bait the hook, they might also follow through on it. I wouldn’t say I feel strongly enough to actually predict it, but I think it’s at least a possibility.

    • I WATCHED IT! Let the “Queen Sugar Fan Club” commence!!

      Before I get into this week’s episode… let’s go back and talk about the Storm episode when they all spend the night at Aunt Vi’s! The confrontation between Charley and Nova was so heart wrenchingly honest. It was the type of fight I feel like you can only have with family, that type of no holding back honesty. It’s painful, but real.

      And I’m glad they finally established that Charley’s problem with Nova’s “lifestyle” isn’t tied to her sexuality, but her marijuana growing/ dealing. Because it was unsettling to me to think that Charley was bigoted in that way.

      [moving on to this week’s episode]

      That said… Ok, this week I think I decided that Charley is a very selfish person. I am struggling to like her. I don’t like how she keeps using Micah in a pawn with her fight with her sister. I don’t like her back and forth with the cute cowboy farmer guy (I can never remember his name)– though I did love his whole “I’ll be here when you are ready” speech at the end.

      And as much as I *love* Bianca Lawson forever and ever since Buffy the Vampire Slayer and PLL, I am having a hard time with Darla. I loved her big scene/monologue with Aunt Vi two weeks ago, and her quiet scenes with Blue, but I also have this need to keep her away from Ralph Angel… they just don’t seem to have worked through their own stuff enough yet to be good for each other. But maybe that’s just me?

      AND I LOVED/ CRIED/ HATED/ LOVED everything about the migrant worker storyline!!!!

      One of the things that I always talk about with privilege is that everyone has some, even though some have more than others and it all depends on the situation. The Bordelon family is a black working- to- middle class family (except for super rich Charley) in the American South. I am sure that they don’t think of themselves as particularly privileged, and usually they would be right. And yet. And yet! Here they are employing undocumented workers, having them work right up to the start of the Hurricane on their fields, and don’t even know their name. That’s privilege and it slapped them in the face.

      That’s how intersectionality works. Being black in the United States is not a position of privilege, but being a US citizen in the context of the global south VERY MUCH is. And that’s a hard concept to get across, I thought the show did it masterfully.

      Or as Nova and Charley put it, “Isn’t still slavery? Just replacing the black with the brown.”

      Which is probably my favorite line of television last week.

      I miss Nova’s girlfriend though!!! I feel like my major critique of the show right now is that both Charley and Ralph Angel have these 3-dimensional love lives, with partners who are fully incorporated into the main plot by this point, and Nova increasingly less so. I get that it’s different because she doesn’t primarily live at home unlike her siblings. So her life is in New Orleans, away from the “main action” of the show. But still….

      I hope that turns around next week.

      (WHEW! That was a lot! LOL. Sorry!)

      • First, you NEVER have to apologize to me for word-vomiting TV feelings!

        I agree with you about Darla, she and RA are not good for each other, and she’s not good for Blue, not yet. But holy god her two scenes in the storm episode killed me, the one where she tells the story to Blue, and the one with Vi and Hollywood. I don’t have to like her, or forgive her, but she really, REALLY made me feel for her. I felt her guilt and regret and remorse and gratitude, and I’m rooting for her.

        The fight between Charley and Nova felt so real to me, like two sisters fighting over the stuff sisters really fight about. But I disagree with you about Charley, I really see where she’s coming from. Nova took money from her without asking, and now she’s offering Micah a place to stay, again without asking. That’s like, mom-rules #1, you don’t make decisions about their kids without asking them first. Yes, Charley could have responded better, but I still think she was in the right in that instance. Nova should have asked her first. And Charley absolutely has a right to worry about her black teenage son living in a place where cops frequently patrol, and where Nova is growing marijuana. I think we always knew Charley doesn’t care that Nova’s bi, that was made clear when Nova first brought it up. And yeah Charley may be a bit hypocritical since she smoked with Nova that time, but again, as a mother, she’s totally allowed to do that herself while still wanting to keep her kid away from it. I’m not a mother, but I could really see where Charley was coming on all these issues. And THEN there was the fact that Nova is/was sleeping with a married guy. It is completely understandable how that really hurts Charley – and Vi too. I think Charley and Nova rub each other the wrong way, like real sisters, they know just what to say to hurt the other, and they are SOOO different. There’s so much love there, but also a large gap in understanding and experience.

        And I also disagree with you about Charley and Remy. I love Remy! I think he makes Charley more likeable, and he’s gonna help her become less stubborn and selfish and self-righteous.

        And let me just cosign everything you said about the migrant workers. All of that. Yes. Though I think the show made it explicit that their workers WERE documented. I think because of this – Charley realizing they were out there because she kept them working long, that she didn’t even know her names – I think that’s really gonna help Charley come to terms with her own privilege, and also her naiveté about the farm, and their town, and the South.

        I actually really like Charley, and it’s so painful to watch her confront her privilege/ignorance/outsider status one excruciating inch at a time, but I think she’s gonna get there.

        Finally, re: Chantal, yeah, I totally agree. I really hope we get more of her. I would love to see her come over to Vi’s for dinner one night!

      • You and I are of similar minds about Charley, @c-p. As I said in my belated comments last week, it feels like every week, Queen Sugar gives me a new reason to dislike Charley and this week’s episode was no different.

        I was ticked at Nova for trying to assuage Charley’s guilt because, quite frankly, Charley deserved to feel guilty. She kept those men out in the fields far beyond what was reasonable, despite Remy and Ralph Angel urging her to let them leave. She always thinks she knows better and these new circumstances humble her every. single. time.

        Charley has the blood of those men on her hands and she can’t wash it away by paying for the delivery of their remains to their homes…and they certainly can’t continue to try to redeem her through her relationship with Remy (to whom she never listens).

        While I was thrilled to see Bianca Lawson stand and deliver last week, like @c-p and Vi, I’m still skeptical. When Ralph Angel agreed to let Darla spend more time with Blue, I had a deep sense of foreboding. How about some supervised visits instead? How about offering some money from her job to help support Blue’s needs?

        The migrant worker story was gut wrenching. I couldn’t agree more that the point was to recognize the privilege that our citizenship affords us.

        I mean, God…those men were kept at work by an overbearing manager until a hurricane was about the sweep through the fields…and, still, they came to work the next day. They were placed in a life threatening situation and they came back to work the next day.

        (I remember thinking, as I watched, that I’d be like, “f&¢k that, I’m not going back,” but then came the painful reminder that they couldn’t. They’re almost obligated to suffer that abuse.)

        And when the workers were invited inside to share news of the friends they’d lost, they worried that the Bordelons weren’t happy with their work. What a fucked up situation and it’s a situation that’s being replicated on farms across this country.

      • Posted this last week but it’s been stuck in moderation since…so I’m trying to repost this ahead of this week’s Queen Sugar discussion because a few themes reoccur in the newest episode:

        You and I are of similar minds about Charley, @c-p. As I said in my belated comments last week, it feels like every week, Queen Sugar gives me a new reason to dislike Charley and this week’s episode was no different.

        I was ticked at Nova for trying to assuage Charley’s guilt because, quite frankly, Charley deserved to feel guilty. She kept those men out in the fields far beyond what was reasonable, despite Remy and Ralph Angel urging her to let them leave. She always thinks she knows better and these new circumstances humble her every. single. time.

        Charley has the blood of those men on her hands and she can’t wash it away by paying for the delivery of their remains to their homes…and they certainly can’t continue to try to redeem her through her relationship with Remy (to whom she never listens).

        While I was thrilled to see Bianca Lawson stand and deliver last week, like c-p and Vi, I’m still skeptical. When Ralph Angel agreed to let Darla spend more time with Blue, I had a deep sense of foreboding. How about some supervised visits instead? How about offering some money from her job to help support Blue’s needs?

        The migrant worker story was gut wrenching. I couldn’t agree more that the point was to recognize the privilege that our citizenship affords us.

        I mean, God…those men were kept at work by an overbearing manager until a hurricane was about the sweep through the fields…and, still, they came to work the next day. They were placed in a life threatening situation and they came back to work the next day.

        (I remember thinking, as I watched, that I’d be like, “f&¢k that, I’m not going back,” but then came the painful reminder that they couldn’t. They’re almost obligated to suffer that abuse.)

        And when the workers were invited inside to share news of the friends they’d lost, they worried that the Bordelons weren’t happy with their work. What a fucked up situation and it’s a situation that’s being replicated on farms across this country.

  4. Oh please tell me someone else didn’t like Minnick?? She’s like Arizona’s evil twin, they speak the same way, they’re both super perky, and very confident, even to the point that their introductory storyline is incredibly similar. Only problem is she doesn’t have any of Arizona’s charm or likability, she’s just the worst. Super disappointed.

  5. HTGAWM:

    I just wanted to echo Allison in how much I LOVED how they handled the Oliver storyline this week. It was so real and so honest. This show really gets LGBT representation so right in these mostly subtle ways. I always want Eve to come back, obviously. Or the delicious possibility of the school President and Annalise getting it on to come to fruition (I don’t know how in these comment boards previously mentioned their chemistry together, but I am seeing it more and more).

    But, until then, I will take a THOUSAND of scenes like Ollie giving himself a pep talk in his underwear in the bathroom mirror. “There is nothing to be ashamed about. How he reacts to the news is his own business. You can just be you”. (paraphrasing) AWWWWWWWW.

    There is nothing shameful about being pos. Nothing at all. I love how the show continues to tell that story.

    Anyway, my money is now on Frank or Nate under the sheet. I waffle on which of the two depending on my mood at the time..

    • I hadn’t, but after reading your comment, I did, and I liked that storyline – how it unfolded seemed in keeping with the synth’s character. I wonder if we’ll see Astrid again?

    • Oh yes I love this show so much. I am hoping Astrid will continue to be a part of it. I have been allowing my imagination to run wild with this. I was thinking that maybe Astra falling in love with Niska could be important to Niska’s right to be treated (legally) like a human. The Turin test for Artificial Intelligence is all about how well a machine can convince a human that they are also human. So if a human were to fall in love with a machine would that be the ultimate Turin test? Who knows where the show is really going with this but here’s hoping.

  6. Rosewood:

    Heather Hogan you are SO not alone! That one scene of them together was worth the other 50 minutes of the episode! I feel out laughing when TMI called Pippy out on selecting the girl because of her shoulders in the profile picture!

    And the chemistry between them sparks. It just… simmers, right beneath the surface. They are going to get back together, I think we all know that. But until then, I am enjoying watching the slow burn do its thing.

  7. Rosewood pissed me off so much when they broke Pippy and TMI up, but I have to say I’ve loved how they have handled the aftermath– and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it on TV before. Pippy’s mom still loves TMI and treats her like family, everyone wants them to get back together, they are being given the space to do what they need to do, and everyone is acting like an adult about the situation. It’s awesome. I’m not a fan of the “slow burn” stuff in general, but the emotional beats have been good enough to overcome my annoyance at the “manufacturing of obstacles because we don’t know how to write people being happy on TV.”– and it helps that they are even handed about it, because they also decided to keep Rosie and Villa apart, in pretty much the same “oops! we don’t want them to get together yet” way.

    Seconding the love for HTGAWM, and want to add that (though not women, they are at least queer) I think Darryl + WhiteJosh are one of the best things about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which despite its premise is actually almost as feminist as Jane The Virgin. Darryl’s bisexuality and WhiJo’s general awesomeness and their super-healthy, super-adorable relationship is an island of happy and role model in a sea of dysfunction.

    I don’t know what to feel about Rose and Luisa. I really dislike Rose. I feel like the show is dangerously close to the line, and maybe crosses over it, with regard to exploiting the “hot dysfunctional lesbian” trope. The women are sexual dynamite together, but one of them is a multiple murderer and the other is a complete basket case. Yes, they clearly know their way around the orgasm, but I don’t know how they can possibly redeem Rose, and Luisa (and her relationship with Rose)has essentially been the driver of every catastrophe on the show.

    Love the way they handled the “devirgining” of Jane, though it was also made clear that she and Michael had done a variety of orgasm-inducing other stuff besides penis in vagina before, so the whole virgin thing to me was over the top heteroridiculous. But if you’re going to be that way with your definitions, I think they handled it fabulously. Just like how they handled Xo’s abortion previously. Everybody’s supportive and they talk about stuff instead of opting for hijinks and pouting. How can such an over the top show be the sanest and least melodramatic about this kind of thing? I don’t know, but it makes me happy.

    • Yessss Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is so good and White Josh and Darryl are a big part of that- Gettin’ Bi is maybe my favorite non-Rebecca song

  8. JTV THOUGHTS:

    Bridget Regan and Yara Martinez are absolutely gorgeous together

    but i just feel like Rose is an abusive gaslighter and there’s no way she could ever be redeemed to me unless Luisa is revealed to be an even bigger criminal

    so i have begun crackshipping Luisa and Professor Donaldson…

  9. I don’t want to sound like a broken record but what’s the ETA on the promised Black Mirror/San Junipero recap? I know it’s been like 3 weeks and you may think “well, who’s gonna want to read it now” but I still want it and others do too.

    American Housewife just got a full season order at ABC so Angela will be sticking around. And in my opinion the show has gotten better and even though the other friend (who’s name I can’t remember right now) was involved in the B plot this episode, I’m sure Angela will be more involved soon as the show continues to find its footing and the dynamic. Yeah it is getting a little tired that Katie is so self deprecating about her “weight” when she is not even that fat. Also Leslie Bibb wasn’t in this episode again, and I don’t know if it is me but I consider her to be a “name” so it surprises me that she’s recurring on this show. Maybe that’s her own decision so that she can have the freedom to do other projects.

    Pitch-I know it technically does not have any gay ladies in it at the moment but I would just like to say how awesome Lyndsy Fonseca was in this past weeks episode. The dynamic between her character Cara and Ginny was amazing and I hope they keep her around.

    Younger was cute with Maggie and Melky(?) but I can’t help but think that they are living in offscreensville.

    Greys-Even though I think we need to give Arizona and Eliza a few more interactions we should have a shipper name on standby, I’ve seen people go with Elizona but I don’t like that for a few reasons, 1-you’re just replacing the “Cal” with the “Eli” and it’s too true to what’s actually happening, the show is just replacing Callie with Eliza and 2-Hector Elizondo played Callie’s father and Elizona is too close to Elizondo and 3-I always think the person with seniority (Arizona) should have their name first, so I was thinking AriLiza (or from left field ZZ Docs (like ZZ Top) but because they both have Z’s in their names and both doctors obviously).
    Did anyone feel that their elevator interaction was very reminiscent of Callie confronting Arizona in the beginning? Whether at the bar in front of Arizona’s date or in the hallway when Arizona said she doesn’t date babies. But in this version Arizona was Callie and Eliza was Arizona.

    Finally, I am a transplant from AfterEllen as I’ve mentioned before and the articles I read most over there were the recaps. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy this BOYT column and even the Super Superhero recaps that Valerie does but I guess I expected more shows to have individual in depth recaps how it was over on AE since a few of my favorite recappers came over as well. I guess none of the shows on right now have enough content to write something longer than a blurb in this column but I hope that changes both for the show and for a recap. Anyway, thanks for being so welcoming.

    • Yeah, I’m waiting for the “San Junipero” recap as well. I don’t mind if it’s taking them a while, I just wish that they would keep us in the loop.

    • exactly, every time I open this site I expect to see the recap and you view on black mirror’s san junipero.
      Also a transplant from Afterellen

    • I like Pitch, too. Her fast friend this week was really good, and the show passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors.

  10. Has anyone else seen Good Girls Revolt yet?

    There was nothing overtly gay about the series but it’s fantastic with the feminism. Also I suspect that Anna Camp’s character Jane may turn out to be gay. Nothing particularly concrete so far just a few hints here and there and if it did turn out that way I haven’t see anything in her story that would contradict it. But I’m probably overimagining as usual.

  11. On Grey’s Anatomy episode
    I like Eliza Minnick, she is hot, smart, confident, apparently has a thing for Arizona … What’s not to like. She’s perfect for Arizona. Agh two gorgeous women in a relationship ^__^

  12. Grey’s:
    I liked Dr. Eliza Minnick, we really saw very little to judge the chemistry and we are all on the calzona ship, so it will take a while, but I am curious to see how it will develop, let’s just hope is a slow burn!
    And ten points to Shonda for trolling us all with the return of Murphy :)

  13. Reading that Masters of Sex storyline makes me think, “why didn’t I become a TV writer? clearly you don’t have to try very hard.”

  14. My Queen Sugar thoughts are caught in moderation (can someone help me out with that?) so I thought I’d share some additional thoughts on other shows:

    Jane the Virgin: I’ve tried to do something about this show other than gush but, alas: this show is so good (for all the reasons Heather’s already enumerated)

    My only critique of the show is that I hope we move closer to the doppelganger storyline being discovered…I miss Petra on the show.

    Grey’s Anatomy: I never thought for a second that Leah would be Arizona’s romantic suitor–it all seemed a little too obvious to me–but the introduction of Dr. Eliza Minnick seemed a bit forced. I also wish her focus was something other than sports medicine…Callie’s going to cast a shadow over this relationship, regardless, but the comparable specialties just makes that even more likely.

    I’m not entirely sure why Bailey won’t explain to her staff, including Webber, the truth behind Minnick’s work at Sloan Grey Memorial. Much like Meredith not telling Maggie about her relationship/feelings for Riggs, it feels like a pointless secret to keep…and it seems particularly out of character for Bailey to do so.

    How to Get Away With Murder: So, let’s be clear about a couple things:

    Frank: Killed Lila, Wes’ dad and the PI that Annalise hired (among others that I’m forgetting)
    Wes: Killed Sam, Nearly killed Annalise
    Connor, Michaela and Laurel: Witnessed Sam’s murder and disposed of his body
    Bonnie: Killed Rebecca
    Nate: Killed his wife
    Asher: Killed DA Sinclair

    Admittedly, Annalise isn’t the greatest person in the world, but to hear all those kids continue to condemn her, when she’s, almost literally, the only person who hasn’t killed someone…it makes me livid. Pete Nowalk’s doing some great work on this show in terms of dismantling stereotypes (as they have with Oliver’s status, for example) but having the dark skinned black woman shoulder the blame for the actions of so many others is troubling.

  15. I’m gonna miss AfterEllen’s coverage of shows where there was even slight girl-on-girl actions, but I do understand that Autostraddle has a different approach. I liked it when Autostraddle talked about “serious” issues and AfterEllen recapped shows with bi/lesbian or even bicurious content.

    • It was the best when I had two different sites to visit, one that was mainly about politics and one that was mainly about pop culture.

  16. Just wanted to flag that Hayley Atwell’s character on Conviction mentioned that she had an ex-girlfriend on the last episode and said ex-girlfriend is coming to town so that might be a show to follow. Also interesting love story between a man of color and his former prison cellmate. Neither of these have gotten much screen time yet but I am hopeful!

    • I was watching Conviction but not playing close enough attention and I thought I heard her say ex-girlfriend but wasn’t sure. Thanks for the confirmation, Mariel.

      That said, enjoy this storyline while you can…last night’s ratings were a record low for the show and it doesn’t look long for this world.

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