Hello and welcome back to Boob(s On Your) Tube! This is one of those weird times of year where we’re kind of between TV seasons, but don’t you worry, we’ve got your Brooklyn Nine-Nine information all ready to go. This week Natalie ran down all the TV cancellations and upfronts. Valerie Anne recapped a couple of frustrating episodes of Supergirl. Carmen recapped that gloriously sexy episode of Vida and wrote a goodbye love letter to our girl Dr. Arizona Robbins. Here’s what else!
Siren 110: “Aftermath”
Written by Valerie Anne
So, Season 1 of Siren has come and gone. And if I may be frank, I don’t believe it reached it’s queer potential. It had some interesting things to say about the dangers of what happens when men feel like they own or “deserve” a woman, or are owed something. The very first story about mermaids interacting with humans in this lore involves a man being jealous his wife returned to the sea after he got rid of their half-human, half-mermaid baby. His jealousy and anger lead to him slaughtering all the mermaids he could find. The mad scientist who kept Ryn’s sister captive for weeks saved her life and then all but demanded another song from her, being like, “But I saved her,” as if that meant she had to do whatever he wanted now. Luckily, he was the only one who felt this way, and was sent away. He was so distraught he walked right into the sea, a classic symptom of the siren’s song.
But what could have been a really beautiful woman-man-mermaid throuple kind of fell apart. Ryn loves both Ben and Maddie, but Ben got TOO obsessed with the mermaid because of her siren song and the throuple became unbalanced and toppled over. Maddie even said that they used to make their decisions together, including about Ryn, and she loved that, but then Ben started to go off on his own and she was feeling like she was being shut out. In the last minutes of the finale, Ryn says she’s not good for Ben, but that, “Ben is love. Maddie is love, too.” Then she gives Ben a final kiss and her classic, “Bye bye.” Maddie never got another kiss, but the show was renewed for an extended second season, so they have at least 16 more episodes to sort this out. And Ryn says she’s not good for Ben, but Maddie has always been able to keep her head straight (well, not straight) about Ryn so maybe Ryn and Maddie will get together for a while, as both women are currently taking a break from Ben. Ben found out he was related to the man who sired a slew of part-mermaids, including Helen, and Maddie got a call from her estranged mother in the finale, so maybe she’s more tied into this myth than she knows, too. Overall, I found the lore interesting and even though it didn’t reach its queer potential, the potential is still there, and since it somehow survived the over-fishing of network TV during renewal season, they still have time to reach it.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine 522: “Jake & Amy”
Written by Valerie Anne
In what was ALMOST the series finale of Brooklyn Nine-Nine (but is thankfully only the season finale, since NBC saved it from Fox’s cruel cancellation), the glorious Gina Rodriguez graced our screens. Rosa and Terry were out on a mission on their own, and Terry was talking about how Rosa should get back out there and find her soulmate (being careful to use gender-neutral language, which Rosa teased him about sounding like he Googled “how to talk to your bisexual friend” which was great because a) he definitely did exactly that b) she said “bisexual” out loud again c) it was very funny.) Rosa is protesting when their Lyft rolls up and the driver is Gina Freaking Rodriguez and Terry’s face does a VERY EXCITED thing which is also coincidentally what my face was doing.
Rosa tries to get Terry to drop it but then they have to call her again because they left Amy’s veil in her car. This time when Gina appears, she gets out of the car in rom-com slow motion and Rosa’s eyes practically bug out of her head cartoon style. Also coincidentally what my face was doing. Based on how fun the very small amount of flirting they got to do in this episode was, I really hope they can snag Gina for a few episodes in the new season on NBC, because I think those two would make a really fun pairing.
Boobs Tube Special Edition: Mini-Catch Up on Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet and Dear White People (Just In Time For Your Holiday Weekend Streaming Needs)
Written by Carmen
Happy Friday, y’all! And if you are reading this from the United States, Happy Memorial Day Weekend! The long weekend that’s the (un)official kick off to summer! YAAAAAY! What are you going to do with your extra free time? Is your answer, “I’d like to binge something on Netflix?” If so, then I’m here to have your back!
In the last two months, Netflix released new seasons of their original series Santa Clarita Diet and Dear White People. Though very different in tone, both shows specialize in dark, mostly off-ball, and often very smart humor. They also both featured out queer women of color actresses actually playing queer women of color on television! It’s like a unicorn getting it’s rainbow wings! I’m going to give you a relatively spoiler light round up of both shows so you can make an informed binging decision for your weekend. If you’ve already seen the show, please chat away in the comments. If you haven’t, happy streaming!
First up is Santa Clarita Diet. The most important thing to know is that Drew Barrymore is a zombie. She’s also a suburban housewife, and she’s trying to keep the whole zombie thing a secret. In the first season, her neighbor Dan — who happened to be the town Deputy — almost figured out her secret, so he had to die. Now in the second season, the dead Deputy’s wife is dating his old partner, Deputy Anne!
Deputy Anne is played by out queer actress Natalie Morales. She’s investigating the whereabouts of Deputy Dan after he stopped showing up to work (on the count of he died last season, but she doesn’t know that yet). Lisa, her girlfriend and Dan’s widow, is super sex positive and very vocal about it. They are both sort of very funny side characters to the main plot, and Anne in particular becomes more essential to the core storyline as the season progresses and her investigation picks up!
Ok, Dear White People. You probably already know, but Dear White People had some real struggles with its lesbian representation in the first season. That said, I still found it to be a stylized and smart — if at times very uneven — exploration of being a black student at a predominantly white college or university. Thankfully, the second season only grows stronger from the first. And it comes bearing the bittersweet gifts of having two smaller, but also better executed, black lesbian plots.
One such plot comes from Kelsey Phillips, the roommate of Coco, one of the central protagonists. Kelsey had a tiny role in Dear White People’s first season. She served as comic relief thanks to her Hillary Banks valley girl vocal inflection, all around ditzy personality, and her love for her dog, named Sorbet. Her waters get a bit deeper in the second season, where she plays a crucial supporting role in Coco’s stand alone episode. Part of that role involves her coming out as a lesbian. Welcome to the team, Kelsey!
The second plot comes at the hand of out lesbian actress Lena Waithe (who really needs no introduction at this point). Dear White People enjoys parodying black popular culture through the eyes of the students on campus. In the first season, Shonda Rhime’s Scandal got the brunt of the lampooning, and this year the show sets it sights on VH1’s Love and Hip Hop franchise. Lena Waithe stars in the “show within a show” as rapper P. Ninny — who is very obviously a butch lesbian, even though she hilariously swears she is not. That is, until she can’t hide it anymore. The mini arc plays out over a variety of episodes and Lena Waithe’s charisma leaps off the screen, as always.
Also potentially relevant to your interests: Dear White People has a series of Tessa Thompson cameos that as far as I’m concerned are worth the entire binge by itself. And has a sweet baby gay love story for the young black male protagonist, Lionel.
Quick Hits
Critical Role Campaign 2, Episode 19: “The Gentleman’s Path”
I haven’t watched last night’s episode yet but as soon as I got back from camp I watched last week’s and even though they TECHNICALLY haven’t said the literal words yet, I feel more confident than ever that Beau and Yasha are gay for each other. I don’t know if either of them ID as lesbians or bisexuals or what but all I know is they have a thing for each other and they both have very low charisma stats. Travis called their watch together “youth trip flirting” because it was so awkward and Ashley said, “We’ve gotta start somewhere,” implying (to me) that they’re in this for the long haul. Also Marisha-as-Beau called Yasha “so fuckin’ hot” and I love her/them for it. — Valerie Anne
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Riese is streaming this Amazon six-part mini series adaptation of the cult classic 1975 movie as we speak! I don’t know much, but I am very excited! Here’s Riese’s live dispatch from her streaming session, “This show is beautiful. I love it.” Whew!! If you want to stream ahead, use this weekend to get on it! Riese says that she’ll have something written up for you next week! AND RIESE WRITING ABOUT POP CULTURE IS ALWAYS A TREAT!! (The caps are all mine. Sorry! Told you I was excited.) — Carmen
Carmen’s article about Dr. Arizona Robbins, wow
Alyson Hannigan will play Kim Possible’s mom in the live action movie.
I feel so old now.
I love “Santa Clarita Diet”.
It has mini-reunion of Timothy Olyphant and Natalie Morales, from their Grinder days.
I love the daughter on this. What with her “Pussy Magnet” leather jacket, motorcycle, and no-fucks-to-give-anymore attitude. I’m really hoping that at some point she takes a dip in the lady pond.
Once Upon A Time ended 2 weeks ago but the last BOYT had a recap of the penultimate episode.
So Robin and Alice arrived in Storybrooke and are immediately accosted by the “seven dwarves” who think they are evil because of the story they are telling needing help to save people in the wish realm. They run off and pop out again when they see Regina’s car but inside is Zelena and a baby Robin. Robin uses the knowledge of her life to convince Zelena of who she is so she will help them.
Alice helps Nook, Rumple, old Henry, Ella, and the kid out of a snow globe they were trapped in by sending them Maui’s sword thingy (not sure how or why but it worked). She tries to hug him but his heart gives out. I still don’t get how she could be near him as Tilly but not as Alice since the mom who cast the spell on his heart and the people of Hyperion Heights knew she was Alice.
Later Nook and Robin go off to distract the guards so old Henry can save Regina from cave jail and in his weakened heart state tells Robin to look after Alice, she says of course and counters by asking Nook if she can marry Alice. A-he says of course and when he thinks he’s too weak she says that he’ll pull through and he’ll walk Alice down the aisle because B-he can’t argue with his future daughter in law.
They rescue Regina with the help of Charming and Snow (more on them later) and they are all seated at a round table (the round table) and figure out it is Bad Rumple’s plan to put everyone in their own storybook alone and unhappy. There is a wide shot of everyone at the table reading their book and Robin and Alice are holding hands (I mentioned a few recaps ago that these girls know how to background act and this proves it. They don’t need to be holding hands in such a wide shot but they are). Charming sends Nook and Robin off on a mission and Alice says she’ll join them keeping a good distance from Nook so his heart heals.
There mission takes them into a room with good Rumple who says he has the magic now to defeat bad Rumple. But bad Rumple shows up and has the magic to open the individual portals to send each character to their own solo miserable realm. The portal starts to suck them in but they hold onto the table. Alice starts to lose her grip and Robin wants to reach out to save her she’s on the opposite side of the table, the closest to save Alice is Nook. He saves her but his heart drains and he kind of dies. The portals close as the spell on young Henry gets broken by Regina’s love or something and good Rumple’s final act of goodness is to rip out his healthy heart and put it into Nook since he knows he can’t ever be with his Belle in real life (but he can in the afterlife or something).
Day saved which allows all the realms and the same characters from the realms co-exist in 1 big happy place (?) so we skip to a while later and here I’m thinking Regina and Zelena are driving to Alice and Robin’s wedding but it’s all a secret adventure for Regina, basically Snow and Charming are crowning Regina Queen of everything and Emma bursts in with Hook and a baby but then Nook is on the other side of the room with Alice and Robin (though you have to squint to find them in the crowd) and I couldn’t figure out if it was intentional to have both Nook and Hook in this scene or what. And that how it ended. WHEW!
OMG I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO RECAP IT!!!
There has just been so much going on lately. I am super, super sorry!
This was SO impressive!!! Thank you for catching us up! And congrats on accomplishing the feat. I know from personal expierence that recapping isn’t always as easy as it seems.
Robin asking for Alice’s hand in marriage was definitely my favorite part!!
That and little robin sticking out her tongue at big robin!!!
I hope I didn’t step on your toes with my “recap” (if you can call it that) but I had a lot to say on how it ended (see below) and I knew this was the place to vent it out. :)
Now here’s my annoyance with the way things ended. The producers decided last year to drop the majority of the main cast and revamp the show so that it could maybe go on for a few more years following a new set of story book characters but ABC had other ideas and let this year be its swan song (maybe pun intended). Full disclosure, I didn’t watch the show until I heard about Robin and Alice this season.
So when the original characters ended last season I’m pretty sure they got their “happy endings” so why did they have to bring them back this year and give them a 2nd happy ending when there were characters (yes Alice and Robin) that people followed this season that deserved to get their own happy ending.
I get that this show has loyal diehard fans and bringing the originals back was a nice touch but again they could have been showing up to wish the new people well at say Robin and Alice’s mentioned wedding (teehee). Not the weird coronation of Regina.
Also I didn’t understand why good Rumple had to die, he became good to be worthy of Belle’s love and it would make sense to kill him off if they couldn’t get the actress back to give him his happily ever after but she came back and they got their happy in the afterlife(?) weird. And okay you can say he had to die so Nook could live but once Alice turned her mom into a tree the spell on his heart could’ve been broken and he could’ve lived.
Also as I mentioned, how do all the characters no co-exist or maybe it was explained and I missed it because I didn’t really follow the show and the explanation of the multiple realms.
Okay I will stop now, because there are other shows still on the air to over-analyze but I will just say I hope Robin/Margot and Alice/Tilly got their little 1 bedroom together in the Heights.
You definitely didn’t step on any toes! At all! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed Alice and Robin together this season, so have I! You are completely right, they had perfect chemistry together — even when in the background of the scene.
One of the reasons I forgot to recap the last episodes was because, as you correctly highlighted, it brought the story back to the original Team Heroes, which sidelined a lot of the season 7 characters — Alice and Robin, but also Nook, Tiana, Cinderella, and Lucy. The switch was abrupt to say the least! And I think you’re very justified in finding it frustrating (and I say that as a long time fan of the show).
I would have loved the final scene to be Alice and Robin’s wedding! It could have still brought everyone together and happy and in fancy clothes, but would have had the benefit of highlighting this season’s main characters (and giving a final nod to the show’s gay fan base that has been loyal to them for so long). What a missed opportunity!
Oh! About the realms coming together thing! The rules are kind of hinted at in other seasons, but essentially there’s the main storybook (the first six seasons) and that storybook has its on realms within it. So Wonderland, Oz, Neverland, etc are all “realms” within the original book.
Then there’s the second storybook (season 7) and they have all new versions of character and new realms, played by new people, like our Alice!
Then there’s the Wish Realm, which is separate from both books. That’s like a dark sideways bizzaro world, which is why all the main characters have “evil” copies of themselves in it.
So that’s all really just a long way of saying that everyone is used to all of these characters co-existing, now the commute between them all is just much shorter because Regina put them all in one place.
It’s weird. This show is very weird.
(Oh they had to kill Rumple because they already had killed his True Love. Their only happy ending was going to be in the afterlife. Like I said, the show is weird.
I heard from a friend that if you zoom in during the last scene, you can see Robin’s wedding ring! But I didn’t go back to check. I really wish the show had ended by showing us their wedding :(
The Shondaland show For the People has a queer character in Kate Littlejohn. From the promos for this show I didn’t tune in because she was your type A “frigid bitch” persona. But I caught a clip on YouTube, she started dating some kind of agent lady who loosened her up a bit. But since my knowledge of her is solely through YouTube clips and not the actual show I’m not sure what her deal is with this other lawyer dude. Were they an item before she hooked up with agent girl because he seemed hurt when he learned that she was dating her and then she seemed upset when he accepted a job offer in Texas. Anyway something to check out if you’re interested.
@Cyclone I’ve got a season recap in the works but to answer your question: nothing has happened between Kate and the other lawyer guy (Leonard) but it’s been strongly hinted that something will in the future…and by hinted, I really mean they’re just short of dropping an anvil. I’ll have more to say about that in my piece. But what I will say is that Kate’s a better character than she comes off in the promos.
Yeah I realized she wasn’t that tightly wound as she was in the previews which is why I followed her story on YouTube. I can’t fully commit to another Shondaland show right now and I rarely stick with lawyer shows anyway. I look forward to reading your piece on it.
Yeah Natalie has covered For the People for us a few times in the BOYT column.. I know she has high hopes for the development of Kate Littlejohn in the second season!
Hello I wanted to say that the first 5 minutes of Station 19 have Hot Bisexual Maya Bishop sleeping (actually waking up next to) Dearborn. Remember Dearborn, the hot lady firefighter from the other week? So, yeah, they’re doing it.
Ha! The BIG CLIFFHANGER for Station 19 totally made me forget that beautiful morsel of gay in the first five minutes!
I liked Maya and Dearborn together in their brief moment on screen. More of them next year, please!!
(Assumingof course, SPOILER: they make it out of the fire of course)
* that should say “Assuming, of course SPOILER: they make it out of the first first”
But yay for Maya and Dearborn!
I just want to say I am STRONGLY IN FAVOR of including Critical Role in these because its the major “show” I watch weekly. And Yasha/Bo are beautiful disasters and I love watching them be awkward.
Apparently people are already cosplaying them.
Source: https://elfdarlingcosplay.tumblr.com/post/173611196297/just-gals-being-pals-beau-cosplay-by
B99 made me ugly cry SO MUCH with their finale. I think Jake and Amy is probably the only straight couple i give a shit about. THEY’RE SO CUTE. When they both got to say ILU to the captain I was in tears!
Gina and Rosa better be all over Season 5. HOT DAMN CHEMISTRY.
The 1975 Hanging Rock gave me the heebie jeebies so bad when I saw it on tv as kid. Something about the lack of real resolution.
I will definitely not be watching the tv series – I used to get creeped out just driving past the road sign on occasion when we lived in Vic.
I only heard a recap of the 1975 version from my schoolmate, and I was totally freaked out. Brrrr I can’t even
The lack off real resolution pissed me of and to this day I feel twinge of aggravation when it’s mentioned like I imagine fans of The Sopranos have.
Maybe if I didn’t grow up in place that’s haunted all over I woulda got the heebie jeebies like a normal person?
I just have to say, Drew Barrymore is not a zombie housewife. She’s a zombie realtor (or real-a-tor, as she pronounces it) and that makes it even better.
I am SO excited Critical Roll finally made it on Autostraddle’s radar! Even going back to S2E1 Beau was coded as gay and interested in Yasha. And looking at Ashley’s character last season, she seems to prefer the long slow burn with relationships, not that it necessarily means anything for this season.
But it you really want to see an absolutely amazing queer relationship, you have to look at Eric’s TBD RPG, their no longer running Doctor Who game. Fin (Gina DeVivo) and Ro Ko (Sam de Leve) wonderful! It was so amazing that Eric, the DM, introduced a session saying that their relationship was going to be the center of that session.
Their relationship was so amazing that in their current Star Trek series, Shield of Tomorrow, they had a crossover episode with their old Doctor Who characters! (S2E16: Madwoman in a Box)
I could go on and on. Geek and Sundry is producing so much content with lesbian undertones. From the subtle (Shield of Tomorrow on the USS Sally Ride) to the very clear (some episodes of Weave Society). I wish I had time to watch it more!
Hello. I’m back to remind people about Killing Eve’s season finale this Sunday. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter
So, their character is as far as I know a cis straight girl but there is also an out nonbinary actor in Santa Clarita Diet!
I am obsessed with this show and also Liv Hewson.
Liv Hewson is amazing! They recently played a queer character in an Australian miniseries called Homecoming Queens which is really good and they’re also playwright creating queer content!
Oh man, Siren has sooo much potential between Maddie and Ryn!!!! I actually had to go into a Wiki (THE preeminent Siren wiki maybe? is that what it means when it’s like the 3rd google link after the real wikipedia) and edit that ‘Ryan and Maddie shared a kiss but are just really best friends’ nonsense bc this feels like endgame. Come on ABCFreeform!!! give the (mer)people what they want
This is what the wiki now reads: “Despite sharing a kiss, their strong connection is that of close friends and allies.”
Ugh that’s so annoying. I just changed it back.
I think you gave up on Westworld and I can’t blame you. Armistice glanced at another woman is the only thing to report so far