From the sublime to the ridiculous
What I'm watching tonite, instead of going out drinking....
United States of Tara - if you haven't been following this series about a woman with split personality, the son is gay. Marshall (the son) has a crush on a boy at school, and they've been hanging out more and more. In Ep 9, they finally kiss - which is sweet. But the scene that really shines, that makes this really special, comes a bit later. Marshall's dad (played by John Corbett of Northern Exposure) finds him shortly after, and there's a moment when dad looks at Marshall, and says "You've got it bad, don't you?" that's nothing but unconditional acceptance and love. No "my son is gay" discomfort, no weirdness, no judgment - just a father comforting his kid on the trials of first love. It got me a little teary eyed, but then I'm a big fluffy bunny at heart.
And, at the other end of the spectrum, we have The Fall of Hyperion. This could easily have been a SciFi, excuse me, SyFy[1] movie of the week. It has all the hallmarks - a hyped up premise (A meteor shower! Destroys the space station Hyperion! There's a military cover-up! [Oh, and the President is a black women, so whoever won the election they look like they called it in advance]), mediocre production values, stilted dialog, 2 dollar special effects, plotholes you can drive a space shuttle through, and pacing that stretches 30 minutes of script out to an hour and half. But it's not by SyFy - it's by Here!, so it's got gays! William Gregory Lee (Bro, from Dante's Cove!!) is a reporter covering the destruction of LA by the meteors and trying to find the truth, whose boyfriend is also his producer. WGL is still a crappy actor, and OMG is it a crappy movie, but it's kind of cool to have a gay hero - I just wish it was better made.
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1] I really thought it wasn't possible for them to be any further out of touch, but they managed it. Idiots.
United States of Tara - if you haven't been following this series about a woman with split personality, the son is gay. Marshall (the son) has a crush on a boy at school, and they've been hanging out more and more. In Ep 9, they finally kiss - which is sweet. But the scene that really shines, that makes this really special, comes a bit later. Marshall's dad (played by John Corbett of Northern Exposure) finds him shortly after, and there's a moment when dad looks at Marshall, and says "You've got it bad, don't you?" that's nothing but unconditional acceptance and love. No "my son is gay" discomfort, no weirdness, no judgment - just a father comforting his kid on the trials of first love. It got me a little teary eyed, but then I'm a big fluffy bunny at heart.
And, at the other end of the spectrum, we have The Fall of Hyperion. This could easily have been a SciFi, excuse me, SyFy[1] movie of the week. It has all the hallmarks - a hyped up premise (A meteor shower! Destroys the space station Hyperion! There's a military cover-up! [Oh, and the President is a black women, so whoever won the election they look like they called it in advance]), mediocre production values, stilted dialog, 2 dollar special effects, plotholes you can drive a space shuttle through, and pacing that stretches 30 minutes of script out to an hour and half. But it's not by SyFy - it's by Here!, so it's got gays! William Gregory Lee (Bro, from Dante's Cove!!) is a reporter covering the destruction of LA by the meteors and trying to find the truth, whose boyfriend is also his producer. WGL is still a crappy actor, and OMG is it a crappy movie, but it's kind of cool to have a gay hero - I just wish it was better made.
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1] I really thought it wasn't possible for them to be any further out of touch, but they managed it. Idiots.