I'm here 100% because here we have a trans woman anchoring a series, and she's playing an at-least-as-of-the-first-episode cis gay man. And that is too much gender for me to possibly stay away from. The protagonist Marco looks, to me, like he's on HRT, and if we're actually going to show a character figuring out gender stuff in a Netflix workplace comedy, wow wow wow. And if not... well at least there are some great outfits and makeup looks that a mere mortal who isn't Hunter Schafer might possibly come close to pulling off in real life.
There's a bit of the split personality common to much of quippy network comedy: it feels like half the writer's room is queer people writing for a queer-literate audience ("I'm a twink on PrEP: I can do anything!" <- this line alone means I'm watching at least two more episodes) and the other half is writing for straight Drag Race fans who think airheaded gayness is extremely entertaining ("Out of my way! I'm gayyyyyy!" <- hoooo boy). And, in moderate doses and with enough humanity that we're laughing-with, that super-sass can be (I somewhat reluctantly concede) very entertaining. This first episode walks perilously close enough to the gaysploitation line - especially in the first ten minutes with some slightly cringy influencer monologuing full of 2018 slang (I am in my 40s and not that cool, an episode's worth of dialogue out of a 22-year-old NYC gay character's mouth really ought to send me to Google at least once) - but the show has earned my tentative trust. So far even the gym bunny villain is painted with an empathetic brush.
Nothing is happening so far here that you haven't seen in a billion scrappy-but-relatably-flawed-kid-hits-the-glamorous-big-time stories before, except queerer than average. But the writing and acting is sure-footed and strong for a pilot.
If Ayesha Harris' character doesn't get at least a B plot, though, I'm not coming back for season 2, her character's fierce butch energy is bi panicking me to death.
[edit 6/27: updated Miss Benny's pronouns and gender from transfeminine nonbinary & they to woman & she based on her 6/26 announcement, covered here: http://bit.ly/3NrE0fa; left the in-fiction speculation intact]
Review by callie_jenningsBlockedParentSpoilers2023-06-25T00:33:44Z— updated 2023-06-27T14:10:56Z
I'm here 100% because here we have a trans woman anchoring a series, and she's playing an at-least-as-of-the-first-episode cis gay man. And that is too much gender for me to possibly stay away from. The protagonist Marco looks, to me, like he's on HRT, and if we're actually going to show a character figuring out gender stuff in a Netflix workplace comedy, wow wow wow. And if not... well at least there are some great outfits and makeup looks that a mere mortal who isn't Hunter Schafer might possibly come close to pulling off in real life.
There's a bit of the split personality common to much of quippy network comedy: it feels like half the writer's room is queer people writing for a queer-literate audience ("I'm a twink on PrEP: I can do anything!" <- this line alone means I'm watching at least two more episodes) and the other half is writing for straight Drag Race fans who think airheaded gayness is extremely entertaining ("Out of my way! I'm gayyyyyy!" <- hoooo boy). And, in moderate doses and with enough humanity that we're laughing-with, that super-sass can be (I somewhat reluctantly concede) very entertaining. This first episode walks perilously close enough to the gaysploitation line - especially in the first ten minutes with some slightly cringy influencer monologuing full of 2018 slang (I am in my 40s and not that cool, an episode's worth of dialogue out of a 22-year-old NYC gay character's mouth really ought to send me to Google at least once) - but the show has earned my tentative trust. So far even the gym bunny villain is painted with an empathetic brush.
Nothing is happening so far here that you haven't seen in a billion scrappy-but-relatably-flawed-kid-hits-the-glamorous-big-time stories before, except queerer than average. But the writing and acting is sure-footed and strong for a pilot.
If Ayesha Harris' character doesn't get at least a B plot, though, I'm not coming back for season 2, her character's fierce butch energy is bi panicking me to death.
[edit 6/27: updated Miss Benny's pronouns and gender from transfeminine nonbinary & they to woman & she based on her 6/26 announcement, covered here: http://bit.ly/3NrE0fa; left the in-fiction speculation intact]