Similarly, the name on everyone’s lips, or in every queer person’s group chat, is Che Diaz. Or it’s simply because the relationship felt precipitous and random so the story fell flat. Both actors publicly identify as straight, which could have resulted in a lack of chemistry. But this story felt rushed, even forced, as if their relationship was created out of thin air to fill a need for more LGBTQ characters on the show. If their emotional connection had developed organically, the kiss would have felt earned. I’ve seen a sudden personal discovery of same-sex attraction done well many times before, even recently with George on Feel Good and Rue on Euphoria. One minute, the two women are talking in the backseat of a car, the next, Laura asks Bradley the most unsexy question of all time: “Did you actually get vetted for this job?” Then, Bradley yanks Laura in for a surprise kiss. On the more hollow end of the spectrum, season two of The Morning Show features Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon), who had previously never mentioned her attraction to women, engaging in a relationship with Laura Peterson (Julianna Margulies). These characters are reduced to one-dimensional pastiches, and end up seeming hollow, fake, and not actually representative of how real people-queer or otherwise-live. It’s not that straight creators have never met a queer person before (hopefully), but it often feels like they’re writing their queer characters to check a box or signify an entire community. Half of these shows are led by and created by queer people, who can bring their firsthand experience to the writers room, but for the most part, those led by straight creators are lacking in authenticity. I can’t believe we’ve reached a point, as a culture, where I can even think something like this, but we don’t need a queer character in everything I’d rather see a genuine queer story than a refracted queer character that feels cobbled together, or like a studio note gone wrong. Lately, it feels like every TV show has thrown a half-baked queer character into a pool of heterosexuality and taken the ladder away like a cruel tween playing Sims. Today, between Euphoria, Special, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Yellowjackets, And Just Like That…, Genera+ion, The Morning Show, The Other Two, Feel Good, The L Word: Generation Q, I can watch a new episode of television almost every week that has at least one queer character. I grew up in the aughts and watched LGBTQ narratives slowly leak into the mainstream. In 2022, I’ve developed a weekly ritual of absolutely screaming into my group chat about whatever queer show is currently airing.
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