Netflix’s ‘Special’: Gay Sex on TV Has Never Been This Good—Or Important!

Beth Dubber/NetflixThis is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obssed, wrten by senr entertament reporter Kev Fallon. To receive the full newsletter your box each week, sign up for here.Special is one of those TV seri that is “important,” which sounds so sufferable and pretent—pecially bee the Netflix show, which returned for season two this week, is anythg but that. But ’s also one of those seri that is dog important storytellg—that word ; so many different ways that focg on jt one do a disservice to the edy is created by and stars Ryan O’Connell, a edy wrer Los Angel who gaed fame and cril attentn wh the release of his memoir I’m Special: And Other Li We Tell Ourselv, about his experience as a lennial gay man livg wh cerebal seri has sentially the same logle. It chronicl his attempts at datg and havg a sex life, his possibly pennt relatnship wh his mother (Jsi Hecht), and his attempts to accept the ways which his life is and isn’t fed by his cerebral dumb word aga: It’s important bee of the spotlight giv to the disabled muny, wh a movg and sightful storyle season two featurg a disabled support group. Their vibrant liv make Ryan terrogate the ways his worri about other people’s fort around his existence have robbed him of his own fort and happs.A lot of space is given to his mother’s storyle, explorg how a retaker’s life is impacted by that duty and llg, and what happens when those servic are no longer need. Ryan’s bt iend, Kim (Punam Patel) who, for all the wordy explanatns about thematic importance, mt be said is hilar, nsirs the ways which nversatns about body posivy have triggered her own feelgs about there’s the sex.Special may be the most sightful seri there has been about gay sex and datg, which one might not expect based on s sunny brandg and the assumptn that you’ll be watchg spiratn porn. While not exactly porn of the other kd, s sex scen are realistic, ocsnally graphic and certaly sexy. But that realism, they may even be that’s jt not how they reveal the mechanics of gay sex, perhaps to some straight viewers for the first time. But they also show how gay sexual relatnships are navigated, the prsur and expectatns, the negotiatns, the anxieti, as well as the pleasur. Bee of Ryan’s cerebral palsy, all those nsiratns are more an terview wh the Huffgton Post, O’Connell said, “I want gay sex and Special to be synonymo. I want my show to be known for toppg, bottomg, top anxiety, lube―all those thgs. I want to take the mystery and shame out of gay sex by pictg as I’ve experienced : erotic, huiatg, empowerg, funny and tense, all wh the same thst.”It’s also rehg that the seri, s ncerted effort to skirt, aga, the ias of “spiratn porn,” allows s gay characters cludg Ryan to be toxic. Gays no longer have to be mol cizens on TV orr to be enjoyed or tertg. How nice!Season 2 se Ryan brave the waters of datg someone (named Tanner) an open relatnship, a pictn of queer non-monogamy that, while mon the real world, is rare on TV. Tanner is played by excellent new st member Max Jenks, whose performance alongsi Heléne Yorke on High Matenance is a master class of chaotic edy and Ryan are so cute together, but also so wrong for each other. You root for them and you boo them. It’s blurred l a seri wh them—disabily, homosexualy, pennce—that are typilly on told bold, unequivol terms. It’s msy and ’s funny and sometim paful. Which is to say, ’s real. Special was nomated for four Emmys for s first season, cludg nomatns for O’Connell, Hecht, and Patel. (Takg advantage of eligibily quirks, was submted as a short-form seri.) It’s clearly gotten notice. But would be nice for s reach to expand even more season ;s a seri that tak topics so often rced to one acceptable way to talk about them. If ’s still rare for gay character to be given a full life—the good, bad, and ugly—on TV, then ’s almost nonexistent for disabled characters. A gay and disabled character? Fet about what I appreciate about the show is that, while ’s about all those thgs, ’s also not about those thgs at all. It’s a slice of life for an tertg character who is surround by tertg people whose own tertg liv are explored, irrpective of those intifyg quali, tras, or perceived margalizatns or strs aga, ’s very funny, too. You uld say—and sorry/not sorry for the credibly rny observatn that’s about to follow—’s special. Most of you only watch tly horrible ntent on Netflix. I know you do. Maybe watch somethg good more at The Daily our top stori your box every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Insi go eper on the stori that matter to you. Learn more.