From s ank pictns of gay sex to s expert lampoong of Instagays, Comedy Central's <i>The Other Two</i> is both sardonic and scere.
Contents:
- “THE OTHER TWO” IS ONE OF THE BT SHOWS ABOUT GAY MEN ON TV RIGHT NOW
- 14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS
- A GAY MICHIGAN COUPLE ARE FLIPPG HOM DETRO ON THEIR VERY OWN HGTV SHOW
- NATE BERK AND JEREMIAH BRENT ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BEG 'TWO GAY DADS' ON HOME MAKEOVER TV: 'WE BELIEVE OPENG UP THE DOORS'
“THE OTHER TWO” IS ONE OF THE BT SHOWS ABOUT GAY MEN ON TV RIGHT NOW
* 2 gay guys show *
” So begs the h sgle “My Brother's Gay” performed by fictnal tween heartthrob Chase Dreams (played by TikTok star Case Walker), whose skyrocketg fame bewilrs his two olr siblgs — newly sgle, self-volved Brooke and the song’s spiratn, stgglg actor Cary — Comedy Central’s new s The Other Two. A bg satire about the state of fame and celebry 2019, The Other Two is also arguably one of the most astute televisn portrayals of what ’s like to be a gay man livg a big first glance Cary Dubek looks like many other gay male characters who have graced the small screen this past . But while Billy and Elijah prid themselv on their quick-wted sass, arguably a fense mechanism to survive the thlsns of the cy and of their chosen reers, Cary is cidly ’s the kd of fumblg, slightly secure guy who gets his sister to shave his lower back hair before appearg shirtls on TV, and who p for his super-hot straight roommate, and bumbl away any opportuny for ep nnectn wh other gay men around him.
He’s never que nfint enough his looks, his meanor, or his talent, and ’s this behavr that mak him such an unlikely poster boy for Chase’s gay anthem and such a rehg gay character.
As he croons about how beg gay is okay (“and if you thk that’s gross / then I thk you’re wrong”), he’s surround by photographs of Cary at var ag, a visual metaphor of the “It Gets Better” rea. By makg Cary a workg actor, a rather niche slice of life, The Other Two also manag to ment not jt on a very specific type of gay man, but also on the way Hollywood (mis)unrstands LGBTQ reprentatn.
14 TV SHOWS THAT BROKE GROUND WH GAY AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS
That she’s willg to play up and play to Cary’s sexualy shows how far Hollywood may have e, but also reveals how such progrs n be uched hilarly limed ias of what gay men n look like. It’s the verse of what we’d seen a few episos earlier, when a stg agent asked Cary to butch up his livery orr to book the fart-smellg gig, and a mere ht of what we see later the season when Cary pantomim gay sex onstage: “Listen, class, ” his actg teacher says, “to w awards, you mt do gay sex scen.
In The Other Two’s world, Chase’s ll for tolerance and cln (however PR-targeted may have been) exists alongsi a slew of anti-gay microaggrsns that chip away at Cary’s own sense of self-worth. Such platus n be cripplg when he don’t actually engage or participate the larger gay muny around ’s failed romantic life is perhaps the bt example of how The Other Two is playg wh faiar gay trop to unearth all-too-hilar tths about them. Matt requir such quotatn marks bee spe spendg his ee time watchg Survivor rens and boastg about cleang his junk ahead of dat wh women, he tak any chance he n get to kiss, grope, and at one pot, even blow what’s ostensibly a much-fantasized gay porn premise, The Other Two spends a few episos breakg apart what means to vet a seemgly straight du.
A GAY MICHIGAN COUPLE ARE FLIPPG HOM DETRO ON THEIR VERY OWN HGTV SHOW
Common topics like body image are betifully plited on the show, thanks part to The Other Two’s wrg team, which clus fellow funny gay men like Jordan Firstman, Cole Esla, and Joel Kim Booster.
Aptly scribed by Brooke as beg those guys “that, like, n around wh no shirt on, postg song lyrics that have nothg to do wh the pic he’s put up, ” Instagays are a particular brand of social media fluencers who have bee easy straw men when to bat about toxic trends wh the gay male muny. Trashed for beg va and shallow, and chastised for promotg an airbshed, platu-filled, unattaable image of gay life, Instagays and everythg they stand for would’ve been a low-hangg target for The Other Two to h.
Ls terted g down agast the well-tentned ally anthems (or Instagays, or ckteasg straight bros) than unpackg them, the Comedy Central show ptur a cidly novel gay sensibily. And ’s all the more palatable for s ank approach to sex, securi, and the many ways we gay men are sometim hampered by our own unrealistic notns of what gayns should look like 2019.
NATE BERK AND JEREMIAH BRENT ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BEG 'TWO GAY DADS' ON HOME MAKEOVER TV: 'WE BELIEVE OPENG UP THE DOORS'
In this spoff of the 2018 film Love, Simon, Victor Salazar (played by newer Michael Cimo) fds himself wh a cute girliend but a csh on gay classmate Benji (Gee Sear). Back the late '90s, you’d be hard prsed to fd anythg remblg gay romance on TV, and yet The WB’s supernatural drama put an unabashed lbian uple right at the heart of the story. Jog Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar, and I’d be a bad gay not to mentn her performance the mp-tastic Scream 2 here) the Soby Gang is Alyson Hannigan’s Willow Rosenberg.
We hear the phrase “sexualy is a spectm” all the time (or at least I do New York and on Gay Twter), but filmmaker Diree Akhavan is here to poke around wh that phrase and see jt how unfortable n make people, gay or straight alike. Police Capta Raymond Holt (played by Andre Brgher who got his start playg a p on Homici: Life on the Street) has been openly gay sce the show’s begng, provg not all gay televisn characters need to be boozy hairstylists or flight attendants.
And addn to Billy and John, we’ve also got Cole Esla (the kidnappg Twkie om Search Party) servg as Billy’s gay rival and transgenr actor Shaka Nayfack (Connectg... Behd door number one is Derrick, played by EastSir’s Stephen Guaro, the “offensively stereotypil gay” who is brought to be Penny's (the ever-hilar Casey Wilson) replacement GBF.