The Other Two: Insi The Shockg Gay Episo 2

Contents:

• ‘THE OTHER TWO’ TOOK DOWN HOLLYWOOD GAY-BAERS THE FUNNIT WAY
• THE "GAY BROTHER" SONG ON 'THE OTHER TWO' SHOWS EXACTLY WHY QUEERBAG IS DAMAGG
• “THE OTHER TWO” IS ONE OF THE BT SHOWS ABOUT GAY MEN ON TV RIGHT NOW
• COMEDY CENTRAL'S THE OTHER TWO IS READG MILLENNIAL GAY LIFE FOR FILTH
• ‘SUPERNATURAL’ HAS PROVEN THERE’S A RIGHT WAY AND A WRONG WAY TO EXPLORE GAY STORYL

‘THE OTHER TWO’ TOOK DOWN HOLLYWOOD GAY-BAERS THE FUNNIT WAY

Even though the film had already been scrapped, a slew of stars reach out to Cary to wele him to the gay ele – cludg Dean Brennan, the star of Gee Michael's upg bpic isn't Dean straight? He later had to clarify that he was straight but that didn't stop him om toeg the le, at one pot sayg he enjoyed gog to gay clubs more than football the episo, Cary nonts Dean for his gay-bag, but he's far too ep to give up now. Straight actors often get award buzz when playg the gay rol, perhaps bee they still benef om the privilege of don't believe a straight person n accurately portray the queer experience and wh so many out actors around the days, the opportuny should be given to one of them.

Many gay men fd themselv attracted to this display of masculy not bee they're "hot", but bee they f to their heteronormative fantasy, or they long to be accepted by straight men bee of ep-seated daddy issu, or they have ternalized homophobia and shame that sr them away om folks they em to be more "feme. We’d been posively drowng gay culture all week, but we were still not prepared for the show’s most recent episo: an almost Shakpearean edy of errors volvg Grdr, “dad/son” upl, and threom that felt like somethg we’d never seen before a mastream TV edy. ”The Other Two — now on HBO Max after a swch om Comedy Central and an extensive filmg lay ed by the panmic — never shied away om gay storyl s first season — as the olr brother to a famo teen pop star (Case Walker), Cary (Drew Tarver) always seemed eply unfortable wh his homosexualy, hookg up wh his “straight” roommate (Andrew Ridgs) and explog a gaggle of Instagays.

THE "GAY BROTHER" SONG ON 'THE OTHER TWO' SHOWS EXACTLY WHY QUEERBAG IS DAMAGG

Wrg for BuzzFeed News, Manuel Betanurt clared The Other Two “one of the bt shows about gay men on TV right now, ” makg specific reference to an oddly sweet teractn between Cary and a love tert (Daniel K.

In , Pat (Molly Shannon) hosts an episo of her new talk show which she lavish a $25, 000 check om Shutterstock on a young man named Eddie (Noah Galv) who has recently e out to his anti-gay father, Troy (Tuc Watks). Pat’s dghter and manager Brooke (Heléne Yorke) has rrectly observed the pair are a uple who are fleecg Pat’s show for money after seeg her reward other young gays for their g-out vios.

Gabe González, a edian who has hosted shows for the Grdr rival Scff, told me he thought was a “pch-perfect storyle, ” as well as a “funny and apt dictment of how gays ci image life for queer people who don’t live New York or LA. ”“Cary go along wh flatteng the characters to a piable stereotype — young gay men who n't be who they are bee of the ‘Kansas’ of all — even when 's beg unrmed right ont of him, ” González, the -creator, said the show don’t set out to actively explore new parts of gay culture every week, but stead tri to fd ways that the fame of Cary and Brooke’s mother and brother n be ed to teach them somethg about themselv.

“THE OTHER TWO” IS ONE OF THE BT SHOWS ABOUT GAY MEN ON TV RIGHT NOW

’” he said this episo — which was filmed Febary 2020 before productn shut down for a year — is all about Cary tryg to perform a “sanized, PG versn of himself” that he thks might make his late father more fortable wh a gay son. ”The Other Two ftly explor this ia that there is a lim to the gayns wh which straight people are fortable and which some the LGBTQ muny feel pelled to embrace: rabow-saturated rporate culture — like the Big Gay Ice Cream store to which Cary and Js drag the others — sweet g-out vios that play on morng talk shows, or “heteronormative” notns of marriage and children.

Kelly and I noted the episo aired jt over a week after one of the most powerful gay men the untry, Transportatn Secretary Pete Buttigieg, announced he and his hband had weled a baby — news that some gay men onle joked would e their parents to wonr when they might do the same. Chase's "Gay Brother" song is, his ey, a well-tentned celebratn of his brother, but the show do well to expose how appealg to the LGBTQ+ muny n also tokenize those wh — even if Gran, Nick Jonas, Macklemore, and Katy Perry are all exampl of straight micians who have been hailed as gay alli but also acced of panrg.

COMEDY CENTRAL'S THE OTHER TWO IS READG MILLENNIAL GAY LIFE FOR FILTH

However, his label sps his "Gay Brother" song as a chance to ter to a gay fan base, gog back and forth about whether to keep the vio up after receivg cricism om the queer muny (which is bad for the label), then cricism om Tomi Lahren (which is good for the label). " Internalized homophobia don't sound like typil fodr for a edy program, but 's tackled wh thought, nuance, and a surprisg amount of humor on the show — which is jt a small part of what mak The Other Two so quietly revolutnary. What starts out as Cary accintally exposg his starfish ends up beg a hilar but also poignant exploratn of ternalised homophobia and the challenge of acceptg yourself for who you other TV show n make a butthole so meangful, and that's jt one gapg reason why The Other Two serv to sweep the Emmys next year.

‘SUPERNATURAL’ HAS PROVEN THERE’S A RIGHT WAY AND A WRONG WAY TO EXPLORE GAY STORYL

That's been the bt part; if people rpond to certa moments, like when people are rpondg to the episo where Cary and his boyiend accintally show another gay uple around the town, thkg they're a father and a Endri//HBOI really like that storyle.

I mean, uh…"So you n kd of see that he still thks that "gay" is bad, or ls than, or somethg to apologise, so season two, we really wanted him to be better, and to be makg stris. After a two-year wa, the send season of the beloved edy seri The Other Two is fally back on the air (this time on HBO Max), and after beg hailed as the gayt show on TV s first round, season two is really uppg the ante! )No longer thirstg for straight men, gay aspirg actor Cary fds himself sudnly thst to a relatnship wh a new be even though he might not be ready to settle down jt yet, pecially sce he's still tryg to get his sh together as a profsnal actor wh a new agent and he is jt startg to get fortable and immerse himself New York Cy's gay world.

This season is filled wh tons of hilar bs that put the foc directly on queer culture, the lik of which clu the return of one of season one's hilar Instagays, first-time Grdr hookups, and a lson on the different kds of daddi there are out got the chance to chat wh The Other Two stars Drew Tarver and Helene Yorke, as well as -creators and former Saturday Night Live head wrer Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneir, about craftg season two and makg the gayt one yet! "I thk that somethg that drew me to the script so much is 's not a g out story, " Tarver told Out about beg part of a seri that so hilarly, accurately, and unapologetilly spoofs and exam gay life.

” Cary asks the execs, who adm that Disney has received “flak” for talkg up a character as gay the prs lead-up to a film and then “not really showg , ” a reference to a recurrg real-life Disney phenomenon. One recent example is the much-hyped “exclively gay moment” the live-actn Bety and the Beast, where straight actor Josh Gad, playg LeFou, danc wh a woman and then danc for two sends wh a man a group shot of a lot of people dancg.

It’s a classic Disney gay-fakeout, and the amount of tim people say “Glob” and “Globby” and sist that gay Globs like other Globs but straight Globs like “human women” mak sound like an I Thk You Should Leave sketch. While we never see the two of them bed together like Hnted Buddi 4’s unapologetilly gay moment, they snuggle up on the uch together, hold each other, watch trashy realy TV, and -parent a t. ” 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.

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.