Love, Victor review: A Hulu seri burned by whe gayns - Polygon

Contents:

• 'LOVE, VICTOR': HULU'S GAY TEEN ROM- WAS DUMPED BY DISNEY+: WHY THAT SENDS THE WRONG MSAGE
• ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR SAYS GAY ROLE SPARKED HOMOPHOBIA OM HIS FAY, ATH THREATS
• HULU’S LOVE, VICTOR IS UGHT UP THE MYTHOLOGY OF WHE GAYNS
• ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ REVIEW: TV’S CUTT GAY ROM-COM MATUR SEASON 2
• LOVE, VICTOR REVIEW: MORE GAY TEEN ANGST SOLID LOVE, SIMON SP-OFF
• LOVE, VICTOR PROV YOU DON'T NEED TO BE GAY TO PLAY GAY CHARACTERS
• LOVE, VICTOR REP: THE PERFECT LEVEL OF GAY
• IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE
• IS GEE SEAR GAY? WHO IS HE DATG?

'LOVE, VICTOR': HULU'S GAY TEEN ROM- WAS DUMPED BY DISNEY+: WHY THAT SENDS THE WRONG MSAGE

While Hollywood has broken new ground wh rerd LGBTQ reprentatn and nuanced gay storytellg, Walt Disney Co.

That much-hyped "exclively gay moment" Disney's live-actn "Bety and the Beast? Marvel's first openly gay character "Avengers: Endgame? " So I was disappoted, but not at all surprised, when Disney+ revealed Febary that "Love, Victor" – a seri spoff of groundbreakg 2018 gay movie "Love, Simon" – would no longer premiere on the fay-iendly service due to s "adult them.

‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR SAYS GAY ROLE SPARKED HOMOPHOBIA OM HIS FAY, ATH THREATS

More:Watch the LGBTQ-iendly TV shows, films to honor Pri MonthHavg watched the 10-episo first season of "Love, Victor, " 's hard not to see Disney+'s choice to dump the g-of-age edy as wardly and homophobic; an easy way of passg off the show to sister service Hulu, whout any of the potential backlash om tolerant, pearl-clutchg "Love, Simon, " " Victor" centers on a wsome high-school boy stgglg to e to terms wh his sexualy.

HULU’S LOVE, VICTOR IS UGHT UP THE MYTHOLOGY OF WHE GAYNS

But he quickly velops a secret csh on Benji (Gee Sear), an openly gay, almost illy dreamy barista at the ffee shop where Victor works part-time. In fact, tak Victor almost the entire season to even say the word "gay.

One uld argue that "Love, Victor" is on Hulu, rather than Disney+, bee of subject matter that has nothg to do wh s ma character beg gay. Michael Cimo, the straight star of Hulu’s gay-themed g-of-age seri “Love, Victor, ” says he has been attacked by some the LGBTQ muny and even some of his own fay members. In a new terview wh Attu, Cimo — who plays the tular Victor — says: “I got some homophobic ments — I kd of expected that to happen.

‘LOVE, VICTOR’ REVIEW: TV’S CUTT GAY ROM-COM MATUR SEASON 2

”He add, “Some of them reached out, sayg, ‘You ed to be so ol; now you’re so gay.

“It’s weird … [the Latx muny] is liberal when to thgs about Latos, but when to gay rights, ’s like, eh, qutn mark, ” Cimo said the terview. ”In the Attu terview, Cimo said, “There’s nothg wrong wh beg gay. ’”Cimo has said multiple terviews that he has been warned agast takg gay rol for fear of typestg.

LOVE, VICTOR REVIEW: MORE GAY TEEN ANGST SOLID LOVE, SIMON SP-OFF

Meanwhile, the young actor has also faced fierce blowback for takg a role that an out gay actor might have played. “But there are some straight actors who play gay characters, who are all about supportg LGBT rights while they’re promotg their project, but once they’re done, a year later, ’s kd of fotten. ”Straight actors playg gay rol has been the subject of bate for some time, often hgg on Hollywood’s history of forcg gay actors to the closet real life and offerg only limed chanc to explore the humany of gay characters on-screen.

Grant, who received an Osr nomatn for playg a gay character “Can You Ever Five Me?, ” said: “I’ve always had that ncern... The transgenr movement and the #MeToo movement means, how n you jtify heterosexual actors playg gay characters? Criss, who has famoly played queer characters cludg Andrew Cunanan “The Assassatn of Gianni Versace: Amerin Crime Story” and Hedwig “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” onstage, said he wouldn’t take gay rol anymore, bee “I want to make sure I won’t be another straight boy takg a gay man’s role.

LOVE, VICTOR PROV YOU DON'T NEED TO BE GAY TO PLAY GAY CHARACTERS

Victor is gog through a siar crisis of personal and sexual inty: Though movg to a new town suggts he will be ee to explore his attractn to men, the sual homophobia he experienc at school, at home wh his fay reelg om the move, and by his awkward only iend Felix (Anthony Turpel); the nontatns wh the popular bully on the basketball team Andrew (Mason Goodg), and the social prsure (mixed wh ternalized homophobia) to date a popular girl, Mia (Rachel Naomi Hilson), all make his g of queerns slightly msier than many on screen reprentatns. But over the season, Victor and Simon velop a rrponnce over Instagram DM, turng the character om the first movie to a gay mentor for the trated, sred, and nfed Victor. Curly, by dog so, Love, Victor plit s own tentns regardg reprentatn, creatg and ntributg to a mythology of whe gayns.

The Homo Sapiens Agenda, ma: to simply state that was the first g out movie, or the first gay teen movie, or the first gay movie whout a tragic endg would be an erasure of the queer media that me before, like The Edge of Seventeen, But I’m a Cheerlear, and The Wise Kids.

It was the first major, stud-released gay teen movie, and one that was, for all s mers, subject to thoughtful and valid cricism regardg the sulary of s queer perspectiv: s wealthy, whe, mascule prentg lead (played by a straight actor) whose primary goal was to assure the (possibly straight) dience that he was jt like them. Ls “homo sapiens agenda”, and more “homonormative agenda”.

LOVE, VICTOR REP: THE PERFECT LEVEL OF GAY

As he dol out advice on gettg ed to high school a new place, negotiatg nservative parents, and figurg out feelgs for a guy at school (Benji, also whe), Simon be one of the primary reference pots for Victor’s ia of gayns. Such a bar begs to alce to a potentially poisono polil project of homonormativy, an ial of queerns that still subscrib to systems and stutns that privilege whe, cisgenr, middle class, heterosexual prentg queer people at the expense of queer and trans people who are not afford the same liberti due to stutnal and systemic jtic (ed by scholar Lisa Duggan). Whe gays, whatever their ocsnal efulns, have long been cled to throw others unr the b.

IS LU PIXAR’S FIRST GAY MOVIE? MAYBE

It may be a lot of untentnal baggage to slg around Love, Simon or Love, Victor, but given the plex history of creatn, distributn, and accs of the stori, ’s a necsary asterisk on the praise they receive (the film was ld for s portrayal of a gay youth) and cricisms they garner. But the voic rema subsumed to one person after the episo ends; Simon reverts back to a gay sage, and the acknowledgment of what his diverse roommat had to offer is fotten.

IS GEE SEAR GAY? WHO IS HE DATG?

How easy is for whe gay people to fet the ntributn of other queers of lor. Love, Simon featur another character, ever so briefly, one whose prentatn of queerns was explicly dichotomized between Simon’s gayns.

Ethan (Clark Moore), an open, gay, Black femme character whose self-assurance and lived- performance pensated for their mimal screentime. Simon is sure, the film, to separate himself om Ethan and the kd of gay that danc to Whney Hoton, but — cue sentimental mic — the end, he learns om Ethan. Simon adms himself that his and Victor’s experienc are almost fundamentally different, a tac self-awarens on the show’s part as far as the lim of whe gayns beg “one size fs all.