The funny thing about speaking of television series is that at least 90% of the shows that I’m going to mention are not actually shown at all for my television. Passes through Netflix and the computer screen, because do you actually think I have the patience to wait for the arrival of the dubbed episode? Not really.
The fact is that the “series mania” is becoming mainstream, it’s no longer just something nerdy. Everyone started noticing, including the executive producers, considering the surge in quality of the products destined to be on TV in the last years – I could go on and list a number of series that are of a much higher quality than some movies that are in cinemas. And if we want to be honest when talking about the confrontation between television/cinema, TV series are more free. They are more open. They are more rainbow? They certainly do not run away from LGBT issues as if they found themselves in front of a rattlesnake. On certain issues, the world of Hollywood seems to be in an ice age that is just barely melting in these recent years (just think that LGBT films are still considered to be a “separate” category, or as we say to the actors who have been “brave” enough to accept that part), while “those losers of the TV series”, as Amy Poehler and Tina Fey called themselves at the opening speech of the Golden Globes 2015, are light years ahead. They are already on spaceships twisting and turning. Why? That’s why we would need a sociological analysis that I am not at all qualified to do.
What I do is watch one series after the next. And so what I am perfectly qualified to do is take a look at the current television landscape (I admit: mainly English-speaking) to suggest the seven series that are at the forefront in the fight against stereotypes. Why seven? Because it’s more than five, less demanding than ten, it’s the number of the Harry Potter saga and also the best measure for all things.
1. How To Get Away With Murder (ABC)
Not only How To Get Away With Murder (HTGAWM in short) reaches unimaginable levels of quality, with a fresh Emmy-winner actress and a script to leave us breathless at the end of each episode. No no. HTGAWM, like every product that leaves ShondaLand, Rhimes’ production company, has a very clear goal: to “normalize” the television, in the words of the showrunner herself.
“I really hate the word ‘diversity.’ It suggests something… other. As if it is something special, or rare. Diversity! As if there is something unusual about telling stories involving women and people of color and LGBTQ characters on TV. I have a different word: normalizing. I’m normalizing TV. I am making TV look like the world looks. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people equal way more than 50 percent of the population. Which means it ain’t out of the ordinary” said Shonda at her acceptance speech for the award she received at the 24014 Human Rights Campaign, exactly thanks to her efforts to include the broadest possible variety in her cast.
And indeed, HTGAWM is a perfect example of how Rhimes has no problems to follow up words with actions: the show features very realistic gay sex scenes, shot and “treated” exactly the same way as heterosexual sex scenes; the show has a fixed couple, consisting of Connor Walsh and Oliver Hampton, who often discuss in an honest and sincere way about their partner dynamics (demonstrating how they are exactly the same as the ones in straight characters in the story). At the end of last season, the delicate issue of HIV was introduced. At the beginning (beware of spoilers!) we found that Annalise is bisexual, and that has had love affairs with other women in the past. A protagonist! Bisexual! Yet the world hasn’t crumbled upon us just yet, so maybe a LGBTQ protagonist is not quite the end of the world, no?
2. Shameless US (Showtime)
The quality is not lacking in this list, because even Shameless (the US remake of the British original series, but strangely a lot better than the latter), now in its fifth season, it reaches the levels of poetry and drama and unspeakable humanity. A beauty that almost hurts the eye: the story of the Gallaghers, a dysfunctional family of six siblings who were all brought up by their older sister (because of an absent mother and a drunken father), of the poor neighborhoods of Chicago that really touches one’s heart. And between all the different storylines, there is one that perhaps touches the heart more than any other: that of Ian Gallagher and Mickey Milkovich. Not so much for Ian, the third son of the Gallagher clan, who is openly gay from almost immediately and has no problem to come to terms with who he is, but for Mickey. People, I have rarely seen a better built and better developed character than Mickey Milkovich.
Where can we find another character born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, in the closet even before he realized he is gay, going from hiding even from himself to say “Ian, what you and I have makes me free”? And he’s important, Mickey, he’s important because it’s a story of coming out and courage, yes, but also of simple love, the support and strength that he and Ian continuously exchange. Just as it would be for any heterosexual couple.
3. Sense8 (Netflix)
Sense8 was the summer phenomenon, because when our great overlord Netflix gets together with two mad geniuses like the Wachowski the product is sure to be something incredible. Personally, I think Sense8 definitely was, for sure.
With a concept like “eight people around the world find themselves suddenly connected” it would have seemed obvious to expect eight completely different individuals – obvious, but not a given, considering how for certain American creators “diversity” means simply present four individuals coming from four corners of the United States. And instead…
And instead, Sense8 did not let down any expectations I had, and gave me an incredibly varied cast – which include (I quote just the most relevant to the discussion we’re having in this article) a pair of gay Mexicans, Lito and Hernando, with a history of internalized homophobia and a beautiful coming out, and above all Names and Neets, a badass lesbian couple from San Francisco. Not to mention that Nomi is a trans woman. Played by a real trans woman, Jamie Clayton. Because in the end to really represent the world as it is it takes very little.
4. The Fosters (ABC Family)
The Fosters, compared to all the other series mentioned above, brings the issue of representation to a whole new level: that of crushes in the early teens. Because, think about it well, most of the currently airing homosexual relationships are between adults, or yes, even among teenagers, but who are interpreted by adults because the rule is that under thirty years of age you can still be a perfectly credible high school student (Glee, you hear me?).
Jude Fosters and Connor Stevens instead are different. Jude and Connor are thirteen years old (their actors are not much older), are full of doubts, the typical insecurities of first loves, and are an important step. They are the step we need to show that real love has no age, neither for heterosexuals nor for gay people. And the series deals with their relationship with such grace that it’s really impossible not to become passionate about their history.
5. Faking It (MTV)
Teen drama set in high school aired on MTV. So far, nothing extraordinary. But Faking It perfectly embodies what I think would be the perfect state of equality in the media: typical plots usually of a straight couple, assigned smoothly and without disruption to homosexual couples.
The plot in question is that of “friends who pretend to be together and end up really falling in love” and the couple is made up of Karma and Amy, best friends forever who decide to pretend to be girlfriends to gain popularity and the title of dance queens – except that Amy really starts to feel something more for Karma. Again, it’s not that hard, right? And apparently, the dramas and jealousies as teenagers and friendships-that-become-loves are the same for everyone.
6. Empire (FOX)
“It seems to me that Lee Daniels and Danny Strong were not pursuing an agenda in creating this show, but they’re still transmitting incredibly important messages on acceptance, on sexuality, on mental disorders, and on the family. Because the real core of the series is the family.”
This is how Jussie Smollett describes Empire, in which he plays Jamal Lyon, one of the protagonists. Jamal is homosexual, and the big fight with his father to gain acceptance reflects that experienced by the creator of the show, Lee Daniels. But not only. It also mirrors that of many people around the world, which is why a storyline like that of Jamal not only doesn’t come across as “boring and already seen”, but still necessary. Hopefully not for long.
7. Orange Is The New Black (Netflix)
We close with fireworks, because I honestly do not think there is still someone out there who has never heard of OITNB. It has become almost a social phenomenon, and with good reasons. It might be because the Netflix series can have more “freedom”, not being tied to a network, but Orange Is The New Black has opened up a world, and I don’t think there is a show that best describes women, in every facet. Including the rainbow one. With Alex and Nicky and Poussey, Big Boo defending the image of the butch, Piper who doesn’t want to be defined, and Sophia, a trans woman. Each with her story and her struggles and her motives. And all of them, all of them break down brick after brick of every possible stereotype.
Okay, the merry-go-round has come to an end, please get off. Obviously, these seven shows are just a selection of an even wider offer, which I was able to minimize thanks to great advice (and also thanks to my personal preferences, I can’t deny it). There are many more series coming in the near future (such as the series The Mortal Instruments, or The Real O’Neals, or even the film Looking, completion of the canceled HBO series), so in short, we will have plenty to watch in the coming months.
If you’re already part of the addicted-to-series clan, you may have noticed the absence of big names such as Queer as Folk or The L Word. The reason is simple: I chose series that are being aired, but nothing undermines the importance of these titles as pioneers in their genre. Half the characters I mentioned would not exist without Brian Kinney and Shane McCutcheon. So they deserve the thanks of the whole community for having paved the way – to today’s creative directors, however, the task is to continue what others have started, until the day when articles like this will no longer have any reason to exist.
