For weeks now, just about every moving person I know has been taking Showtime every Sunday night to watch Word L: General Q. Occasionally, they'll head out to bars full of viewing parties, or they'll have an informal get-together from a luxury home. Those who are not watching still know it at will, and are ready to explain why they don't follow this basic one Game of Thrones, but for dating people.
Where the real The Word launched in 2004, there is nothing quite like Ilene Chaiken's love song on TV. Here was a sexually obscene show, with dozens of almost queer characters living their daily lives in LA – or as the song's lyrics put it, fighting, killing, crying, drinking. The show had a huge impact to this day, the bars of homosexuality still being held constant The Word trivia nights, or have episodes playing in the background. This is part of the daily cultural awareness of the last one until I watched the show for the first time last year so that I could feel left out.
The Word, which was followed by a group of Los Angeles merchants whose lavish lifestyle, was never perfect. Talking about it in 2020 means acknowledging all kinds of mistakes, from the devastating images of trans characters to the spectacular deaths of people. And in all the positive portrayals of line issues, such as the difficulty of dealing with extended family members, there are also completely absurd moments, such as the time a character goes to bed with a vampire. The show was like garbage at one point, but it was there and remains our trash.
Fast forward 15 years, with follow-up, Word: General Q, enters the land saturated with Orange is the new black, Vida, again One day at a time. Even for children's cartoons, they are the same Steven Universe, show queer characters in surprisingly complex ways. Ruby Rose belongs to Bat Woman now. It's You
It would have been easy for us Q Generation to feel like part of a different time, or worse, completely unwanted. But as it nears the end of the first season, the show's appearance and brightness make a strong case for why his voice is still important. The series may have a character of a line or two, but few of these media outlets carry the weight of The Word product type at least Its presence is just an event, and Showtime handles that as well.
"We just have a lot of money and we have a lot of resources," Q Generation Executive producer and game show Marja-Lewis Ryan tells Polygon. There was always a luxury with Word & # 39; s the LA show, but in this case, returning characters who have had the opportunity to improve their jobs and lives come from things like private jets. Ryan likes to call this "muscle," but the desire goes beyond making sure all the money ends up on the screen. Q Generation it seems like you're willing to say more than just introducing straight people to the culture. From the beginning, Q Generation you are dealing with things like the opioid crisis, alcoholism, faith and race. The new remains of LA queers for life off screen are small and multicultural, with Latinx and Asian actors of all stripes. Spanish and Farsi are spoken on screens as if they were nothing. It would be amazing, if it wasn't written by people experiencing this kind of daily life in LA
“I gathered a room full of surprises,” says Ryan. "There is one person who is right (inside) our writers' room," continued Ryan, jokingly referring to the author as a diversity employer. "Most of us, as professional writers, are used to being called to the rooms as the only boyfriend or as a solo traveler or person."
Real line view allows Q Generation to be more than just regular queer stories. This is a huge departure from the original The Word, starring Jenny Schecter (Mia Kirshner), a straight white woman who stumbles across a world she doesn't even know.
“He looks right through the fence posts to see these frightened people,” laughs Ryan, recalling some of the first features in the first show. Influenced by what he sees, Schecter's origin holds the audience's hand in the basic ideas of the ancestors. These alliances felt the same throughout the first game, especially when it came to sex scenes. Instead of showing something close or hot to anger people, the sex scenes sounded like they were there to tease straight people. The show that needed to do this is to do it at all, Ryan muses.
"I don't think it's for direct audiences, & # 39; s Ryan." I think it's for direct consumers or, for example, homosexual consumers. "
Q GenerationAt the moment, it seems like it's not afraid to make straight people at least uncomfortable. The opening ceremony features Dani Nunez (Arienne Mandi) and Sophie Suarez (Rosanny Zayas), two of the new members, who appear on time, pointing their bloody fingers to the camera. Where there was always a sense of shame about Word & # 39; s information, Q Generation he looks people straight in the eye and owns many mistakes, sometimes even breaking the fourth wall to do so. Alice Pieszecki (Leisha Hailey), one of the returning adult characters, has a series of stories about trying to have a TV talk show aimed at queer people while somehow satisfying the men with suits, who believe that "extra change" is the best for anyone to hope for. Alice is open to wondering how she can keep her audience from the first season of her show despite the challenges she faces and the humility she needs to do.
Ryan says he tried to "create a writers' room with people directly affected by actual sins," which could explain how the show struggles with confidence, say, the difficulty of dating and exercising while delivering. Plus, the show feels strangely modern, as the characters struggle with the gig's economic shittiness, holding back developing values in the capital's hellscape and fear of relentless swipes in dating apps. And after losing a generation in the AIDS crisis, it's also reassuring to see the returning people get on with their lives. Even though most of these actors haven't gotten it yet, the mere act of growing up in front of an online audience that can learn from the mistakes and insights of their elders feels dignified on social media still eager to break through the news.
The show is not written to be universal, but the clarity of the drama diminishes. For example, on occasion, the couple who fell in love with Dani and Spee got into an argument because booking a luxury hotel at their wedding would mean making other family members feel unwelcome. It’s a class question, and when the POC family plunged into the world of wealth, I felt familiar to me as a motivated Latinx woman. But the moment that really got me was when the couple built a bachata and played happily in the background. It is a small detail that most people will never see, but one that has felt true to all the backyard living groups my family has left over the years.
Although there are some subtle motives behind the show, Q Generation is facing the stigma of criticism I have heard in conversations with friends and acquaintances, and comments critics pass the views. No comprehensive range of body types is displayed on the screen. The cast is made up of pretty women. A large part of the drama still promises infidelity. The list goes on.
Expectations are high, partly for love, but also because they are The Word. The show carries the weight of the entire lineup community on the shoulders. Any drama shows the danger of being the embodiment of a lot of people of a whole line, which makes borderline talk show. This has the constant fear that any characters with a mistake or the effects of a "problem" story will come to define the public image of the subject in question.
"The presentation on this show is really about the city of Los Angeles, which was my first stop," Ryan said. “As if there is no way for me to control everyone. I think if I was willing to do that I would just fail miserably, ”he adds.
"I love that people don't like it (show.) And I love that people love it," Ryan said.
Ryan looks like he's taking steps to criticize, telling Polygon that the show has done much better than he came before it, and will try to do much better going forward. Showtime already exists renewed Q Generation for the second season.
“We are part (a) full of tobacco content and I am very happy to be a staff member. I know that sounds funny, but I just don't really mind if it (the show) doesn't go public. At the moment it is not enough for us who are funded so I am happy to be like a glittering lady, which shows that we all have big dreams and hold on to them. ”