#as like. a longitudinal historical sampling of queer experiences | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

amrv-5 · 1 year ago

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seeing all this fellow travelers content… feeling Intrigued… Looking Respectfully……. can i ask what it is & would you recommend?

HELLO!!!!! Okay yes I would recommend, I thought it was a great watch, I enjoyed myself! I have more thoughts on it but I'll save 'em cause spoilers--generally: It follows a number of queer relationships / characters over the course of the Lavender Scare through the 1980s. Its primary focus is the relationship between Hawkins, a WWII vet and midlevel govt. bureaucrat; and Tim, a congressional staffer fresh out of college. They meet during the height of the Lavender Scare and begin a fraught romance as they struggle with their own careers in DC, political complicity, and identities personal and public. The show covers about 30 years of their lives together (and apart). Go into it expecting solid performances (incredible Jonathan Bailey vehicle, at the very least) and (imo) fun if slightly uneven structuring, but also know (I don't want to sell it as Fun Gay Love Story!) by virtue of time period and what it's most interested in, story spends most of its runtime trying to show how national attitudes and even seemingly very localized political machinations impacted the lives of queer and especially queer Black people.

#my biggest nonserious but legit criticism is probably the per capita rate of washboard abs I'm expected to find believable #typical parker attitude I guess but. why do these midlevel government desk jockeys in the 1950s have eight packs #and then later why does this 50 year old man with a desk job also still have insane abs #like I get it it's a 2023 show for Modern Appeal or whatever but pretty much EVERY man who gets his top off is chiseled to the point #it started actively working against believability and interest #does that make sense. Like I don't want my reaction to a scene that's trying to communicate complex intimacy / emotional dynamics to be #focused on what ultimately ended up feeling like a visual sameness that detracted from the show's otherwise adamant understanding of itself #as like. a longitudinal historical sampling of queer experiences #nitpick but noticeable To Me!

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