and Scientology.) Beyoncé Homecoming Is Already Iconic (And It Hasn’t Premiered Yet)īeychella-Beyoncé’s iconic performance at the Coachella Music Festival-was the pop culture event of 2018. (On that subject, make sure to read my colleague Marlow Stern’s interview with Moss about the film. Girl is on a roll, cementing her status as one of the best actresses working today. She channels her entire body, soul, and all the power of Xenu into this performance. It’s a towering performance, completely unrecognizable from Moss’ other work in The Handmaid’s Tale, Mad Men, or even Us, in which we first see glimpses of the terrifying wild eyes that are on display here. She’s unhinged, so palpably out of control you’re uneasy in your seat just watching, like you’re witnessing a person mid-exorcism. Moss turns Becky into the human equivalent of streaked mascara, delivering a carnal, guttural, snotty, sweat- and blood-soaked performance. (The name, according to writer-director Alex Ross-Perry, is inspired by the titles of riot grrl zines from the ’90s.) The sun is setting on Becky’s incendiary career, and she’s hell-bent on incinerating everything in its path on the way down.
The movie, with a title as idiotic as Moss is good in it, centers on Becky Something, the lead singer of an all-girl rock band with petulance and behavioral issues that would make Courtney Love seem like a saint. It is April 12, which means that, by my count, there are 317 days between now and the 2020 Oscars for me to not shut the hell up about how good Elisabeth Moss is in Her Smell, how she should be nominated for Best Actress, and then bitching insufferably about how she was robbed when she inevitably isn’t because the Academy is dumb. Elisabeth Moss Gives the Performance of the Year (So Far) in 'Her Smell'
It shows the mechanics, the discomfort, and mutual respect involved in two men having sex-something that is never shown on screen and certainly not in a TV show that’s meant to be heartwarming and, like we said before, important. There’s nothing salacious or editorially sexy about it in the way that so many TV shows filter sex. It’s not graphic or gratuitous, but frank and sensitive.
My Google Doc of notes from that part of the series just reads “holy shit!” over and over again for about half a page. It was so realistic in a way no TV show has ever been about gay sex. Ryan hires a sex worker to lose his virginity to, and the way it’s filmed, frankly, shocked me. Because it bears repeating: I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Glory be!īut the thing about the show I can’t stop thinking about is how it handles its big sex scene. All of that, and no episode runs more than 15 minutes. There’s a fascinating storyline exploring Ryan and his mother’s codependence, in which Jessica Hecht delivers a monologue about the virtues of The Macaroni Grill that I nearly applauded after. (Ryan is an intern at a website called Eggwoke, which recently pivoted to publishing confessional essays that appeal to “basics,” like “50 Ways to Hate Myself.”) The skewering of millennial culture and media is painfully accurate. There are more laugh lines in the first three minutes than most comedies have in an entire episode.
It’s important, of course, but it undercuts any pretentiousness that might burden it with a lacerating wit and self-effacing attitude towards disability. Attitude, Pride and Out were just some of the outlets who praised what they assumed would be a very inclusive show in the queer sense too.There are so many reasons to love this show. So when the first trailer teased a gay sex scene back in October, a wide range of LGBTQ+ publications jumped on this moment, assuming that Bridgerton would be just as queer as other shows from Shonda Rhimes.
With this pedigree, queer fans were understandably excited for Bridgerton too.
In the past, other Shondaland shows like Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder have all pushed LGBTQ+ representation forward, providing queer audiences with the love stories they've always yearned for on mainstream TV. This is the kind of poignant queer moment that Shonda Rhimes fans would come to expect from a show that carries her name. However, no reference is made to queerness again until near the end, when Bridgerton's newfound friend openly discusses his desire for men, and why it's vital that he hides this within a straight sham marriage. Bridgerton star talks Daphne's "sexual evolution"Īlthough the show quickly moves on from this encounter, there's clearly some sexual tension between Benedict and the party's host.