Wednesday, May 15, 2013

An Emerging Gay Subgenre?

With mainstream television more readily creating parts for openly gay characters—Glee, The New Normal, Ugly Betty—and even overtly suggesting alternative representations, such as “Max” from Happy Endings, it only seems like a matter of time before the LGBT presence becomes large enough to warrant its own subgenres.

 Therefore when a number of the aforementioned shows got canceled by their networks, a new opportunity arose for television to rebalance this loss in the upcoming season. HBO just greenlit an untitled show that self-identifies as a “gay-themed dramedy series,” with three young gay friends in San Francisco trying to find where they are in life.

With the exception of The L-Word, very few shows feature a gay-dominant cast, where the gay character isn’t typecast in a supporting role as a comedic friend or bullied misfit. Hopefully, this will be the start of a trend in Hollywood where more openly gay characters will have roles where their sexuality comes second or even third to any of their other personal characteristics.

The fact that “gay-themed” is not the singular, most important defining characteristic of this show’s genre is promising in indicating that gay storylines are not only becoming more mainstream, but are also to the extent where they can become less blatant subgenres. 


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