Amazon does not have a great track record on LGBTQ rights. I still buy books from them, but when Amazon Prime recommended a new comedy series called It's Not Like That, I was skeptical, and did some research. Sure enough, it was produced by the Wonder Project, a new studio that plans on delivering fundamentalist, faith-based, family-friendly, protest Pride, take back God's rainbow content.. I'm going to have a lot of fun moving into enemy territory to look for gay subtexts produced by accident, and describing the hotness of men who would be horrified to discover that they are an object of male desire.
Premise: Pastor Malcom (Scott Foley), dealing with grief over his wife's death (of course), starts dating her recently divorced best friend, Lori.
Pastor Malcolm has three children, a boy (Justin) and two girls (Flora and Penelope), all traumatized by the death of their mother. Wait...Flora? What year is this?
Lori has an ex husband and two children, a boy (Merritt) and a girl (Casey), both traumatized by the divorce.
I'm actually going to review/find gay subtexts in Episode 3, because it features an imam (Ahmad Ghafouri, left) and a rabbi (Rachel Leah Cohen). Wait -- a female rabbi? She must be Reform, which is pro gay, even permitting gay rabbis. I doubt that the writers know this fact, or will have the backbone to mention it.
Scene 1: Pastor Malcolm, getting dressed, notices his dead wife's clothes hanging in the closet, and flashes back to when she was wearing one of the dresses in front of the church: Grace Community Church, with a sign saying "Where all are welcome." Presumably it means all heterosexuals.
She's planning a rummage sale, and suggests partnering with some of the other religious groups in town, like the Temple and the Islamic Center. "We could make it an interfaith rummage sale." These people are super liberal. When I was a Nazarene, we weren't even allowed to hang out with Baptists.
Back in the present, Pastor Malcolm is overcome by grief, but thinks "That wasn't a bad idea."
Cut to Pastor Malcolm asking his daughters to go through Mom's stuff and find things to sell. They resist: "You want to pretend that she never existed! I'll never forget her, even though you have!"
"Why don't you throw out all of our stuff, too, since our lives mean nothing to you!"
"This is so unfair!"
Scene 2: At Lori's house, amid some disasters, Surly Son Merrit (Caleb Baumann) is on the phone: Dad David is trying to convince him that his new apartment is cool. Nope, he's not staying there. Lori lays down the law: Dad gets you on the weekends, so you have no choice.
Merrit and Shy Daughter Casey resist. "You're the one who got the divorce. Why should we suffer?"
"Why don't you just sell the house, and throw out all our memories, since our lives mean nothing to you?
"This is so unfair!"
The parallels are cleverly constructed.
Cut to Pastor Malcolm and Lori at the coffee shop, commiserating on how hard it is to be a parent after a major trauma, like death or divorce. But they stand firm: "It's the right thing to do. It will be hard for them, but I'm ready."
Scene 3: At school, Merritt joins Pastor Malcolm's daughter Flora for lunch. She's looking for a writing project, so he suggests one: "It's about us." Flora is shocked. But he actually means their parents' hookup, har har. Queer code #1: He's not romantically interested in her.
Flora has not heard this before, and doesn't believe him. "Dad's not ready to forget about my mom yet." You accused him of that like five minutes ago.
Meanwhile, in the restroom, a girl asks Shy Daughter Casey, "Are you doing anything this weekend?" Queer Code #2: Asking her for a date. Casey is surprised because she bullied her before, but: "That's just what we do. I really like you."
"Ok, but this weekend, we have to go stay with my newly divorced Dad." The Girl tells us that her dad left when she was six, so she's an expert on divorce. She offers to teach Casey the tricks of the trade. First lesson: how to cash in on their guilt. Hey, no fair to ask her out wihtout a follow-up.
Scene 4: Lori is at work, spying on her kids' text messages and being depressed, when her friend Gail comes in to ask about her date last night. She had a good time, but refused to kiss him, and now he is ghosting her. At Nazarene summer camp, the preacher said that you shouldn't kiss before marriage, but it was just a recommendation, not one of the rules in the Manual.
"So scroll on to the next one."
Next up, Dad David (JR Ramirez, butt left) drops in to discuss their shared client. Apparently they manage Country-Western singers. Lori breaks the news that the kids don't want to spend the weekend at his new place.
"Tough, they gotta."
"But we want them to have autonomy."
He gets angry. "I'm trying everything, and nothing is getting through to them!"
Lori thinks that Shy Daughter Casey's wrestling has something to do with it. All her gear is at home, and there are matches on the weekend, so... Queer Code #3: Wrestling is a masculine-coded activity.
They compromise. David will stay at the house with the kids, and Lori will stay...um, somewhere else. You going to shack up with the hunky preacher?
Cut to everyone setting up for the Interfaith Rummage Sale. Daughter Flora confronts Pastor Malcolm: "Are you trying to erase Mom's memory because you moved on to Lori?"
"It's not like that." The title of the series, har har. "All we did was kiss, but we decided that we weren't ready for a relationship, so we're staying Just Friends."
Left: When I searched for Scott Foley nude, I got Peter Kendall nude in The Girls on the Bus
More after the break
Scene 5: Lori is actually staying at Dad David's new apartment. She is disgusted by how basic it is. He just moved in, lady; no time to decorate. She snoops through his stuff, then goes down to the pool.
Suddenly a hunky guy floats up. Well, a guy. With homophobic programs, you take beefcake where you can get it. He's Larry (Jamie Rennell), divorced and desperate. She's not interested.
Uh-oh, two more guys float over with hungry grins. Lori takes a hint and scrams.
Meanwhile, Pastor Malcolm's daughters argue over which of Mom's stuff they should keep. A looky-loo tries to buy things a day before the Interfaith Rummage Sale opens; the preacher yells at him, then apologizes.
Meanwhile, Merritt and Casey come downstairs to Dad David cooking dinner "old school," with plantains, rice, and beans. I'm guessing that he's Cuban-American. He breaks the news that he'll be staying at the house this weekend for "quality time." They resist.
Scene 6: Lori in bed remembering sex with the husband. Hey, he's fully clothed. No fair! She calls Pastor Malcolm: "I'm naked in my ex-husband's bed, and freaking out. Can you come over?"
"Um...well, I suppose I could make some time," he says, dashing toward his car. Har-har.
Psych! She doesn't want a hookup. She's freaking out because Dad David's new apartment is "empty and soulless." He just moved in. Give him a break. He does some pastoral counseling.
At the house, Dad David and Surly Merritt are trying to show Casey wrestling moves. "Come on, girl, you got two generations of high school wrestlers here." Queer Code #4: They're fine with her gender-transgressive interests.
Merrit gets too rough and starts hurting Dad, and won't stop even when he taps out. Dad breaks away and yells "What's wrong with you? We were just having fun."
"We can't have fun when you're the one who caused all this. You're the reason that we are all living in constant agony now! Your selfishness destroyed all our lives!" Your fundamentalism is showing. Divorce is usually not a problem for the kids. If there was a lot of tension in the household, it can even be beneficial for them.
Scene 7: Pastor Malcolm's kids are still going through Mom's stuff.
Left: Cary Christopher of Weapons plays Pastor Malcolm's son. He doesn't have a plotline in this episode, but previously he was bulllied for his interest in cooking. Queer Code #5
Surly Merritt arrives, takes Flora into the backyard, and complains about Dad: "He's so selfish! He's not trying to make things right at all. He acts so fake. But you are nothing like him. You are real." That came out of nowhere. Are you interested in Flora or not?
She asks if he wants to "go for a ride." He's shocked, but agrees. Queer Code #6: Surprised that she is interested in him, because he thinks she's a lesbian. They drive off to laugh and gaze at each other.
Cut to Dad David cleaning up and snooping in his ex-wife's stuff. He finds an old vinyl record player, and puts on their favorite singer, Conway Twitty. Really? This is who professionals in the Country-Western industry listen to? Even I can think of cooler singers. Their favorite song: "It's only make-believe."
He flashes back to dancing with Lori, and kissing a lot. Through the whole song. Then he goes to bed, and prepares to...you know.
Cut to Pastor Malcolm, still offering Lori pastoral counseling. Whoops, a phone call from Ex-Husband David: "I'm naked, in my ex-wife's bed, and freaking out. Can you come over?" Cool parallel, and Queer Code #7: Malcolm is going to get lucky with one of them tonight!
As he zooms toward his hookup, Malcolm doesn't realize that Surly Merritt and his daughter Flora have him under surveillance. Now they have proof that he's schtupping Lori (and on his way to get busy with David).
.jpg)
Scene 8: Finally, the rummage sale! The various religious leaders have a bet about who will sell more stuff, with the winner getting a steak dinner. The Imam gets one line. I don't see the Rabbi at all. Her scene must have been cut.
Lori tells Pastor Malcolm, "Thanks for coming over last night. I really needed it."
Dad David tells Pastor Malcolm, "Thanks for coming over last night. I really needed it." Queer Code #8. These codes are so blatant that they almost sound intentional.
Lori and David tell the kids that staying in each others' places doesn't work out, so it's back to staying at Dad's apartment on the weekends. But they can buy their own beds and decorate anyway thay want. And the place will be full of divorced dads' kids on weekends, so they'll have lots of peers to buddy with. The end.
Beefcake: Just the hungry guys in the pool. I checked the social media of every male cast member. They were mostly "husband, father, Christ follower" types who wouldn't post shirtless photos, for fear of giving "women" ideas.
Heterosexism: Of course.
Gay Characters: Of course not. But there are lots of queer codes. If I didn't know that this was a fundamentalist tv show, I'd swear that both Merrick and Casey were gay. And I checked the plot synopses: neither starts daing anyone during the series.
Lori: I can't help it, whenever Pastor Malcolm mentions his dead wife, I flash back to Lori Milsap on The Righteous Gemstones: the best friend of Eli's dead wife, who he starts dating in Season 4. She has a surly son and an ex-husband, who keeps killing her boyfriends, or making them sex slaves. Watch out, Malcolm.
My Grade: I can't grade something that I watched just to hate on.
Left: Random guy from Colombia.
No comments:
Post a Comment