Ben Lewis Doherty: Doc Martin's Plus One, a gay journalist, and the son of a gay gangster. All by age ten. With Smith dick and Pelphrey penis

 I've been watching Best Medicine (2026), about a curmudgeonly doctor in small-town Maine, where there are at least three gay characters: Greg and George, who run the only restaurant in town; and sarcastic high school student Liam.  But could there be four?  How about 10-year old Peter Cronk, played by Ben Lewis Doherty? 

Kids are usually presented as straight by default, to promote the myth that boys are born longing for feminine smiles, and "turn" gay as as teenagers or adults.  But you never know.

Peter appeared in eight episodes in Season 1, and displays queer codes in most:.  

Episode 5: He wants to stay class after to help teacher Louisa, so the other kids make fun of him, thinking that he has a crush on her.  He denies it; he's actually interested in the astronomy presentation she's preparing.  A denial of heterosexual interest.

Later he tries to "fit in" by putting a whole apple in his mouth, and can't get it back out again.  Doc Martin cuts it out, and tells him don't bother trying to fit in, just be yourself. The oral fixation and the "be yourself."

Episode 7: On Halloween, the townsfolk put on a haunted house called the Blood Factory.  Peter hates it: he gets so scared that he wets his bed.  Doc Martin suggests that he face his fears, so he dresses as a vampire. And bonds with a buddy.

Episode 8: Peter is rather swishy as he criticizes Elaine's true crime podcast. (Femme behavior).  

 Afterwards, her cameraman Al (Carter Shimp, right) calls her his girlfriend, and she shoots him down: "We're frisky friends, that's all."  Hurt, he quits.

 "What's a frisky friend?" Peter asks.  Lack of awareness of hetero-romance terminology.

Episode 10: Trying to spend time with Doc Martin, Peter comes in every day with invented symptoms, and invites himself along on his birdwatching date with Louisa.  Are you looking for a father figure, or do you have a little crush on the Doc? 

Later, he complains of a stomach ache, but Doc Martin thinks he's faking -- until the pain spreads to his shoulder, and his spleen ruptures!  Tense scenes in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Episode 12: Peter asks Doc Martin to come to his school presentation on Norway, since his mom works and his dad doesn't care about him. Doc Martin says he's too busy, but shows up anyway.  Peter is overjoyed, and hugs him.  More crush potential.

Episode 13: Peter is the ring bearer at the wedding of Greg and George. The teenagers attend the weddding, but he's the only child, suggesting a special affinity with the gay guys.

 At the reception, he sits at Doc Martin's table as if he's the Doc's Plus One.  

It's probably not canonical, but it's enough to check out the other work of the 11-year old actor.

Ben Lewis Doherty lives in Massachusetts, where he began modeling and acting at age six (five years ago).  His first role was in the short Weighted (2020): Macauley (Hudson Koonce) longs for the times when he lifted weights with his dad, before MS took its toll, so he strives for one last bench press.  Ben plays the young Macauley, and the cast includes bodybuilders George Sandalakis (left), Ismail Bronson, and David Arquilla (top photo).

Nice company for your first acting role, kid.

Next Ben appeared in Haze (2024): Joe, a young journalist (Cole Dolman),  returns home after rehab, uncovers the secrets of the town's psychiatric center, and gets a boyfriend (Brian J. Smith, nude after the break).  Ben plays the young Joe.

A gay character, already!  Things are looking good for you, buddy.  Plus you're already buddying up to hot guys like Cameron Matheson.

More after the break. Caution: Explicit.

Benjamin Ainsworth is possessed, kidnaps Dream, dances with a drag queen, rides a dragon. Plus his nose grows. With Champion and Elf cocks.

 

Benjamin Ainsworth (the one with the handbag) was born  in  Nottingham in 2008, and later moved to Lund, near Hull in Yorkshire.  He scored his first professional acting job in 2016, in the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on the Norwegian Epic Cruise Line, six weeks in the Mediterranean and then six more in the Caribbean.  He played Benjy, son of the drag queen Tick. who sings "Say a Little Prayer/Always on My Mind."  

The same year he was cast as "a cheeky schoolboy" in an episode of the soap Emmerdale.

His next major role was the troubled boy Miles in The Haunting of Bly Manor, loosely based on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, with the two troubled children and ghosts bedeviling the nanny.  I stopped watching in the first episode after a particularly nasty trigger (hint: "does the dog die?"), but according to a review there's a lesbian romance "drowned in sad and tired tropes" like Bury Your Gays. Yuck.

Left: Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Peter Quint, who is possessing Miles and forcing him to do bad things.

In  the first season of The Sandman (2022), Roderick Burgess captures the Dream of the Endless and imprisons him naked in a glass jar.  His son Alex (Ben as a boy, Laurie Kyaston as a young adult) has many opportunities to free him, but refuses, worrying that Dream will harm him or his boyfreind (Christopher Colquehon).  

So far one gay and two gay-adjacent roles.  Good job, buddy. 

There have been dozens of movies based on Pinocchio, the 1883 novel by Carlo Colladi. The 2022 version, with Ben as the puppet boy, Tom Hanks as Gepetto, and Joseph Gordon Levitt (left) as Jiminy Crickett, is supposedly a live-action remake of the classic 1940 animated movie, with a lot of queer codes.  But in some versions Pinoke gets a girlfriend, so I wouldn't be surprised if he is changed into a real boy through a glimpse of the Girl of His Dreams.  

The IMDB description of Son of a Critch (2022-26) tells us that "Mark is 11 going on 70," and "tries to make connections with the small group of people in his limited world."  Sounds like he's got that syndrome where you grow old as a child, or maybe he's aging backward, but it's a misdirection: Mark (Benji Boy) is just smart, and his "limited world" is Newfoundland in the 1980s.  He's heterosexual; no gay people are mentioned in the series.   

Ben is posing here with the real-life Mark Critch, who plays his dad, and Colto Gobbo, who plays his older brother.

Everything is Going to Be Great (2025) covers a year in the life of the Smart Family, as they negotiate "over-sized dreams, identity, ghosts, and regional theater."  Trigger alert: this is advertised as a comedy, but Dad (Bryan Cranston of Malcolm in the Middle) dies halfway through.  

He leaves two sons, the athletic Derrick (Jack Champion), who has a girlfriend, and Lester (Ben), who wears flashy outfits, aspires to a career in musical theater, and has conversations with the ghost of gay playwright Noel Coward. Those are sizeable queer codes.  Google AI says that he's "openly gay," but according to the plot synopsis, he gets a girlfriend. 

More after the break. Caution: Explicit.

Revisiting Brideshead Revisited: Does the groundbreaking portrayal of (temporary) gay love hold up after 40 years? With bonus dicks.

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Best Medicine: Josh Charles as a doctor in small-town Maine, with three gay characters, Josh's backside, and Segarra d*ck

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Mo Bakker: Santa Claus's grandson and his boyfriend cruise in Kenya, cuddle in Greece. With bonus Belgian cocks

English-speaking audiences are most familiar with Flemish actor Mo Bakker for the three Claus Family movies: 

Die Familie Claus 1 (2020): Christmas-hating teenager Jules discovers that his grandfather is Santa Claus, about to retire and expecting him to take over the family job

Die Familie Claus 2 (2021): Jules goes on a trial run to grant a little girl's holiday wish.  Plus the kids try to fix up Mom with her best friend, not realizing that he is gay and has a husband.

Die Familie Claus 3 (2022): Jules and his sister Noor work together to fix the mess Grandpa made of the gift-delivery. Plus Mom's new boyfriend Jeff (Kurt Rogiers) drops towel.

Throughout, Jules is heavily queer-coded, with an interest in musclemen and no romantic interest in girls: he keeps partnering with girls, but they are always relatives or just friends.  Although there are no undeniable queer codes, no boyfriends, or "I'm gay" statements, the series, and especially the first, appears every year on lists of "The Best LGBTQ Holiday Movies."

But what about actor Mo Bakker.  Surely he wasn't cast because he was gay.  At age 14, he may not even have known.  So let's check to see if he is out now.

Mo was born in 2006, son of Belgian actor Kuno Bakker, who played a gay guy in Feast (2022).  

 

Older brother Kes, also an actor, has 12 credits listed on the IMDB, including the teen drama High Tide, available to stream on Netflix.  He plays a gay character, falls in love with a dude, and drops towel.

Mo's acting career begins with August (2014), a short about a boy with a girlfriend.   He has several other projects listed, with plot synopses and trailers only in Flemish, including:

Niet Schieten (Don't Shoot, 2018): A boy is dying, and his grandfather feels guilty.

The tv series Please Love Me (Zie miej graag, 2017-20): A divorced woman is "trying to put her life back together."  Mo and his brother Kes play her sons.

Sisyphus at Work (2021): A film director is dying.

Finn's Heel (Finn's hiel, 2022): Two boys (Mo, Brecht Dael) bond over boxing lessons, and hug.  This one sounds gay.

The teen tv series wtFOCK (2023), about students in a prestigious high school in Antwerp.  There are gay guys in the cast (who make out naked in the pool), but Mo plays a heterosexual athlete who gets his girlfriend pregnant.

Not a lot of gay content here.  Let's check Mo's Instagram to see if he is gay in real life.

I'm always jealous of Europeans, who can jet to my top 10 favorite countries (outside the U.S.) in a couple of hours.  Here Mo and his boyfriend are cuddling on a raft in Nicosia, Cyprus: five hours from Brussels, 14 hours from Minnesota.

More after the break

Sterling Point: Queerbaiting, dark secrets, a guy with changing ages, a lot of lesbians, "Heated Rivalry," and some Canadian cocks.

 

When Amazon Prime recommended the 2026 tv series Sterling Point, I searched on its name and "gay," and got an interview where the two male stars, Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie and Daniel Quinn Toye, said that they were having a Heated Rivalry-type romance.  That's enough for me: I'm in.  

Scene 1: A young woman awakens in her luxury apartment, vigorously scrubs herself while growling, and sits at the kitchen table with her laptop , looking angry.  Her roommate Connor (Keen Ruffalo) is in love again.  Could he be gay?  Nope, "what's her name?"  

She's stressed out because she's waiting to see if she got into the summer program at Wharton, the most prestigious business school in the world.  So you're a high schooler, and the dude is your brother?  I had you figured as a grown up.

"Forget college.  It's the summer before your senior year.  Spend it going buck wild."

Dad Steven pops in with bagels, and asks about Wharton.  She gets word: "No.  My dreams are shattered. It's the end of the life I've been imagining for myself."  Couldn't you, like, get into a good college even without the program? On TV they're always getting into Harvard.

We finally get the girl's name: Annie.

"Now you can have fun this summer," Brother Connor says.  "Why don't you go to Thailand with your 100% straight heterosexual boyfriend?"  

"I can't break up with him until he's ready to come out."  It's 2026.  Nobody comes out. Parents just say "Someday you'll meet the man or woman of your dreams."

Scene 2: Establishing shots of New York, and then Annie's Glee-era gay-stereotype boyfriend Oliver (Luke Avoleda) asks if she wants to watch Cynthia Erivo sing "Edelweiss" at the Kennedy Center.  You're super-femme, you live in New York, and you're not out?  Girl, everyone has known since you were in kindergarten.

"What am I going to do all summer, now that all of my dreams have been crushed?" Annie asks.

"I don't know.  Go on Anti-depressants?"

She suggests going to Thailand with him, but he doesn't like that idea.  No getting his gay on with a beard hanging around.

Annie tries to get him to come out, yet again, when Brother Connor bursts into the room: "Grandpa died -- but not the one we like.  Gordon, Mom's Dad, the one who was shady as fuck, and everybody hated him, so Mom and Dad cut him out of their life, and we've never met."

Scene 3:  Meeting with the lawyer.  Grandpa Gordon left Dad nothing.  The kids get a trust, which they can access when they turn 18, and property in Canada.  He also left them letters, but Dad snatches them up and won't let the kids read them.  Weird family history.  

Left: a professor from Toronto and his hookup.

Cut to Annie trying to sleep.  She looks at a photo of their Mom, who died when she was little (of course).  Why did she hate Grandpa?  Why is Dad so secretive?   

In the morning, she breaks into Dad's safe (never make your birthday your password), and finds dozens of letters -- Grandpa was writing to them all along.  

The one that came with his will: "I'm sorry I didn't fight harder to see you.  I shouldn't have agreed to the plan.  I hope Sterling Point will reveal the truth. Find her."  Obfuscation for its own sake.  Any normal person would reveal who she is.

Downstairs, Brother Connor is being fed and smooched by his girlfriend.  Gross -- I hate adults feeding each other, like they were babies.  She reveals the new intel.  "We have to go to Canada and investigate!"

"What for?  We're adopted, so he's not even our biological grandfather."  

"Ok, I'll go by myself, but cover for me.  Tell Dad I went to Thailand."  So Connor and the gay boyfriend won't be back?

Scene 4: On the plane, Annie pops an Ambien and asks for a blanket and a pillow, not realizing that the flight to Toronto is only 45 minutes long.  Didn't she look at a map?  

At the airport, drowzy, she meets Ellis (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie), who will be flying her to Muskoka, the island her grandpa owned.  He's the one in the Heated Rivalry romance.  She's afraid of the seaplane but the only other way to get there is by car, and it would take forever (the real Muskoka Lakes are just 2 1/2 hours from Toronto).

Scene 5:  Establishing shots of Muskoka Island.  Ellis notes that Grandpa Gordon, who owned the whole island, said that he would never rent this house, so it's weird to see Annie moving in.  Isn't she the new owner?

Next question: Nope, no stores on the island, so you have to take a boat to the mainland to get groceries. You could have stocked up before leaving Toronto.

Inside, the place is a mess.  Annie finds her mom's old room, and...a squatter! Nope, just squirrels bringing nuts in to store. 

Next stop: The Marina, where she has to rent a boat to get to the mainland.  She asks Joe the Boat Shop Guy (Negan from The Walking Dead) if he knew Gordon who owned the island.  "Yes.  He was great.  Everybody loved him."

"Did he have...um...family around?  A daughter maybe?"  Terrible sleuthing, girl.  

Problem: She doesn't have a driver's license (many New Yorkers don't bother, because why would you ever drive in the City?  It takes five times as long as walking).  Or a boater's license.  So she can't rent a boat, but his son will give her a lesson. How will that help?  She needs groceries now, and it will take a lot of lessons to get her license.

Wait -- the son isn't around, so the teenage Oona offers to teach her.  "Oona -- beautiful name for a beautiful girl!" Sounds like we got some lesbian representation. But Annie is straight.  Or was that why she was happy with a boyfriend who didn't want to do bedroom stuff -- she's not into guy parts. 

"But you're a terrible boat driver!"

"No, I'm not.  I can handle her," she counters, gazing at Annie.  I'll bet you can...

The lesson begins.  "You handle the tiller -- this thing that looks like a dick --  just like a hand job, except twist more."  Are you sure you're a lesbian, Oona?

She tries it, but they start spinning in circles, and she doesn't know how to stop.  Let go?

More after the break

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: The 3rd Rock kid plays gay teenagers, then descends into ceaseless heteronormativity. With his butt, bulge, and potential dick

 

Raise your hand if you still think of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tommy Solomon on 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001).  A team of aliens is sent to Earth, disguised as a "typical human family," but their superiors get the ages and genders mixed up.  The male security officer becomes a woman, Sally (played by Kristen Johnsten, who would go on to play Eli's estranged sister on The Righteous Gemstones).  The middle aged information officer becomes prepubescent Tommy.  Poor guy has to go through puberty twice.

There were no regular gay characters, and only two references, in "mistaken for gay" episodes, but Sally, as a male being presenting as a woman, has a queer aura in spite of her heterosexual interests.  Plus John Lithgow, a vocal ally who has played gay and trans characters, imbued team leader Dick Solomon with a number of queer codea, explained as his lack of experience with human customs.

Joseph was a busy child star long before 3rd Rock, with guest spots on Murder She Wrote, LA Law, Quantum Leap, Family Ties, and Roseanne, and starring roles in the 1991 Dark Shadows reboot (as David Collins, heir to the vampire-ridden dynasty) and the 1992 Powers that Be (as the grandson of the unhinged Senator Powers).

I've already reviewed The Great Elephant Escape (1995), a buddy-bonding adventure set in East Africa.

Duriing and after 3rd Rock, Joseph appeared in several projects of gay interest:

On a 1998 episode of That 70s Show, about a group of high school friends in 1970s Milwaukee, focus character Eric befriends his chemistry lab partner, Buddy (Joseph), who thinks they are dating and kisses him.  Eric struggles with the realization, but in the end decides to stay friends with Buddy anyway.  Buddy was supposed to be an ongoing character, but homophobic fans objected, so he was dropped.

Some historians call it the first male same-sex kiss on tv, but it doesn't really count, since Eric didn't consent.  The first kiss where both men consent aired in 2004.

Latter Days (2003) features a romance between  closeted Mormon missionary Aaron (Steve Sandvoss, middle) and out-and-proud, heavily partying Christian (Wes Ramsey, left).  They end up leaving the church and tthe party subculture, respectively. 

Left: Wes Ramsey's butt

 Joseph auditioned to  play Aaron, but the directors thought that his aggressive manner was better suited to the homophobic missionary Paul.  

Mysterious Skin (2004) features two boys, Neill and Brian (Joseph, Brady Corbet), who are abused by their Little League coach.  When they grow up, Neil becomes a hustler (gay, but with a girlfriend), while Brian is experiencing "missing time" and believes that he was abducted by aliens.  

Left: The butt of Joseph as an adult.

I didn't watch because I heard that it was homophobic, presenting the idea that the abuse "turned" the boys gay.

Then the gay content abruptly  ends.  Joe's character even uses a homophobic slur in Don Jon (2013).  He explains, "that character would say that." So it's realistic to offend your gay fans?

In the same interview, he's asked about his gay fans, and replies: "I can't say it's something I really think about."  Jerk!

Left: the jerk's butt.

More after the break

The Shards: Rich kid in 1980s L.A., a Primal Urge Boy, two downlow boyfriends, a serial killer, and Tom Blythe's dick. Plus Wes Bentley when he was cute.

  

When I was researching my profile of soap opera kid Redding Munsell, I discovered that nihilistic author Brett Easton Ellis is gay!  I did a conference presentation on some of his novels awhile ago, when I was at USC, and had him pegged as heterosexual -- and homophobic.  Now I'm interested in The Shards on Hulu, a tv series about Brett's years as an alienated, nihilistic teenager facing a serial killer.  Plus it's set in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, so maybe it has nostalgia value. 

Warning: It's produced by Ryan Murphy, who usually presents his gay characters as amoral monsters.

Scene 1: Brett (Igby Rigney, left) tells us that The Shining opened on May 23rd, 1980, and he wanted to see it as soon as possible, because the original novel made him want to become a writer. In fact, he had already started Less than Zero.  So he had to go without the gang.  

Smoking a cigarette, he drives his dad's Mercedes down the streets of Westwood (near UCLA). He parks right outside the theater (tv cliche), buys his Junior Mints, and sits down to see a tall, tan "stunningly handsome" boy who aroused "some primal urge."  After some lingering glances, the boy walks out.  Wrong screen, buddy?

After the movie, Brett can't find the boy. That's because he left the theater.  "His name was Robert Mallory (Homer Gere,  the son of Richard Gere, left), and his arrival at my high school will coincide with a season of horror and murder that will destroy us all."  Don't give away the story!

Scene 2: Brett tells us that kids today have it easy, with no problems (except for global warming, fascism, racism, homophobia, transphobia...). His generation fought serial killers, including the most sadistic of them all.  Brett, stop giving away the story!  It's annoying!   

A girl arrives at her gigantic palace, and can't find her dog, the fish tank is half empty, and everything in the medicine chest is turned upside-down.  

Later, she goes to the supermarket to put her lost dog flier up amid the dozens of others, and sees the one for her dog, up already!  As she gets into her car, she is grabbed, knocked out, and shoved in a van.

Scene 3: Brett and his girlfriend zoom down the Pacific Coast Highway, exuberant about being sixteen and able to drive, so they have infinite freedom!   Cut to the group having patty melts at the Hamburger Habit (I remember that place): a guy, a boy-girl couple, and a girl on each side of Brett moving in to kiss him.  Geez. at least let him finish his burger.

The group shrinks to four as they have dinner at the Galleria before playing at the video arcade, browsing at Tower Records or buying books at "any of the large bookstores that dotted the streets" in those days before Amazon took over.   I'm all for nostalgia, but this is getting egregious.  Tell me more about how everything was perfect in the Good Old Days, Grandpa.  Besides, I was there, and he's exaggerating the number of bookstores

I think the flashbacks have stopped.  They're at Girlfriend Debbie's place, and she's warning them not to spook her $1,000,000 Arabian horse.  Girl of His Dreams Susan and her boyfriend Thom (Graham Campbell) start making out.  Brett looks on longingly.  Adult Brett explains that Susan was the most beautiful girl in the world, and he still considers her the Love of His Life, although they never dated.  Debbie just started making out with him one day, so what are you going to do?  Are you sure you're gay, buddy?

Cut to a montage of Brett diving into his pool, getting dinner from the housekeeper, working on his writing, and masturbating. 

Scene 4: Brett asks Girl of His Dreams Susan and her boyfriend if  they're coming to the last party of the summer at Debbie's house.  Thom says they'll be there, but Debbie's dad makes him uncomfortable: "He's so goddam gay!"  Got a problem with gay people, Thom?  Good thing your buddy Brett is straight.

"Yeah, he's pretty gay," Brett agrees, "But he's won two Oscars. Maybe he can help get my book made into a movie.  Ok, I checked the producers of "Less Than Zero."  Google AI insists that they're all "not gay" and make "family films."  

More after the break

Gabriel Avellar: Brazilian child actor plays two queer-coded boys, Loki, a puppy, and a fruit. And performs as Elton John. With two co-star cocks and a bj

 

Another guy I never heard of before: Gabriel Avellar, a Brazilian child actor who suddenly topped the Teen Idols List.  He seemed a little young for a profile, but out or curiosity, I checked his Instagram.  

A few queer-coded photos: hugging adult hunks, swishing it up as gay icon Elton John...wait, he posts a clip from one of his tv shows depicting a remarkable gay subtext scene.  Time to take a closer look.  

Gabriel's first acting role listed on the IMDB is in the  children's telenovela A Caverna Encantada (The Enchanted Cave, 2024), which seems to be about a boarding school with dark secrets (as dark as a show for preteens can go). 

 Felipe (Gabriel) is a garoto-problema, always getting into trouble, pretending that he doesn't care about anyone or anything, not even his queer-coded femme buddy Rui  (Théo Radicchi, right)-- until his façade falls.  

Gabriel (or his parent) tells us: "Felipe brings the reality of so many children who are not understood. Those who only saw the tantrums, did not see the suffering..of this character so rich and beloved"

  In later episodes Felipe joins a secret society, Os Luises, and helps uncover the secrets of the school.  

In the gay-subtext scene, quiet, shy Moises (Diego Laumar) is very angry with Felipe, yells at him, and starts crying (I completed the Duolinguo Portuguese course, but I still can't understand what he's saying).  Felipe tentatively approaches, and they hug. 

Gabriel comments: "In the end Felipe surrenders: Too exciting!"  Surrenders to what?  His romantic feelings?  Was Moises upset because Felipe rejected him?

He also posts a photo of Felipe heart-to-hearting with Professor Gabriel (Miguel Coelho), and comments: "Student and teacher, master and disciple, but primarily friends! He is the only one who believes in Felipe, and supports his transformation.  And scenes like these always provide strong emotions!"  Transformation to good guy, or recognizing that he is gay?

Miguel Coelho is a versatile actor.

Next Gabriel appeared in the animated movie Abá e Sua Banda (2024), about "a kingdom of fruits." (Okay...) Abá (Filipe Bragança, right), the young Pineapple Prince, wants to start a band and play at the Music Festival, but instead he is drawn into the fight against the evil Prime Minister Coconut,  In the end he establishes a democracy in the Tutti-Frutti Kingdom (Okay....), a place "where fruits of all colors and flavours will fit."  Maybe it's not as gay in Portuguese.

Gabriel plays his friend Coquinho, named after the fruit of the jelly palm.

More after the break

Adults: Yet another "Friends" clone, but with more gay/bi guys, kissing, and c*cks

Awhile ago I reviewed the first episode of Adults (2025): a contemporary Friends with five young adult friends  in New York, three guys and two girls, one Black and one South Asian.  They hate their jobs and pursue "will they or won't they?" romances; I don't know if they dance in a fountain while singing "Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's DOA."  

I didn't make it past the first episode. I was annoyed at the showrunners making an obviously gay character straight, just so they could increase the number of hetero-romances.  

But I recently had a bagel sandwich in my hands and no time to search, so I clicked on whatever popped up first on Hulu.  It was Adults Episode 1.8, with the not-gay black guy and a random white guy being victimized by a bullying teenage girl.  I fast-forwarded through the all-girl scenes, and ended up near the end, with the two in a car, consoling each other with  "You're not as bad as she says." They move in for a kiss, but the bully interrupts them: "I knew you were screwing each other's butts."  

WTF?  Did they decide to have the "not gay" black guy come out after all, and give him a boyfriend?  But the first episode went into excruciating detail about the Girl of His Dreams, who lives next door but he is always too tongue-tied to ask out. 

After extensive research, I figured it out.  I've never seen Adults before.  The show I reviewed was Not Suitable for Work (2026), which is also about five young adult friends in New York, three guys and two girls, one Black, one South Asian.  They hate their jobs and pursue "will they or won't they?" romances, and probably dance in a fountain while singing "Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's DOA."

Would you be able to tell them apart?

I think the Adults guys who almost kissed were Anton (Owen Thiele), who is canonically gay, and Paul Baker, always use both names (Jack Innanen), who is canonically straight. He dated both of the female friends, Issa and Billie, and now he's back to Issa.  Or is he starting on Anton?  We'll see what happens in Episode 1.9

 

Scene 1: The Friends haven't checked their mailbox in months.  They go through it. 

"My parents are in Jackson Hole," Samir (Malik Elassal, getting a blow job right) announces.

"Who's Jackson, and how do they both fit inside? Paul Baker asks.  Kind of a sleazoid, aren't you, buddy?

Paul Baker gets a notice that his visa is expiring, so he has to leave the U.S. and move back to Canada. Everyone is horrified.  Can I come with you?

Scene 2:  The immigration lawyer says that he has no choice: go back to Canada and apply for a new visa.  

"How does this happen to our most well-hung countrymen?" Girlfriend Issa moans.   We have a butt shot but no cocks online, so I'll have to take your word for it.

"You could get married," Blond Billie suggests.

"That's visa fraud!  It's against the law!"

"But it's not illegal," Samir points out. I guess he's the Joey, the Stupid One of the group.

Girlfriend Issa offers to marry Paul Baker: "We have a beautiful spiritual connection, and you obviously worship my lady parts."

He consents.  Everyone hugs and congratulates him.  Near-Kiss Anton (Owen Thiele, right) looks uncomfortable, thinking that they were going to start a romance.  Well, ask him yourself.  

Problem: Years ago, Girlfriend Issa married a guy named Zach-Carlos as a joke.  They have to convince him to grant her a divorce.

Scene 3:  Appointment with the priest. She's Catholic?  88% of the population of India is Hindu, so I figured.... Paul Baker doesn't want to lie to a Man of God, so he reveals that they're actually getting married so he can stay in the country.  

"Have you consummated your relationship yet?" The priests asks.

"No," Girlfriend Issa responds.  "Well, in my mouth, and sometimes in my bottom, but no sex."  Oral and anal don't count?

The priest is satisfied that they're living chastely, but Paul Baker blurts out "That's not true.  We have (non oral and anal) sex all the time."

He refuses to perform the wedding, but because of the visa fraud, not because of the sex (and other activities that don't count).

More after the break