Gemstones Episode 2.6 Deep Reading: a frame-by-frame analysis of the sex scene

 

In case you're new here, The Righteous Gemstones is a HBO Max sitcom about the famous, ultra-rich televangelist Eli Gemstone and his three children, who live in separate mansions on his compound and get into constant squabbles and scrapes.  But of course they love each other deep-down.  Kelvin (Adam Devine) is the youngest son, 29-34 years old during the four seasons, a muscle enthusiast who usually works in the low-prestige teen ministry, and has to constantly prove himself.  Keefe (Tony Cavalero), a former Satanist whom he saved, is his boyfriend.  

Kelvin has a standard fiction coming-out process, one that we've seen a hundred times in movies and tv-shows.

Season 1: Falling in love with his best friend, sexual experiences, feeling guilty, denial, then recognizing that he is gay.

Season 2: Becoming obsessed with the erotic, refusisng to admit that he and Keefe are romantic partners, eventually coming around and coming out to the family.

Season 3: Trying hard to stay in the closet, refusing to call Keefe his boyfriend, leading to their breakup and reconciliation, and a kiss.  

The problem is, up to the Season 3 kiss and even after, many viewers insisted that the two were straight buddies.  The queer codes were all misdirections or misreadings.

Which brings us to Season 2, Episode 6: Kelvin is standing naked in front of the mirror; distraught:  he has lost the respect of the God Squad, his cadre of muscle men; his father hates him; he is worthless, nothing, no better than a beast.  Keefe suggests that he will feel better if he gets dressed for the day.  His hands are broken, so Keefe will have to dress him.

What happens next is about as explicit as a sex scene can get on television, yet some viewers insisted, that Keefe is just helping Kelvin on with his underwear.  Even after Season 4, when they two are out as boyfriends and eventually get married, viewers insist that they were not sexually active until the after the wedding.  

Maybe a frame-by-frame analysis will convince them.

1: Kelvin turns around.  Keefe kneels in front of him, and says "Now step into your Tommy Johns."  Instead, Kelvin reaches out with both hands and pulls Keefe's head forward.  

2: Kelvin guides Keefe's head down, and grimaces and groans as he begins oral sex.  Sometimes it's very sensitive, at first.

 3: A sharp breath, and then Kelvin cries out in pleasure.  Adam is obviously simulating having an orgasm.  Notice that Keefe's head is no longer visible, as he's going way down, but Kelvin is still guiding his actions.  You would steady yourself for putting on underwear by grabbing your friend's shoulders, not his head.

4: Fatigued and disheveled after all his effort, Keefe swallows (you heard me, he swallows) and whispers "Nice."  This is not the point at which you would usually do that, but remember, this is all simulated.

More oral after the break

Case Walker: ChaseDreams from "The Other Two" grows up, plays a monster, displays his delts and...stuff. With n*de Chase, Tarver, and Fin

 Case Walker was as a kid growing up in Denver who  weekly podcasts on musical.ly and other social media platforms, and within a year had 1.7 million followers and a new television program: The Other Two, on HBO Max were Brook and Cary Dubek (Heléne Yorke, Drew Tarver, left), a failed dancer and aspiring actor dealing with the sudden fame of their 13-year old brother, Chase (Case Walker), aka teen pop sensation ChaseDreams. 

At least in the first season (2019).  In the second and third seasons (2021, 2023), Brooke and Drew get the lion's share of plotlines, negotiating increasing success, friendships, and romances.

  For instance, Dreew dates Lucas (Fin Argus), a method actor who stays in character off camera and therefore refuses sex. 

ChaseDreams still appeared in nearly every episode, but he has very few centrics.  The writers just didn't know what to do with him. Turn him into a bad boy, with pink hair and a lot of tattoos? Make him a fake mental health advocate?  Have him date a girl who isn't a fan?

Viewers mostly ignored him. It was much more interesting to see a non-swishy gay guy who actually had a romantic life.

While we weren't paying attention, Case grew up.  As of this writing, he's 22 years old, and buffed.  No, ripped.  No -- have you ever seen delts like that?

More after the break

Alexi Kapishnikov: two acting roles, modeling, commercials, a polar plunge...and j/o photos? In Russia?

I'm not into the tattoos, but I'm into the washboard abs and enormous cock.

His name is Aleksey or Alexi Kapishnikov, and his nude photos are making the rounds of internet celebrity sites.  There are also some aroused and j/o shots (after the break), from a gay Slovenian website called Trezubec (no longer online).

He has only two acting credits on the IMDB.

1. Anton, a lawyer, in an episode of the Russian tv series Triada (Triptych, 2019-21): Tolya suddenly has three pregnant women on his hands, his wife, his mistress, and a one-night stand.

There's a Tryptych tv series on Netflix, but it must be a different one: it begins with a woman entering a building, shooting a lot of people, then taking a hostage to the roof and making them both plunge to  their deaths.

2. The Russian movie Liza (2023) has Topol (Aleksei) mourning his dead wife and trying to save the life of the dying daughter of his best friend.  Yuck.

But I'm not giving up on Aleksei.  For one thing, I love the Russian language.  I remember the first time I encountered the Cyrillic alphabet, in a book in the children's room of the Rock Island Public Library.  It was so captivating that I made a photocopy to take home, even though I wouldn't be able to study Russian until college.

There  must be more information out there somewhere.

The Smart Models Club just gives Alexi's measurements: Height 183 cm, bust 100 cm, waist 82 cm, shoe size 43.

Kinolift, a Russian modeling agency, says that he's 35 years old, lives in Moscow, can speak English with a dictionary, and graduated from ASU (Altai State University?) in 2012.

Some additional acting roles: "Bullet -- glamorous specials, " 2019, and commercials for Whiskas and Samsung Gear Sport 3.

His Instagram, nder the name Lesha Kapishnik, has a lot of modeling photos, and some photos of friends and family.  

More after the break

Pernille: Norwegian angst comedy with a gay dad, a bi nephew (probably), a gay wedding (almost), lots of funerals, and nude Vikings

I did my undergrad at a Swedish Lutheran college, where everyone had to read Ibsen and Strindberg (ugh!), and listen to Peer Gynt (shudder), so I don't trust Scandinavian fiction.  Even the comedies tend to the dark and dreary.  So, when Pernille (2021-24), renamed from the Norwegian Pørni for obvious reasons, appeared on Netflix as a "triumph of Norwegian television," I decided to do a little research before jumping in:

1. Any gay characters?  

2. How many deathbed scenes?

The premise: Pørni, a single mother (until she starts dating Bjørnar  in Episode 1.2), works for child protective services. After her sister's tragic death, she becomes responsible for her teenage nephew Leo (Jon Ranes)

Left: Gunnar Eiriksen plays Bjørnar, but I think this is a different one.

 Episode 1.3, "Don't Get a Boyfriend, Please":  "When Leo has an angry outburst during a match, Pørni urges him to deal with the elephant in the room." 

The elephant must have something to do with the request to not get a boyfriend.  Leo must be gay, and Auntie Pørni disapproves.

Nope, the elephant is: His dad killed his mother, and wll probably go to prison, but Leo hates him, and thinks that he should have died. 

Pørni advises that, regardless of the anger he feels, Leo owes the kid he attacked an apology, and he shouldn't have called him "mongo."  Not a gay slur -- it refers to a mental disability.

Episode 1.6: Leo has a "Big Day," but when I checked, it turned out to be his confirmation (joining the Lutheran Church).  And the guy sitting next to him is a family member, not a boyfriend.

Leo next appears in the plot synopses in Episode 2.3, when a girl named Rains comes into the kitchen, and everyone is shocked: "I thought they broke up."  "No, they're just open to seeing other people."  Heterosexualized in the second season!

But in Episode 5.6, which I skimmed through for another reason, Auntie Pørni asks Leo, "Have you seen Lukas lately?" with that eager gleam that you doubtless recognize from your childhood, when your parents were playing matchmaker.  He responds, "Not since I picked up the t-shirts for the bachelor party.  Why?"  "Oh, no reason."  Gleam, gleam, knowing smile. 

They use he/him pronouns: Lukas is a guy.  And it sounds very much as if Pørni is trying to push them together.  Maybe Leo has come out as bi.    

Actor Jon Ranes plays a youth gang member in the concurrent Flus (2022-24), and sings under the name Loverboy.  I don't know if he's gay in real life or not, but I have my suspicions.

I was so invested in skipping over the darkness, depression, and unyielding agony of life in Scandinavian comedies that I missed the elephant in the room:

Episode 1.1: While dealing with the grief over her sister's murder, Pørni learns that her elderly father (Nils Ole Oftenbro) is dying of an incurable brain tumor.  As he will be dead soon, he reveals a secret that he has been keeping for 70-plus years.

Yep he's gay.  And the brain tumor was a misdiagnosis.  He's fine; well, terribly depressed, but in a Scandinavian comedy, who isn't?  

Left: Nils Ole Oftenbro, early photo.  He's been acting since the 1960s.

 

More after the break. Caution: Explicit.