sparkindarkness | Media Minefield (Reply)

The media has remained full of mines this week.

Being rendered rather sedentary at the moment with multiple injuries, I have burrowed through all my saved programmes for self-indulgent enjoyment. I love my crop of cheesey programmes – Lie to Me (Tim Roth? I totally would. Yes yes I would), Dalziel & Pascoe (and yes, Pascoe I would), Waking the Dead, Silent Witness (more nom nom), Inspector George Gently.

Yes I like my cheesey goodness

Cut for Spoilers for Inspector George Gently and True Blood

And this week George Gently had the inevitable gay episode – murdered gay teen, criminal father then comes and burns people’s faces with a blow torch to find out which of them turned his son into a “poof”.

*sigh* which makes it complete. Every single one of these programmes I love have had gay themed episodes that have made me hellaciously uncomfortable.

And then on to True Blood, which is also a cheesey guilty pleasure – and one I hoped we were going to see some fun gay relationships. And this episode looked promising

At last we have the ultra hot Eric having the sexing with the reasonably hot Talbot. Hmmmm sexeh! Naked and in each other’s arms, ok the kisses are a bit chaste, but still very yummy and…

GAY SEX DEATH. *sigh* Hot gay sexing, one of the participants dies. Killed by the other no less. Gay sex, violent death. *headdesk*

Look, we already had the extreme sanitisation of same-sex loving in a programme that has ZERO compulsion about the naked and humping straight sex at every turn.. We have the lesbians who have FULLY CLOTHED oral sex without even mussing their perfect make up. We have the gay vampire in bed with Jason as some kind of horror nightmare event (because he couldn’t imagine the vampire killing him, biting him or attacking him as a nightmare no – the gay man naked in bed with him!) We had the godsawful Bill/Sam scene with clear daylight between them at all times – and Sam waking as if from a nightmare (and thanking the phone for waking him) we have Russel and Talbot – a married couple yet they not only never touch there’s like 3 feet between them at all times. These guys having a romantic moment would involve them standing close enough together that iof they leaned forward and stretched out and arm they MAY be able to touch each other. Add in that Talbott is so ridiculously stereotyped to make him the clear “submissive partner” because gods forbid a gay relationship NOT have fake, exaggerated, insultingly sexist gender roles stapled to it. This is a 700 year old vampire that SQUEALS at violence and has epic temper tantrums when people muss the furnishings – and has constant emotional dramas because he feels neglected while his husband is working. Not that Jesus (nurse) and Lafayette (drug dealing prostitute) don’t have stereotyped issues, but at least they’re a little more than their stereotypes (Lafayette also gets to play GBF to all to traumatised and distressed women around him as well).

About the only thing I am clinging to is Lafayette and Jesus – and even then the kisses are so far very chaste and in the lowest light (a trick from Brokeback Mountain that), I have hope and I’m clinging to it.

This is a programme that has everything up to full frontal nudity sex scenes – we have seen bondage sex happily humping away when it’s opposite sex sexing – and it really throws a huge contrast between how straight scenes are managed compared to the gay loving.

It’s irritating because I like this programmes and I want to gleefully keep watching, but I’m sorely tired of the television throwing sporks at me.