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queer_scribbling) wrote2022-06-12 04:00 am
queer_scribbling) wrote2022-06-12 04:00 am
Entry tags:
Thoughts on Pose Series Finale
The original Pillowfort post is view-locked but a slightly updated version was archived on AO3 and SquidgeWorld Archive for the March Meta Matters Challenge.
Hey, you know that San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus photograph that I've seen on tumblr numerous times? This post? Pray Tell gets Ricky to join their local chorus for some socialization, and they basically recreate this. Down to having a 1994 version with about 4 white shirts and a 1996 version with 0 white shirts. There's also a recreation of the 1996 Ashes Action, in which ACT UP activists poured out ashes of loved ones on the White House lawn, except the show has it happen on the mayor of New York City's lawn.
I'm not incredibly well versed on the medication component of HIV/AIDS history. (AZT, shaky hand wave, we have more possibilities now.) A drug trial that was important to the last few episodes was for a something -tase inhibitor. Based on seeing the green and yellow capsules, I'd guess saquinavir, which is a protease inhibitor, but I think it was some sort of study about combining this drug with another one in the show. I'm aware that for most people reading this, the specifics of the medication will be a relatively minor detail, but the plotline about getting Blanca and Pray Tell into the study for even a small amount of patients of color to be included was so important that it feels like I can't skip over the medication entirely.
Throughout this season, Pray Tell has been experiencing more symptoms of his immune system being compromised (cancer, lost vision in one eye). It almost felt like he was getting more than one 'this is the sign of the end' talks with the doctor because this wasn't really covered with any other character, but skipping over that, he decides to give Ricky his pills because they're working so well, and Pray Tell doesn't want Ricky to progress further (he has Kaposi's sarcoma). We find out about this after Pray Tell dies. The portion of the AIDS Quilt he's been working on is finished with his death year (1996), the Ashes Action happens, and then there's the aftermath part. (Pray Tell worked out his final wishes and got his legal affairs in order earlier in the season after his cancer diagnosis. I think it was emphysema.)
The series hasn't been afraid of time jumps; case in point, there was one between season 2's end and season 3's open in 1994. Personally, I spent most of this season unsure if we were still in 1995 or had gone onto 1996, but I'm an audience member who likes clearly labelled dates or years if we're jumping around in time. Anyways, after all that, it felt like the inevitable jump forward to 1998 with most characters getting a Happy Ever After, the news of an HIV diagnosis no longer being an automatic death sentence, and Blanca and Ricky bringing up a new batch of children in the House of Evangelista was the entirely expected bow wrapping everything up.
It was... It was alright. They were putting up enough neon signs that I can't say that I was surprised that Pray Tell died. In hindsight, I kind of wish that some of the character development or plotlines that happened this season had happened in season 2, so it didn't quite feel like everything was being put into season 3. Examples:
1. It seemed like Lulu hardly got mentioned until part way through season 2, and then she was a major character this season.
I would like to note that this isn’t a matter of not liking Lulu in season 3, but there were other characters who were secondary (or tertiary) to the main characters focused on in House of Evangelista who suddenly got names and arcs in season 3. It would have felt more satisfying to have been introduced to some of them prior to these episodes.
2. Elektra had a reversal of her character development from the season 1 finale to the season 2 opening, but a [US] Mother's Day timed episode made her character development "stick" this season.
3. While drug use and alcohol misuse were shown in prior seasons as coping mechanisms, season 3 leaned real heavy into talking about it in the 1994 portion. This character is in denial that they have a problem, that character who some viewers forgot struggled with alcohol relapsed (and left New York City), so-and-so's doing a different drug this season, and this character's getting an intervention and being sent off to rehab.
To me, it was a bit jarring that this was compacted into about one or two episodes just this season. With the magic of hindsight, this was a theme that could have been woven throughout the first two seasons, and I think some amount of spacing it out could have helped to show different perspectives in handling being sober, relapsing, someone going to rehab, and so on.
4. There wasn't a shy portion of viewers who disliked the Pray Tell/Ricky arc at the end of season 2, and in the course of leaning real heavy into talking about drug use and alcoholism in marginalized communities, season 3 opened with Pray Tell being verbally abusive while drunk and Ricky was leaving. (See note 1.)
With an eye on the colorism in that above note, I don’t think Pray Tell should have been the character to put so many things on in terms of trying to show issues in marginalized communities to the audience. Frankly, I think a different character could have easily been chosen to show unhealthy relationships and/or manipulative and abusive behaviour with.
5. The episode dedicated to Pray Tell going home to visit his family after his cancer diagnosis introduced an entirely new and temporary love interest in the form of someone his age who was still, more or less, in the closet. (For people who have looked at the tags, that would be Vernon Jackson.)
It could be argued that Pray Tell’s vision loss and cancer diagnosis was one of those flashing neon signs to prepare the audience for his eventual death, but at the time episode 4 was airing, I wished that some of the symptoms being heaped on Pray Tell could’ve been spread out among other characters across the seasons. It just felt like everything was happening to Pray Tell specifically, you know?
5-and-a-half. This episode was also, in a manner of speaking, the Queers Have Christian Baggage EpisodeTM. It wasn’t an unfamiliar storyline, but I did kind of wish - with the magic of hindsight - that the writers could have sprinkled in other dissonances or connections with the religions of their families of origin in prior episodes.
6. Papi had an ex-girlfriend - Marisol - who didn't tell him that he was the father of a biological child - Beto. This was dropped on the night before his wedding to Angel, and she briefly called off the wedding. I get that shows have conflict and everything, but I kind of wanted a little more breathing room for Angel. (See note 2.)
This plotline with Papi and Beto was one of those moments where I wanted some sense of community differences and feedback where other characters could provide different views on having or wanting children [outside of the ballroom House usage], so it wasn’t something that felt like Angel’s character had to cover on her own. Maybe someone had a child from a prior marriage, maybe a trans man carried a child, or maybe someone clearly didn’t want kids.
7. Elektra (and everyone, really) went out of their way to make a big deal out of Angel and Papi's wedding to show others that they could find someone and get married. Elektra was adamant that they were having a "real wedding" and not just a commitment ceremony. Blanca didn't want Angel to use a forged ID that had an 'F'. The "our kid" stuff might have briefly helped Angel pass. (See note #3.)
Again, this whole arc was an area where I wanted some sense of community differences and perspectives on marriage licenses and weddings where other characters could show other viewpoints. Maybe someone could have stood up for commitment ceremonies after Elektra’s comment, maybe someone could have chimed in with a story about how they got their ID changed without forging a new one, or maybe someone could’ve shared that they didn’t view weddings as all that important. As it was, it felt like everyone clearly wanted a particular image of a wedding.
~
Note 1: For people who weren't unhappy about Pray Tell and Ricky hooking up in season 2 and that season ending with the impression that they were starting a relationship, it was probably frustrating that season 3 seemed to show that the relationship actually was unhealthy. Pray Tell is about 20 years older, and some fans didn't like the power differential from the different places they were at in life in the first place. For people who weren't thrilled about how dark-skinned characters have been written on the show (see the Colorism section on Fanlore), Pray Tell's actions while Ricky was trying to leave and this arc itself probably didn't help.
Note 2: I don't think anyone else has had to deal with the issue of a biological child showing up among these characters before. On the one hand, I could understand if Angel panicked because she hadn't thought about having children with Papi until literally now. On the other hand, it felt a bit restrictive - in an amatonormative and heteronormative sense - that the season 3 progression of her getting a Happy Ever After was getting married and raising a child with Papi. I get that it was the 1990s, but still. The same wish fulfillment had to happen with the same character in regards to having the perfect fantasy wedding and raising a kid? They don't have to be a package deal.
Note 3: The clerk was so distracted by the small talk, which included sharing a photo of Beto, that she didn't notice the 'M' on Angel's passport, so she signed off on their marriage license. Honestly, when I first wrote up this post, I had a lot of conflicting feelings that were tied up in the obstacles of updating paperwork in my state, and this ending felt like an unrealistic fairytale. Coming back to it nine months later, I wish that a round of other characters chiming in with different perspectives could have balanced out this sole portrayal of a trans character interacting with legal paperwork and gender-sex markers.
Hey, you know that San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus photograph that I've seen on tumblr numerous times? This post? Pray Tell gets Ricky to join their local chorus for some socialization, and they basically recreate this. Down to having a 1994 version with about 4 white shirts and a 1996 version with 0 white shirts. There's also a recreation of the 1996 Ashes Action, in which ACT UP activists poured out ashes of loved ones on the White House lawn, except the show has it happen on the mayor of New York City's lawn.
I'm not incredibly well versed on the medication component of HIV/AIDS history. (AZT, shaky hand wave, we have more possibilities now.) A drug trial that was important to the last few episodes was for a something -tase inhibitor. Based on seeing the green and yellow capsules, I'd guess saquinavir, which is a protease inhibitor, but I think it was some sort of study about combining this drug with another one in the show. I'm aware that for most people reading this, the specifics of the medication will be a relatively minor detail, but the plotline about getting Blanca and Pray Tell into the study for even a small amount of patients of color to be included was so important that it feels like I can't skip over the medication entirely.
Throughout this season, Pray Tell has been experiencing more symptoms of his immune system being compromised (cancer, lost vision in one eye). It almost felt like he was getting more than one 'this is the sign of the end' talks with the doctor because this wasn't really covered with any other character, but skipping over that, he decides to give Ricky his pills because they're working so well, and Pray Tell doesn't want Ricky to progress further (he has Kaposi's sarcoma). We find out about this after Pray Tell dies. The portion of the AIDS Quilt he's been working on is finished with his death year (1996), the Ashes Action happens, and then there's the aftermath part. (Pray Tell worked out his final wishes and got his legal affairs in order earlier in the season after his cancer diagnosis. I think it was emphysema.)
The series hasn't been afraid of time jumps; case in point, there was one between season 2's end and season 3's open in 1994. Personally, I spent most of this season unsure if we were still in 1995 or had gone onto 1996, but I'm an audience member who likes clearly labelled dates or years if we're jumping around in time. Anyways, after all that, it felt like the inevitable jump forward to 1998 with most characters getting a Happy Ever After, the news of an HIV diagnosis no longer being an automatic death sentence, and Blanca and Ricky bringing up a new batch of children in the House of Evangelista was the entirely expected bow wrapping everything up.
It was... It was alright. They were putting up enough neon signs that I can't say that I was surprised that Pray Tell died. In hindsight, I kind of wish that some of the character development or plotlines that happened this season had happened in season 2, so it didn't quite feel like everything was being put into season 3. Examples:
1. It seemed like Lulu hardly got mentioned until part way through season 2, and then she was a major character this season.
I would like to note that this isn’t a matter of not liking Lulu in season 3, but there were other characters who were secondary (or tertiary) to the main characters focused on in House of Evangelista who suddenly got names and arcs in season 3. It would have felt more satisfying to have been introduced to some of them prior to these episodes.
2. Elektra had a reversal of her character development from the season 1 finale to the season 2 opening, but a [US] Mother's Day timed episode made her character development "stick" this season.
3. While drug use and alcohol misuse were shown in prior seasons as coping mechanisms, season 3 leaned real heavy into talking about it in the 1994 portion. This character is in denial that they have a problem, that character who some viewers forgot struggled with alcohol relapsed (and left New York City), so-and-so's doing a different drug this season, and this character's getting an intervention and being sent off to rehab.
To me, it was a bit jarring that this was compacted into about one or two episodes just this season. With the magic of hindsight, this was a theme that could have been woven throughout the first two seasons, and I think some amount of spacing it out could have helped to show different perspectives in handling being sober, relapsing, someone going to rehab, and so on.
4. There wasn't a shy portion of viewers who disliked the Pray Tell/Ricky arc at the end of season 2, and in the course of leaning real heavy into talking about drug use and alcoholism in marginalized communities, season 3 opened with Pray Tell being verbally abusive while drunk and Ricky was leaving. (See note 1.)
With an eye on the colorism in that above note, I don’t think Pray Tell should have been the character to put so many things on in terms of trying to show issues in marginalized communities to the audience. Frankly, I think a different character could have easily been chosen to show unhealthy relationships and/or manipulative and abusive behaviour with.
5. The episode dedicated to Pray Tell going home to visit his family after his cancer diagnosis introduced an entirely new and temporary love interest in the form of someone his age who was still, more or less, in the closet. (For people who have looked at the tags, that would be Vernon Jackson.)
It could be argued that Pray Tell’s vision loss and cancer diagnosis was one of those flashing neon signs to prepare the audience for his eventual death, but at the time episode 4 was airing, I wished that some of the symptoms being heaped on Pray Tell could’ve been spread out among other characters across the seasons. It just felt like everything was happening to Pray Tell specifically, you know?
5-and-a-half. This episode was also, in a manner of speaking, the Queers Have Christian Baggage EpisodeTM. It wasn’t an unfamiliar storyline, but I did kind of wish - with the magic of hindsight - that the writers could have sprinkled in other dissonances or connections with the religions of their families of origin in prior episodes.
6. Papi had an ex-girlfriend - Marisol - who didn't tell him that he was the father of a biological child - Beto. This was dropped on the night before his wedding to Angel, and she briefly called off the wedding. I get that shows have conflict and everything, but I kind of wanted a little more breathing room for Angel. (See note 2.)
This plotline with Papi and Beto was one of those moments where I wanted some sense of community differences and feedback where other characters could provide different views on having or wanting children [outside of the ballroom House usage], so it wasn’t something that felt like Angel’s character had to cover on her own. Maybe someone had a child from a prior marriage, maybe a trans man carried a child, or maybe someone clearly didn’t want kids.
7. Elektra (and everyone, really) went out of their way to make a big deal out of Angel and Papi's wedding to show others that they could find someone and get married. Elektra was adamant that they were having a "real wedding" and not just a commitment ceremony. Blanca didn't want Angel to use a forged ID that had an 'F'. The "our kid" stuff might have briefly helped Angel pass. (See note #3.)
Again, this whole arc was an area where I wanted some sense of community differences and perspectives on marriage licenses and weddings where other characters could show other viewpoints. Maybe someone could have stood up for commitment ceremonies after Elektra’s comment, maybe someone could have chimed in with a story about how they got their ID changed without forging a new one, or maybe someone could’ve shared that they didn’t view weddings as all that important. As it was, it felt like everyone clearly wanted a particular image of a wedding.
~
Note 1: For people who weren't unhappy about Pray Tell and Ricky hooking up in season 2 and that season ending with the impression that they were starting a relationship, it was probably frustrating that season 3 seemed to show that the relationship actually was unhealthy. Pray Tell is about 20 years older, and some fans didn't like the power differential from the different places they were at in life in the first place. For people who weren't thrilled about how dark-skinned characters have been written on the show (see the Colorism section on Fanlore), Pray Tell's actions while Ricky was trying to leave and this arc itself probably didn't help.
Note 2: I don't think anyone else has had to deal with the issue of a biological child showing up among these characters before. On the one hand, I could understand if Angel panicked because she hadn't thought about having children with Papi until literally now. On the other hand, it felt a bit restrictive - in an amatonormative and heteronormative sense - that the season 3 progression of her getting a Happy Ever After was getting married and raising a child with Papi. I get that it was the 1990s, but still. The same wish fulfillment had to happen with the same character in regards to having the perfect fantasy wedding and raising a kid? They don't have to be a package deal.
Note 3: The clerk was so distracted by the small talk, which included sharing a photo of Beto, that she didn't notice the 'M' on Angel's passport, so she signed off on their marriage license. Honestly, when I first wrote up this post, I had a lot of conflicting feelings that were tied up in the obstacles of updating paperwork in my state, and this ending felt like an unrealistic fairytale. Coming back to it nine months later, I wish that a round of other characters chiming in with different perspectives could have balanced out this sole portrayal of a trans character interacting with legal paperwork and gender-sex markers.
no subject
~ Tumblr post about the San Francisco Gay Man's Chorus photos.
~ 1996 Ashes Action from Pink News.
~ HIV Treatment History.
~ While I don't foresee anyone deleting that section on colorism from the Fanlore page, here's a saved link of what it looks like today.