In honor of Pride I'm spending this month looking at writing techniques in queer stories. This week I'm focusing on queer TV creators.
Last month as POSE began its final season I did a week on storytelling techniques in its first two seasons.
One thing I didn't talk about much is the essential premise of the show, that queer people of color and more specifically transgender people have stories of their own to tell, tales that are just as compelling and funny and complex as anyone else's.
But the thing with TV is that there are almost always supporting players who get some lines each episode, maybe they even get quite a bit of screen time - but the story is really not about them. Think Astrid from FRINGE; Mrs. Landingham on THE WEST WING; or Taryn Helm on GREY'S ANATOMY-- a name I'll bet you don't even know even if you're a superfan, because though she's around a lot, her only function in the four years she's been on the show has been to obsess over Meredith.
This is Jaicy Elliot, who plays the queer Dr. Helm.
In its first two years, while POSE worked hard to spread story time to most of its cast, there were two characters -- Cubby (Jeremy McClain) and Lemar (Jason Rodriguez) -- who never really seemed to get much of anything of their own to do. They're great dancers, they usually get a couple bitchy lines (and steal scenes) but that's it.
Even moving in with Blanca at the end of season one didn't create more story opportunities for them; by the end of 201 they're in another house and back to being mostly just "the competition".
But then out of nowhere the third season opened with Lemar as the new villain, having established his own house in the years in between and with a very different, far more commerce-based ethic about ballroom. Meanwhile Cubby is in the hospital dying of AIDS.
The two of them drive not only the story of the episode but create directions for the season. And the writing by Steven Canals & Janet Mock gives each of them moments in which to shine. Cubby gets beautiful moments of his own with Blanca and then the mother that he hasn't seen in so long, and a great scene where the cast gathers around his beside, telling stories about him that we've never heard.
Meanwhile Lemar drives the inter-family ballroom conflicts throughout the episode. But he also shows up too late to Cubby's beside. At first he reacts in the defensive peacocking mode that we see in him throughout the episode.
But then after most everyone else has gone, we stay on Lemar and watch him go in to the room where his brother has died. He climbs into bed with Cubby and holds him.
He's always been such a diva on POSE, it's a completely unexpected choice to see him like this. And it's the emotional high point of the episode.
When you're writing a show, there's almost always going to be characters that just don't get much attention. But Canals & Mock reminded us in episode 301, as throughout the series, that every character is an opportunity, a story waiting to be told.
TOMORROW: RUSSELL T. DAVIES SHOWS THE POWER OF A NEW POINT OF VIEW
