Too Gay to Function
Excuse me for the late update, but it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Tyra Sanchez won the The Race (much to my dismay) of course, and has been crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar. She’ll be taking her tired Sasha Fierce act and stank attitude on tour this summer and - who am I kidding? - I’ll definitely be in the audience when she sashays into Chicago. For the most part, I’m over my disappointment regarding Juju’s loss, but I’m still left with an empty feeling. Why, you ask? Well, with the conclusion of this season, that’s one less show worth watching on Logo’s lineup.
When Logo, TV’s first channel devoted to gay-oriented content, premiered five years ago, I was genuinely excited. It’s initial offerings were promising. There was “Dante’s Cove”, a mystery program which was essentially “Murder She Wrote” in Jockey shorts. And “Noah’s Arc” which was “Sex and the City” with gay black men standing in for straight white women. (Sure they weren’t the most original, but the spins on their source material were pretty inspired, I think.) My favorite programs were the recorded performances from musicians of interest to a queer audience. Hot guys solving mysteries in their skivies and Morrissey concerts? I was sold.
However, the channel has now become a graveyard of failed expectations and second run programming. When not being subjected to (heavily edited) reruns of “The L Word” and “Queer as Folk”, Logo’s audience is either asked to sit through rejects from the independent movie circuit or programming even less imaginative or original than what they started out with. Take, for example, “Gimme Sugar”. This is Logo’s budget-label answer to “The Hills.” Instead of straight girls, the series follows a group of lesbians. (Get it?!) Most of them are of color, which could be promising, except that this angle is almost never explored. Rather than being an insightful look into lesbian LA (or at least, taking a cue from ”The Hills”, a beautifully shot love letter to it), “Gimme Sugar” is just a cheap imitation and a boring one at that. The only other show on the network to speak of, “The Big Gay Sketch Show”, is so focused on pandering to the audience that it forgets to make them laugh.
So, “Drag Race”…you will be sorely missed. And I have to wonder. Is this the best we can do, people?! Well if so, the next time I’m in the mood for original and entertaining gay programming, I’ll just watch reruns of “The Golden Girls.”
