Hundreds of channels! Hundreds of TV shows for you to choose from! But definitely not enough time to watch everything! With the Fall TV season upon us, with even more shows debuting, you’re probably a bit overwhelmed. Furthermore, every show you choose to watch runs the risk of disappointing you.
New programs might fall flat, returning programs might step on your toes like a giant in heavy, metal clogs and when there are gay characters involved you know the risk of stuffing it all up are only that much higher. So to save you the trouble, we’ve taken a handful of promising shows from this year’s fall lineup and will watch them, recap them and deliver the verdict on how well they fared each week.
For readability, things have been broken down into ‘The Plot’, ‘The Gay’ and ‘The Ugly’ which are pretty self explanatory. Read on and see what we thought!
Gotham
The Plot
On Monday night we sauntered over to the city, the city of Gotham, where every piece of scenery is out of a time warp, everything is devoid of colour and it hasn’t stopped being overcast in about three decades.
This week, Bruce ‘Snot Dribble’ Wayne is toughening himself up (the show is set in the years before he becomes Batman) by sticking his hand over a candle. I’m not entirely sure why he doesn’t just go on an extreme adventure holiday or something a lot less painful but his eye-rollingly stupid antics have at least been carried over from the season premiere (he stood on the roof of his mansion as if he was threatening to jump off) so that’s consistent, I guess. It also lets new detective on the block James ‘Jim’ Gordon step in and assume the father figure role for young Bruce, also helping Jim build up his ‘good cop whose morals are being tested’ persona.
When Jim’s not being a friend to troubled children, he’s also saving the homeless youth! The big police plot of this week features he and partner Detective Harvey Bullock as they attempt to thwart a couple of child snatchers who are rounding up homeless kids and shipping them overseas for unknown reasons. After a run in with the Mayor of Gotham, who is as corrupt as a two decade battery and doesn’t care about the children’s wellbeing, they eventually save the day and stop the snatchers. We don’t find out where the kids were being shipped but we do at least get some good scenes with young Catwoman (known as Cat in the show) as she is saved from the juvenile system.
The Gay
There was somewhat less of our queer, justice dealing favourite, Renee Montoya, who dogood’ed her way into our hearts last week with her tailored suits and the maintext history she has with Jim Gordon’s girlfriend, Barbara. This week, Renee and her partner Crispus Allen were trying to uncover a corruption plot featuring the disappearance of Penguin, the villain whose life Jim spared last week and has now turned to cold-blooded murder.
Barbara, meanwhile, rats out the Gotham police force to the local newspaper after Jim explains that the Mayor won’t let him rescue the children. It’s a really short scene but it’s significant just because Barbara’s moral code is clearly so black and white (just like Renee’s) in comparison to Jim’s grey one and this could potentially be what breaks her and Jim up. Good news for Barbara/Renee shippers but less so for the future Police Commissioner.
There’s also a scene with mob boss Fish Mooney, who is planning to usurp fellow crime leader Carmine Falcone. Falcone shows up, asks who her lover is and then proceeds to have his goons beat her lover (a male bartender at Mooney’s club) to a pulp. Lovely. There have been rumblings that Mooney is Not Straight though, so with this lover scared off maybe she’ll find the arms of a woman next time.
The Ugly
A big problem for Gotham’s writers is not being too obvious about upcoming storylines. This is a prequel to all of the comics and movies we’ve seen featuring Gotham’s superheroes but sometimes it feels like certain lines are included just to wink at viewers who are clued in. It probably seems weird to those who know nothing about the universe, which is unfortunate.
We’re only two episodes in though, so while it’s a little off-putting, there’s plenty of time for Gotham to find its footing.
Faking It
The Plot
This being Faking It, almost everything about the plot is gay! The not-gay action here is the subplot with Shane and Liam.
These two bros for life get a thirdwheel in the form of Theo, a new addition to the cast and Liam’s potential new bestie. Ditching Shane’s plans for a Frozen sing-along costume party, the three go out to a bar for some not-so-legal underage drinking and after a fight with the patrons they end up hightailing it the hell out of there. Liam is hurt and still upset that Shane didn’t tell him that Amy loves Karma and Karma (Liam’s crush) was only faking being a lesbian.
Maybe it’s just my continued apathy for Liam but I think he was probably being a crying pissbaby about this! Shane was trying to be a good friend to both he and Amy, protecting them both in the process, something which Liam doesn’t give Shane a chance to explain, so for now they’re on the outs.
The Gay
Shimmying over to Casa de Raudenfeld and Karma and Amy are having a girls’ weekend! Except Amy having told Karma she’s in love with her and them trying to figure out a way to be platonic friends and not suffocating close ‘soulmates’ means that awkwardness soon ensues.
So, what’s a girl to do? Amy brings in her step-sister Lauren, who came out (read: was outed) as intersex in last week’s episode and who soon invites her #Karmy shipping buddies over to get the party started.
The party atmosphere soon devolves after a game of truth or dare goes awry with Karma having to discuss what it was like to have sex with Liam, Lauren almost reveals that Amy slept with Liam too and Lauren is nearly outed once more. There’s also a scene where Amy and Karma almost kiss which nearly made my head explode but overall it’s nice to see that they’re dealing with the tension in a genuine way.
Also, Shane and his boyfriend may have broken up? An advice seeking session saw Shane putting the phone down on him. The scene seemed shoehorned in so here’s hoping it will get covered next week.
The Ugly
Following the truth or dare sesh, the next morning Lauren does come out to her two best friends and her and Amy have a heart to heart which made me realise that Lauren is without a doubt my favourite character on the show. But, Amy and Karma nearly outed her the previous night and neither had an apology for Lauren which was downright rude. For a show that’s already been heavily criticised for this you’d think they’d do more to leave it out, but alas, hopefully they’ll move on from it.
How To Get Away With Murder
The Plot
Fresh on the TV block this year, How To Get Away With Murder (HTGAWM) is now in its second week as Viola Davis plays the insanely talented and powerful lawyer, Annalise Keating.
This week’s case features a widower being put on the stand for his wife’s violent, brutal murder. Whether he did it or not, it’s the team’s challenge is to make sure the jury thinks he’s innocent but this is a job that becomes all the more difficult when it’s revealed in court that he was also a suspect for his first wife’s murder too. Yikes!
After some leg work by Alfie – and some mumblings from his fellow classmates that he is Annalise’s favourite – and a point made my Laurel that as a hunter, the client couldn’t have done the murder because the kill was too messy, he actually goes free. It actually turns out that the client’s daughter did it and tried to frame him but they don’t dob her into the police because, well, that’s not their jobs.
Annalise’s life isn’t all roses and won court cases this week though as she’s gradually starting to suspect her husband for the murder of one of his students. He knew the girl well according to emails (that Annalise has snooped through, naturally) and so she turns to her lover, a police officer (who was put on probation after helping her out last week) to check out his alibi. To make matters worse, her husband is worried that their marriage is going through a rough patch so after almost breaking down to her boyfriend, she has sex with her husband and hides her tears afterwards. I’m pretty sure I watched the whole thing with a shocked look on my face because Viola Davis is such a good actress that it hurts.
We also find out more about the shocking reveal at the end of the premiere that Annalise’s husband has been murdered. The above storyline happens in the past (with her husband’s murder taking place two months later) but it’s threaded together impeccably well. What we learn is that Wes is trying to protect his neighbour Rebecca after she becomes his girlfriend at some point during the two months. It’s not much but it’s a delicious mystery to follow.
The Gay
Connor is the only gay lead in the show (so far) but he’s being represented incredibly well!
After getting a guy into bed last week to help solve a case, he enlists him again for some computer hacking. Some overtime, a delayed dinner date and some refused apologies later and the two have a bit of a rough patch. It lasts for all of 5 minutes though because Connor soon wins him over with food and sex, of course.
I can’t fault the way he’s being presented and I’d love for there to be a queer woman on the show who’s given the same opportunities, but if you’re looking for any gay content at all, How To Get Away With Murder’s plot and representation means it’s highly recommended
The Ugly
I can’t say a bad word about this show! The only downside to it is that it doesn’t air seven times a week, so I’m impatiently waiting for the next episode, but I can live with that. Just about.
