(There will be some man-on-man sex, in street language, so not for kids or the sexually modest)
From my 6/13 posting “Two laughs-out-loud and a shiver of self-recognition”, about this Sarah Akinterinwa Psychiatrist strip:
The therapist recommends, as a relief from anxiety, the familiar comfort of rewatching the same series until its outcomes feel more knowable than your own: a very common strategy for dealing with the terrible burdens of the daily news — and [a salve for anxiety] I regularly employ
For me, not a joke, but a life strategy.
Emily Menon Bender then wondered what some of my favorites were. Below, with only minor editing, my answer.
— AMZ > EMB: My all-time favorites are The West Wing and Sports Night, but my DVDs of them have gone away with all my other DVDs (I’ve had to give up a lot), so I’m limited to what gets replayed on channels I get on my basic cable subscription (which is all I can afford). Major Crimes (because it’s really a sprawling 19th-century novel done as a tv show, so it offers a variety of pleasures).
Crime dramas with two people matched as the investigators, especially two women playing off against one another: Rizzoli & Isles is easily available for me; and I’d be happy to have Cagney & Lacey come around again. (I am a great fan of same-sex friendship and also of portrayals of strong, interesting women.
So also Murder, She Wrote, because I love to watch a great character actor do their thing, even if it’s in a formula-bound show; Angela Lansbury has done much more spectacular things, but she’s enjoyable even here. (So: also Mariska Hargitay on L&O.)
It has occurred to me that this would be a great answer for a lipstick lesbian — packed with social relations, featuring strong and interesting women. Would a straight guy respond like this? Would a butch gay guy respond like this? Do my responses indicate that that I’m actually more female-identified than most people thought, maybe secretly effeminate?
What about my tales from the gay baths (guy loves to get fucked, his desire is noisy) and my credentials as a t-room queen (guy’s a mensroom cocksucker)? (I am neither ashamed nor boastful about these activities, which involved neither harm nor coercion, though they engage only a minority of men. But then so do demolition derbies, beach volleyball, and barbershop singing.)
Whoa there, Jacko. It’s time for my alter ego from the world of subterranean sex, Alex Adams, to intone the principles of the 3-fold Way; you might want to hear them as they would be voiced by James Earl Jones:
Alex’s 3-fold Way
1 Real people’s affectional and sexual lives are enormously varied; lives can be composed in an astonishing variety of ways. 2 People’s life histories follow equally varied courses. 3 And their tastes, preferences, and aversions, in all things, are similarly varied and unpredictable.
Just two items from my postings on this blog about absorbing and engaging performances:
— from 10/29/24, in “Major Crimes”:
The plotting is … intricate … The acting and direction are first-rate, and most of the recurring characters are likable and interestingly complex, and they develop over time. So the show has the feel of a big 19th-century novel, enacted in modern LA, with a gigantic ensemble cast. Something of a tour de force, in my view.
… There are tugs at all sorts of emotions: profound sadness, great delight, suspense, amusement, and devastating shock. Several of the characters find true love, and one of them develops very gradually over the six years from foolish crank to wise hero — along with Rusty’s development from selfish out-of-control kid to resourceful and accomplished young man; you could view the show as his Bildungsroman, filmed. There’s some breath-taking wickedness, but also a great many admirable characters, of several sorts. As in a big 19th-century novel.
— from 2/2/23, in “Angela goes to dance camp” (emphasis on the camp):
The late Angela Lansbury, starring in a glitzy television production as the introduction to the 1973 Academy Awards show: a 7-minute extravagant celebration (in three parts) of show business glamor.
(with a particularly fine staircase entrance)
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