23 Oct 2009
Air
One of the saddest stories that has dominated the gay media in the past fortnight has been the untimely death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately. I'm not going to pretend that I was a fan of the band or even Mr Gately's solo material but I think it's fair to say that you would have to have a heart of stone not to feel sorry for the young man, his partner Andrew Cowles, family and bandmates. TV3's recent special on Stephen didn't exactly highlight anything we didn't already know but it was still a nice press piece nonetheless. It's a pity that some other segments of the media weren't half as generous in the coverage of the singer's death. I guess some journalists just don't know when to knock it off. My condolensces to the people the late singer has left behind.
I've been noticing that a lot of stations are currently airing plenty of new shows at the same pace as the US are doing. Modern Family is in a slew of new comedies that is seemingly doing well this season and basically studies three linked families. There's the older Jay with his trophy wife and her young son while his daughter Claire and her husband are raising three children. The gay couple of the segment, Mitchell and Cameron adopt a little girl called Lily in the opening episode and come up with a hamfisted way of telling the two other families that they are now parents. Both Mitchell and Cameron are presented in a somewhat stereotypical way but I liked the first two episodes of this series and it's harmless enough. Potentially it's a lot of fun.
As someone whose main TV diet consists of plenty of sci-fi/action oriented programmes, I feel I should make a confession - I've never been a fan of the Stargate franchise. Neither SG-1 or Atlantis have done anything for me but given that the trailer during the summer for Universe suggested a grittiness akin to Battlestar Galactica, I thought I would give it a shot. To be fair, while it's slightly better than the shows it's preceeded, I can't really muster that much excitement for it either. As for the gay quotient of the series, Camille didn't have much to do in the first few episodes I've seen. I do know that she will be more vocalised as the series progresses, so I'll definitely be interested in seeing what happens there.
OTHER BITS
- After coming out this week, Cork hurler Donal Og Cusack will be a guest on tonight's The Late Late Show.
- True Blood will air at the ridiculous hour of 11.25pm on Monday on TG4 if you've been missing it on Channel 4 recently.
- Filming for BBC3 lesbian drama, Lip Service has begun. Ruta Gesmintas, Laura Fraser, Fiona Button and Roxanne McKee make up some of the cast. The series will premiere in the spring.
- Upcoming series Flashforward will out the character of Janis Hawks (Christine Woods) and Law And Order: SVU will out Dr George Huang (BD Wong).
- Prepare yourselves for The Real L Word, the spin-off from the hit series. Showtime have greenlit nine episodes with Ilene Chaiken serving as executive producer.