It’s exactly the kind of rom-com storyline audiences have repeatedly seen about middle-aged straight white characters, and one in which Hollywood has recently shown more interest in featuring young LGBTQ+ characters in projects like With love, Victor, island of fire s everything is possible – disconnected It’s the kind of narrative treatment that middle-aged gay men rarely receive. And it comes at an important time for the LGBTQ+ community.
Netflix’s latest romantic comedy follows Neil Patrick Harris’ Michael, a successful, middle-aged New York real estate mogul. An agent who suddenly finds himself breaking up with his partner of 17 years after Colin (played by Tuck Watkins) decides without explanation that their relationship is no longer working.
After his life is turned upside down, Michael tries to redefine (and find himself) as a single gay man in New York, navigating a dating scene that sometimes drives him out of his mind. (The cast also includes Brooks Ashmanskas, Tisha Campbell, Emerson Brooks, Marcia Gay Harden, and Andre DeShields.)
Equal parts funny and serious, romantic and heartbreaking., The Netflix series seems to reflect the difficult balance of being too many things at once, for too many people. That’s what Darren Starr says he and co-creator Geoffrey Richman were thinking about the show’s approach.
“Jeff and I talked from the beginning that we wanted emotions to be universal. We wanted the audience to see it to feel that someone could relate to the story,” he says. the hollywood reporter. “And of course we wanted to tell a very specific story about a middle-aged gay man in New York who is single again after all these years.
For Star Harris, that effort was part of what she liked about the project. “I’m so appreciative and grateful that we live in a time when this type of content can be created and displayed without acknowledging its uniqueness,” says Harris. “It was really a breakup show written by people who broke up and shared their experiences. And it shouldn’t just be seen by people who have shared the exact same experience.”
“They’ve been gay for a long time,” Richman says of the show’s focus. “This is no longer at the forefront of their minds. It’s just part of their world.”
The fruit of the team’s efforts to create a universal “breakup” narrative resulted in a show that features parallel stories, according to Star, about what it means to be single and middle-aged through characters of different races, genders and orientations. . than your bullet.
“These are characters who do not live exclusively in a gay world. They have a mixed group of friends. They just don’t define their lives as gay,” says the star. “And I don’t think for a minute about any of those characters, except for Marcia Gay Harden’s character, who asks, ‘Well, it’s really the same for you and for me. me?’
“Emotions are the same,” he adds, “regardless of sexuality.”
“Breakups are so universal, and watching you go through them is cathartic in its own way because it’s so relatable: Did you feel the same and go through it, or it’s very informative about how to avoid pitfalls,” Harris. Share. “I think it’s great that it has nothing to do with sexuality. It’s a very sexual show, but it doesn’t try to make any sense in terms of gender.”
After watching it, it’s easy to see how the story’s main couple is defined less by their sexuality and more by their efforts to navigate life after spending nearly half their time together. For actor Ashmanskas, who plays Michael’s best friend and art dealer Stanley, he “means a lot” to the television series “So Read.”
“Reading the first script, it was clear that there was something about him that, and I say this as a compliment, was very normal,” he continues. “It was such a normal script and a normal show that I just walked out after it was over and thought, ‘Oh, that’s right.’ It’s a group of gay boys of a certain age. This is interesting. It is wonderful.'”
The randomness and typicality with which its gay characters exist is also causing disconnected One of a growing group of projects finally and completely treating LGBTQ characters with the same level of humanity and nuance that straight characters in the genre have been given in decades. This reflects a generation of LGBTQ+ people who have lived for years with equal civil rights they didn’t have before. Rights that are currently under threat across the country due to various anti-gay and anti-trans laws.
disconnected It was written in the face of a number of more aggressive challenges, including a possible reversal of LGBTQ+ marriage rights by the US Supreme Court, which ruled against LGBTQ+ Americans last year. This leaves you with a more equitable reality that LGBTQ+ people might want to see right now.
Richman tells him THR That “I hope we never have to worry” about taking away their characters’ rights on the show itself, “because the world won’t go crazy.” But he also says it will “change the whole tenor of the show,” and Starr noted that they are writing from the experiences and perspectives of gay New Yorkers.
“I think we’re telling stories about characters who live in New York now, and it’s very New York specific. “I don’t know how the show would have fared if it had been set in Oklahoma or the Midwest,” adds the star. So maybe it’s a bubble, but that’s the reality of life. East characters.”
For Harris, the show offers an apolitical story of love and growth that can help those looking at the universal experience of LGBTQ+ people.
“I think we are in a very difficult period right now. This is an election cycle where there are a lot of people saying a lot of things to try to make people afraid of all sorts of things,” he says. THR. “Personally, I feel the inflection point of acceptance has shifted. These examples of written content, filmed content, stage content, next door content, poker partner content – we have so many examples of queer people being effective citizens. I would be surprised to see him take a big step back.”
“But I think in an interesting way, incompatible’Darren and Geoffrey’s romantic comedy and real-world writing style are another example of how universal this experience is.” “No matter what you believe, you are in a position to eradicate them.”
disconnected Currently streaming on Netflix.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
