Reason to Cheer

Look, I know neither of these women are actually gay. But, come on. Come on. COME ON. Both Natasha and Melanie were pioneers in playing gay before playing gay was considered Oscar bait, when it was just extremely rare and kinda risky. Now if only Clea DuVall was also there (like before), I’d finally have a throuple to believe in. But, this post isn’t just purely superficial (only partially). This post is also about how great it is to watch two supremely talented, unassailably smart, fantastically funny women in their 40s get to talk about their work and lives uninterrupted for half an hour. Now, powers that be, I demand another Natasha Lyonne and Melanie Lynskey collab. I mean, if they show up looking this OMFGAMAZING together for an interview, think what they can do together on screen. (Again, “But I’m a Cheerleader” turns 25 next year and wouldn’t it be OMFGAMAZING if we got to catch up on these women’s lives?) Make it so, universe. Make it so.

But Can We Have More Cheerleaders

While this post is not Yellowjackets specific, it is Yellowjackets adjacent given the presence of Melanie Lynskey. She and Clea DuVall and Natasha Lyonne had a “But I’m a Cheerleader” reunion last month and it’s doing by Gen X lesbian heart so much good. I did my own journalisming and found out the women reunited at a W magazine shindig celebrating “2023 Greatest Performances Occasion” or some banal party excuse like that. Clea and Melanie look like they arrived together, which also does my heart good. Honestly, can we just start casting Melanie in more lesbian shows, because she seems to be the common thread when it comes to series with queer female leads surviving the Cancel Your Gays axe for a second season (basically “The Last of Us” and “Yellowjackets”), which given her characters on both those shows is fairly ironic and not Alanis-ironic. I’d love a “But I’m a Cheerleader” sequel where we see these grown up women now. I mean, if they can keep churning out endless adaptations of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man, they can at least give us one more movie about lesbian cheerleaders, right?

Wilderness at Heart 2

How have we not discussed this trailer yet? Though, am I the only one annoyed by the addition of Elijah Wood? Like, I get it, shows add people in new seasons. But did it have to be a famous dude? Now his hobbity face and placid eyes will be all up in my female wilderness trauma and it just annoys me. Granted, things didn’t work out so well for Adam last season. So, if that’s the plan I will withdraw my previous complaint. But, yeah, can’t we just focus on having a phenomenal female cast for once?

Anyway, I don’t really know what’s in store for this new season. I mean we’ve already had murder, mystical woodland rituals, bear death and human popsicles, with heavy hinting at cannibalism. Speaking of new males, the trailer seems to show us a beardy fellow who might meet an untimely demise. So if in the end the person they eat is some rando forest dude instead of one of their team, honestly, I’d be here for that energy. I’m also very much here for the trailer showing off their casting department’s skill. Like, look at this masterful casting, just LOOK!

But, as a lesbian…supporter, I’m mostly here for the reunion between Taissa and Van. We got the Adult Van we wanted in Lauren Ambrose, and if you aren’t excited to watch former high school lesbian sweethearts turned wilderness survivors/possible cannibals who reunite as adults politicians/possible nerd store owners, well, it’s like we never survived a plane crash in the Canadian Rockies together or something.

My Weekend Crush

Even though she’s not queer/married to a perfectly nice fella, I’ve always believed Melanie Lynskey belonged to us gays. From the first time she smashed her way into our collective conscience as the quietly terrifying half of the deadly teenage wlw duo in “Heavenly Creatures,” Melanie has had at very least a queer friendly if not outright queer vein to her work. So, when queer comic Bec Shaw noted how smart “The Last of Us” was to give us some surprise Melanie in their first trailer, the immensely talented actress responded in kind. Then when a straight cis-het dude chimed in to pull attention, her polite yet firm dismissal of his self-centering was instantly iconic. Like, come on. (He was even so epically shamed, he then deleted it.) Yeah, she might not be gay. But The Gays nothing but approve/appreciate of her everything. Also, OMFG, is she freaking excellent in “Yellowjackets,” and how much can’t you wait for the second season to get here already? Happy weekend, all.

Join Us At the End of the World

Does the prospect of possible future lesbian content warrant current excitement? Probably, if it’s the highly anticipated first trailer for “The Last of Us,” the new HBO post-apocalyptic series based on the hit video game series. Now, I know, I still have a hard time with major media based on amusement park rides and video games. But, as someone with a gamer wife, I do now appreciate that today’s video games have unmistakable storylines and real character progression, which gives them a definitive edge over the animatronics of a theme park ride.

Anyway. The new TLOU adaptation is already giving us some very The Walking Dead vibes, what with the end of the world caused by a humanity decimating infection (in this case, it’s a fungus that makes humans into murderous mushroom heads who are definitely not zombies). Pedro Pascal apparently can’t get enough of shepherding the universe’s underage charges across dangerous landscapes (hello, The Mandalorian) because he plays Joel, a smuggler who promises to take a teenage girl (Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey who we last saw as the little badass ever, Lady Lyanna Mormont). The original video game came out on Playstation in 2013, and was followed up by a successful sequel in 2020.

And that’s where the gay stuff comes into it. If you were on Tumblr anytime in 2020 you probably already know because of the endless sea of gifs, but in the sequel the story picks up by following a now more grown-up Ellie who is still fighting to survive in the post-apocalypse but now also happens to also have a girlfriend. And, as mentioned above, there were endless clips and videos and gifs of Ellie and her girlfriend Dina all over Tumblr. So the new series puts us in the unusual position of rooting for the sequel before we’ve ever seen the original. But any show that drops a surprise Melanie Lynskey on us has gotta be good and gay. Also, in case the Lynskey bona fides weren’t enough, the series also stars Anna Torv. Yes, here I am now officially rooting for a video game show to succeed. Come on, sequel, come on.

My Weekend (SGALGG/GGALGG) Crush

While watching the Emmys on Monday I had the strangest sensations. Great winner after winner was named: Sheryl Lee Ralph, Quinta Brunson, Jennifer Coolidge, Lizzo, Jean Smart. Did I just experience JOY from an award show? Granted, the telecast ended up fizzling toward the end and then limped to the finish. And, of course, as with any award show, there was plenty of SGALGG. There were also plenty of GGALGG, as is now also always refreshingly the case. So please enjoy these moments of JOY and ladies enjoying being in the presence of other ladies. Though, if seeing newly minted Emmy winners Jean Smart and Sheryl Lee Ralph SGALGGing together doesn’t make you happy, what could? Happy weekend, all.

Jean Smart & Everyone

I mean, who wouldn’t want a chance to hold Jean’s hand, like Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan and Yellowjacket’s Tawny Cypress.

Or Maisel’s Alex Borstein and Yellowjackets co-stars Christina Ricci and Melanie Lynskey. Christina appears to also want a handful, and who can blame her.

Jean Smart & Hannah Einbinder

But no one called DIBS as hard as her “Hacks” co-star Hannah Einbinder. They already dream kissed in the show, so real life truly cannot be a stretch. (Yes, I know I know, very May-December.)

Quinta Brunson & Hannah Waddingham

Can Hannah resurrect her Shame Nun from Game of Thrones to shame Jimmy Kimmel for his disrespectful stunt during Quinta’s acceptance speech? Because, yeah.

Zendaya & HoYeon Jung

The future looks bright for young Hollywood. Now how about a “Squid Game” and “Euphoria” cross-over? I mean, the characters are all desperate and destructive in their own ways.

Lizzo & Zendaya

Joy. That’s all, just joy.

Christina Ricci & Reese Witherspoon

Are Christina’s Misty from “Yellowjackets” and Reese’s Tracy Flick from “Election” kind of spiritual twins? I mean, at least in the striving department. Possibly not the (possible) cannibalism. Also, props to Tawny for rooting for some good femslash between these two.

Sarah Paulson & Holland Taylor

Truly, no award show is complete without our royal lesbian couple gracing the red carpet, now with a new pert alternative lifestyle haircut to boot. Also, there arrival marks our official transition into GGALGG land.

Hannah Einbinder & Her Afterparty Suit

Did I mention she changed into this after the awards? Because, yes.

And it encouraged her to perhaps cheat, respectfully, on Jean. Just a little. But then if The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri wanted a bear bug, you’d give one too.

Ariana DeBose & Everyone

Not to be out-gayed, Ariana indeed had a gay old time at the Emmys. Like schmoozing with Amanda Seyfried.

Or canoodling with Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson in a mini “Rent” movie reunion.

And how about this epic kibitzing with none other than RuPaul across the aisle.

Finally, there’s this. Possibly the gayest thing to happen at the Emmys. Ariana. Bowen Yang. Kate McKinnon. Like the only way it could have been gayer is if Sarah and Holland photobombed them. Oh well, goals for next year.

Sting Like a Yellowjacket

Yellowjackets Hive, rise, RISE! So, unless you’ve been living under a rock or your plane crashed deep in the Canadian Rockies, you’ve probably heard about Showtime’s new cult-hit series “Yellowjackets.” The story of a championship high school soccer team who crash lands and then survives 19 months alone together in the wilderness is riveting to say the least. Also, there’s probably cannibalism. Think “Lord of the Flies” meets “Alive” meets “Jawbreaker/Mean Girls.”

Told in two concurrent timelines, directly after the crash and then 25 years later, the series has some of the best young actor to adult actor casting I’ve seen in quite some time. The adult cast includes a who’s who of Gen X actress excellence: Melanie Lynskey as adult Shauna, Juliette Lewis as adult Natalie, and Christina freaking Ricci as adult Misty. And their junior counterparts (Sophie Nélisse as young Shauna, Sophie Thatcher as young Natalie and Sammi Hanratty as young Misty) are no less impressive.

If you’ve watched you know the central mystery (well, mysteries) revolve around what actually happened out there in the woods. The repercussions of their survival still reverberate 25 years later. And, again, we haven’t even really gotten to the whole eating each other stuff yet.

In a way the frantic kinetic energy of “Yellowjackets” made the perfect foil to the raw pastoral calmness of “Station Eleven.” While their stories are clearly very different, their storytelling about the ending of the world — or at least the world as they knew it — both fall along Right After and Long After timelines. Both flash us to the present, while showing us how we got there. And both revolve around central female characters finding new ways to live amid unimaginable trauma.

Also, in another pleasantly unexpected parallel, Shauna from “Yellowjackets” and Kristen “Station Eleven” are perhaps the very definition of end-game Knife Girls. Like, it’d be a real competition to watch them field dress, say, a rabbit. Or an ex-lover.

The way their storytelling diverge also perfectly complements each series. “Station Eleven” is a limited series that ran just 10 episodes that told a carefully bookended apocalyptic tale about the power of art and the connections we make around it. “Yellowjackets” is a 10-episode-per-season series that has already been renewed for its sophomore turn and left us with so many tantalizing unanswered questions. Both those formats feel right. While obviously I would watch more “Station Eleven,” the symmetry of its beginning, middle and end (even through shifting timelines) feels right. Final. Whereas I can’t wait for more Yellowjackets madness, and the insane possibilities in this story.

Sting like a Yellowjacket

Now I know “Yellowjackets” technically started in 2021. The Showtime series debuted in late November, and has been unspooling episodes on Showtime ever since, with the finale set to air later in January. But in the crush of the end of the year, I didn’t have a chance to watch and I might have been saving it up to stream on a long winter’s night. Well, those nights have arrived and it’s time.

I’ve heard from a few critics who swear if this show was on a popular streamer like Netflix or Hulu it would be all people were talking about. The premise alone is amazing. A team of all-star high school soccer players flying to a tournament has their plane crash into the Canadian wilderness and aren’t rescued for almost a full year. We’re talking some serious “Lord of the Flies” meets Donner Party meets “Midsommar” vibes.

Now, 25 years later, the grown-up girls are still dealing with the repercussions of their struggle for survival. Did I mention it starts Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis and Melanie Lynskey as the grown-up versions of the girls? Yeah, I know, what have I been waiting for? Obviously, I was just saving it up for a better year. So, fingers crossed on both counts.