HBO’s LGBT History: Sex on TV

Manuel is working his way through all the LGBT-themed HBO productions.

Last week we had a ball spending time with Big and Little Edie at Grey Gardens. This week, I wanted to do something a little different so I picked out six key gay sex scenes from HBO’s TV history to talk about the network’s unabashed attempts at indulging its audiences in rather raunchy scenarios.

HBO, untethered to the whims of the FCC and its attendant parochialism, has often flaunted its ability to depict sex openly. From its Real Sex docs to Game of Thrones, this has been a great selling point for the network: “It’s not TV, it’s HBO… and that means we can get away with some serious nudity, guys!” Thus, while LGBT representation on network television was often chided for closeting actual sex (think Will & Grace, Ellen), HBO was able to offer titillating scenes that openly addressed and even represented sex as an integral part of these character’s lives.

In an era where every other American Horror Story episode will offer plenty of skintastic gay sex, and where network dramas like Empire and How to Get Away with Murder have been giving us hot and heavy scenes that keep pushing what’s allowed on prime time, some of these scenes may look quaint, but it is undeniable that they definitely paved the way for the embarrassment of riches we are now confronted with. Lots of NSFW goodies ahead!

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'Sherpa' and 'Only the Dead' Capture the Escalation of Tragedy

Glenn here to discuss two Australian films on Oscar's documentary long list.

Jennifer Peedom’s Sherpa began life as an otherwise unassuming documentary about a man most people would never get to know. If the production of this Australian-made documentary about Mount Everest’s most revered guide had continued as planned, it would have no doubt been an informative and satisfying portrait of Phurba Tashi and his people – the Sherpa are an ethnic group – as well as their quiet village life in the mountains of Nepal.

But the production didn't go as planned...

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We didn't need dialogue. We had FACES (1968)

The Honoraries: Debbie Reynolds in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (1964)

This week we're celebrating the three Honorary Oscar winners. Here's abstew on Debbie Reynolds' favorite role.

Molly Brown is my favorite of all the roles I've played. I love something about almost every part I've done, but I identified with Molly as soon as I met her. In the sometimes blurry line between art and and real life, Molly is the woman I've become as the years have passed. I'm right there with her when she declares, "I ain't down yet!"

-Debbie Reynolds Unsinkable: A Memoir

In her decades long show business career, amid the watchful eye of media scrutiny, Debbie Reynolds has endured trials and tribulations and come out the other side of it stronger. Caught in a Hollywood scandal, the original jilted girl-next-door (long before Jennifer Aniston was even born), Reynolds stood by while then husband Eddie Fisher left her and her two young children for screen siren Elizabeth Taylor. Her luck with men didn't improve later as second husband Harry Karl spent years gambling away her hard-earned money, leaving her with mounting debts to cover. Even her dream of finding a permanent home to house her legendary collection of movie memorabilia never came to pass and forced her to put them up for auction. So you can see how playing a character like the real life Molly Brown, who survived the sinking of the Titanic, earning her the moniker "Unsinkable", would find a kindred spirit in the guise of feisty spitfire Debbie Reynolds. The actress, like the legendary woman, simply doesn't know what it means to be defeated...

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DVD: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Pimp

New on DVD & BluRay this week are three films which awards season completists will need to see...

• Mr Holmes in which 76 year-old spry Sir Ian McKellen is aged up to play the world's most famous detective at 93 years of age as he mind begins to deteriorate. Mr Holmes was a leggy arthouse hit this summer but can that be converted into an awards run for Sir Ian? We shall see...
• Tangerine, one of the year's best films, follows Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) & Alexandra (Mya Taylor), best friends & hookers, as they search for Sin-Dee's boyfriend/pimp (James Ransone) who cheated on her "with real fish!" during her latest prison stint. It's the most unexpected and awesome Christmas comedy ever. It's already snagged multiple Gotham nominations but pray for Golden Globe, BFCA, Spirit nominations and top ten lists because this Sean Baker gem deserves them.
• Trainwreck, or The Coronation of Amy Schumer as 2015's It Girl. Expect Golden Globe Comedy nominations

Also out this week

• Star Wars Episodes I-VI Steel Book Collection
  The amount of times they've convinced people to buy the Star Wars films in different versions / formats is like Swindling Achievement of the Century right?
• Pay the Ghost in which Nicolas Cage collects another paycheck. He collects loads of them but they surely have less zeroes on them by now.
• Self/Less in which Ben Kingsley steals Ryan Reynolds body (I mean... who wouldn't?)
• We'll Never Have Paris a romantic comedy with Melanie Lynskey, Simon Helberg, Maggie Grace, and Zachary Quinto
• Two Men in Town a restoration of the 1973 French ex-con drama with Jean  Gabin, beautiful Alain Delon, and young Gerard Depardieu