It all ends with a kiss.
And we are instantly confused, or should we be? The last episode of the show gives us only Frasier and Cait, and that makes total sense because they are the show – we have been following their journey of who they are, and we get more questions than answers here, but in my opinion, we also get resolutions.
We see Cait’s family packing – Chicago first and then Okinawa? – and then we have Frasier and Cait going to Bologna to see Blood Orange. They take the train and end up somewhere in the middle of their journey, only to meet kids on their way to the concert. One of the kids is Luca, who we see connecting with Frasier with their mutual love of fashion. You can see in Cait’s eyes how she felt – am I gonna lose him to Luca? This gets exacerbated when they ‘lose’ each other once they got to the concert venue. But then Cait gets her own moment with the bartender. Somehow she ends up backstage meeting Blood Orange, and she gets ‘confronted’ when the bartender asks her ‘You are a trans guy, right?’ This scares her, and she runs away, running back to the train station to go home. Meanwhile, Frasier’s own moment comes when he kisses Luca, and he in turn has his own realization after that when Luca asks him to ‘one of the most beautiful places on earth,’ the arc at San Luca. He runs to the train station looking for Cait. He finds her inside the train and the two of them run back to San Luca. And then they kiss.
So does the show end with both of them ending up as a couple? There is ambiguity in that but I disagree. These are kids who have realizations on the same night, and they both ‘give up;’ what could have been to go back to each other. I think their kiss symbolizes the feeling of affection they have for each other – at that age, it was the only way they could express that overwhelming feeling for each other. We can look at this objectively because maybe we have already gone through our own journeys, but for these two, they are just feeling these feelings for the first time in their lives. There is confusion, but there’s also that euphoria that comes with all that.
I think this is still a bittersweet ending for me. When they get back to the base, they will probably part and who knows when they will see each other again. I started writing this because of parallels to ‘Call Me By Your Name’ and this excursion in Bologna reminds me of Elio and Oliver’s last trip to Bergamo before the train scene. There’s joy in the time they are together, but they both know they will leave each other the next morning.
And there we are. I have read articles that during the lockdown, Luca Guadigno has made a bible for these characters for a second season. That will be great, but maybe not necessary. The great thing about this show is how it told these character’s story in snapshots. The last kiss is a perfect ending, and maybe it should be left that way.
Under Putin’s regime right now, gay people are in danger in Russia. It’s unfathomable, but we see all the danger in David France’s documentary ‘Welcome to Chechnya,’ and it is a depressing, sobering, and disturbing watch. In the region of southern Russia’s Chechnya, gay people are haunted, tortured, and killed because of their sexual orientation. In the film, we see alarming footage of gay men whose cars are stopped, then are beaten to death by the police. A famous singer, Zelim Bakaev, visits his sister’s wedding, and suddenly disappears, and up until now, no one really knows what happened to him. We see a young girl call the crisis hotline because a young woman, Anya, has been found out by her uncle, and is blackmailing her for sex so he would not snitch to her father, who is a Government official – we see her later being smuggled out successfully. Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the region, laughs off questions about these human rights abuses, saying ‘ We don’t have that kind of people here – we ship them to Canada.’ The film is riveting, and made me want to do something to help these people. The Trump administration is a travesty to gay rights, but we still enjoy a lot of freedom here not afforded in other places. In some ways I feel lucky, but the film. ultimately made me want to throw up.
I knew that ‘I Know This Much Is True’ was going to be tough. I remember reading the book during a week-long vacation in Provincetown and what a miserable (and engrossing) read that was. Strangely, though, I do not remember much from the book, except that it was very dark and heavy. I had to get myself in a mod to finally watch the first episode of the mini-series, and I finally did. And boy, was this heavy. Mark Ruffalo plays twins here, and it is a dual role of a lifetime. There’s Thomas, a schizophrenic, who in the beginning of the show is seen at a library where he saws his hand. And there’s Dom, who bears the brunt of his whole family, from his mother’s cancer to his stepfather’s controlling ways. There’s a harrowing scene where Dominic is asked by the doctor as to whether he was giving permission to reattach Thomas’ severed hand. Of course, he wants to do it, but Thomas is screaming at him to please don’t. And as he says later he made a decision to not do it because ‘for once, Thomas once tp have control over something in his life.’ Ruffalo is a great actor, for sure, and maybe it’s just me, but I have to get used to Thomas as hysterical and loud, as Ruffalo is normally more nuanced. It will be really tough for me to continue watching this, as I ask myself, do I need to go through something this bleak in this time of pandemic? But if there is anything that’s luring me back, it will be Ruffalo’s acting.
Drag queens are fun and all, but I just find the mainstream incarnation of them to be pretty boring. I come from that age when the ones I like had different personalities, and their personalities came from their brains and not their eyelashes. I have not really seen any Ru Paul’s Drag Race anything, so I found myself wondering why I sat there sitting and watching the premiere episode of HBO’s “We’re Here.”
Who would have thought s documentary about the McDonalds Monopoly game fraud would be so…exciting for me? At first, I didn’t really think I would be too interested in ‘McMillions,’ the HBO Documentary about the Monoploy game from McDonalds from the late 90s. I remember playing the game myself, matching the pieces with a paper game board I got from the Sunday magazine. But I was never a fanatic of the game, and for some reason I am not sa big McDonalds fan, too. I like their fries, and their breakfast sandwiches, but their burgers bore me. And where was I when all this was going on and being reported in the news? I have no recollection of this big story, or I wasn’t paying attention? I don’t know if that helped my enjoyment of the series, but I was definitely fascinated by the story. The six-part series is well done, and it is one of those binge-worthy show. I had other things on my plate, but I found myself going back to the show over and over to see how it all played out. The cast of characters are fascinating, starting with FBI Agent Doug Matthews, who seems like an instant film. character – over the top, larger than life. I don’t know if I would trust him myself, but for the show he is pure gold. And the rest of people involved were all interesting, and the narrative took you places you didn’t would, from the New York area mob families to Mormon parishioners. I was riveted, and there were mysteries upon mysteries: How did Jacobsin get the tickets? Who was the informant? In the end, I was craving a Big Mac.
I have been meaning to watch ‘Years and Years’ for a while now, even before it aired on HBO. Firstly because of Russell Tovey, and second because its creator, Rusell T Davies, also did ‘Queer As Folk’ years ago, so I thought this would have substantial queer content (it has) But then I read 
I have been watching, and fascinated, by Mrs. Fletcher, the mini series on HBO. I saw and wrote about the first episode, and I have only been enticed by it, binge-watching the rest of the episodes. I was engrossed and enthralled by it, by the story of Eve Fletcher, who suddenly finds herself caught in an empty nest after her son goes to college. I noted in the first episode that Eve instantly caught my empathy, after her son treats her like shot before leaving for college. Brendan, the son, finds himself in a uncomfortable environment now that he is away for school – he used to be the popular guy, the king of his high school, but now he has to find his way around his new environment. I found these two parallel stories very interesting, as they are both thrust into their respective situations and need to find their ways.
I have not read Tom Perrota’s novel ‘Mrs. Fletcher,’ but I am told it is about porn. So that has made me interested in the new HBO limited series ‘Mrs. Fletcher.’ You kind of do nto get that from the first episode of the show, which just sets up Mrs. Fletcher’s scenario. Played by Kathryn Hahn, who is almost always sensational, this Mrs. Fletcher is a sad sack of a mother, whose son is off to college, and the son is a huge ass-wipe, who has no manners, treats his mother – all women, actually – as crap. When she tearfully leaves him in college, he responds by wanting her out as soon as she can, and she is left with a bottle of rose and her laptop. You feel for Mrs. Fletcher at once, her situation is dire, and you know she is bound for some kind of awakening (from the looks of it, sexual) While I look forward to that, it also seems like her son Brendan is due for some kind of comeuppance when he is left in college, no longer the big and popular guy in school. I am immediately hooked in the show now, and look forward when porn comes in. Well, the idea of it in relation the series, anyway. I don’t think the show is one.
Luha Thoughts 