******WARNING -- MAJOR SPOILERS*****
It's not that doomed love stories are my thing, exactly, but a lot of my favorite shows and films do feature them. And now I've added Black Sails to that list. Alas.
I adored the (unfortunately, very brief) relationship between James and Thomas. It was just SO lovely to watch their affection grow -- such warmth and respect on both sides and incredibly nuanced performances from Toby Stephens and Rupert Penry-Jones (two actors whose careers I've followed for a long time)!
Unfortunately, all of that made what happened to them SO difficult to watch, and it absolutely broke my heart. Those scenes made me cry, especially when Miranda revealed that Alfred had had Thomas institutionalized, and James's reaction to that news. So, so sad and painful! It took me quite a while to compose myself afterward, and even longer to go on to the next episode, with a very heavy heart.
Even though I've had my hopes dashed countless times, and for decades, I actually held out hope that, in 2015, the showrunners would be brave enough to have a male lead character involved in an ongoing romance with another man. And I should've known better, because, sadly, they were NOT. And because I'm watching months after the episode originally aired, I only just found out about the vehement homophobic backlash from some viewers, and "discomfort" of some higher-ups, that were likely responsible for TPTB whittling Rupert Penry-Jones's role down significantly.
I'm hugely disappointed that the squeaky-wheel, "uncomfortable" homophobes have had their way yet again, to the detriment of the media involved. It's also notable that this episode is the only one with more than one or two reviews (most have none), and those are overwhelmingly filled with homophobic vitriol about how Flint and the show were "ruined" by the revelation that he was bisexual; and the usual rants about Hollywood's gay agenda, blah blah; manly men aren't gay, blah blah; and *bigoted slurs*, blah blah.
I have to ask: Where's all the outrage over the extremely graphic female/female sex scenes? And, of course, making characters like Max and Anne gay totally ruined them forever, right? *sounds of crickets* Yeah, that's what I thought. As long as two women have sex for the titillation of the coveted male demographic, the more, the better! But have two men actually fall in love? OMG, the world's coming to an end!
Frankly, what disgusts me is encountering these tired, old double-standards and hypocrisies again and again.
It's not that doomed love stories are my thing, exactly, but a lot of my favorite shows and films do feature them. And now I've added Black Sails to that list. Alas.
I adored the (unfortunately, very brief) relationship between James and Thomas. It was just SO lovely to watch their affection grow -- such warmth and respect on both sides and incredibly nuanced performances from Toby Stephens and Rupert Penry-Jones (two actors whose careers I've followed for a long time)!
Unfortunately, all of that made what happened to them SO difficult to watch, and it absolutely broke my heart. Those scenes made me cry, especially when Miranda revealed that Alfred had had Thomas institutionalized, and James's reaction to that news. So, so sad and painful! It took me quite a while to compose myself afterward, and even longer to go on to the next episode, with a very heavy heart.
Even though I've had my hopes dashed countless times, and for decades, I actually held out hope that, in 2015, the showrunners would be brave enough to have a male lead character involved in an ongoing romance with another man. And I should've known better, because, sadly, they were NOT. And because I'm watching months after the episode originally aired, I only just found out about the vehement homophobic backlash from some viewers, and "discomfort" of some higher-ups, that were likely responsible for TPTB whittling Rupert Penry-Jones's role down significantly.
I'm hugely disappointed that the squeaky-wheel, "uncomfortable" homophobes have had their way yet again, to the detriment of the media involved. It's also notable that this episode is the only one with more than one or two reviews (most have none), and those are overwhelmingly filled with homophobic vitriol about how Flint and the show were "ruined" by the revelation that he was bisexual; and the usual rants about Hollywood's gay agenda, blah blah; manly men aren't gay, blah blah; and *bigoted slurs*, blah blah.
I have to ask: Where's all the outrage over the extremely graphic female/female sex scenes? And, of course, making characters like Max and Anne gay totally ruined them forever, right? *sounds of crickets* Yeah, that's what I thought. As long as two women have sex for the titillation of the coveted male demographic, the more, the better! But have two men actually fall in love? OMG, the world's coming to an end!
Frankly, what disgusts me is encountering these tired, old double-standards and hypocrisies again and again.