Eastsiders

I think the younger you are (if you're gay) the more this will resonate with you. The writing is uneven, but the starting premise is interesting. It's infidelity but not just simple infidelity. And the production values and photography are both fine.

Overall, the gay characters are better done than the straight characters. The gay characters are more underwritten, e.g., the actors communicated with their faces/bodies a lot, which is a good thing; it wasn't so dialog driven. The straight characters on the other hand seemed overwritten and, frankly, unconvincing.

As the episodes progress, some of the coincidences are a bit much. And the way people relate to each other doesn't always seem real. A lot of the time it does, but a lot of the time it doesn't.

For those of you with a lot more life experience this will be harder to take. For example, the art gallery/art world shown is like somebody's idea of what that world is like, rather than what it's really like. That's true for a lot of things, including some relationships. However, most of the gay hook ups/relationships were plausible to me because, well, been there done that.

Still, I found this very watchable, even though I knew the quality was just above average. But like I say, the younger you are, the more likely you will be to enjoy it.

Set in what appears to be Silverlake in LA, Eastsiders describes itself as a "dark comedy"...but the writing had nothing worth laughing at. The ACTING on the other hand was in fact laughable in a face-palm kind of way-- an example being one of the leads, John Halbach, obliviously miscast as a straight character...because his boyfriend, the writer and other lead (surprise!) didn't have the courage to say, "oh, honey...no...you don't "do" straight very well". This is one of those projects where all the parts were written as vehicles for these aspiring writer-director-actors to showcase their particular abilities (or lack thereof) to potentially catch someone's eye for future projects (an example being a scene where one particularly bland actor, Matthew McKelligon gets to speak Schweizerdeutsch..to show he can). Luckily, however, this forum did appear to help a certain brilliant and amazing star, Constance Wu (who was the ONLY reason I watched this mess). Although the writing for her is pretty much as predictable and stale as the rest of the characters (all of whom seem to be written in the tone of an ultra-liberal male feminist), she is the only actor who actually carried the scenes and personalized the character to any depth (she is the only one who really stands out as having formal training). In fact, these 4 VERY generous stars are only because of Constance, who I'm hoping will not have this mess come back to haunt her, in what I hope is a very long and successful career.

Okay, not really, but there is one scene with some amusing concealment of - gasp! - male genitalia.

Eastsiders is the story of the relationship between Cal, played by Kit Williamson, and Tom, played by Van Hansis.

I had recently seen Van Hansis in something else, and really liked his performance, very natural, and unforced, and he was the reason I chose to watch this show. Mentioning why I chose to watch, as I don't usually watch relationship stuff, and comedy/drama rarely works for me. Also, based on reviews, I don't think I would have watched this.

In short, I really enjoyed Eastsiders, as an entertainment. It's funny. Also, sometimes sad, but for my tastes much more light than dark.

Yes, these people are whiny, and self absorbed, but other than the Dalai Lama, and Mother Theresa, who isn't?

Yes, the sex is unrealistic, but for those who want graphic adult situational type content, I understand there is some available on the internet.

Going off on a tangent, the visual highlight of this series was Colby Keller, who played Arlen, someone Cal and Tom meet on their travels. I think I have seen him in something before, but I have no idea, at all, what that was.

Loved Traci Lords as Val, Cal's mother, having a great time, swilling Martini's. Alcoholics are often fun, until they're not.

Enjoyed John Halbach's satirical representation of heterosexuality, as the character Ian. I think it's satire, due to how many times he calls his girlfriend "babe", as no one actually does that, right? Or do they? IDK.

It's a mixed bag for sure, but for me it was enjoyable escapism, with occasional touches of reality, the pain of being different, but then normal is what most everyone pretends to be, but no one is.

The production quality is standard and I like the short episode format. That's about the best thing I can say about this mostly unrealistic "day in the life of" 21st century gay America. The juvenile dialogue is often disjointed and shows no relation to the age of the actors/characters. Having come of age in gay Toronto and Miami Beach in the 80's and 90's, I find this portrayal of gay men in their 20's and 30's heartbreaking and irresponsible. There seems to be a disconnect between the inferred college level education the characters portray and the poorly developed ideas that come out of their mouths. The characters are way overly contrived. For a more reasonable and realistic portrayal of gay life in California try the 2019 version of Tales of the City. The characters here struggle with all of the same things as do the characters in Eastsiders, but the characters in Tales of the City are much more believable and relatable, even if the story line is somewhat implausible.

When Eastsiders hits the sweet spot it's great. Touching, authentic, funny, and sad - all the feels! But in between the splendid highs is a lot of relationship and existential navel gazing. I get it that 20-somethings into the 30-somethings are inclined to wonder out loud a lot about where they've been, where they're going, who they're going with yadayada but this ensemble are way to easily distracted by their own self-importance. Personally, I think the writing and character development improves over the seasons, although I loved the short-format of its early days. It never gets any less unbelievable that everyone in Silverlake knows each other, are hot as anything and have great sex all over the place, but these aren't exactly drawbacks. Traci Lords and Willam Belli playing it for the cheap seats are fabulous. I really like Eastsiders a lot. It's good tv and way overdue in the 21st century.