#DELIGHTED BY DISCOVERY OF “SLICE OF LIFE SITCOMS”

[gumjester]

I FEAR I MUST ANNOUNCE THAT WE HAVE ENTERED FULL FLEDGED COMFORT MEDIA TERRITORY WITH LONG-RUNNING TIKTOK SKIT SERIES BISTRO HUDDY ..... ITS SO FUN!! the characters r so well-written and well-acted and the premise is so cute and lends itself to shenanigans and what-ifs.. the dynamics are everything. you are all about to receive fan content you never signed up for!!!!!!! god bless drew Talbert and his six thousand wigs

[bellabooks]

“The Bold Type” is boldly refreshing

‘I appreciate you,’ budding journalist Jane Sloan (played by delightfully doe-eyed Katie Stevens) tells her best friend as she drops her underwear, preparing to have said friend retrieve a stuck yoni egg from her vagina after a failed attempt to achieve her first ever orgasm. I knew that Freeform was becoming more daring with its programming, and needed something big to replace the seven year hype of Pretty Little Liars, but I definitely didn’t expect to see this on their new summer show The Bold Type. The show, based on the life of Joanna Coles, the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine, follows the lives of three charming twenty-somethings as they try and make it at Scarlet Magazine, where they all started out together as assistants four years previously. The show originally caught my attention when the casting announcement included Katie Stevens and Aisha Dee of Faking It (RIP, so much wasted potential) and Chasing Life respectively. I figured it could be fun and the dropping of everyone’s favourite f-bomb in the trailer when Dee’s character explicitly refers to Scarlet as a feminist magazine left me feeling hopeful. And oh boy, did the two hour premiere exceed my expectations. The chemistry between Jane, Kat (Dee) and Sutton (Meghann Fahy) is delightful to watch, and they all play off of one another wonderfully when delivering the surprisingly smart comedy weaved into the show’s writing. I had feared that ‘feminist’ would be used as a buzzword and then promptly forgotten about, but much of the premiere’s first hour is devoted to emphasising Scarlet’s position as a feminist beauty publication, and how those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. Their sex pieces focus on women’s relationship with porn or, as seen in the second hour, women’s reluctance to express dissatisfaction with their partners. This element of journalistic integrity is reminiscent of recent goings-on with the likes of Teen Vogue, a publication that has recently put more work into championing minority voices and discussing the previously undiscussed. In the opening hour, we see Kat, the magazine’s social media director, try and convince Muslim photographer and activist Adena (Nikohl Boosheri) to reconsider letting Scarlet cover her upcoming series after having pulled out over feeling that the magazine wasn’t the right publication for her work. Kat opens Adena’s eyes up to the feminist nature of Scarlet, and Adena, in turn, opens Kat up to feelings that are a little new to her. You know, gay type feelings. The main conflicts of the premiere’s second hour emerge in a scene with the three girls chatting in a closet in a way that suggests they’ve done this a thousand times before. Sutton is going to be interviewed by the man she’s been sleeping with for a job she’s not sure she wants, (I care about this plot just as much as I care about every other show where one of the leads is sleeping with an older, uncharismatic white guy – which is to say, not at all) and Kat had a sex dream about Adena. Sutton says, ‘wow, we’re gonna have to unpack this,’ in the same excited way we’ve seen the girls talk about countless other issues in their lives in the fifty minutes or so we have known them, before being interrupted by Jane confessing she’s never had an orgasm. The lack of climaxing in Jane’s life is seen by the trio as a bigger shock than Kat’s feelings towards Adena, which is really great in a lot of ways, and the show commits to exploring different aspects of female sexuality within the lives of their three leads. Kat spends the rest of the episode trying to figure out if she likes Adena or if she likes Adena. She totally gets the ‘girl thing,’ she says, but could never get passed the whole being up close and personal with another person’s vagina, so surely she’s straight: ‘I’m hetero. Totally hetero. I’m hetero, right?’ She basically sent her a nude with a heart emoji covering her boobs, but she’s straight, right? She’s not particularly convincing however, as the second she spots Adena at her exhibition, her eyes turn into giant hearts and you can all but hear the string quartet playing in her head. ‘Gay. Straight. I don’t know. I don’t think it matters,’ she tells Jane when she asks why she’s spent the night avoiding Adena. What would be wonderful would be if Kat comes to a point in her story in which the writers start using the word ‘bisexual.’ Dee’s previous show Chasing Life (also of Freeform) was one of the few shows that had their queer lead character, Brenna, repeatedly label herself as bisexual, particularly when others tried to slap ‘straight’ or ‘gay’ on her instead. At this point in the show, however, this lack of labelling reflects Kat having no idea what’s going on other than some very obvious feelings for Adena. When Kat decides to put all feelings of nervousness aside and just go for it, only to see Adena receiving a well-timed kiss from her supposed girlfriend, Jane and Sutton’s previous refreshing nonchalance turns to comfort and concern. ‘You’re not an idiot,’ Sutton assures her. ‘You’re the bravest person I know.’ And there’s something so lovely about this whole mini-journey Kat’s been through in this episode. The idea of being attracted to someone of the same-sex isn’t a big deal to any of the girls. Coming to terms with maybe, actually, being queer, seems a little heavier for Kat, but even then she seems to have few reservations when it comes to determining what this really means. But when she ends the episode a bit heartbroken, her friends acknowledge that her decision to put herself out there – to act, rather than repress – was really brave. The Bold Type seems to be getting the balance between millennial acceptance of, and engagement with, queerness, and the realities of each queer individual’s journey of self-discovery just right. The secrecy and shame that tends to shroud coming-out journeys on television is completely absent here. The process is still significant, but it is something that Kat is curious about, rather than fearful. There’s something a little Broad City to it at times. A little bit Ugly Betty. A bit Sex and the City. It has me laughing out loud in way that is usually only achieved by sitcoms. It is dripping with female friendships, feminism, sex-positivity and a unique depiction of queerness that is truly refreshing to watch unfold. All this being said, it’s still a Freeform show. The characters still walk down hallways in slow motion while ‘inspirational’ pop music plays overhead, and any scene of them waking up in the morning looking flawless makes you want to punch yourself in the face just a little bit. Whilst a nice change from women being pitted against one another, Scarlet’s editor-in-chief, Jacqueline (Melora Hardin) is, at times, just a little too nice and attentive for someone who has an entire magazine to run, and the mentor-student relationship between herself and Jane seems slightly unearned to a viewer who is just coming into this world. But it’s a level of cheesiness and cliché that is absolutely worth embracing, because when it comes down to it, it’s just so damn nice to watch women succeed. There’s a lot of dark TV airing at the moment, and The Bold Type is a fun, genuine show that cuts right through that. This show is doing so many great things in its first two episodes alone, but Kat and Adena’s connection is by far one of the most engaging. They push one another and support one another. They’re both teasing and political and they both care. There’s a standout scene where Kat asks Adena why she chooses to wear her hijab, and it hits you just how incredible it is that this show is pushing an interracial relationship between two women of colour as its current main romantic relationship. I’m tentatively invested, as we’ve all been burned by shows’ queer potentials too many times before, but there’s something about The Bold Type that has me willing to trust it. Plus, I’m way too charmed by Aisha Dee and her beyond excellent comedic timing to stop anytime soon. So I’m just going to hope for the best, and enjoy this little slice of joyful television once a week. Feel free to join me. Rachel Innes is a recent UEA literature graduate and aspiring writer. On a mission to ‘queer up’ the media, she is also devoted to hunting down the world’s very best espresso martini and she won’t rest until she finds it. http://dlvr.it/PVL4bm