Couch Potato : Queer Streaming

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DID YOU KNOW?

When the celebrated film ‘Call Me By Your Name’ was screened at the New York Film Festival in 2017, it received a 10-minute standing ovation, the longest recorded in the festival’s 55 years.

UNCOUPLED

NETFLIX

Created by Darren Starr, the comparisons to Sex and the City were going to be inevitable for this great little series which follows forty-something real estate broker Michael (Neil Patrick Harris) back into New York City’s gay dating scene after the break-up of his 17-year relationship. Thankfully friends Stanley (Brooks Ashmanskas) and Billy (Emerson Brooks) have his back, as does work colleague Suzanne (Tisha Campbell). We loved it; it’s light, fun and witty. There are only eight easily binged episodes with no word yet on a second season as yet. Figures crossed.

ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE

PRIME VIDEO

Best known for his Emmy-winning role in Pose, Billy Porter turns his attention behind the camera to make his directorial feature debut with this high school set teen romance story. Kelsa (Eva Reign) is a confident transwoman navigating her senior year when romance blossoms with classmate Khal (Abubakr Ali). Cue all the highs and lows that accompany any teen romance but with added Gen Z complications. Anything’s Possible is a romance that showcases the joy, tenderness, and pain of young love.

FIRE ISLAND

DISNEY +

Best friends set out to have a legendary week-long summer vacation with the help of cheap rosé and a group of eclectic friends. Writer Joel Kim Booster takes Jane Austen’s most famous story, Pride and Prejudice, to the sunny boardwalks of New York’s infamous Fire Island where Noah (Booster) and his friends make their annual pilgrimage to stay with den mother Erin (Margaret Cho). Noah’s mission this year is to get best friend Howie (Bowen Yang) some summer lovin’, that is if he can avoid the distraction that is handsome but gruff Will (Conrad Ricamora). Andrew Ahn (Spa Night) directs.

PARALLEL MOTHERS

BINGE

Parallel Mothers follows the lives of two first-time single mums who meet in a hospital. Both about to deliver, they become entwined in ways only those in a Pedro Almodóvar film could. What unfolds next for Janis (Penélope Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit) is best left for the viewer to discover; needless to say, it involves secrets and lies (and melodrama). Cruz is always excellent under Almodóvar’s direction, and she’s arguably doing career-best work here, fully deserving of her Best Actress Oscar nomination; Smit is equally as good at navigating the tricky emotional terrain.