There's something special about Ryan Murphy's Pose.
After all, the eight-part series features the largest transgender cast in television history. At least 13 trans actors in recurring roles – to be precise – with many of them newcomers.
But this isn't what makes the new FX drama airing on Showcase so remarkable. While a diverse cast shouldn't be taken for granted, we are living in an era when Laverne Cox can grace the cover of TIME magazine and identity politics is all the rage. It's just common sense for a TV show about queer people of colour to feature, well, queer people of colour.
Dominique Jackson as Elektra Abundance in Pose.
Nor is it extraordinary for Pose to beam complicated, three-dimensional queer characters into our living rooms. Shrugging off tired tropes (think the serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs) is, simply put, good writing.
Pose's real strength comes from the fact it resists easy categorisation. Does the show lend itself more to Murphy's so-called "camp" side? Are we meant to laugh or cringe when the House of Abundance steals royal garments from a local museum, slays the runway and is led away in handcuffs after the police finally catch up to them?
At other times, we gaze at something darker. There is a glimpse into the casual misogyny and transphobia rampant in gay spaces even in the seemingly liberal, open-minded world of New York. Not to mention the episode when the show zooms in on the treatment of people who dying of AIDS in the late 1980s.
The show teases and plays with expectations of pain and trauma. For instance, we expect something horrible to happen when the young, homeless dancer Damon is led into a dark, abandoned warehouse. Instead, his newfound boyfriend ends up respecting his boundaries. Tension, release. For a lot of shows on television with queer characters, there is a great deal of the former and not enough of the latter.
Ryan Jamaal Swain (left) as the young, queer dancer Damon.
Constantly seeing LGBTIQ people as victims – or monstorous caricatures – can become exhausting. By embracing a gentle, feel-good schtick while not shying away from discrimination, Pose reminds us that the queer trauma that's been fed to us for decades doesn't have to be the norm.
The series is also important because of its ability to serve as a history lesson to younger audiences: those too young to remember a time when large numbers of people in first-world countries were dying of HIV-related illnesses. There is value, too, in learning that the queer rights movement was kickstarted by drag queens and, in particular, trans women of colour.
Of course, there will be time to critique Pose. Such criticism will be necessary and legitimate. Equal treatment means placing queer texts under the same level of scrutiny as, say, a television drama about a nuclear family.
But for now, it's time to sit back and enjoy the show. Maybe even strike a pose.
Pose airs on Showcase Channel (Foxtel) on Tuesdays from 8.30pm and is also available on Foxtel Now.
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