What I’m Watching: Pose (Series Finale)

Pose: Season 3, Episode 7 “Series Finale”

I had the pleasure of watching this episode in a parking lot with hundreds of other fans at a drive-in screening followed by a conversation with Ryan Murphy, creator Steven Canals, and stars Billy Porter and Mj Rodriguez. I started this show late after liking the pilot but deeming it not personally interesting to me, and I’ve become very fond of it since then, so it feels great to be able to close it out in a big and emphatic way. Three seasons doesn’t feel like enough for the story that this show has to tell, but it’s something, and this finale managed to wrap things up in a way that felt appropriate and heartwarming while paying tribute to the many lives lost and affected during this time period. Pray dying midway through the episode was devastating but fitting because it propelled everyone around him to take up his cause and fight in his name. Ricky realizing that he had only survived because Pray had given him his pills was a difficult moment, and it was comforting at least that they all had each other in that moment, the created family that has always been the soul of this show. I had hoped for a memorable final ball, and Pray and Blanca doing an epic lip-sync with costume changes was pretty spectacular. Skipping a few years to check back in with the four main women was wonderful, and I particularly loved Elektra talking about “Sex and the City,” a show she clearly did not watch. Having them all surprise Blanca at the ball with an esteemed honor was sweet, and introducing a new slate of young people being guided by these terrific mentors and not always sure of how well they’ll do was exactly the right note on which to end. I hope this show is a big player at the Emmys and other awards shows this year – it’s been quite a worthwhile and rewarding experience, and a terrific spotlight of a community that I’ll admit I know way too little about and rarely gets the showcase it should in media.

Series finale: B+
Series grade: B+
Season MVP: Mj Rodriguez as Blanca
Season grade: B+
Series MVP: Billy Porter and Mj Rodriguez
Best Season: Season 2
Best Episode: “Acting Up”

Emmy Catch-Up: Pose (Season Premiere)

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. This year, I’m getting a jump start to check out the entire season of some of most high-profile shows I didn’t watch when they originally aired.

Pose: Season 2, Episode 1 “Acting Up” (A-)

Unlike the other three shows that I’m watching as part of this Emmy catch-up and trying to convince myself to like, this one really impressed me in season one when I revisited some of the episodes after finding the pilot decent but not particularly relevant for me. Now, I recognize the importance of encountering topics that don’t feel familiar to me, and I’m glad the season two became available on Netflix so that I can follow the entire storyline. This episode felt so appropriate to watch in the current moment, most notably because its cast is actually representative of the people and community they portray, and it excelled both in terms of what its plot meant and its specific character development. The die-in on the church floor was exceptionally powerful, and this was a formidable hour for Billy Porter as Pray went from not being interested in joining Judy at the activist group meeting to publicly calling out Elektra for not showing up to the protest. The other MVP of this hour was Indya Moore, as we saw Angel get a shot at modeling in a public forum that didn’t define her as trans and forced to endure a photographer taking advantage of her inability to pay and her vulnerability. I’m glad that this season is moving away from Stan and Matt’s storyline and instead focusing exclusively on the characters who are facing the increasingly deadly AIDS epidemic, like Blanca, and the excitement that comes from Madonna’s voguing potentially helping some elements of this underground culture to go mainstream.