Friday, November 10, 2006

"Grey's Anatomy" -- The Gay Subtext

Actually, make that the gay text. last night's episode was filled with gay and gay-ish content. The natural tendency after finding out an actor is gay (as when TR Knight aka George O'Malley came out) is to watch his work and giggle over any unintentional jokes. Well, this episode didn't take long. All the male leads went...wait for it...camping. Pitching a tent next to them was a gay couple, with O'Malley clueing in the older Dr. Webber (obviously, O'Malley's gaydar is good). Cue the reference to "Brokeback Mountain" and the older doc's insistence that "man love" is cool as Knight/O'Malley looks pained. Then O'Malley Karev get in a fight but in order to protect their hands they must have a slapfest. And to top it off, Dr. Burke (Washington) -- in a development in place long before the on-set fights -- has a hand tremor. It would shake up the show's plotline, but that could give the producers an out if they want to dump Isaiah Washington, who fought with Patrick Dempsey and called Knight a faggot, causing that actor to decide to out himself. Actors will have spats, but that sort of vile behavior should be unacceptable. Imagine if another actor on the show slurred Washington. Would he be expected to grin and bear it? I don't think so. Dump him.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two more...

1. The man undergoing a sex change operation to become a woman despite the fact that the hormone therapy has caused cancer. Even more intriguing was the decision by his wife to stay married.

2. The tension between Addison and Calli. Something is definitely going to happen between those two. I wonder if Dr. McSteamy will be able to handle the fact that he drove two women to lesbianism, or if he'll just try to join in (most likely option B).

Anonymous said...

One other note...I think I read that the fight between Washington and Dempsey took place on the set of the camping scene. Maybe...and this is a reach here...Washington is a homophobe and all the gay subtext that you pointed out had him in a particulary prickly mood, eventually leading to his comment and the ensuing tussle.

Michael in New York said...

To be honest, I fastforwarded through the hospital scenes just to focus on the camping subplot, so I missed that one. I've noticed the tension too, theyll probably have the lesbian kiss now that the show is in sweeps. McSteamy will OBVIOUSLY be cool w it if he gets to join in or at least watch. I didn't know the fight took place during the filming on location. That would definitely make sense as far as all the gay stuff putting him on edge. Two men holding hands briefly? Who WOULDN'T freak out over that?