Cal Tolentino: Bodybuilder dates "Best Medicine's" Liam, rooms with Martin Herlihy, kisses a ninja. With two Cal d*cks.

 

Link to the n*de photos

I've been watching Best Medicine (2026) on Netflix: Josh Charles plays a gruff physician in a small town in Maine, where there are a surprising number of diseases with weird symptoms.  Turning blue?  Suddenly seeing birds?  I like the gay characters fully integrated into the community, like sarcastic teenager Liam (Josh Hoon Lee).  

In most episodes, Liam hangs out with two girls, Harley and Amelia.  But in Episode 1.9, at a high school "sleep-in," Amelia is replaced by Kyle (Cal Tolentino), joining them for a giant-sized Connect Four and a "Skeeter" game.   

In Episode 1.13, Kyle appears as the third of the rude teenagers again, protesting the plan to bring a salmon farm to the city, which would destroy the ecosystem. They're arrested for trespassing, which they find thrilling.  Later, they sit together at the wedding of gay couple Greg and George.

I couldn't figure out why the showrunners replaced the girl in the trio with a boy, except to imply that Kyle was dating one of the other two.  In my headcanon, he's dating Liam.

When I started researching the actor to see if he is gay in real life, I got a surprise:

The dude is built.

Cal grew up in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, about an hour west of Philadelphia.  He competed on American Ninja Warrior Junior, a reality show where you race through a multilevel obstacle course, beginning at age 11, then switched to the teen version, where he was a national finalist three times.  But he really wanted to be an actor, so the minute he got his driver's license at age 16, he started training at Playhouse West.  Also he changed his name from Caleb Plohoros to Cal Tolentino. From Greek to Italian?

While training, Cal was in three plays: A South Philly Christmas, Meisner, and Savannah. 

He broke into on-screen acting in 2025, with four short and a tv spot:

Hundred Dollar Brawler, about boxing. Cal plays the Hype Guy.

Guardians of the Outward Plain: A boy and his lion pal try to make human connections. Cal plays a Mechanic.

Godhead, not to be confused with the other 2025 Godhead short: A man searching for his lost brother stumbles into a sinister drug den. There are four characters other than addicts: Adam, Judas (Cal), and a Preacher (Sullivan Vaughan, backside on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

My Teenage Great Grandma, a vertical-format drama streaming on NetShort. A scientist dies in 1945 and re-animates as a teenager in 2025. Sounds wacky.  Cal's character appears halfway down the cast list.

Plus Cal and Peyton Carson wrote, directed, and starred in 4 AM: After a "rowdy Memorial Day Weekend," two guys try to go back to life as usual, but a text message results "in a painful test of trust." It's not available to stream, and I can't tell from the description and photos if they're buddies or boyfriends.

In 2026, Cal appeared in two episodes of Good Luck, Baby Girl, a short-form vertical series streaming on TikTok and Instagram.  It's about three girls trying to make it in L.A.

Two episodes of Best Medicine.

More after the break

Best Medicine: Josh Charles as a doctor in small-town Maine, with three gay characters, Josh's backside, and Segarra d*ck

 

Link to the n*de photos

I don't care for tv medical dramas (or comedies, which are medical dramas with jokes), but I remember Josh Charles from Wet Hot American Summer and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and there are some gay actors in the cast list, so I'll give Best Medicine on Netflix a try.

Ugh, the guy's name is Dr. Best.  Having the main character's name in a pun in the title?  That cliche was already ancient in the days of Get Smart and Hart to Hart.  I'm going to just call him Josh.

Scene 1:  Josh arrives at the picturesque town and stands in a long line at the bait store.  A woman gets in line behind him.  The cashier asks if she's ok.  She says she's fine, but starts to break down, and runs out.

Cut to Josh being interviewed for the job offf town physician.   The committee likes the font on his resume.  Uh-oh, the crying, "I'm fine" lady rushes in.  She's on the committee, too.  Love Interest: I called it.

They're ready to offer him the job, because he's the only one who applied, but Love Interest wants to ask a few questions, like "Why do you want to leave the Big City for a small town?"  Yeah, it's mostly women who do that, at Christmastime.

"Um...er...I...um..wanted a change..."  You burned some bridges back home, didn't you, Josh Baby?

Josh's backside is on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends

The father and son janitors (Carter Shimp, John DiMaggio) come in to break down the wedding arch.  "There was going to be a wedding," head interviewer explains, "But..."  

John DiMaggio voices Bender in Futurama.  Carter Shimp (left) may be gay in real life.  "So how's your bedside manner?" Love Interest asks.

"I don't have one. I use my incredible intellect to cure people of crazy diseases that no one has ever heard of.  They're usually happy."  

Everybody but Love Interest votes to hire him.  He starts immediately, and there are sandwiches.

Love Interest: "I don't trust you. You're sexy...um, I mean arrogant. I'm keeping my eye on you."

Josh: "Speaking of eyes, you might have glaucoma in your left eye.  See your opthamologist right away."

Scene 2: Josh arrives at the Salty Breeze, where proprietor Greg has keys to his office for him.  He introduces his "partner in work and in life," George (Jason Veasey)

Stephen Spinella is gay in real life, and was in the original production of Angels in America.  Jason Veasey keeps his s*xual orientation a secret, but he's on the board of directors of the LGBTQ youth organization Live Out Loud.  Good job of staying closeted, buddy.

They go into detail about why they left the Big City, their pet pig, and the wedding between the Sheriff (Josh Segarra) and Love Interest that got called off. 

The Sheriff arrives with more details: Love Interest dumped him two weeks before the wedding, but he's fine, he's enjoying his freedom, and he's planning a big party for the night he was supposed to get married. So they installed the wedding arch in City Hall two weeks in advance? 

The Sheriff's d*ck on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

Scene 3: Josh arrives at his office, actually a house, tries to shoo away a dog, and talks to a group of teenagers.  "Dr. Best?  More like Dr. Worst!"  "Is there a Mr. Dr. Best?"  "No, girl, he's from Bougie Boston."  "He's giving off hetero vibes!"  

Another gay character, maybe Liam, played by Josh Hoon Lee, who has a BFA in Musical Theater. Here he's playing Theo, best friend to Jack Hale's Pippin, at the Timber Lake Playhouse.  

Back to Josh: Inside his house/office, he meets his incompetent, content-creating receptionist and his first patient: Gilbert (Michael Potts) has gynecomastia (lady stuff).   "But don't tell my wife.  It's too humiliating."  Wouldn't she notice?

 Josh assures him that it's quite common in older men.  He wants to run some tests, but Gilbert will have to come back after Josh hires a nurse to draw some blood. 

"Why don't you do it?  The needles and tubes are right over there."

"Nope."  Josh rushes out.  Are you too good for phlebotomy, or are you afraid of blood?  A weird fear for a physician.

More after the break

"Welcome to Derry": "It" prequel with interesting monsters, Cold War paranoia, 1960s racism, and "bury your gays."

 

I haven't actually seen the 1990 miniseries and the 2017/2019 movie adaptions of Stephen King's It, with Tim Curry and Bill Skarsgard (left), respectively, playing the transdimensional "destroyer of worlds" who animates every 27 years to kill kids.  The original novel has a gay character (buried right away), and the 2017/2019 adaption has a gay-subtext guy, played by Jack Dylan Grazer and James Ransone, who sort of comes out in a blink-and-you-miss-it gesture. 

So I don't have high hopes for the tv series Welcome to Derry (2025).  The usual Stephen King heavily closeted and buried-right-away traditions will be compounded by the setting: 1962 (every 27 years, remember?).  But we'll give it a look.

Scene 1: The Music Man (1962) is playing on the big screen.  Young teenager Matty (Miles Eckhardt), sucking on a pacifier, watches.  Manager Cal yells at him for sneaking in without paying, and chases him into the lobby.  A girl covers for him (always kind, nurturing girls and blustering, bullying boys, innit?).  

Notice that it's Christmastime (actually January 4, 1962), and Matty has a black eye, signifying that he's a victim of abuse (obviously --what Stephen King kid hasn't been abused?)

Matty runs out into the snow, past a billboard reading "Welcome to Derry, Birthplace of Paul Bunyan."

Several towns claim to be the birthplace of the folk hero, including Ankely, Minnesota (where they hold Paul Bunyan days every summer), and Bangor, Maine.

Matty hitchhikes, and is picked up by a male-female couple, a Wednesday Addams-looking girl, and a young boy who spells out everythiing; "L-I-E-S,"  Not R-E-D-R-U-M? Asked where he's going, Matty says "Anywhere but Derry."

Weird family, bragging that the daughter is "our little harlot," and having the boy spell scary words like "necrosis," "kidnapping," "strangulation," and "cadaver."  "I want out!" Matty screams, and they repeat "Out! Out! Out!"  

Mom gives birth to a bloody bat-winged thing that flies around and attacks everyone before deciding to kill Matty.  

A very impressive scene. But what's with introducing a major character, then killing him off?

Scene 2: Four months later, April 1962.  A Femme Boy  is making a list of the fighter planes that fly by.  

The plane lands, and two soldiers get out: Russo and Hanlon (Jovan Adepo, seen here with his boyfriend in Watchmen). Russo complains about being stationed in small-town Derry, where nothing exciting ever happens, har har.  But the Big Boss notes that as the northernmost air force base in the U.S., it's essential to monitor Soviet air space and prep for Cold War era-nuclear war.  Wasn't Alaska a state in 1962?  

Hanlon has rented a house in town; he and the Missus are longing for "normal."

"Well, if normal is what you're looking for, you're going to love Derry."  Har-har.

Scene 3: Cut to the "idyllic" small town.  A year after Bay of Pigs led the world to the brink of nuclear war, everyone is on edge. At the high school, they practice "duck and cover."

A teen girl walks through the halls, getting stared at and pranked by jars of pickles.  Her friend consoles her.

Meanwhile, Femme Boy tells his boyfriend Teddy (Mikkal Karim Fidler), "We're not alone in the universe."  He doesn't mean gay people, seven years before Stonewall -- he means aliens.  Maybe they have one hidden in the Derry Air Base.  Boyfriend thinks he's crazy.  

"Teddy sucks balls" on his locker. Homophobic or all-purpose slur?

"Did you study for the test?"

"What's the point, when World War III is imminent?"

Femme Boy is played by Jack Molloy Legault, who fills his instagram with photos of his girlfriend.  But I assume that Mikkel Karim Fidler is gay in real life because, when his talent agency got him tickets to the advance screening of Karate Kid: Legends, his date was a boy. 

More after the break