Prisma (Prism): Italian Teen-Dream Twins, One Gay/Nonbinary/Trans, and the Second A Series of the Season

 Prisma, an Italian teen drama on Amazon Prime, features identical twins who "approach life in a very different way."  It's labeled LGBTQ, so here goes.  The episodes are named after colors: #1 is "Red."

Scene 1: A party in the town square. Andrea (Mattia Carrano, right) and his two buds are encouraging his twin brother, Marco (also Mattia),  to go talk to a girl he likes. That's quite a large cheering squad. He approaches in slow motion, while her hair blows in the wind, Girl of His Dreams-style.   The three buddies look on eagerly.  But before he can inch his way across the square, Dream Girl is called away. Opportunity lost! 

Scene 2: Later, at the bar, Andrea approaches Carola, the Girl of Marco's Dreams, and flirts with her -- as Marco!  Then he returns to his friends and reports that he has broken the ice for his brother.  This upsets Marco, who storms out.

Scene 3: Four months earlier. Andrea enters the very elegant house and sees smashed crystal and blood on the floor.  Something is wrong!  He rushes into the basement to find Marco with a torn and bleeding arm, nearly unconscious from blood loss. "We have to get you to the hospital!"  

Now:  Andrea comes home from the party, climbs into bed, and texts someone named "His Highness."  An online boyfriend?  Marco comes in, pouting, and insists that he apologize (some beefcake as he gets undressed). 

Plot dump; tomorrow they will be starting at separate schools, as Marco will be going to the next level, but Andrea is a screw-up and has to repeat the year. This is supposed to be LGBTQ-themed.  We've established that Marco is hetero. That leaves Andrea?

Scene 4: Breakfast with the twins' dad and preteen sister.  Andrea gets a phone call; Dad won't believe that it's from a friend: probably he's still dealing drugs. 

Andrea goes to his new school, and enters a classroom full of girls. The sole boy, Fabio (Vittorio Aisa),  aka Snuggles, is thrilled to see another boy.  Yeah, girls are gross.  Andre snubs him and sits by the window.  A girl comes in late. Andrea stares.

Flashback to Andrea and the girl -- Nina -- dating, making out, cooking together.  Wait -- he has an arm injury.  Is this Marco?  I can't really tell them apart.  Then Andrea/Marco catches her in bed with another girl, and dumps her.  That must be the LGBTQ part.

Now he glares angrily at her. How dare she be enrolled in the same school as me?  

Scene 5:  Marco's Dream Girl complains about Andrea pretending to be his brother at the party last night.   "He's the worst...arrogant!" Uh-oh, that's a sure sign that she's into him.  She invites Andrea/Marco's Lesbian Ex  to hang out with her and her boyfriend, Daniele.  But no one else -- Boyfriend Daniele is so hot that she only trusts him around girls who don't like boys.

Scene 6: Two bullies burst into the locker room, where Lucio (Pietro Sparvoli) is drawing a picture of a dick.  They film him and threaten to tell his sister (is this supposed to imply that he's gay?). then dance.  

The morose Marco interrupts them.   Wearing a swimsuit -- nice bulge.  They don't believe that he can still swim fast after his arm injury, so he offers to prove it.

Scene 7:  Marco and one of the bullies in a swim match.  Hey, it's Daniele (Lorenzo Zurzola), Dream Girl's boyfriend.  Small world.  OMG, an even more impressive bulge! Nice chest, too.  I can see why Dream Girl keeps him on a short leash. 

The swim coach yells at Marco -- he's not supposed to be swimming yet.  He's still recovering from his arm injury.

Scene 8:  Andrea walking through a marijuana greenhouse.  He offers to buy some plants for 210 euros, then texts His Highness about the deal. So a drug customer, not a boyfriend.

Meanwhile, Dream Girl Carola chats with Boyfriend Daniele.  He kisses her on the cheeks instead of the mouth, which upsets her, then rushes off.  Maybe Daniele is not into girls.  He was dancing with his fellow bully earlier.

Carola sees a newspaper article about Marco being a great swimmer, and thinks "Maybe I should give him a try.  After all, he likes girls."  She greets him as he passes: "I didn't know that you swam!"  Wait -- if her boyfriend is a swimmer, she must go to all the matches, so she must have heard his name a lot.  "So, want to make out?"

Scene 9: Andrea going to a decrepit shack on the beach.  The heavily tattooed Vittorio (famous singer LXX Blood) invites him in.  "The others aren't here yet.  While we're waiting, do you want to make out?"  Just kidding -- he said "Want to listen to our new rap song?"

The "others" are Dream Girl's Boyfriend Daniele and his fellow bully, Ilo! 

 During the drug deal, they refer to Daniele's  online girlfriend, No One Knows Me Like, as a "munter" (ugly person).  So he's straight, just not into Dream Girl because of the Munter.   He counters: "She's sent me a lot of photos, but no face shots.  So how do you know that she is ugly?"  "Why else would she hide her face?" 

Five Months Earlier: Everyone at school chases Andrea down the hallway.  He ducks into the bathroom and flushes his marijuana down the toilet.  He's busted anyway, and fails the school year and has to repeat.  "Why do you need to make money this way?" the Headmaster asks.  Andrea won't answer.

Now: Andrea goes home and opens a package he got in the mail.  It contains a  a rather dowdy lady's dress. Somebody give this boy some fashion tips!  He puts it on and gazes longingly at himself in the mirror.   So he's selling drugs so he can afford lady's clothes?  Are they that expensive?

He takes a selfie, with his face blocked off, and sends it to...you guessed it..,Daniele, the boyfriend of his brother's Dream Girl!  He's the Munter, hiding his face so Daniele won't know that he's a boy, or a trans girl who hasn't transitioned yet.

Scene 10: The twins, their Dad, and three of Dad's friends watching a soccer match.  Women bustle around, offering cake and wine.  Marco texts Andrea and their two other friends that he talked to Dream Girl earlier.  

Then Andrea texts His Highness -- Daniele -- to ask how he liked the photos.  "Fine, but I still want a face shot.  How can I be sure that you're not messing with me? You could be a pervert" (The Italian is: maniac).  "Give me a face shot in two minutes, or I'll block you and report your profile."

What to do?  Andrea sneaks into the bathroom and calls the LGBTQ Helpline, but they're closed.  So he sends a photo of his ex-girlfriend.  Daniele is satisfied.  The end.

Beefcake: Lots of hunky guys in swimsuits.

Other Sights: Exteriors of Latina, about 70 km south of Rome.

Heterosexism: Surprisingly little.  No locker room chatter about boobs.

LGBTQ Characters:  Andrea: trans, nonbinary, or a femme gay boy into drag, and interested in Daniele, who seems to like guys. Andrea/Marco's lesbian ex.  Maybe Lucio, who draws dicks on the wall of the boys' locker room.  Plus one of the twins' friends is rather femme, but how will he ever find the time for a centric plotline?

Character Overload:  Marco and Andrea, their two buds, the Dream Girl, the Lesbian Ex-Girlfriend, Daniele, his fellow bully, the head drug buyer, Lucio, two Mean Girls.  You need a diagram to keep all of the connections straight.  Plus seven of the eight episodes feature Leo Rivosecchi as Andrea's confidant from the LGBTQ Help Line.

My Grade A-

Update: Andrea comes out to friends and his dad, but we never hear the conversation, so we don't know his gender identity.  Does he end up with Daniele?  Also unclear.  But we do get a good shot of Daniele's bare butt.

Green Hornet: Batman Lite

The Green Hornet appeared on Friday nights in the fall of 1966 with guns blazing, ready to take the kid world by storm.  There were coloring books, comic books, action figures, viewmasters, Green Hornet costumes for Halloween (apparently he was a revision of an early pulp hero).

  But he turned out to be Batman lite, reviled or ignored by everybody at Denkmann Elementary School, especially the boys who liked boys.

1. Instead of spandex costumes that beautifully displayed muscles and bulges, crime-fighting vigilantes Green Hornet (Van Williams) and Kato (Bruce Lee) wore silly green business suits and overcoats.  Ironic, considering that Van Williams, formerly of Sunset Strip, was well known for his muscular physique.

And Bruce Lee's beefcake posters would soon be plastered on the bedroom walls of millions of gay and non-gay kids.

2. Instead of cool villains like the Joker, the Riddler, and Catwoman, the Green Hornet and Kato fought crooked insurance companies, construction contractors, and local politicos.  And they expected kids to watch?

3. People actually died on The Green Hornet. And they expected kids to watch?

4.Robin was Batman's "youthful ward."  I didn't know what a ward was, but apparently it involved living together, emotional connection, and lots of nick-of-time rescues.  Kato was the Green Hornet's valet.  They lived together, sort of, but no emotional connection and no "my hero!" moments.  Ironic, considering that Van Williams was one of Rock Hudson's associates and rumored to be gay, and the liberal Bruce Lee would probably be a supporter of gay rights.

Facing strong competition from The Wild Wild West and Tarzan,  the series crashed. Guest appearances on Batman in September 1966 and March 1967 didn't help.  After 26 episodes, it vanished, never to be seen again -- until Seth Rogen and Jay Chou starred in a comedy version in 2011.

Oddballs: A Ghost and an Alligator Have Surreal Problems in a Netflix Adaption of a Web Comic

 

Netflix usually does a good job at inclusivity in its children's programming, and the promo of Oddballs showed several girls and a boy going wild over a boy band, so I gave it a try.  The boy band was not mentioned in the episode guides, so I went with "Emo Like the Wolfstank" (no idea what that's parodying).

Scene 1: Dirt School (where you learn about dirt, or is that the name of the town?). Max (Julian Gant, below), an alligator, is in the locker room by himself, when James (James Rallison, left), who looks like a round-headed ghost, comes in.  His arm is in a cast: he was injured during chess club try-outs.  Why chess club?  Because he's the only one in the school without "a thing."

James is so upset that he's starting to sweat, which has never happened before.  Max lends him his "Viking Mist" deodorant, but he applies it to his face, and begins sweating from his eyes.  Gross!  

Scene 2:  The class consists of three humans, with racial and religious diversity, a cat-person, and two blobs.  The teacher is a human-sized fly.  When James enters, the green blob ridicules him for losing at chess tryouts.  James responds snarkily, but it looks like he's crying, thus confusing the bully blob.  Teacher congratulates him on his expert use of conflicting emotions, and suggests that he join the Competitive Feelings team (they''re down a member due to a sprained tear duct).  

His alligator friend Max is the team's MCBV (Most Valuable Cry Baby), and Smooth Jason is his biggest rival.

Scene 3:  Competitive Feeling Team practice.  A unicorn and a guy with hearts for eyes.  Teacher asks James to demonstrate his crying ability, so he applies the deodorant to his face and starts sweating from his eyes.  Wouldn't the rules forbid using an artificial agent to induce tearing?  "Impressive!" Teacher exclaims.  "You'll totally crush Smooth Jason."

Scene 4:  Out in the hallway, Max complains: "This is my thing.  It can't be your thing."  Why can't two friends have the same interest?  "Besides, those aren't real tears.  You're cheating!"  But James, basking in the acclaim, ignores him.

Scene 5: The Competitive Feelings Championship in the school gym.  The audience consists of a boy wearing a hoodie, a girl wearing a hijab, a frizzy-haired girl, and a cat.  Teacher points out the rival school's team, "with their preppy clothing and houses with stairs": three Beatles (the rock group, not the insects), and the teen-dream Smooth Jason.  He sniffs a flower, lets a tear drop, and explains "I was just thinking of a puppy seeing his first sunrise"  The audience goes wild (that's the "boy band" scene from the promo!).  Hijab Girl and Hoodie Boy swoon.  

Scene 6: The first round, a Mawkish Debate on "Honesty in Sports."  The team that moves the audience the most wins.  Max is fuming over James cheating, so his speech is angry, not mawkish.  Smooth Jason asks "What is honesty?" and snifs a flower and lets a single tear drop, pulverizing Max.  James takes over, "tears" rolling down his face, and gives a speech supporting cheating in sports.  Everyone is shocked, which counts as emotion, so he wins the round!

Scene 7: Next round: Musical Tears, Heart-Eyes vs. one of the Beatles.  While listening to a sad song, whoever fills a bucket with tears first wins.  James takes over for Heart-Eyes, enraging Max.  The Beatle gives up, so Smooth Jason takes over and sniffs his flower, and the tears start flowing.  Hey, I think he's using an allergin to cheat!  

Scene 8: Hug-a-Thon.  Whoever hugs his opponent into an emotional collapse wins (only "clean hugs," the referee warns.  So keep it above the belt?).  This is Max's speciality, but James takes over, with Smooth Jason as his opponent.  They evade each other's hugs for awhile, but soon they are both grabbing and hugging and being hugged, and swooning with non-erotic ecstasy.  James applies the deodorant to his arms, increasing their emotional appeal somehow, so Smooth Jason finally collapses, defeated.

Scene 9: One round left for the championship, but Max has stolen James' deodorant!  He can't "cry" without it!  He rushes to the locker room to get more.  They argue:  "As long as you use the deodorant to cheat, competitive emotion can never be our thing!"

Scene 10: The last round: an emotional debate on "Stealing Your Best Friend's Thing."  How apropos!  James comes clean about his cheating, and give an emotional speech about how he hurt his friend and wants him back.  They hug.  Everyone is overcome with emotion, but James is disqualified, so Smooth Jason wins -- until his flower falls out of his pocket.  It's attached to an onion! Called it!

They are both disqualified, so no one wins.  Teacher, distraught, has a tantrum, rolling around on the floor crying.  The Referee declares him the winner.  Wait -- he's not on the team, and he's not giving a speech.  This doesn't make sense.  The end.

Beefcake: None.

Heterosexism: None.

Gay Characters:  Maybe Hoodie-Boy, who goes wild over Smooth Jason along with the girls. No noticeable gay subtext in the ghost-alligator relationship, in spite of their frequent hugs. 

Background: After reviewing this episode, I discovered that the "marshmallow people" also appear in James Rallison's extremely popular web comics and youtube videos. There is also a series of spin-off books.  

My Grade: B

Hippolytus, the Gay Charioteer of Greek Myth

In Greek myths, Hippolytus, a chariot devotee (similar to today's auto racers), was the son of Theseus (who killed the Minotaur).  After he rejected the advances of his stepmother Phaedra, she told Theseus that he raped her, whereupon Theseus asked the god Poseidon called up a sea monster to terrorize Hippolytus'  horses and drag him to his death.

In the Euripides play Hippolytus (428 BC), we learn why Phaedra was so interested in the lad.  He rejected Aphrodite, the emblem of heterosexual love, for Artemis, the "chaste" goddess of the hunt.  Angry at the slight -- how dare there be any non-heterosexuals in the world! -- Aphrodite caused Phaedra to fall in love with him, thus leading to his death (this is a scene from a performance at the National Theater of Athens).

Jean Racine's Phèdre (1677) gives Hippolytus a girlfriend, Aricia.  This ballet version stars Slovenian dancer Tadej Brdik (left)

The 1962 film version, directed by Jules Dassin, stars gay actor Anthony Perkins as the son of a shipping magnate (Raf Vallone) who has a consensual -- but doomed -- romance with his stepmother (Melina Mercouri).

Several artists have depicted the death of Hippolytus, so they can show straining muscles and minimal clothing.  Peter-Paul Rubens (1577-1640) shows us a beefy specimen, part of his cloak transformed into a faux phallus.

Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749) depicts several guys thrown from the chariot.  Hippolytus must have been riding with a coterie of boyfriends.

I don't know why his wrists are tied.

(Photo has been removed at the request of a reader.)

Joseph Désiré Court (1797-1865) goes about as far as he can go.  I think it's hidden by a stirrup.