"No Activity":Two Gay Subtext Couples Waiting for Godot

No Activity sounds like a coronavirus "Stay home" order, but it actually is a comedy tv series on Amazon Prime,advertised as "quirky" and "hilarious."  I just paid for the first episode.

Establishing shot of San Diego (although the theme song is "Happiness, Missouri.)

The cops: Tolbeck (Patrick Brammell, left) and Cullen are on a stake-out to make a drug bust.  Cullen asks Tolbeck for a head massage with his Afro comb: "I can do itmyself, but it's really good when someone else does it."  He pretends that the combing is giving him an orgasm until Tolbeck calls him on it. Then he pretends to be masturbating.

Homoerotic first scene?  Promising!

The dispatchers:  Jaded, seen-everything Janice (Amy Sedaris) teaches new recruit Fatima (Sunila Mani) what to expect.

The drug runners: Angus (Jesse Plemons, right) and Marco have been waiting for a shipment forever. They act like a gay couple.  Marco shows Angus  the gun he bought to impress him.


Back to the cops: They are having a conversation about nothing, like on Seinfeld, or Pulp Fiction, or Waiting for Godot.

Back to the drug runners: Another conversation about nothing, except for a gay-subtext reference:  "Sometimes you wake me up..."

Back to the dispatchers:  Janice is upset that her 15-year old son keeps masturbating to internet porn.  She wants to bring him to the office and introduce him to Fatima, so he'll have a real person to masturbate to.

Back to the cops: Having a conversation about nothing. Tolbeck says "God, this is boring." I tend to agree.

Back to the drug runners:  Marco (Jason Mantsoukas) tells a long, involved story about waiting for the cable guy and finding shag carpet in his basement.  Oh, and killing a rattlesnake.  Angus complains that the rattlesnake is the best part of the story, but Marco disagrees: it's the shag carpet.

Back to the cops:  Their coworker Fritzell is dead.  Cullen didn't really know him, but once in the bathroom he was heading to his favorite stall, when he saw Fritzell looking at him through the crack. It was "a profound, life-changing moment." Sounds homoerotic again.

Back to the drug runners:  Who will empty the piss bucket?  Marco decides to go outside to piss, so he doesn't have to empty it.

Back to the cops:  Still on stakeout, they see Marco the Drug Runner leave the warehouse.  They decide to arrest him.  Cullen (Tim Meadows) gets out of the car and approaches.  Marco pulls out a gun.

Switch to Tolbeck's point of view:  There's a gunshot.  Marco falls to the ground.

Wait -- what?

Marco is actually not dead -- he appears in 14 more episodes.  But still, endless conversations about nothing followed by violence is jarring.

Beefcake: None.

Other Scenery:  None.

Plot: None.

Gay Characters: Two deliberate gay-subtext couples.  But I don't think they are trying to be gay inclusive.  It's more: "He said something that makes it sound like he is gay!  Isn't that hilarious!"

On the other hand, all of the male cast members have played gay characters, so....

Will I Keep Watching: Not unless an episode synopsis mentions Marco and Angus kissing.