Jun 25, 2021

Flack about "Flack": A Britcom about Quieting Celebrity Scandals, Like Being Gay

 


Flack, apparently about a woman who does damage control for celebrity scandals, popped up on my "Pride Month" list on Amazon Prime, so I plugged it in.

Scene 1:  In a ritzy hotel room, a woman named Robyn is performing CPR on a naked twink while the muscular, swishy Patrick has hysterics.  They were doing a lot of drugs, and the boy overdosed.  "I'm fucked!" he yells.  "If this comes out, my career is over!"  What about concern over the dying twink?   




He's ok, and is paid to not out Patrick, but I'm still not happy at the depiction of the swishy queen, or his concern that coming out will destroy his career. Honey, everybody knows, and nobody cares!

Scene 2:  A bright, sunlit room.  Robyn is awakened by a little girl.  They hug and kiss.  Oh, no, a juxtaposition of the sordid, sinister, secretive gay world and the normal, sunlit world of heterosexual nuclear families!  And this was on the Pride Month list?




Robyn's sister, husband, and baby arrive to demonstrate "normal" life.  While Dad stays home to take care of the kids, Robyn and Sis throw a flower off a bridge in London (not Tower Bridge).  "Should we say a prayer?"  "Don't be ridiculous! We don't believe in anything except the sanctity of the heterosexual nuclear family and the sordidness of gay life!"  They hug and kiss (gosh, heterosexuals get a lot of mouth action).

Scene 3:  Robyn goes to work in a glass and steel office building. The boss, Caroline, shows her a pants suit and asks "Does this make me look like a lesbian?"  While I roil at the homophobia, she explains: "I want to look like a lesbian.  I'm going to a benefit for lesbians."  Now I'm just wondering why lesbians need a benefit.  They're not cancer patients.

On to Robyn's assignment: They've paid off innumerable one-night stands of famous chef Anthony Henderson, "a devoted husband and father," but this one has photos.   Wait, what happened to Patrick?  Was the swishy, decadent gay guy just an intro tease?

Robyn meets her new assistant, Melody, explains the show's premise (not really necessary at this point), and gives her the job of paying off Anthony's one-night stand.

Scene 4;  Robyn in a bar, watching a video of Henderson demonstrating how to make a  "family friendly dish for you and the missus."  He arrives.  Robyn wants to know how many women he's been with.  He replies "I love my wife, but I'm a fucking idiot."  If this is all going to be about heterosexual machinations, I'm outta here.  Maybe the next episode will be better.

Episode 2: "Summer"

Scene 1:  Robyn at a gigantic nightclub full of muscular shirtless guys.  Cocaine comes raining down from above.  Whoops, she's just daydreaming, while at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.  A guy is revealing how he hit rock bottom: he was so coked that he ended up in the bathroom, getting a hand job from a MALE waiter.  Ok, we're back to the homophobia.  Sex with a guy!  How horribly degrading!  He really hit rock bottom!  

Um...I had sex with a guy about an hour ago.  How is this supposed to make me feel?


Scene 2: 
 Robyn goes home for dinner with...hey, she has a husband. What was she doing all alone in her sister's house?  Sister and her husband are there, too.  They display their wedding rings.  Back to the juxtaposition of sordid, sinister, destructive, rock bottom gay hookups with blissful heterosexual marriages.

Scene 3:  Robyn goes to work.  Her coworker tells a story about a hookup who burned her with a cigarette, so she broke his nose, which turned him on.  

On to this episode's case: Teenage "good girl" popstar Summer Bunfo's career is tanking, so she needs a scandal to return her to the spotlight.  They brainstorm.  Drug bust? Criminal boyfriend? Mental breakdown?  Lesbian sex tape? 

Everyone (except Summer's Dad) loves the idea of a lesbian sex tape: "you come off as a dirty little minx. Britain's sweetheart has a dirty secret."  Why will Patrick's career end if he's outed, but Summer's career will be saved if she says she "experimented with lesbianism"?  Maybe the "experimenting" part? She's not really a lesbian, she hit "rock bottom" and did degrading things, but she's all better and heterosexual now?

Episode 3:  Robyn has to save the career of a stand up comic who told some transphobic jokes. 

Episode 4: Organic cosmetics.

Episode 5: Problem not stated in the synopsis.

Episode 6:  Patrick, the guy from the Scene 1 tease, is getting married!  To a woman!  I don't like how this is turning out, but maybe another post.

Next: "Will Patrick Be Vindicated on Flack?"

3 comments:

  1. LMAO at that first photo! 😜

    After reading the first scene, I already know I won't be wasting my time on that 🤷‍♂️

    So, thanks 👍🏻

    ReplyDelete
  2. In some Britcoms the most absurd stuff is brought with a straight face. But sometimes it is not that clear. I guess that here, we are all ment to make fun of the emptiness and amorality of The World of Celebrity. And that we do not get that because the writing is just not good enough. Perhaps Patrick turns out to work for Disney or something similar? I am glad that I do not have to find out myself, thank you!

    ReplyDelete

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