Link to the n*de photos

I was running low on tv series to review, so I clicked on Happy's Place on Netflix, in spite of the annoyingly manipulative title.

Making your way through the world today takes everything you got

Taking a break from all your worries sure would mean a lot

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name...

Whoops, wrong sitcom.

Sometimes it feels like a big ol' fight

To get through the day and sleep on through the night

You can't complain because no one's here to hear it

But here you'll surely find a place that will lift your spirits...

Happy's Place (2024-) currently airing on NBC, stars Reba McIntyre as a woman (not named Happy) who inherits a Tennessee bar from her father. Her co-owner is a much younger half sister that she never knew about.

I watched Episode 1.7, "Ho-Ho Howey," because of guest star Steve Howey, who played Reba's son-in-law on her earlier series (Reba, 2001-07), and has played gay characters (and shown his stuff) often in movies and on tv.

His stuff is on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

I wasn't impressed. An old-fashioned sitcom plotline with jokes requiring your familiarity with the earlier Reba. It reminded me of the Saturday-night shows that the old folks used to watch while we were out at the clubs.

And only one cute guy in the regular cast.

Not Tokala Black Elk as the sardonic bartender. The n*de photo on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends must be of a different Tokala Black Elk; the guy behind the bar was grizzled, gaunt, and craggy.

The cute guy was Steve (Pablo Castelblanco, top photo), the bar's full-time accountant, shy, awkward, germaphobic, suffering from OCD. Could I hope that he was gay?

To explore further, I watched Episode 1.17, "The Doctor is Out": Steve has improved so much, moving from a giant bottle to a small bottle of hand sanitizer, able to handle someone else's pencil, that he gives up therapy. But then he starts using Reba as a substitute therapist, and reverts, rearranging the spices in the kitchen.

Steve doesn't express any heteros*xual interest in either episode, nor is a girlfriend mentioned in the Seasons 1-2 episode synopses. Could a character in a sitcom for old people, set in Knoxville, Tennessee, starring a lady who tells us to seek out God's help for our problems, be canonically gay?

Reba is an outspoken gay ally, so maybe...

I read two interviews, one from just last month. Pablo Castelblanco says only that Happy's Place is the best gig he's ever had, he hopes it runs for years, and in future episodes he would like to explore Steve's "love life."

That's a little vague, buddy. Do you expect him to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend? Which will the writers permit?

The articles also mention that Pablo is gay in real life.

Pablo Castelblanco, aka Pablo Esteban, grew up in Colombia, doing the usual school plays and watching Reba's earlier show. His parents planned on him becoming an accountant, but he thought of engineering -- or acting. He studied at El Bosque University in Bogota and then the AMDA College of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, where he appeared in Sálvese Quien Pueda, Yerma, Stage Door, Metamorphoses, and The Diary of Anna Frank.

Pablo's first on-screen role was Tristan St. Pierre in a 2016 episode of Scream Queens: he writes lesbian fan fiction about the Chanels (the It-Girls of the school), and is finally invited to join them, becoming the first male member. According to the fan wiki, he is "homos*xual."

A good start, buddy.

Then came some artsy shorts (Sedation, Admission, There's No Such Thing as a Dragon) and guest spots on some comedies (Dear White People, New Girl), and in 2022, a starring role on Alaska Daily: Hilary Swank plays a journalist seeking a "fresh start" in Anchorage after a career crash. She ends up investigating the murders of several Native women. Philip Lewitski (left) played her photographer colleague Miles.

Pablo played another reporter, Gabriel Martin, aka Gabriel Tovar, The show is no longer available on Hulu, and he's not mentioned in the plot synopses, so I can't tell if he is gay or not.

More after the break

Pablo's last role before Happy's Place was in Ganymede (2023): A closeted high school wrestler (Jordan Doww, right), saddled with homophobic parents and stalked by a demonic being, falls for an "openly gay" classmate (Pablo). When the parents find out, they seek the aid of a crazy fundamentalist preacher, who gives the poor guy electroshock therapy right in the church. And there's still that demonic being...

Jordan Doww is gay in real life, too (d*ck on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

Pablo's social media is closeted; no reference to LGBTQ people, only two photos with another guy, neither involving displays of affection. You'd never know that he is gay without reading the interviews.

And apparently he has posted no n*de photos. At least, I don't see any in a search for "Pablo Castelblanco." Dude, you display your physique all the time. What's wrong with a little Pablo p*nis?