NySocBoy's Beefcake and Buddy-Bonding: Proud: A young male model in Poland is gay, sleazy, frequently n*ked, and not at all proud.

Jun 13, 2026

Proud: A young male model in Poland is gay, sleazy, frequently n*ked, and not at all proud.

Link to the n*de photos

The first episode of the TV series Proud has dropped on HBO MAX: "After a tragedy, a carefree young man must grow up or lose what he has left." Nothing in the premise or episode synopsis suggests that he is a gay carefree young man, but dropping a show called Proud during Pride Month is a dirty trick if it's gay-free. So we'll give it a try.

Scene 1: Shaky hand-held camera follows the back of a Carefree Young Man's head as he walks past blurry people in a room. They seem to be models waiting for an audition. The casting agent wants them all in underwear. The Young Man sneaks into the bathroom, takes cocaine, does some push-ups, and heads for his audition.

Wait -- they said underwear. He strips, completely n*de, explaining "I don't do underwear."

One of the casting agents says it's fine, "The kid's a free spirit." You just like his c*ck, buddy. He starts choking, so the young man gives him Heimlich.

Scene 2: A blurry club, very dark, very red, very crowded. Looks like mostly men. The Young Man does cocaine, is absorbed by gyrating body parts, then follows a group of guys through the kitchen and into the dark room. Ok, he's gay. And this must be Europe, where every bar has a dark room. They don't usually put them next to the kitchen,though.

The dark room is even darker and blurrier than the main club, but I think I see some kissing and other stuff.

Whoops, a girl bursts in and opens the curtains: "Party's over! Get out!"

Ulp, this isn't a dark room. The Young Man invited four guys to a wild night at his sister's apartment! Does the apartment open directly onto the kitchn of a gay club, or do we have to deal with inept editing as well as inept cinematography?

"I thought you weren't coming back until Monday," the Young Man says in a blurry, drug-addled voice.

"It is Monday, you idiot!"

"Dang, I have a very important meeting today!"

Scene 3: After kicking the guys out, the Young Man -- Filip -- goes to the kitchen and asks Sis why she's so upset. "We had an agreement -- no partying in the house! Plus you haven't taken out the trash or done the laundry. Those are your two jobs!"

"I know. I've been busy."

She wants him out. She can't take his lack of responsibility, not doing any chores, always being drunk and high, strange men coming in and out all the time, with her child in the house. The child looks like she's about a year old.

"But I'm broke."

"Then sell your motorcycle!"

They argue for awhile. Sister yells: "You think life is all fun and games, but today is the day you grow up. Move out by this evening!" This isn't carefree, it's pathological!

Scene 3: The n*ked Filip is getting dressed. We may get a brief c*ck shot, but it's too blurry to see anything. A guy bangs on the door, asking for his money. A lady walking down the hall says that she's walking Filip's dog, and he owes 50 zloty ($13) for dog food.

The guy takes the dog. Filip yells down after him, but he says "I want my money today!"

Filip pours some vodka into a coke bottle and jumps into a taxi to head to his very important meeting. But he turns around to sell his motorcycle.

Scene 4: Two guys pick up the motorcycle, insisting that they'll only pay half of what it's worth. Hey, he has four of them! And he's broke? Maybe it's the cocaine. The guy from his very important meeting calls, angry: "Where the hell are you?"

Left: The IMDB lists only Ignacy Liss, who plays Filip, but I found Mateusz Wieclawik in the closing credits (d*ck pic on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends). I don't know who he plays; no one in the show has hair like that.

Filip takes a taxi downtown. His agent meets him: "You're 45 minutes late! Everyone is freaking out! I'm tired of making excuses for you!" Sort of a jerk, aren't you, Filip Baby?

Uh-oh, the guy he owes money to is there. Filip pays with the motorcycle money, gets his dog back, and asks if he has any more cocaine.

On to the meeting! They rush him into makeup, complaining that he reeks of alcohol and "things go better when the models actually show up."

The makeup lady just got engaged, and her teenage daughter shows up and announces "I'm meeting someone." This upsets her. Must be a subplot brewing.

Scene 5: It's one of those daytime talk shows, show, just finishing a segment with an expert on marital conflicts. Next up: the hosts will show you how to be chic on the beach. They approach the four models.

"Filip is presenting a beautiful red brief cut."

Uh-oh, Filip is high: he begins giggling, then throws up, then collapses -- on live tv! They quickly cut to commercial.

More after the break. Spoiler alert: He lives.

Cut to Filip being examined by a doctor. "You're dehydrated, and you need some rest."

His other agent, or manager, or something (Kamil Studnicki, left), points out that they were going to sign a contract with the swimsuit company, but that's off the table, and they've lost a lot of money. Why wasn't his other agent or handler or something taking care of him?

"He's an adult. What can I do?"

So this guy is so famous that he has at least two agents or managers, and so rich that he has four motorcycles, yet he's homeless, living with his sister?

Scene 6: Filip doesn't have a new place to stay, but his Sister insists that he leave now. She gives him Dad's address: "I can't help you anymore, but maybe he can. And while you're at it, ask why he put us in foster care when Mom died." Back story explaining why Filip is so self-destructive? I thought he was just an entitled jerk.

"And get a HIV test."

The makeup lady's daughter arrives to babysit just as Filip walks out.

On the way down the elevator, he takes pictures of his c*ck to sent to someone (we don't see anything). "You'll see the real thing in a little while." So you're going to spend the night with your hookup?

He stops at a drugstore to buy a HIV test, and performs it in the bathroom. Negative.

Scene 7: Cut to the flashing lights of a crowded disco. What about the hookup you were going to spend the night with? More blurred, energetic dancing, until he collapses. A dude helps him out onto the street. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, yoou can go." Then he gets a phone call: Sister is in the hospital. He can't get a cab all sweaty and covered in glitter, so the dude helps him out, and gives him a jacket so he won't look so sleazy.

At the hospital, the doctor tells Filip that his sister has died of an undiagnosed heart condition.

Blurry closeups of Filip's ear and mouth.

They go down to the morgue to see the body. Filip hugs her and cries.

Scene 8: The dude is still waiting for him as he picks up his sister's stuff and signs a form. Filip returns his coat, kisses him, and leaves. Darn, I thought he'd be a love interest.

He walks home and tells the babysitter that she can go. He sits at the kitchen table for hand-held closeups of his eye and nose, then goes to look in on his new daughter. The end.

Beefcake: A lot. Filip is na*ed constantly. No c*cks, at least no clear c*cks.

Left: Ignacy Liss.

Heterosexism: None here.

Gay Characters: Filip, of course. Nothing else specified. A search for "Proud," "tv," and "2026" yielded a poster with the two guys below, so I thought he would be getting a boyfriend, but it turns out to be another Proud tv series, from 2018.

Homophobia: Filip is what homophobes think all gay men are like: self-centered, irresponsible, hedonistic, a perpetual outsider, living in a blur of s*x and drugs. Extremely homophobic when not mediated by any positively portrayed gay characters. I thought I was watching Cruising.

My Grade: D. The cinematography is awful, the editing is jarring, characters that should be introduced aren't, and gay life is presented through an intensely homophobic lens (the only clear lens in the episode). According to a review, Filip is going to fight for custody of his sister's kid, but in Poland gay men can't adopt, so he must pretend to be straight. It goes down to an F if he has his self-destructive "gay lifestyle" cured through a hetero-romance, as we've seen in many movies (Party Monster comes to mind.)