Throughout history, gay men have relied on straight women to fulfill the role of best friend and confidante extraordinaire. There’s Alexander the Great and Roxana. J. Edgar Hoover and Dorothy Lamour. Even Joseph and Mary (not THE Joseph and Mary, of course, Joseph from down the hall in Accounting).
Well, now there’s a whole new television show dedicated to these remarkable women and the gay men they adore (and vice versa). Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, or as we like to call it, GWLBWLB (pronounced GWIL-ba-welb), which is far more politically correct than Real Fag Hags of New York City.
The series focuses on four couples, each with their own unique interpersonal dynamic and unconventional brand of drama.
There’s Sarah and Joel: when Joel announces that his boyfriend proposed marriage, she jumps in to help plan the wedding while maintaining her role as caregiver to a mother with Parkinson’s.
And Crystal and Nathan, who wants to become a father before he turns 35. Oh, and he wants Crystal to be the surrogate.
Elisa and David are in their mid-40s and figuring out what’s next in their personal and professional lives.
And finally, Rosebud and Sahil, an actor who’s still in the closet with his family (at least until tonight) and his ideas of the gay lifestyle are every worst stereotype, which makes him the most annoying person on the show. It’s not completely his fault, but his ideas of what gay men do are right out of some 1950’s psychiatric manual. After four episodes, we still haven’t warmed up to him, but he’s exactly what every reality show needs: someone who pisses us off.
Unlike the hausfrau franchise over on Bravo, the couples’ stories on Gwilbawelb are presented individually, which is a nice change of format. We get to peak in on each of their lives throughout each episode and little seems like storylines planted by producers (Kirstie Alley interviews personal trainers!). At least for now, the show runners aren’t throwing all four couples together into a room hoping for some scene-stealing, table-throwing fireworks. (They’ll save that for Season 2.)
Really, it’s not even about the drama so much as it is about the deeply loving friendship that these four couples experience. It just shows that sometimes the best relationship we can have with another human being doesn’t have to involve sex. Or dirty dishes and mortgage payments.
After one episode we admittedly wouldn’t have been hooked, but after four, we’re just angry that we have to wait a month for the rest of the world to catch up with what we already know. And that’s the fact that Sundance Channel could have a successful new franchise on its hands. Just back off, studio execs, we’ve already pitched a spin-off: Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Sheep. Animal Planet is all over it.
Gwilbawelb premieres tonight on the Sundance Channel
www.sundancechannle.com/girls-who-like-boys-who-like-boys
