Cancelled

When a show gets cancelled too soon it really pisses me off! That's what happened with the amazing The Carrie Diaries. I love Sex and the city and all the characters so when I heard that there was going to be a TV-series about Carrie before Sex and the city I just had to watch. I had low expectations, I have to admit, but I really liked it from the start. Anna-Sophia Robb who plays Carrie is pretty as a picture and the show was really intriguing.

Brendan Dooling as Walt Reynolds.

From the start I suspected that the character Walt was gay. He wouldn't sleep with his girlfriend Maggie and you didn't have to have a gaydar to feel the gay wibes. When he met Carries collegue Bennet Wilcox (Jake Robinson) confusion and denial starts, it results with a kiss and more confusion and denial follows.

Walt and Bennet.

Finally, Walt comes to terms with his sexuality and confess his feelings for Bennet, but Bennet doesn't take the chance with Walt because he is underage. Like that ever was going to happen! Well the show goes on, Walt turns eighteen, some snogging occurs and the couple is a fact.

Brendan Dooling and Jake Robinson.

Well, this is the eighties and it is TV so we have some ingredients that just has to be found. Of course, Walt gets disowned by his parents (his father takes him back though, because he is in fact not a homophobe he is just really henpecked by his wife) and there also is a break up because of some cold Walt-feets after some AIDS-fright. Well it is the eighties so I can understand the AIDS-fright.

But, happily, the couple reunites, and we imagine a happily ever after ending. But we will never know because the show got cancelled in May, and despite some rumours about the show being renewed, there is no proof of it. I still have the hopes on Netflix. Please renew the show! We need more Walt and Bennet! The only thing I get a bit confused by in this show is all the characters that are really important to Carrie like Walt and Bennet, Mouse, Maggie, her father and her sister Dorrit, where do they go? Why is they never mentioned in Sex and the city? I mean, friends come and go, and Samantha is in the second season and Stanford is mentioned, but her father and sister? Did they die? Would there be a big family feud in The Carrie Diaries that HBO snitched from us? I guess we will never no. What a shame.

A storyline that I forgot

Shame on me! When I wrote about nordic gays in May i forgot one storyline! Shame on me! And what a storyline! In 1996 to 2000 there was a norwegian soap opera called De syn søstre which also was aired here in Sweden. It was a family saga which included the standard ingredients in a soap opera such as domestic abuse, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, unfidelity, rape and ordinary feuds. And also homosexuality.

Roy Bakke.

One of the characters, Roy Bakke, who worked in a gym was gay. His collegue and best friend Billeba (I know, weird name) was married to Frode Birkeland who was an ex norwegian champion in ski jumping was a major homophobe and just couldn't get on with Roy.

Frode Birkeland.

They had a lot of arguments and to show Frode what the gay culture was like and that gays are normal people as everybody else and also to cure Frode a little bit from his homophobia, Roy took him to a gay club. Frode was quite unconfortable being at the club and insulted a guy that asked him to dance but he agreed to dance with Roy. He said that if he was going to dance it would be with him. And so it happened that they also danced a slow dance and I remember that Roy said something. I think he said that "If you were gay, that I know that you are not, I would like to kiss you right now". Frode was a bit offended but he responsed by snogging each others faces off. And so a lovely love story begun.

Arne Lindtner Næss as Frode Birkeland and Simon Andersen as Roy Bakke.

You can imagine that Frodes wife Billeba was pissed when she realised that her husband was unfaithfull with a man! By that time she had forgotten that she had had a relationship with another man for years! Anyways, Frode and Roy became a couple and moved in together and I even think they planned adopting. But of course, Frode got cancer and died. It was really heartbreaking and Roy lost the love of his life. It was a really moving love story, and even though I was tired of the series in general I kept watching it, just because of that love story. I dropped it after Frodes death though. But I read on wikipedia that the series ended with the knowing that Roy met another man. Sigh, why do they always have to die? Can anyone explain that to me?

Tyrant

This summer4 a new series started on the american TV channel FX called Tyrant. It's a drama series with 10 episodes in the first season starring Adam Rayner, Jennifer Finnigan and Ashraf Barhom among others. The series is about Bassam "Barry" Al Fayeed (adam Rayner) who returns to his home country Abbudin from USA. Abbudin is a made up country in the Middle East. It's a quite good series about power and terror, to put it simply and there is also a little bit gay in it. Yay!

Noah Silver as Sammy Al Fayeed

Barry Al Fayeed has a teenage son who is gay and he hooks up with a local boy called Abdul. Sammy Al Fayeed is played by the lovely Noah Silver and Abdul is played by Mehdi Dehbi.

Noah Silver and Mehdi Dehbi.

Unfortunately it dosen't seem to go so smooth for Sammy to get some love because Abdul seems to be a little bit as a player. It is quite entertaining to se a middle eastern gay player.

I for one think it's quite pleasant viewing and I hope it will continue to be. It's really well done. For example, David Yates directed the pilot. Yes, the same David Yates that directed Harry Potter. And it's especially entertaining for us Swedes to watch the show because both Fares Fares and Alexander Karim is starring in Tyrant. Good Swedish actors in a good TV-series. Win-win.

The End

Just about the time when Verbotene Liebe had their 4500 episode aired it was also announced that the series has got cencelled. The viewers has gone down and I guess it is no point of carrying on.

Jo Weil and the cast.

Jo Weil, who really seem to love his job, despite quite shitty storylines for his character Olli lately, announced on his facebook page that the series has been cancelled and that it will come to an end early next year. Well, I can't say that I'm surpriced or even that upset about it. The series really became blaha, and no interesting storylines for anyone. Just same old same old. Of course it is sad that Verbotene Liebe will come to an end, because it was an Ok soap which delivered very memorable scenes, especially with Chrolli, but I think this is really the only right thing to do. Nothing can last forever.

Oliver and Christian.

And really, no writers, there is nothing to keep you from bringing Chrolli back together! When the series is cancelled I really hope that Thore Schölermann is up for coming back to the show so we can have our sunset ending for Christian and Oliver. Really, the storylines for Olli after Christian is nothing to hang in the christmas tree. Even though the Chrolli story got a little bit mudded by yet another divorce, there is no other ending than a Chrolli ending. That would really be a scandal.

And I really hope the writers will give us a real boombastic ending, because in January, Verbotene Liebe will have a 20 years celebration, and they really have their chance to do something really good with it. I want lot's of old characters returns (just as when the show trurned 10 years) and I want lot's of happiness. I imagine a great storyline would be that my other favourites Tom and Ulli returning to Düsseldorf to get married where they meat Olli (who is Tom's ex) who invite both him and Christian (who Olli met in the supermarket or something) to their wedding and when they see all the happiness and love they get carried away and can't help falling into eachothers arms and saken är biff! Perfect ending! Who do I contact about this great idea?

Young girl, dream girl

Do you miss Larias when Salatut Elämät is on it's summer break? Well, there is a remedy for that. Salatut Elämät has a spin off called Young girl, dream girl concentrating on the younger characters and Missfinlandia88 is subtitling that in her youtube channel as well.

The Young girl, dream girl cast.

And fortunately, both Elias (Petteri Paavola) and Lari (Ronny Roslöf) takes part in this story. The season finale of Salatut Elämät ended with a real cliffhanger. There was a big party where all the guys took part when some lunatic started started shooting around. We don't really know who had left the party or who was still there when the shooting started, so we don't really know if anyone is dead or injured. This story takes part in some kind of parallel time, we don't really know if it's before the shooting or after. Nothing about the shooting has been told.

Iida and Elias talking to Lari.

The story is some kind of horror story taking place in Jannes familys summer house. Five episodes has been uploaded in Missfinlandia88's channel and Lari has just arrived to the house because of a fake text message from Elias asking him to come. But, luckily for us, Lari decides to stay. We are hoping for som action.

Unfortunately, the main character in this show is Iida, and I've never really liked her. She is really dull and boring and whiny. And there has been way to much fuss around her. And she was a real pain in the ass back in the days when it started between Elias and Lari. But I guess the clips on youtube will concentrate on Lari and Elias and that works for me!

Finally some action for Johnny!

Sam Strike as Johnny Carter.

By the year-end a new gay character appeared in Eastenders. Johnny Carter, played by Sam Strike, moved with his family to Walford and the parents Mick and Linda took over the pub The Queen Victoria. Quite early it was clear that Johnny was gay when he snogged bisexual Danny Pennant (Gary Lucy) who back in the days also snogged Syed Masood before he left Walford.

Gary Lucy and Sam Strike.

Nothing really developed there because Johnny didn't really seem to be interested and Danny was in fact together with Lucy Beale at the time. Anyways, because of some insinuating from Johnnys sister Nancy about Johnnys sexuality, his father Mick, played by Danny Dyer, questions him about it.. Johnny denies it at first, then he breaks down and admits the truth.

Johnny and Mick Carter.

The scene is really heartbreaking and beautiful, because daddy Mick is really understanding and supportive. A very good example of a supportive parent! Unfortunately Johnnys mother Linda (Kellie Bright) is not that supportive. She even denies that Johnny is gay and is talking something about reversing him. Not a good example there... Johnny on his hand becomes good friends with Whitney Dean who seems to have crush on Johnny, and Linda of course hopes for a development there.

About there I stopped watching this storyline. Half of a year later anything still hasen't happened for Johnny and I basically got bored. My aim was to start watching again when it was a little bit more interesting. And finally the time has come! Some episodes ago Johnny visited the London Pride festival and it seems he met a hottie there. We haven't seen more than some beer-drinking yet, but the spoilers tell us that there will be som snogging, I guess this week!

Johnny and Gianluca.

The beaus name is Gianluca (Gabriele Lombardo) and he is italian. It seems that he will be returning to Italy so let's see if the love story between him and Johnny develops. I certainly hope so! It's really time for Johnny to get some action! There is hope for Eastenders!