The Fosters - The Schmosters!

The Fosters cast.

I never started watchen the whole series of The Fosters. I am kind of glad I didn't because excuse me, what are you doing! First Jonnor broke up. Ok, maybe Gavin MackIntosh didn't want to starr in the show any more. But it was a shame. One kiss and one pinky snog was all we got. And the actors told us that the crew didn't want them to "experiment with their sexuality", so i guess that's why we never got any more.

Hayden Byerly & Tanner Buchanan.

Then they started some kind of pseudo-romance between Jude and Jack, or what it was. Apparently a kiss, I won't watch it on principle. Why did they have to kiss when Jack was going to die in the same episode? And then, THEN, it seems like Jude is going straight again! Why in heaven's world, why? It seems like Jude is going to start dating Taylor again. Apparently, so it's said, that the actor who plays Jude, Hayden Byerly, and his mother, doesn't want him to play gay anymore. If that's true, that is just so lame! Ok, news flash! He is an actor! It doesn't matter if he's gay, straight, bi, pan or even asexual, if he's good enough he could play whatever! He's not a foster kid either, so why is he allowed to play that if he cant play gay? And to the crew, experiemnt with their sexuality?! Are you kidding me? You are not experiemnting when you are kissing another person of the same sex in front of the cameras.You are not experiemnting with drugs if you are playing a junkie. You are not making great music if you play a composer. And you will not win the world championship if you play an athlete! Are you experimenting with your sexuality if you're kissing someone of the other gender on screen? Just sayin'. That is just so lame...

Hayden Byerly & Gavin MackIntosh.

I will miss Connor. Actually, I never fell in love with Jude. So, a spin off on Connor anyone?

(And I put Hayden Byerly together in the ssame shelf as Guy Burnet and Sam Strike. The shame shelf. Please contact me if you want to modify the fact that you did not feel confortable playing gay. I guess Alexander Becht is on that shelf to. But at least him and Guy Burnet did hell of a job playing gay! Yeah I know, I'm a bit provocative right now.)

Telenovelas: Paulo & Miguel

There is something called telenovelas that has been intriguing me for some time now. We don't have that at all in Sweden. Right now we actually don't have any soap operas at all, and I don't think we would have any soon. Soaps are really out of date in Sweden. Boring! But the Great Britain, Germany and USA are providing me with what I need. So, what is a telenovela? It is a soap opera in miniseries format, where the number of episodes are planned and limited from start. The program format has its origin in Latin America where it's particularly popular in Brazil, Chile and Mexico among others. But we have them in Europe to. Germany had Rote Rosen, in which Alexander Becht from Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten starred. But unlike Lenny Cöster in GZSZ, his character Brian O'Reilly was straight. Also Croatia and Spain has telenovelas, and they are very popular in Portugal. I love the concept! But I hadn't had any experienes of them. But then a faghag friend of mine told me about the storyline of Paulo and Miguel, and it happened to be a telenovela! And I loved it, I have to say! I love that it was a nice love story with a beginning and an end, and that I don't have another soap storyline to follow. They are so many right now...

Miguel and Paulo.

But, Paulo and Miguel. Their love story was to be seen in the Portuguese telenovela O Beijo do Escorpião, which means Scorpions kiss, from 2014. The story is about a couple of familys in Lisboa with and there is a shopping mall in focus, but bla bla, let's concentrate on Paulo and Miguel. They are both pilots on a privat jet company and Paulo Furtado (Pedro Carvalho) is deeply closetred because he has a really homophic asshole boss who would sack him if he knew about his sexual orientation. He is best friends with Miguel Macieira (Duarte Gomes) who is a quite sleezy womanizer, but a loyal friend. Until he realizes that he has ended up in bed with Paulo while they were really drunk, and then he becomes a real bastard. I guess that Miguel actually is straight but of course, he falls in love with the lovely Paulo.

Miguel and Paulo on their special day.

If you would want to see this storyline and not want to read any spoilers you should stop reading now. The story ends well with a wedding at the airport where they are both wearing shorts. I wonder if that's common i Portugal to marry in shorts... But anyway, I think it is so interesting how the story usually goes in soap operas and other series when there is a gay couple. I have written about it before, but I will have to do it again. Why soes it always have to be so much violence and why does the abused part always kiss and make up and forgive without winking? Here we have an excellent example of that. When Miguel realizes that he has had sex with Paulo, which he forgot because he was really drunk, he beats up Paulo, he treat him like shit and call him very nasty things, he tries to sabotage at work, he spits on him and he betrays him for his boss. Then Paulo is in a plane crash, Miguel fears that he has lost him and realizes that he loves him and kisses him. And Paulo forgives him without a wink! Why does he do that? Is that how it goes in real life? Unfortunately I think it is more common that we think... But anyway, it has a happy ending, even though it is very quick. It seems like the writers realizes with only a couple of episodes left that they have to wrap it upp and they do want a sunset ending and creates a proposal out of the blue that is not really realistic. But I love it anyway!

Duarte Gomes and Pedro Carvalho.

And I really love this storyline. Ok, the telenovela O Beijo do Escorpião might not be the most fantastic thing ever made, but it is a nicely told story with just the right amount of drama and cosiness, and the story proceeds in just the right speed. Except from the ending. But it is ok. And the actors are really great! Both Pedro Carvalho who plays Paulo and Duarte Gomes who plays Miguel are really good and does a really good job. They have a great chemistry and they manages to convince me that they are in love. I love them both!And if you want to watch their storyline, just follow the link.

And if you would like to watch more telenovelas there are a few with gay storylines. Actually, right now there is an ongoing, also Portuguese storyline in a telenovela called Os Nossos Dias, with a couple called David and Xavier. But I have heard that it is no good, even though Duarte Gomes is playing David. But I think I will give it a chance anyway. Other popular telenovelas with gay storylines are the Argentinian Botineras, the Colombian Niños Ricos, Pobres Padres and the Spanish Un Golpe De Suerte. I will come back to the topic when I've seen any of them!

Again...

Carsten Reimann and Lenny Cöster.

I have to confess. I am watching Cenny again. Lenny and Carsten that is. It all happened because I was scrolling down my blog post because I was searching for something and happened to scroll past the special post about the pair I made in april, because I was already rewatching the storyline three months after descovering it. And now I am hooked again. There is just something very addictive with the love story of Lenny Cöster and Carsten Reimann. Though I discovered that one of my sources of the storyline was removed and annoyed. But then I found another one, a source that contained an episode previously missing, that I really really wanted to see! But I won't tell you my sources in case of RTL spying on me. If you want to know my sources, if you are curious on any storyline, please send me an e-mail. I am gladly part of the contribution av these storylines, to as many people as possible!

Alexander Becht and Felix Isenbügel.

The actors Alexander Becht and Felix Isenbügel both left the series Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten in 2010. They have done a bit of everything since then and as I have told you before, Felix Isenbügel who plays Carsten, has told RTL that he could imagine returning to GZSZ, but there are no such hints from Alexander Becht. There is an interview with him on youtube that I barely understand a word from (Germans and their fast-talking) but I read that he said that he didn't like the part of of Lenny, he was sick about the storylines and that he was tired of the 16 hours working days. I do understand. I guess it is really hectic being a soap actor, and I do even understand he didn't like the character of Lenny. Lenny was quite blank character hos solved everything with a little bt of violence. But I think he became a really nice and interesting character when he came out and started dating Carsten, who actually also used to be quite blank character. The two characters supplemented eachother. I do follow both Alexander Becht and Felix Isenbügel on facebook, and at least Felix seem to be an active actor, mostly on stage.

Carsten, the long-haired Lenny and the kiss.

Well, I don't know, maybe Alexander Becht has a lot on, but if he doesn't why not coming back to GZSZ for a bit? I really think the series needs a new gay storyline, even though there is an ongoing female one, but the more the merrier. And I for one would really like to see what Lenny and Carsten does today! What happened to Lennys art studying? How did he adapt to a new life outside prison? Did they go to Barcelona or Australia? Does Carsten still have such a sleasy taste in clothes (tight jeans and a tucked in shirt is never good)? I mean, there are endless questions and we doesn't get any answers. You really got a responsibility here! That is the backside of giving us a gay storyline with a happy ending. We are never really satisfied. And with "we", I mean me.

Gays in knitwear

Or actually, they are not necessarily gays because it's the actors wearing the knitwear and not the characters. But anyways. Knitting and all kinds of yarn related handicrafts are a big passion for me so if I stumble over a picture with a favourite actor wearing suspiciouly hand-knitted (or even really nice machine-knitted garment) knitwear I will notice it. Here are some examples:

Igor Dolgatschew.

At first, one of my absolute favourites and that is Igor Dolgatschew who plays Deniz in Alles was zählt in his grey cowl. I'm not sure that it is hand-knitted, but it is well-fitting. He looks stunning!

Javier Calvo.

Next up is Javier Calvo who plays the part of Fer in Física o Química. I suspect this sweater is not hand-knitted because of the complexity in the pattern, and I also think I heard somewhere that knitting is not that hip in Spain, but I can be wrong. Javier, if you read this, would you please tell me if your wonderful sweater is hand-knitted or not?

Ronny Roslöf.

Ronny Roslöf, Lari in Salatut Elämät, wears a really nice and bulky scarf and he should be. Because he lives in Finland and it's really cold up here in the northern countries. It's a shame he wears such a boring beanie.

Jo Weil.

One person who doesn't wear a boring beanie is Jo Weil. The actor who plays Olli in Verbotene Liebe wears a beanie knitted by Susi Strickliesel. Susi Strickliesel is a German knitting designer who design and knit beanies and caps. Very nice!

Alexander Becht.

Lenny in Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten, played by Alexander Becht, wears more than one nice knitted scarf in the series. One especially caught my attention, and that's this double-knitted red and grey thing. Very nice! I am actually thinking of knitting something similar. But I doubt that it is hand-knitted though...

Alexander Becht again.

This beanie on the other hand is handmade for sure. Because this beanie is crochet, and crochet can't be made by a machine. And this beanie looks well-used so it looks like he likes it. I like it!

Rewatch

There are some favourite storylines that I can rewatch so many times. Fervid from season 3 I have to watch at least one time a year in whole, but I watch the fovourite clips every now and then. This Christmas I discovered the Cenny, or Lenny and Carsten, a storyline from the German soap Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten, and I fell in love! I did nothing but watch, live and breath these two boys for the whole Christmas break. There is so much to love! Now I have already rewatched it. I just had to.

Carsten Reimann and Lenny Cöster.

Leonard "Lenny" Cöster were played by Alexander Becht and Carsten Reimann by Felix Isenbügel. The characters Lenny and Carsten met in the army, Lenny were a conscript and Carsten some kind of officer or something. Lenny had a hard time in the army because he was bullied for being gay. At the time he didn't admit for himself that ha was gay, and I am not sure that the writers even had decided him to be, because he had a girlfriend, Emily, that he claimed to be in love with, and he also had a previous storyline where his father thought him to be gay, which Lenny used just to bugger him off. His father was a major homphobe back then.

Lenny and Carsten in the army.

When Lenny was bullied, beaten and even urinated on, Carsten was there to support him. It is so painful to see how Lenny suffers. But he gets to leave the army and starts boxing instead, just to be able to defend himself. And it proves that he has lot's of talent in boxing. One day he gets in a fight in the street and who shows up if not Carsten. He is impressed by Lennys fighting skills and asks him to join his "clique", the gang, that is some kind of fight club. And the gang meet up with other "cliques" and they beat eachother up until they bleed. Very romantic. But then Carsten realizes that Lenny is really cute and there is no return.

Carsten is touching Lenny stealthily.

One day at the beach Carsten is touching Lenny when he thinks Lenny is asleep, and Lenny enjoys it, even though he try not to. And then the ball is rolling. After a fight between Lenny and Carsten and two other guys Lenny and Carsten end up half naked in the bathroom and yet again there is some touching. And this is a really strong and kind of violent scene. I love it!

Felix Isenbügel and Alexander Becht half naked.

After that there is a quite classical scenario for a gay guy in denial. Lenny tries as hard as he can to resist Carsten, and Carsten is suffering badly. These kind of classical stories almost always contains a certain amount of abuse and violence, like pushing and shouting: "I am not gay", you know what I mean. But this story, contains a lot of abuse actually. Lenny and Carsten gets in more than one fight and at last, Lenny even betrays Carsten and asks Carsten to meet him, just to bring the gang to beat him up. But in the last moment he gets in to the fight and tries to stop it. The result is that both Lenny and Carsten ends up in hospital.

Lenny feels remorse.

After that, Carsten believes that it was Lenny who beat him up, and of course he thinks that he is not a suitable boyfriend so he leaves Berlin for Barcelona and poor Lenny goes after him, very wounded, but can't find him. But Carsten returns for a short visit to his granny in hospital, and of course he bumps into Lenny. Tumult occurs, Lenny tries to convince Carsten that he loves him and finally, after a real talk, Carsten forgives Lenny, just like that, and they can finally start their relationship.

A lovely kiss in the street.

But. There is no sun without clouds, and Lenny just accidently threatened a liqour shop owner with a broken bottle and robbed him back when he felt the most shitty (before the Carsten beat-up) and now he has to pay. One year in jail is his punishment and the whole family is devastated. The most annoying thing is that after waiting more than a year for anything real to happen between the guys, it takes less than two months before Lenny leaves for prison. Some kind of an anti-climax. But Carsten stays in the series, moves out and moves in to the Cöster's, becomes Lenny's little sisters love interest (bizarre), and he even nearly dies when a ceiling falls down. Of course we enjoy watching the great character Carsten in GZSZ, but it is just not the same without Lenny. But four months later, Lenny gets furlough for a couple of days and the couple can be reunited.

Lenny and Carsten being cuter than ever.

With longer hair and more optimism Lenny returns for a couple of lovely days with Carsten and his family. A few days after returning to jail he gets to leave prison to serve the rest of his sentence by working in a social project that Carsten arrange for him. Finally, Lenny is out from jail, in freedom, but unfortunately the social project is in Rosenheim, a small whistle-stop in Bavaria, that is in the south of Germany. That is very far from Berlin! Bugger. When we finally gets the Lenny and Carsten reunion they have to move away. Of course Carsten is leaving Berlin with his love. And since then, in august 2010, we haven't really heard from them. Bugger again.

The happy and the long-haired Lenny and Carsten.

I really love love love this storyline. I have realized that the storys that I fall for the most are the ones with lot's of denial and with lots of fighting against the feelings, a certain amount of abuse, and with a an ending. All storys have to have an ending, but some of them, like Christian and Oliver, is harrowing on forever it seems (even though even Chrolli now seems to have come to an end). I can't really explain why I like these sort of storylines, but I do. And this storyline continues everything. GZSZ is told to be a darker soap, with darker colours and settings than Unter Uns, Verbotene Liebe and Alles was zählt. Maybe that's why I like it. And it really seems that every character in GZSZ has some sort of agony.

Another thing that makes me really like the Lenny and Carsten storyline is the acting. Alexander Becht and Felix Isenbügel is really doing a good job with their role interpretations, especially when they are crying. They are really believable when showing emotions, and there are lots of emotions. Just saying.

Alexander Becht.

Felix Isenbügel.

Felix Isenbügel actually said to RTL that he could imagine coming back to GZSZ. But not without Lenny, I am telling you! And now I guess you all think: "Was that a happy ending?". Yes it was. They are rare, but they do exist.

We love Germany

We love Germany. And we love german soap operas. German soap operas usually have good gay storylines. And here are the highlights in chronological order.

Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten (1992)
This soap opera has had two bigger gay storylines through the years.

 

Laurent Daniels, Ralf Benson and Herbert Ulrich.

In 1997-2000 Philip Krüger was a regular in the show and he had two bigger relationships, first with Fabian Moreno (who apparently swung both ways) and then Simon Nilsson (who actually was a murderer who stole his victims identity. Well done Philip!

Then in 2007 Leonard "Lenny" Cöster entered the series. Oh joy! Lenny had a beautiful storyline with Carsten Reimann 2008-2010 with the ingredients of violence, abuse, denial and finally some love and sex. If you haven't seen it, prepare yourself for a long wait until there is some action, but it is well worth waiting for!

Felix Isenbügel and Alexander Becht.

Lenny and Carsten are being played by the wonderful Alexander Becht and Felix Isenbügel. The couple left the series because they moved from Berlin, and there actually was a happy ending! But there is still hope that they will return to Berlin and to Gute Zeiten, schlecthe Zeiten in a future not to far away.

Unter uns (1994)
Unter uns started in 1994 but we had to wait until 2013 before we had a real gay storyline. I actually don't understand why it took so long. But last year the tv-audience found out that Richard "Ringo" Beckmann (Timothy Boldt) at least was bi when he started some kind of relationship with the new guy in town, Yannick Benhöfer (Eric Stehfest).

Timothy Boldt and Eric Stehfest.

Ringo and Yannick formed Yango and soon qot popular all over the world. Unfortunately the story was short when Ringo almost beated Yannick to death. Ringo isn't only gay/bi, he is also a real homophobe! Well Unter Uns, when you waited so long to give us a real gay storyline, why did you take it away from us so soon? Not very nice.

Verbotene Liebe (1995)
Verbotene Liebe means forbidden love and maybe that's why the have had so many gay and lesbian storylines through the years. Yes, gay and lesbian love is forbidden in some countries. But not in Germany.

Broder B. Hendrix.

Anyhow, the first big gay storyline was the one with Gero von Sterneck in the nineties. In 1995-1999 you could see Gero snog both Lukas and Markus. You can watch Geros story on youtube, but prepare your self for some woody storylines. But we like it anyways. Even woody storylines are good storylines.

Less woody is the storyline of Tom Seifert and Ulrich "Ulli" Prozeski in 1999-2000. It's a quite ordinary gay love story where one of the characters (Tom) is out and about and (Ulli) is still in the closet, and the one in the closet doesn't really like the other. Finally the become friends and starts snogging and then you can figure out the rest by yourself.

Andreas Stenschke and Kay Böger.

Tom and Ulli has a lot of memorable scenes together and is well worth watching. The New Years eve scene in by the open fire is relly a classic!

When Ulli moves to München Tom and Ulli break up and Tom is quite fragile. That's why he is not that keen on being snogged at the following New Years eve by Olli. Oliver "Olli" Sabel is the bisexual that starts a relationship with Tom, that is almost broken up by a reappeared Ulli. But just almost.

Kay Böger and Jo Weil.

Actually, I never really liked the pairing with Tom and Olli. I think Tom should have chosen Ulli instead, and maybe the rest of internet agrees, because this is the only almost desent picture of them. And actually, when Verbotene Liebe had their 10th anniversary we learned that Tom and Ulli got together again! Well done Verbotene Liebe!

Thore Schölermann and Jo Weil.

Olli had to wait until 2007 when he came back to Düsseldorf and met the wonderful Christian Mann who is played by the lovely Thore Schölermann. By now Olli seems to just swing the male way and falls in love with his roommate Christian who is a boxer. And here we have a real supercouple! They even got married! Twice! Christian and Olli, that is Chrolli, became enormously popular and there are lots and lots of special scenes with the couples and numerous fanvids. And it actually is an ongoing storyline, but the aber is that Christian since 2013 lives in London and Oliver is still in Düsseldorf. Thore (or the writers) apparently thinks he has better things to do than snogging Jo Weil every day, so he is working as a host for some other tv-show in Germany. One (and a real good one) reapperance fron Christian has been made, and we hope for more. Christian come home!

Alles was zählt (2006)
Last but not least we have the youngest everyday german soap with a gay storyline and that is Alles was zählt from 2006. And here we meet our second gay german supercouple, Deniz and Roman. Roman Wild (Dennis Grabosch) is the figure skater that falls for the 17 year old ice hockey player Deniz Öztürk (Igor Dolgatschew) who of course is a little bit in the closet and is quite unwilling to get out of there at first. When he does he soon has the bad taste to start dating a woman instead but then he ends up with Roman anyway. Again, and again.

Igor Dolgatschew and Dennis Grabosch.

Well, it wouldn't be a soap opera if there weren't som on-and-off. But a supercouple it is and from this couple we got som real classic hot and steamy scenes! But as I've told before Roman dies from a brain tumor and Deniz has unfortunately only dated women since.

But in 2013 we are served a new gay guy in the middle of everything: Joscha!

Carlo Degen and Alexander Gier.

Joscha Degen is the gay brother of the dancer Lukas Levin. And Joscha is a professional football player. Do I have to say anymore. I don't even need to tell you how deep in the closet he is. But in right now in this ongoing story, Joscha have met his the smoking doctor Kai Seebach and of course he can't really hold his hands to himself. But the story is really enjoyable, the actors are great and the whole show is really, really funny and I hope that we will have a new supercouple in Joscha and Kai!

As you can see, the germans brings us one good and intriguing story after another and I for sure really enjoy watching them! The interaction that is going on between Thore Schölermann and Jo Weil/Dennis Grabosch and Igor Dolgatschew is really something besonderes.