Parents...

Chryed and Syed's family. And Amira.

Watching Chryed I also got reminded of how awful his parents are most of the time! Ok, they are muslim, and the storyline is really important, but I just hate when parents are homophobes! It's the most heartbreaking thing to ever witness! And Nitin Ganatra and Nina Wadia (Zainab & Masood) made a really good job portraing dirtbags! I lost count how many times they disowned Syed! But, fortunately, they came to turns with it eventually. When Christian and Syed finally got married they were almost even sweet!

Sam Strike & Kellie Bright.

And speaking of Eastenders, Zainab and Masood has not been the only ones. When Johnny Carter (Sam Strike/Ted Reilly) came out early in 2014 his mother Linda Carter just couldnt accept it! I mean, in 2014! His dad, Mick (Danny Dyer) was much more supportive and relaxed about it. But Linda was just awful! Ok, she has gotten over it now but I just can't forgive her for it! She is always going to be poison to me!

Lari & Ilkka.

Another classic homophobic biggot is Ilkka Väänänen (Ari-Matti Hedman) from Salatut Elämät. We all thought that he might be ok when he didn't make any fuzz right there and then when he saw Lari and Elias on the sofa when he forgot his wallet. But we were so wrong! Another dad disowning his son and he even tried to "cure" him by sending Lari to an anti-gay camp. Just awful! Poor Lari! I wonder what would have happened to Larias if Ilkka weren't such a jerk?

Clemens Löhr & Alexander Becht.

This is actually quite interesting. When Nik Breidenbach played Alexander Cöster in GZSZ we was a homophobe, but when Clemens Löhr took over the part he was not. Not as much at least. Early in the days, Alexander of some reason believed that lenny was gay and Lenny tricked Alexander that he was just because he was a homophobic bully as a father. Not really nice at all. But when they changed actor and Lenny got together with Carsten everything was forgiven and forgotten. I like the new Alexander better. Definitely.

Jo Weil & Thore Schölermann.

Even the wonderful Oliver Sabel had a homophobic mother. His aunt Charlie was really nomal, but his mother Henriette was bitter and religious and didn't want her son to marry the love of his life. Christian that is. But she finally came around. But she was that unimportant that there's no good pictures of her on the net. That might as well be just as good. I never liked her.

Dennis Grabosch & Hartmut Volle.

Roman Wild in Alles Was Zählt even lied about his parents living in Australia because they were homophobes who had disowned him. It was just because Roman's little brother Florian moved/fled to Roman that we got to meet Roman's biggoty father Egon. I would rather have been without that acquaintance. Really. He never became better. He was just creapy.

Scott & Lisa Evans.

Surprise surprise, there's also American religious homophobic and biggoty parents. When Oliver Fish in One Life to Live finally came out his parents didn't approve ofcourse. Fortunately for us, Fish chose Kyle and not his mother. A fun fact is that it was Scott Evans' real mother Lisa who played barbara Fish for some episodes. We can't really accuse Lisa Evans for being agreat actor, but who is in a soap opera hey? Except for Danny Miller!

Daniel Hugh Kelly.

And I don't think anyone could accuse Winston Mayer for being a cozy and sweet guy. He was just awful! A manipulative stridspitt (that's swedish. Try working out what it means if you can!) that only cared about himself.He even tried to kill Noah's (Jake Silbermann) great love Luke (van Hansis). Luke got shot and couln't walk for while just because of this awful man! Every time he came back the Nuke storyline just got a little bit more angstly. Did not like him at all.

Nicolas Herman & Bernard Allouf.

Words can't enough how much I detest Yves Barrel, the father of Nicolas Barrel from Plus Belle la Vie. He is just pure evil! Homophobic, murderous, violent, manipulative, abusive... He is just it all. And that's not a good thing. The only good thing about him was that he disappeared eventually. The bad thing was that Nicolas disappeared about the same time. I miss Nicolas! It's a wonder he ended up such a nice person (when he wasn't a druggie) with that father. He and Egon Wild is kind of the same character. And that's no good thing!

Joshua Pascoe and Steve McFadden.

And let's go back to where we started. Eastenders. ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe/Harry Reid) has not had it easy. Phil Mitchell, his father, is not a very nice man. Ben has a homophobic father who kind of maid him get a beard not to loose him, his mother came back from the dead and he also was in prison for killing his stepmother's best friend. But I believe that was an accident... Anyhow, I don't ever think Phil Mitchel will approve of his gay son. Even though he is trying. But fake it you make it is not reallyPhil Mitchell's strong side. But I am open for being convinced otherwise!

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!

Alibi freundins

Speaking of girls who fall in love with gays, why don't wee talk a bit about the alibi girlfriends as well, the beards? It's called an alibi freundin in German. Ok, I know, they are the victims, and they are really taken advantage of. They have never asked to be used like that. But they can still be a bit annoying... And there is a lot of them!

First of all we have the legal ones.

Christian and Judith in Verbotene Liebe.

Judith Hagendorf (Katrin Heß) was living with Christian and Olli when they got together and because of his boxing career, and we all know that the the boxing culture is quite homophobic, som Christian needed a beard and Judith helped out. Even though she had a boyfriend. And then Christian came out with lots of noice on a boxing game. I really liked Judith. She was a lovely girl.

Joscha and Raquel in Alles Was Zählt.

Then we had the wonderful Raquel Santana (Yara Hassan) of Alles Was Zählt. She wanted to stay in Germany so she even married Joscha just to be his alibi. And here is a quite similar story, because Joscha had to stay in the closet because of his footbaal (soccer) career, and we all know that the football culture is quite homophobic. But it is only getting better and better! Raquel was hilarious, and I really liked it when she dated Ingo, who is a real favourite character in Alles Was Zählt. Unfortunately she died not long ago, because the writers of Alles Was Zählt is trying to make it some kind of middle-aged soap. I do not approve!

Joscha and Mel in Alles Was Zählt.

But this was not poor old Joscha's first beard. At first he dated Melanie "Mel" Wendt (Anna-Katharina Fecher) "for real" just to hide his homosexuality. Mel is a really shallow character that seemed to only date Joscha to be a football wife. But it seemed that she really liked him, but she was quite brutally dumped. Joscha just couldn't induce himself to have sex with her, which is understandable. After Joscha she also dated  our wonderful Deniz, who really needs to have a new man in his life! Especially when all the girls he is dating are sissys. I really do not care for Mel at all, even though she is Ingo's step daughter and even though she really didn't deserve to be used like that. A really boring, and bitchy, character.

Nina and Deniz in Alles Was Zählt.

And speaking of Deniz, he also had a beard once. It might have been that he quite fancied Nina Sommer (Nathalie Thiede) at first, but they really didn't mash work together but I think that he really delayed the breaking up because he was afraid of his feelings for Roman. Lovely Roman... Nina was a real bitch when Deniz had ended it with her and started dating Roman, but she matured a lot and in the end (she left in 2009) she was so likeable. She was a real good friend to Deniz and she was all supportive of DeRo. As should!

Lenny and Emily in Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten.

And of course, there has been an alibi freundin in Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten as well. And at least this time, Lenny actually was in love with Emily Höfer (Anne Menden) at the beginning, even though he was gay. But you don't fall in love with a gender. And I really didn't like Emily. She really was in love with Lenny and tried to please him so much, I have to give her that but she wasn't really that nice. Not during the relationship with Lenny or after. But I read that she did date Tuner after Lenny and I like him, so she might have become better lately. I don't know.

Iida and Lari in Salatut Elämät.

And speaking of really annoying girls Iida Mustonen (Rosa Rusanen) is really annoying! Ok, she usually is a really good friend to both Lari and Elias, especially Elias, but you will have to look hard for a more whining character! And she is really moody as well and Iida is a character that you never really get to know. If you are following a soap you wil get to know the characters so you will know how they will react in different situations but with Iida you will never really know. She changes all the time and it's like the writers can't agree to how to chracterize her. Really annoying! And she really just snogged with Lari to piss off Janne at first but then she got all in love, pregnant and anorectic and even more whining. Poor Iida.

Will and Gabi in Days of our lives.

And speaking of pregnant, Gabi Hernandez (Gabriela Rodriguez) got the baby, but she waiting almost until the baby was born before she told Will. Well, just what to expect of Days of our lives. Ok, I haven't watched the whole WilSon storyline, I have to confess, because I don't really enjoy it. But I don't really unlike Gabi, but I don't like her either. A quite bland character. Nothing to get excited about.

Hannah and John Paul i Hollyoaks.

And then we have poor old Hannah Ashworth (Emma Rigby) in Hollyoaks that I told you about yesterday. John Paul used her, and we did pity her, and she was alright, but also a bit bland. Moving on.

Rae and Ste in Hollyoaks.

But Hannah is not the only beard we have seen in Hollyoaks. Ste also had one. When he and Brendan was top secretly seeing eachother, Brendan actually told Ste to get a beard. Unfortunately Rae Wilson (Alice Barlow) got the blank lottery ticket. She was a lovely girl that Ste actually had a good eye to the last time she lived in Hollyoaks. But poor Rae really wasn't in a good luck. At first she got pregnant with Ste, caught Ste and Brendan in the act, lost the baby and then got murdered by the notorious Silas Blisset. But not in the same night thankfully. And I liked Rae, even though she was in the way for Stendan, one of my favourite ships.

Cleo and Harry in Hollyoaks.

But we also have two ungoing beard-storylines, and one of them in Hollyoaks. Of course. Hollyoaks have got everything! Are newest addition to the LGBT characters in Hollyoaks is Harry Thompson (Parry Glasspool) and he is Tony Hutchinson's son. He came around in February (second time with the same actor) and I love him already. First it seemed like he fancied Cleo McQueen (Nadine Ros Mulkerrin) but then he made out with John Paul in The Loft! And he is only 15! There are really no excuses for John Pauls behaviour even though he didn't know about his age. But he is married to Ste and should be snogging some random scamps in The Loft. But ok, they have had rough time with all the HIV and stuff, but he still shouldn't have done it! And now it seems like Harry really has a crush on John Paul, who is his teacher! What a kerfuffel! And the lads at school are for some reason teasing Harry about John Paul because they know that John Paul is gay and to save his skin, Harry made out with Cleo and seems to be dating her now. Poor Cleo really like Harry and Harry seems to have a crush on John Paul and this could really be a mess!

Ben and Abi in Eastenders.

And at last I present to you Bem Mitchell and his beard Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald) in Eastenders. I mean, what is he doing? We all know that he is gay. He used to fancy Christian Clarke (which he also accused of assault) and he came out for his dad Phil and he tried to snog Johnny Carter before he went away. What about all this closetness now? He really have no need for a beard. Abi seems to be a sweet but quite bland girl. No really, dump her and bring back Johnny! Or do a cross over where he starts dating Finn in Emmerdale. Or maybe Harry in Hollyoaks. Anything is better than this!

When girls fall for the gay guys...

Don't you just hate it? I mean, you can't help who you fall in love with but who would expose themself for the pain of falling for someone who there is a very very limited chance respond the feelings. I won't say that a gay guy can't fall for a woman, I mean we have seen it in Bob & Rose. If you haven't seen Bob & Rose? Just do it! Anyway, when a girl falls for the gay character, I really hate it. They just cause unecessary fuss. Here are some really irritating examples:

Olli, Christian and Rebecca in Verbotene Liebe.

Ok, on this picture Christian is actually kissing Rebecca (Jasmin Lord). Rebecca von Lahnstein... I really didn't like her before she became a lesbian. At first she dated Christians older brother Gregor, then she kissed Olli, then she used Christian for shopliftng and then she fell in love with him, even though she new he were with Olli. That is so disloyal!And she was so clingy and immature in those days. Didn't like her at all. She was clingy and immature at the same time as Olli and Christian had a tiff, and you can just imagine how messy things became! But then she started dating Miriam and became a little bit more interesting and then she went away in 2011. I didn't miss her. But in 2012 she came back with a new actor (Tatjana Kästel) and this is when it started to get interesting. She had a bisexual fling with Miriam as said, but now she completely fell in love with her brothers wife Marlene and this is when the magic happened. She was more mature and interesting in one episode than she had been in all her previous episodes together! So I have forgiven Rebecca. I like the new Rebecca.

Vanessa and Deniz in Alles Was Zählt.

Vanessa Steinkamp (Julia Augustin) has really changed for me through the years. I started by liking her because she was really supportive when Deniz and Roman started seeing eachother. Then she fell in love with Deniz and by then I really couldn't stand her at all! DeRo is a sensitive issue for me. I am a hardcore DeRo-shipper. If you come between Deniz and Roman I get really really angry. And at last death came between them once and for all. I have rarly cried so much... But I started liking Vanessa again. She is a real nice character, even though I can't forgive her for breaking up DeRo. But everyone deserves a second chance.

Carsten and Lucy in Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten.

And what is it with girls being really supportive about gay relationships before falling in love with them? In this case, Lucy Cöster (Sarah Tkotsch) fell for Carsten when her brother and his boyfriend was in jail! That is such a betayal. Thank gods Lenny had done som anger management and could be really cool about it. Lucy was also really cool and mature, and then she fell for her gay BFF and became a small brat. That was such a non-interesting storyline to follow. And it wasnt even a realistic one! The cruc´sh just came out of the blue and I hated it.

Roxy and Christian in Eastenders.

And Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons) and Christian Clarke... Really? She, his best friend, who always was jealous of Syed were of course in love with Christian. What a joke! She always tried to kibosh everything she could between the couple. Roxy is a quite fun and interesting character, who even volunteered as a surrogate for Christian and Syed, but you can't really like her if you are a Chryed-shipper. And I am. Roxy is in the way!

John Paul and Hannah in Hollyoaks.

And poor poor Hannah Ashworth (Emma Rigby). She was a kind of beard for John Paul when he was in the closet and she completely fell in love with him. I mean, who wouldn't! John Paul is lovely! But he came out and Hannah's heart was broken. But she still couldn't stop being in love with John Paul and she did some quite weird things and really tried to get John Paul back even though she new he was gay and she tried to sabotage his relationship with Spike. She really hated Spike. She even had grudge to him when she met him years later. Quite childish. But Hannah was a nice girl. I liked her anyway, but I really didn't like her actions!

So. don't fall in love with gay guys in soaps! You will have all the soap opera viewers who are faghags, and there ate quite a lot, against you. That is so unecessary.

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.

Favourite fanvids ep.3

It's been a while since I shared some of my favourite fanvids. We must do something about that I think. I actually love fanvids! I can sit for hours just watching all sorts of fanvids, even though gay themes are the favourites. Today I have to share a new favourite. I have so fallen in love with Stendan! Ste and Brendan from Hollyoaks that is. I know that it's a brutal love story, but I love it anyway. I so hope that also they will get a sunset ending in the end.

This is a couple I loved even before I started watching it by watching fanvids and clips on youtube. I guess I love them because their story contains those ingredients that I have a penchant for, that is denial, on-and-off and a certain amount of violence. And passion of course. I know, I am weird. But I also love the characters Ste Hay and Brendan Brady. And by that I mean I really really love them! And I love the actors Kieron Richardson and Emmet J. Scanlan. I absolutely adore them! And this is also a great song. Lovely indeed!

Another great video I watch sometimes is actually one with a storyline I haven't seen. The dutch soap Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden has a regular character called Lucas Sanders (Ferry Doedens) that has had a couple of partners through the years. His first real boyfriend (I think) was called Edwin Bouwhuis (Raynor Arkenbout) and I would really like to watch their storyline but it is really impossible to find! What I shame I have to say because the story seems really amazing.

In the meantime before anyone tells me where I can watch the story (or download it) I have to make do with great fanvids and clips on youtube. This one is my favourite. And if you want to practice your spanish, here you have the chance. I actually think that every fictional gay couple should have a fanvid with Halo by Beyoncé. And there are more than one out there already. Some day I will make a post only Halo-fanvids. I do happen to know what happened to Lucas and Edwin, Ludwin that is, which I have blogged about before. And I also know what happens to Lucas after Edwin, which I have also blogged about. I even do know what happens after that, but that will be another post. If anyone knows how to watch the Lucas and Edwin storyline, or another Lucas storyline, please do tell me!

I will also serve you a very short and rapid fanvid, but yet a lovely one! One of my favourite couples of all time is Cenny, Lenny and Carsten, from the German soap opera Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten, which also is quite hard to find. But I know how, hehe. Anyways, this is another storyline with a little violence, but it is very beautiful and it has a happy ending for Lenny Cöster (Alexander Becht) and Carsten Reimann (Felix Isenbügel) and if you want to see the really quick version of their storyline you should watch this video.

It is not in chronological order but you will get the essentials of the story. If you, like me, are  Cenny shipper (the new word again) and sometimes get some Lenny and Carsten cravings, this is an excellent remedy. Enjoy!

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.

Unzertrennlich

I guess some of you know the song Unzertrennlich with Revolverheld. Most of you DeRo-fans associate it with a beautiful scene on a ping-pong table in episode 300 of Alles was zählt. For me, that song is Cenny, that is Carsten and Lenny från Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten. That song was played in Mauerwerk when Lenny had his last night in freedom before he went to jail. I love the scene where Lenny and Carsten are dancing and making out and the camera is circulating around them. On youtube you can find fanvids and collages with both DeRo, Chrolli and Cenny.

This week I also discovered that the official is very beautiful! Just in my taste. Watch and enjoy!

Also the lyrics are very beautiful:

Unzertrennlich

Bist Du da wo ich auch bin
Bist du angekommen…
Wo die Zeit im Wind verrinnt
Wie Sand am Meer
Wie die Wellen die immer wieder kommen
Es ist eigentlich nicht schwer
Wir haben es uns einfach genommen

Der Augenblick schreibt unsere Geschichte

Wir sind unzertrennlich
Sind unvergaenglich
Wir sind unzertrennlich
In unserer Welt verloren
Wir sind unzertrennlich
Sind unvergaenglich
Die Sekunde eingefroren

Endlich gefunden

Was laengst zusammen gehoert
Eine Welt aus Sekunden
Die uns alleine nur zerstoert
Wie Ebbe und Flut
und Traeume die immer wieder kommen
Sie Machen uns Mut
Wir haben sie uns einfach genommen

Wir…sind…hier
Leben den Moment
Sind…da
Wo die Zeit beginnt

Inseparable

Are you where I am too
Have you arrived
Where the time passes with the wind
Like sand at the sea
Like the waves which come again and again
It's actually not that hard
We simply took it

The moment writes our story

We are inseparable
We are immortal
We are inseparable
Lost in our world
We are inseparable
We are immortal
The seconds frozen

Finally found

What long since belongs together
A world made of seconds
Which destroys only us alone
Like ebb and flow
And dreams that come and again
They bolster us up
We simply took them

We are here
Live for the momemt
We are
Where the time begins

With this I'd like to say: I want more such musicvideos!

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.