What happened to Tom and Johnny?

Don't you just hate it when they hinting a romace between someone and then just... nothing!? Whatever happened to the romance we were going to get between Tom Pepper (Tristam Summers) and Johnny Carter (Ted Reilly)? Well, I don't think it's ever going to happen! So why are you doing a thing of it then? Why Eastenders? Just don't get it...

Timothy Boldt & Lukas Sauer.

It reminds me of all the big fuzz they made about Ringo and Aaron in Unter Uns. It was promoted as they greatest summer romance ever or something and they hade sex twice! Or something... Ringo had a small crush I think but there was no more. And we all felt very deceived. Just rubbish!

Aaron Sidwell as Steven Beale.

Well, we have our hopes on Steven Beale. He is back and he has already had some glimpses on Johnny. But he also brought back a girlfriend! Let's take it from the beginning. Steven Beale is the stepson of Ian Beale and he first showed up in 1989. He has not been a goody goody for sure and when he came back it seems like everybody hated him. Including Christian Clarke (John Partridge) who was back for a couple of episodes (yay!) who apparently Steven kissed back in the days. I guess I have to see Christians early days to really get the character of Steven Beale. No one really knows if he's really gay, but at least he's bisexual. The boring Lauren broke up with him and I hope he won't take her back so he's available for Johnny! I like Steven. He's an interesting character. I hope THAT will be the summer romance of this year! I think he and Johnny would be cute together.

Nothing going on

The Germans have really made the most memorable gay characters in their soaps. I mean, who doesn't love Chrolli, Joscka, DeRo och Cenny? But what are they doing right now? I really don't understand. In the years 2007-2010-ish, there were six regular gay(ish) characters in German soaps. There were Olli and Christian in Verbotene Liebe, Lenny and Carsten in Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten and there were Roman and Deniz in Alles Was Zählt. How many are there now? None!

Igor Dolgatschew as Deniz Öztürk.

Ok, that was kind of a lie. There har three bisexual characters. Deniz is still a part of Alles Was Zählt, but since Roman died he has just dated women. And not very nice women either. Please Deniz, step back outside of the wardrobe! Or at least have some juicy dreams about Roman!

Mickey Hardt as Dr. Jo Helmke.

And when Verbotene Liebe stopped being an every day soap (or at least an every second day soap) and became a once a week soap, Oliver Sabel left the series as well. I don't know if he did it by free choice or if the writers wanted something else of the show, but I do know that Olli was a very very popular character so they shouldn't have wanted for him to go. But Olli was never really interesting enough without Christian... But, he had a fling with Dr. Jo Helmke, and Jo is still a regular on the show But I haven't really watched the show since Christian left and Dr. Jo Helmke is not a favourite character in any way. I don't even think it's possible to follow his storyline on youtube. And that says enough!

Timothy Boldt who plays Ringo Beckmann.

And of course, there's Ringo Beckmann in Unter Uns. I do love Ringo, and Timothy Boldt hos plays him in the show Unter Uns, but it seems like the character is just part of really boring storylines. Storylines with no male love interests, that is. He dated Yannick and then he wanted to date Aaron (even though I guess he never admitted that to himself) and then there has just been girls. So I don love Ringo but I don't love Unter Uns. I think it's a boring series. It's a shame, because it could have been really interesting with Ringo being a villain and all. But Hollyoaks are good at that. Maybe they could borrow him?

Whatever happened to the summer romance?

Timothy Boldt and Lukas Sauer as Ringo and Aaron.

Well, what happened to Ringo and Aaron? Was it the big summer romance I was hoping to? Not really. They met, they flirted, they had sex and they did some chatting. The last thing I saw of them was in the 20th og August when Ringo borrowed a blu ray from Aaron I was fishing for some snogging I think, but Aaron doesn't seem like a guy that want to go steady. Ringo is usually not a couples-guy either, but if we read between the lines it seems like he is really interested. And his sister Kira tries to matters in her own hands but it ends in catastrophy. There is no more spoilers including Aaron, and there is no sign of Lukas Sauer filming i Köln, and the photo campaign with Timothy and Lukas could have been just some fishing for viewers, but I don't think so. At least I don't want to think so. If Ringo has a crush on a guy I don't think that the writers of Unter Uns will t´let that one go so easy. I think that there will be some more of Aarin, and I really hope that we won't be disappointed.

Sextember

In a tumblr I use to check out, I think it was this one, the concept Sextmeber occured along ith this image:

I guess it's all from Shameless USA. I like the concept so I decided to make an own sextember tribute. But to find hot and steamy pictures from hot and steamy sex scenes between gays in soap operas was easier said than done. Gays usually don't get to have sex scenes. I guess the only ones that got to get some sex scenes worthy of the name are DeRo (Deniz and Roman ) and Chrolli (Christian and Oliver). And a little bit of Ringo with Yannick and Aaron maybe... But here is my version of Sextember!

 

It's nothing special really, just a small collage made i picCollage, and some of the photos are not actually sex scene photos, but some kind of foreplay or just snogging, but at least we have both WilSon (Will and Sonny, Joschka (Joscha and Kai, Chrolli, Yango (Ringo and Yannick), DeRo and Larias (Lari and Elias). And that is not bad. That is not bad at all...

A new romance

Finally it seems like Ringo, the gay (or bisexual I think) villain from Unter Uns will have a new same-sex romance! It's stated that Ringo,played by Timothy Boldt, will have a flirt with Aaron, played by Lukas Sauer. Lukas Sauer on his hand is actually a model and a reality-star from the German show Mamma Mia, where you can see him and Basti Döhring paired up. So I gay character played by a gay actor? This sounds promising! And I really hope Ringo will not go bananas this time and beat the life out of his lover as he did to Yannick. We'll have to wait until 11'th of July before Aaron enters the show but til then we have some pictures to conteted with. And it's already stated that the couple will be called Aarin. So we already got a name! I really hope this story will last.

Timothy Boldt and Lukas Sauer as Ringo and Aaron in Unter Uns.

Gay-bashing

Kai, Joscha and Nick.

In mondays episode of Alles was zählt Joscha was brutally gay-bashed. Yesterday we learned that it is so serious that he had to be operated and that they have to drill a whole in his scull to ease the pressure. Unpleasant indeed. But I have also read som spoilers that tell that Joscha will be alright. Today I also was reached by the news that both Joscha and Kai (and also Joschas brother Lukas and his father David) will leave the series in May. That is such a shame and I am upset! But I hope that it will be the happy ending we all are hoping for with a profi-Vontrag und ein neues jobb. My tip is that the guy to the right has something to do with the bashing...

Tom and Ulli.

But gay-bashing is not a new pehonomenon in the soap operas around the world. In Germany it has happened more than once before. Back in the year 2000 Tom and Ulli from Verbotene Liebe was attacked by two homophobes on their way to the cinema. Tom had a punch in the stomach and Ulli almost got beaten when his brother Nick came to the rescue. No serious enjurys that time.

Olli and Christian in the hospital.

It was worse for Olli some years later when Christians extremely homophobic boxing club pals, Axel, got hold of him. After the big outing in the boxing ring Axel just had to beat Olli almost to death. It is interesting how you can be so provoked by mutual love that is not directed to you. Olli was relatively alright that time, but later on it was discovered that he had cot brain injurys and he almost died. Unpleasant indeed.

Ringo and Yannick in a tense moment.

Also in Unter Uns there has been som gay-bashing, but this time, Yannick was gay-bashed by another gay, that is Ringo, his kind of boyfriend. The only homophobe I have seen in Unter Uns is Ringo. Stop beating Yannick almost to death. Their relationship ended after that. Surprise!

Syed and Christian after the bashing.

There ha salso been som gay-bashing in Great Britain. In 2009 Christian Clarke was brutally gay-bashed by a man he brought home from the pub after som flirting. He was expecting sex but got bashed instead. Well it is simple, if you don't want to have sex with the person, don't follow him/her home! I can't understand what is so provoking with what gays do in their bedroom? Though, this led to a very cute moment when Syed forced Christian to go to the police and waited outside the whole time and the invited himself home to Christian and they had sex for the second time. I think.

There are a lot of more examples of gay-bashing in soaps, but these are the ones that comes to mind right now. It is understandable that gay-bashing is a important and dramatic subject to illuminate. But I think that it is important also to show the utopia of a world where there is no gay-bashing and where gays are naturally accepted and to. There is a lot of homophobia in this world and soap operas are sometimes realistic and sometimes not, and that's why I think it is important to prescribe a world where it is OK to be gay. Because it is. I hope there will be a world where you don't have to "come out" you can just tell everyone that you are in love. And that soon. Both in soaps and in the real world.

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.