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.

Stinginess

Some channels and production companies are really stingy! I mean really stingy! I live in Sweden. I have told you before that swedish gay storylines doesn't realle exist right now. I know good english and ok german. But they are talking really fast in german soaps som if I watch it with no subtitles I will miss at least half of the dialogue. I know some phrases in other languages as finnish (ei saa peittää) and spanish (una grande cerveza por favor). But that's all. And I am a faghag. I love gay storylines, especially from soaps. And some channels and production companies are making it really hard for me! Out there, there are lots and lots of generous people who subtitle and upload gay storylines and they are really really appreciated and popular! People in all ages all around the world are watching these storylines on Youtube, Dailymotion, Vimeo etc.

There are some really evil channels, like RTL for example. RTL has got three soap operas with ongoing or previous gay storylines, like Ringos from Unter Uns. But as soon that they learn that anyone, I mean anyone, has uploaded something from their shows, they ensure it will be deleted. And I will tell why that is so stupid!

I have been a faghag for a long time. I loved the soryline of Steven Carrington and Luke Fuller when I was a kid and watched Dynasty on it's rerun on the afternoons on swedish TV4. One day I decided to see if there were any clips with Steven and Luke on Youtube. The short, but cute storyline was on Youtube and I watched it. I decided to see the clips with Jack and Doug from Dawsons Creek as well and Youtube suggested a new clip that looked interesting, and then a new clip, and a new clip... Well you get the point. Then I saw there was a clip called "The sweetest gay love story ever" which I just had to watch! And that was a fanvid of Fer and David from Física o Química. And oh my godd I was in love! In two days I formally plowed as much of the storyline that I found on Dailymotion and Youtube. And I have been a Fervid shipper ever since (I've learned a new word). I found Gaydaytime and rewatched the Fervid storyline from time to time. I watched a lot of fanvids with lots of gay couples from both movies and series and picked up more and more storylines. Actually when I watched some Fervid clips again about a year later I was recommended the Larias storyline and also plowed that in a couple of days.

So I realized I had to see some more storylines. I watched Kish, Chrolli, Chryed etc and got to know quite a few soaps both american, british and german. Before I got my hands of these storylines I had never heard of Alles Was Zählt, Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten and Hollyoaks. Now I love them all! When I was in Germany in February, of course I had to watch both Alles Was Zählt and Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten in real time. A couple of weeks ago I realized I can watch Hollyoaks on SVT Play and it really was a haleluja moment!

What I want to say is that all publicity is good publicity even if it's in a faghags forum. The channels are really shooting theirselfs in the foot by reporting, deleting and banning! Isn't it a good thing that people all around the world hear about the soaps and have the chance to watch it? If I would move to Germany I would both watch Alles Was Zählt, Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten and Unter Uns. That's three shows I would never had heard about if it wasn't for all the fans that are subtitling them. Just look at Salatut Elämät from Finland, where MissFinlandia88 has the permission to subtitle and put out on Youtube the scenes with Lari and Elias. It is massively popular all around the world. So please RTL and all the other channels, stop be so stingy! You will just loose ou on it. This is an honest advice from me to you. You will win more viewers and more respect in that way. Stop making it so hard for us to see Lenny and Carsten, Deniz and Roman, Joscha and Kai and Ringo and Aaron. That is really so cheap of you to try to keep them for your own.

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.

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.

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.