In something of a programming coincidence, three same-sex weddings will screen on TV this week, including two at the same time. All are US dramas, with two (Brothers & Sisters and Desperate Housewives) as responses to changes in Californian law. The third, on The L Word, first aired in March 2006.

The first legal gay wedding to have screened in an American drama (as far as I can recall) was Queer as Folk, when Brian and Justin got hitched in Canada in mid-2005.

These three are season finales, under the watchful eyes of gay producers Marc Cherry, Ilene Chaiken and Greg Berlanti – although how hands-on each may be is debatable. Berlanti, who produces Brothers & Sisters, now oversees Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone, while creator Jon Robin Baitz fled the show over creative differences. Amongst other regrets, Baitz apparently wanted to explore ‘Kevin Walker’s internalized homophobia and his fear of contact with others’. Instead, we’re seeing him walk down the aisle.

Yet what is enormously significant here is that two of these weddings are from US network television.

So, how do they stack up? Frankly, with mixed results. Like any soap wedding, most of the focus is on frenzied preparations. In Desperate Housewives, the Wisteria ladies spring into wedding-planner action, making Oprah-perfect centrepieces and rescuing melting ice sculptures. For years we fought for equal rights, only to be belittled by affluent wedding-album ceremonies with gay clichés. Bob and Lee (yes, they do have names) alas are supporting players, and bicker like kids before the ‘adult’ Tom and Lynette. That said, the show has an unrelated, mind-boggling final sequence.

The Walker family are in a similar flurry (after all, Nora only throws dinner parties or bawls), but at least there’s depth mined from flashbacks to Kevin coming out to his dead father, confronting Scotty’s homophobic parents, and a final response from the closeted Uncle Saul. For my money, it’s overly sentimental, but at least there’s some honesty over flippancy.

Showtime’s The L Word wedding for Shane and Carmen at Whistler, Canada, is the best of the bunch. Simply staged in a wintery setting, it raises the dramatic stakes for a powerful season finale.

Finally, being soaps, one of the three will not go as planned. But you’ll just have to find that out for yourself.

Brothers and Sisters and Desperate Housewives air on Seven. The L Word airs on Movie Extra.

TV Guide

FRIDAY 13
[SBS/1:20am Sat] Movie: Yossi & Jagger (Israel 2002). Rpt. It’s only 65 minutes long, but less is more as two soldiers on the Lebanese border make love not war. A restrained and economic slice of homosexuality in the Middle East, with a powerful ending.

SATURDAY 14
[SBS/8:30pm] Big Love. It’s always hard to look past Chloe Sevigny, mesmerising as the unreasonable, paranoid wife wreaking havoc then back-pedalling like it’s somebody else’s fault. And to think all the networks chuck at us is procedural crime…

SUNDAY 15
[ABC/3:00pm] Julia Britton: Fearless. Documentary on the unusual and bizarre relationship between 92 year old playwright Britton and fringe director Rob Chuter, both from Melbourne. Britton travels to London to see her erotic adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover directed by Chuter, little realising he is also quietly staging the Joey Stefano porn-bio Homme Fatale without telling her.

[ABC/8:30pm] Northanger Abbey. Scintillating screenwriter Andrew Davies  (In The Line of Beauty, Tipping The Velvet) pens this adaptation of Jane Austen’s gothic novel as a lavish costume drama. Unpreviewed.

MONDAY 16
[Bio/10:00am] The 2008 Tony Awards. Live. Whoopi hosts as Broadway finally bestows a Lifetime Achievement for Stephen Sondheim; plus, acting nods for Bobby Cannavale, Patti Lu Pone, Laurence Fishburne and Patrick Stewart. A revival of South Pacific plus newcomer In the Heights dominate the field. Repeated at 8:30pm.

[Seven/8:30pm] Desperate Housewives. Final. It’s the final five minutes that will have everybody talking, with a plotting manoeuvre (and a surprise cameo) that will go down in TV history. Can we say ‘Jump the Shark’? Then, in Boston Legal, Clarence/Clarisse is caught frocked up and yelling abuse on YouTube. Finally, in 30 Rock, Will Arnett (Arrested Development) guests as a gay man trying to bring down Jack. But a shirtless football player does the same.

TUESDAY 17
[Nine/12:00pm] Movie: You Can Tell Just By Looking (US 2000). A little-known gem of five interlocking female vignettes. With its Magnolia-like storytelling, the sum of the parts makes up the whole. Glenn Close, Calista Flockhart (in a lesbian role), Cameron Diaz, Kathy Baker, Holly Hunter and Gregory Hines simply glow.

[FOX8/8:30pm] Gossip Girl. Series Return. These post-writers’ strike episodes promise a forthcoming ‘revelation’ that one of the boys is gay. Not sure I’m entirely comfortable with the twist, but it’s all in the playing.

[SBS/10:00pm] Killer's Paradise. In Guatemala, the law turns a blind eye as women are raped, mutilated and murdered. Indeed, a man can escape a rape charge if he marries his victim, provided she’s over the age of 12. Having sex with a minor is only an offence if the girl can prove she did not ‘invite’ the attack. Horrifying.

WEDNESDAY 18
[Seven/7:30pm] Ugly Betty. Vicki Beckham guests with about two words here, possibly for fear of cracking her face.

THURSDAY 19
[SBS/8:30pm] Spiral. Premiere. If you’re sick of CSI clones, here’s an involving eight-part French thriller. The naked, abandoned body of a young woman leads to a labyrinthine plot of prostitution, drugs, shady business dealings and politics. An arthouse escape.

www.tvtonight.com.au

Comments (4)

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written by PLR , June 12, 2008

OMG, Yes Brian and Justin never got married in Canada to all of our disappoinment. It was Ben and Michael that got married during the Liberty Ride and they had an awesome wedding.

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written by MariaQAF , June 11, 2008

Brian and Justin? They NEVER got married because Justin backed out, claiming Brian was not acting normal. It was BEN and MICHAEL that got married.

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written by duh! , June 11, 2008

Not Brian and Justin. Michael and Ben. Silly.

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written by JB , June 11, 2008

Brian and Justin didn't get hitched in Canada, Ben and Michael did. Brian and Justin never managed to quite get to the marriage thing.

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