For anyone fighting for acceptance, dignity and their basic human rights, there is a tipping point. The moment when protest pays off, everything comes together and society finally allows you to live freely, without discrimination and fear.
On the second season of FX’s ‘Pose’ (2019), the tipping point is Madonna.
It’s 1990 and the megastar’s ‘Vogue’ is climbing the charts. The music video lifts voguing from the drag community and Blanca, our optimistic transgender heroine, thinks endorsement from the then queen of the mainstream will change transgender lives for the better.
Record scratch. It doesn’t. And the House Evangelista seems to be falling apart. Plagued by HIV scares, secrets, drugs and a kinky fatality, the boys and girls of ‘Pose’ return for a second season that is a little grittier than the last.
Still as glamourous as ever as the show delves into the bright lights and flamboyance of the New York ball scene, ‘Pose’ juxtaposes these moments of charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent with storylines many will recognise from ‘Paris is Burning’ (1990). Venus Xtravaganza found dead in a hotel room and Dorian Corey’s mummified man in a garment bag.
Tragic, uplifting and filled with inspiring moments of activism, the series pushes its characters forward with style, empathy and savvy without devolving into LGBTIQIA+ caricature or trauma porn.
If you haven’t watched the first season, get into it and dive straight into the next.
‘Pose”s stories are sobering, striking and told with heart. The ensemble, which includes the fabulous Billy Porter, Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Angelica Ross and Dominique Jackson, is love at first ball and the category is realness.
