Eastsiders

EVERYONE should check out this show!!! It's about relationships....and love.....and life....and acceptance. It's funny... and sad ... and beautiful... and poignant.... and smart. When you love someone can you truly love them for the flawed imperfect person they are? Can you forgive? And what can that look like? Certainly it will be flawed and imperfect.... and beautiful. If you are looking for a well written show with great dialogue, fantastic acting and a killer soundtrack head over to Netflix and binge this show (and you WILL binge it)! EastSiders was funded with Kickstarter. Their two episode project on YouTube in 2012 created enough interest and donations to develop a web series. Now with four seasons streaming on Netflix and translated into more than two dozen languages - this is the little series that could. I have fallen in love with these characters as I laughed and cried with them and watched them develop over the years. Did I mention the soundtrack?!?! Song choices and placement are just fantastic. I had made myself a YouTube playlist of my favorite songs from the show (the closing credit songs from the first two episodes still being my all time favorites). Recently I found out the soundtrack is on Spotify and I am over the moon.

This show is a funny, dark, quirky gem filled with flawed and endearing characters. It has angst and laughs and love. I have enjoyed watching it grow and I will miss it. A two episode update every few years, in honor of their two episode beginning, would complete me.... just a check-in to see how they are all doing. Having just watched the final season, I think it's time to rewind to the beginning to see where it all started. Feel free to join me.

Okay, not really, but there is one scene with some amusing concealment of - gasp! - male genitalia.

Eastsiders is the story of the relationship between Cal, played by Kit Williamson, and Tom, played by Van Hansis.

I had recently seen Van Hansis in something else, and really liked his performance, very natural, and unforced, and he was the reason I chose to watch this show. Mentioning why I chose to watch, as I don't usually watch relationship stuff, and comedy/drama rarely works for me. Also, based on reviews, I don't think I would have watched this.

In short, I really enjoyed Eastsiders, as an entertainment. It's funny. Also, sometimes sad, but for my tastes much more light than dark.

Yes, these people are whiny, and self absorbed, but other than the Dalai Lama, and Mother Theresa, who isn't?

Yes, the sex is unrealistic, but for those who want graphic adult situational type content, I understand there is some available on the internet.

Going off on a tangent, the visual highlight of this series was Colby Keller, who played Arlen, someone Cal and Tom meet on their travels. I think I have seen him in something before, but I have no idea, at all, what that was.

Loved Traci Lords as Val, Cal's mother, having a great time, swilling Martini's. Alcoholics are often fun, until they're not.

Enjoyed John Halbach's satirical representation of heterosexuality, as the character Ian. I think it's satire, due to how many times he calls his girlfriend "babe", as no one actually does that, right? Or do they? IDK.

It's a mixed bag for sure, but for me it was enjoyable escapism, with occasional touches of reality, the pain of being different, but then normal is what most everyone pretends to be, but no one is.

When Eastsiders hits the sweet spot it's great. Touching, authentic, funny, and sad - all the feels! But in between the splendid highs is a lot of relationship and existential navel gazing. I get it that 20-somethings into the 30-somethings are inclined to wonder out loud a lot about where they've been, where they're going, who they're going with yadayada but this ensemble are way to easily distracted by their own self-importance. Personally, I think the writing and character development improves over the seasons, although I loved the short-format of its early days. It never gets any less unbelievable that everyone in Silverlake knows each other, are hot as anything and have great sex all over the place, but these aren't exactly drawbacks. Traci Lords and Willam Belli playing it for the cheap seats are fabulous. I really like Eastsiders a lot. It's good tv and way overdue in the 21st century.

I think the younger you are (if you're gay) the more this will resonate with you. The writing is uneven, but the starting premise is interesting. It's infidelity but not just simple infidelity. And the production values and photography are both fine.

Overall, the gay characters are better done than the straight characters. The gay characters are more underwritten, e.g., the actors communicated with their faces/bodies a lot, which is a good thing; it wasn't so dialog driven. The straight characters on the other hand seemed overwritten and, frankly, unconvincing.

As the episodes progress, some of the coincidences are a bit much. And the way people relate to each other doesn't always seem real. A lot of the time it does, but a lot of the time it doesn't.

For those of you with a lot more life experience this will be harder to take. For example, the art gallery/art world shown is like somebody's idea of what that world is like, rather than what it's really like. That's true for a lot of things, including some relationships. However, most of the gay hook ups/relationships were plausible to me because, well, been there done that.

Still, I found this very watchable, even though I knew the quality was just above average. But like I say, the younger you are, the more likely you will be to enjoy it.

Finally a series that speaks to a Gay (and general) audience that pretty much ticks all the boxes. It has nuance, humour, heart and soul wrapped in an intelligent script and delivered with expert acting and high production values, to deliver an engaging and touching story that will make most viewers want to watch it all in one sitting. This is everything that its predecessors isn't. It's the series that hits the sparsity of good Gay television choices right out of the ballpark. Eastsiders sets the bar at the level a LGBT audience deserves. Highly recommended! Thank goodness for subscription television! Eastsiders is a stunning example of what channels like Netflix can deliver. I loved this!