If you ask Brad “Cheeks†Bell why he thinks now is the time for a web series about a newlywed gay couple, he’ll tell you, “Why not?†And, to be honest, he has a point.
Husbands premiered last night, complete with a live question and answer with Bell, series co-creator Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Torchwood: Miracle Day, Caprica, etc.) and series co-star Sean Hemeon, thanks to Streamin’ Garage. While I didn’t stick around for the post-premiere interview, the pre-show was intriguing in of itself—for example, Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle) is set to guest star! Do I have your attention now?
The basic premise of Husbands is simple: a high-profile couple, Cheeks more or less as himself and Hemeon as baseball star Brady Kelly, wake up in Vegas after celebrating marriage equality, only to find that they have actually gotten married on a drunken whim. From the website:
Waking up married after a drunken Vegas weekend used to be an adventure reserved for one man and one woman. But thanks to a new law, athlete Brady Kelly and actor Cheeks find themselves unexpectedly and legally wed. Unwilling to undermine the hard-fought battle with a public quicky divorce, these two decide to make a go of it. They were doing okay when they were dating. But how will it work out, now that they are HUSBANDS?
Episode one, “Waking Up in Vegas,†shows the couple, plus Cheeks’ best friend Haley (Alessandra Torresani of Caprica), downplaying the even to the press and saying it was planned, juxtaposed with the comical moment days earlier of the pair waking up and realizing what had happened.
While the show is focused around a gay couple, however, this is not the point—the true plot lies in the newlywed sitcom atmosphere. Sure, they happen to be gay and will have to face certain situations because of that (Brady Kelly’s fans in the sports world are surely not pleased with him coming out, let alone marrying a man), but overall, the story is more about them trying to make their marriage work, just like any other newlywed couple.
Still, obviously the equality back-story is important for the LGBT community. Up until now, there haven’t been many shows that represented us as normal, everyday couples—at least, not as the show’s main stars. Maybe Will & Grace came close when the title characters both coupled off in the end, but gain, that was not the focal point of the series. Husbands attempts to bring the newlywed sitcom genre to the gay community—and to the world with an underlying gay theme.
Perhaps television can take a cue from Espenson and crew. Hopefully, Husbands will catch on for all the right reasons. Unconventional couples have found success the mainstream before, even back in the early days of sitcoms—just look at Lucy and Ricky. If a Cuban bandleader and an all-American redhead can break boundaries in the 50s, why can’t a flamboyant actor and an openly gay baseball player open America’s eyes in 2011? We’re not all that different, after all—everybody falls in love and, at some point, has to figure out how to make a relationship work.
Whether you’re gay or straight, male or female, human or other, Husbands is worth a click. The first episode is just under two minutes long, anyway, so it won’t take much of your time to give it a chance. Let’s all get together and help the TV world realize that we need a show like Husbands to prove, once and for all, that it’s not about sexuality; it’s about being human, being in love—and all the comedy that comes along with figuring out how to make a relationship last.
Husbands goes up every Tuesday and Thursday at around 10 p.m. EST on its official website, HusbandsTheSeries.com.
This article originally appeared on ALLMediaNY.com
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