TV Review: The Awful and Horrible Way Women Writers Treat Gay Characters in Netflix’s Firefly Lane 

There is a series on Netflix that Tony and I started watching a few years ago. At the time it was season one of Firefly Lane. Well, like most TV these days the series didn’t return for a few years and by that time you stop caring about the storyline and the characters, and it takes time to get back into the show. 

Season 2 of Firefly Lane dropped recently and Tony and I have been giving it a try. It’s schmaltz and it’s not the kind of genre we normally watch, but up until recently we didn’t dislike it. 

I really don’t like to review TV shows or movies, but sometimes it has to happen. And after watching last night’s episode of Firefly Lane I just want to warn gay men about it. There is an ongoing storyline where one of the main characters has a gay brother. He’s in the closet for all of season one, and he finally came out last night during season 2. All his life he’s been hiding who he really is. He was even married to a woman and has a kid. And that is plausible. It happens. 

First, the coming out part could have been handled differently. I’ve never known a gay man to come out exactly the way he did. But I can forgive that and move forward. The one thing I can’t forgive is the way they treated this gay character after he came out. His sister comes up to him to offer all of her heartfelt straight woman support, with all of her straight privilege, and she suggests they go out to a gay bar and celebrate. 

And that’s when I gagged. Not only did they go to a gay bar, they brought along another girlfriend, so it turned out to be girlfriend night at the gay bar.  And the gay men in the bar were waving their hands and lisping so fast I had to cringe. All the gay stereotypes came out. Now I know this is part of gay culture, too, but in all my life as a gay man I have never seen it so exaggerated. And that’s when I turned to Tony and said, “this has to be written by a straight woman.” 

Sure enough, it’s not only written by women it was created by women and it’s based on a book that was written by a woman. For the record, I have nothing against women. I love women and some of my best friends have been women. But not like these women. Couldn’t they have called in a gay man with whom to consult? Just so they would get the gay aspects right and they wouldn’t have give their own take on what it’s like to be a gay man who just came out. Oh, they were way out of their lane and this time they should know it. And this is why non-gay people should not be writing gay content. 

As for the rest of season 2, I won’t be watching. I’m done. 

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