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“Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll” has a new queer character

I’m going to be perfectly honest wit you, I started watching the FX show Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll for Elizabeth Gillies. And I’m going to peel back another layer of honesty: I only know Liz Gillies from the Nickelodeon show Victorious. Much to my delight, her character on SDRR is basically a grown-up version of Jade, her character on Victorious. She has an incredible voice and eyebrow game for days and this ability to deliver sarcastic lines with a beautiful bite that makes me swoon every time. While she was a Nickelodeon star, Gillies was best friends with Ariana Grande and one of my favorite videos on the internet to date is when the two gals sang RENT between filming. (Fun fact: They were also in the Broadway musical Thirteen together once upon a time.)

All that is to say, I wouldn’t have normally been like, “Oh a show about a washed up rock ‘n roll band frontrunner played by Denis Leary? Sign me up!” But an all-grown-up Liz had me intrigued, so I got on board. And to be honest, I’m still mostly only watching for Liz and her character Gigi, because there’s a lot of bullshit I’d put up with to hear her sing every week. But, there are other characters to care about too, and it’s a really interesting look into the life of a once-semi-famous group of friends trying to find their place in the music business, and how a new, young, fresh-faced girl could shake things up for them.

At the start of the series, Denis Leary’s character, stage name Johnny Rock, finds out that he has a grown-up daughter who wants to connect with him. Also, she’s hella talented. So, after much soul-searching and rock-bottom-hitting, he and his band decide to rally around Gigi and her talents instead of trying to revive the legend of Johnny Rock. There is, unsurprisingly, a lot of sex and drugs and rock and roll. It’s funny and quirky and a fun way to spend 30 minutes once a week in the summer.

“Well, Valerie,” I hear you asking, “That’s all well and good, but why are you here talking about this show now, three episodes into the second season?”

Because, gentle reader, things just got hella queer.

Everyone on this show is sexually promiscuous because rock and roll or whatever, and talks of threesomes were never far off, but this. This is different.

First things first, I’m going to recap the events of the past two episodes, and then we shall discuss. Names you need to know beyond Gigi and Johnny are Ava, Johnny’s girlfriend and backup singer in the band, and Flash, Gigi’s way-too-old-for-her boyfriend and Johnny’s best friend and also in the band.

So an old friend of the band’s died recently, and Gigi found some old videos of Ava being a lead singer, so Ava’s having a bit of an existential crisis. Johnny tries to be supportive, and even offers to do couple’s counseling with her, but to his relief, what she really wants is to have a threesome.

Flash and Gigi support this plan, and even offer up some potential girls for the gig. Ava explains that she will be picking her own ladyfriend, thank you very much, and that it will be someone who boosts her self-esteem. She advises Gigi to do the same, should she ever have a fling with a girl. Gigi feels pretty lame; she’s all rock and roll, no sex and drugs. Ava’s advice is basically YOLO, so Gigi asks Flash if he’d be down for a threesome. He has trouble keeping up in threesome settings, though, so she uninvites him and says, “Let’s go get me a lesbian.”

Side note here: This season feels a little more ad-libbed, but in a good way. It feels even more like I’m just watching friends hang out than last year did. I watched this episode three times, and I laughed out loud every time.

Anyway, Ava is sending out e-vites and screening potential gals for her threesome, targeting queer women with killer band names like ASheDShe, Vag Halen, and Lez Zeppelin. Ava’s first choice, Pam, agrees, so their very organized threesome is officially on the books.

Flash has a potential girl for Gigi, too, and it’s Davvy O, a super sexy singer that everyone agrees is perfect.

Gigi starts to swoon, worrying that she’s not Davvy’s type (even though Ava and I agree, she’s everyone’s type) and panicking because she doesn’t know how to make the first move on a girl and doesn’t even know what the second move IS. Ava promises that she’s overthinking it and that she’s either going to be into it, or she’s not. But in Ava’s opinion, sex with another woman is awesome, and can go on forever. Wide-eyed Gigi asks how to know when it’s time to stop, and Ava says usually when someone gets hungry. She recommends ordering a pizza two hours in.

Gigi and the band go to Davvy’s show and Gigi is wholly into her performance.

Davvy sees Gigi in the audience and winks at her, fortuitously enough.

Davvy comes up to her at the bar and flirts with her, so smooth and so cool. Gigi reacts the same way I do when I have to interact with a cute barista and fumbles over her words and doesn’t know what to do with her hands all of a sudden.

Davvy finds this endearing and says they should grab a drink together.

Ava and the rest of the band look at Gigi like proud parents and send her off like it’s the first day of school, offering words of encouragement before leaving her on her date.

On the walk home, Gigi and Davvy have a really sweet conversation. They talk about their insecurities, and when Gigi accuses Davvy of being relentlessly positive, she retorts, “Oh sure, I’m a queer woman of color, every day’s a Disney Cruise.” Which. How often do you hear a character refer to themselves as a queer woman of color on TV? The girls’ conversation was just so sweet and innocent and fun; I loved it. Plus also Davvy says, “I’m the queen of Pussy Castle and I will destroy all my enemies,” so really she’s the hero we’ve all been waiting for.

Gigi admits that she was afraid Davvy would see her as just another stupid straight girl with a crush on her, and Davvy knows that’s exactly what’s happening. Sure, it’s a little upsetting that she’s being used to satiate someone else’s curiosity, but since it’s Gigi, she’s willing to take the risk. She says that they can just get a drink and see where the night takes them.

Well, the night takes them to Gigi’s room, where the two girls harmonize together with their magic angel voices. The moment is so beautiful, in fact, that Gigi is moved to go in for the kiss.

Gigi admits she doesn’t know what’s next, but Davvy says they can take it slow. They make out and it’s sweet and slow and sensual. Gigi awkwardly puts her hand on Davvy’s boob and pulls away, too in her own head to continue. She apologizes, but Davvy isn’t mad. She says they can have another drink, listen to more music, she’ll go home, and they can process everything in the morning.

Meanwhile, in the other bedroom of the same apartment, Ava and Pam are really into each other and get the threesome started while Johnny is still in the bathroom. Long story short, they don’t need him, and when he…finishes after 5 seconds, they kick him out entirely.

Gigi and Davvy are in the kitchen drinking some wine when Johnny comes out, tail between his legs. Things get a little awkward as Gigi gets turned on by the sounds of Ava and Pam…enjoying each other’s company while trying not to look at HER FATHER. But then Gigi and Davvy make eye contact, and Gigi can’t take it anymore, so she says she has to “show” Davvy something in her room and tells her dad to GTFO of the apartment and bring them pizza in two hours.

What I loved about this episode was that all the lady kissing was about the ladies getting what the ladies wanted from ladies. The threesome storyline was about Ava wanting to feel young again, and Gigi’s was about wanting a new experience. Ava eventually decided Johnny didn’t need to be part of it, and Gigi didn’t even bother including Flash in the first place. And both Pam and Davvy knew exactly what they were getting into, there was no seduction under false circumstances or anything. And the fact that Gigi didn’t just pick the first hot chick she saw, that she genuinely enjoyed spending time with Davvy and was genuinely into her, and that Davvy let her make the first move…I don’t know, I just thought, on a show that could have easily gone full raunch, I thought both storylines were handled with a nice balance of humor and heart and sexiness.

Plus, we get to keep the queer woman of color! At least for now! The next episode definitely tread a little closer to the “WTF” line, but we’ll talk about that bridge when we get to it.

Side note: This week’s episode was called “Cool for the Summer” so it started off on a great foot.

Gigi and Flash are walking hand in hand and Gigi admits that she is glad she had her first girl on girl experience. She does say that she did miss penis at one point in the sex marathon, which is annoying, but Gigi is young, and Davvy probably didn’t bring up the whole dildo thing on their first date so I’ll let it slide. She does admit that Davvy was the best kisser she’s ever kissed, which of course cracks Flash’s fragile male ego. Oh, and by the way, she and Davvy are going to pretend to be a lesbian couple for a while so Gigi can take advantage of Davvy’s social media presence. But this topic is not up for discussion.

And don’t worry, Davvy is in on this plan, as proven by the pictures she poses for with Gigi.

It’s kind of a dick move on their part, but probably smart from a career strategy standpoint. And it’s only kind of lying. They’re not really a couple, but they definitely know each other in the not-so-biblical sense.

The girls go into the studio and Gigi does this hilarious one-woman duet as both Stevie Nicks and Adele. It’s hilarious (and unfortunately not on the internet anywhere yet???), and at first, Davvy was filming it but eventually she just sets down her phone and takes in the glory that is Liz Gillies…er, I mean, Gigi.

One issue I did have with the dialogue was that at one point someone was giving Gigi a hard time for being bad at dealing with change and she said, “I turned into a lesbian and I turned back” as an example of not one but TWO changes she dealt quite well with just this week. And at no point does anyone suggest that she or Ava is bisexual or even sexually fluid even though that’s definitely at least what Ava is. I suppose Gigi could be Davvy-sexual, or it could have just been an experiment, but still, there could have been a conversation around it, or at the very least, someone saying “that’s not how that works” when Gigi implied that she “changed back.”

But even if Gigi is really really straight, we’re not rid of Davvy just yet. She was recruited by Ava to teach Johnny some things about how to please a woman, and she does so quite successfully, despite him being totally clueless going into the lesson.

The girls continue to have publicity photo shoots, and I’m a little disappointed that Davvy plays into some stereotypes by having a pillow fight, etc., but I would probably break a few queer-woman-unspoken-rules just to make out with Liz Gillies, too.

Davvy goes to Gigi’s show, and when Gigi lets Ava sing a song, Davvy nicknames her Ava X and they decide she’ll sing at least one song a gig. It seems like Davvy could be part of the group for the rest of the season, so it should be interesting to see how she fits in, and if any feelings end up getting tangled in this whole mess.

All in all, I think they’re tiptoeing toward dangerous territory, but I thought they handled the storyline with respect, and I really loved that Davvy wasn’t just some no-named fling, that she was revered as a performer the first moment we saw her, and later was admired for her various other skills. She exists as a catalyst for women’s stories, not men’s, which I think is unique given the situation she came into. Even Johnny’s lesson was ultimately about Ava. I think that Davvy has more to teach Gigi in multiple ways, and I look forward to seeing where their storyline goes. I’m not saying we should start throwing GLAAD awards at the show, but I personally think it’s worth checking out.

What did you think of Gigi and Davvy’s fling? Do you think they’ll do right by Davvy going forward?

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