Back in January, Trish Bendix wrote a piece on the UK series Mistresses becoming a US series, which will star Alyssa Milano, Yunjin Kim and Rochelle Aytes (who I previously had never heard of but is supremely attractive). Trish got the inside scoop on the character Josslyn, played by Jes Macallan, who will eventually find herself with a lady lover.
Josslyn’s character is described as “free-spirited and capricious” and in half of the promo shots on ABC’s website, she’s wearing a tiara, so I like her already.
I won’t lie, when I first heard there would be a queer relationship on this show, I was rooting for it to be Alyssa Milano’s character, Savannah. Alas, it’s her younger sister. Josslyn seems sassy and fun, though, so it should be interesting to watch her develop feelings for another woman – and, true to the title of the show, a woman in a serious relationship. In fact, Josslyn (a real estate agent) meets this woman, Alex, while she and her partner are looking for a house.
Alex will be played by Shannyn Sossamon, who you might recognize from A Knight’s Tale, Wristcutters: A Love Story or How To Make It In America.
According executive producer Rina Mimoun, it’s a fleshed out story (no pun intended) that will start as a friendship and grow into something more as the season goes on. Which means it won’t be a one-and-done lady lovin’ experience, like so many shows do just to say they did.
When I asked my roommate if she had heard about this show and whether or not she would watch it, she said it piqued her interest because she heard Alyssa Milano was in it, and the preview grabbed her because it used the song “Come and Get It.” (Actually she said, “that song by that little girl that I usually hate actually worked for the show and made me want to watch it.” Minor details.)
She also saw Lost star Yunjin Kim switching from sweet Sun to sultry Karen as a negative, but I think it’s quite the positive change.
Since I’ve known about Josslyn’s impending lady-on-lady adventures for months now, I’ve searched for it in every preview, script tease, and character bio they have released, but nothing implies any homosexuality or bisexuality whatsoever. This could be either an awesome or a decidedly not-awesome thing, depending on their angle. If their point was, “This is a show about human experience” and they are categorizing lesbian infidelity in the same exact category as heterosexual infidelity, then I am 100% behind them.
I’m hoping the reason they haven’t revealed any sweet lady kisses in their previews isn’t because they’re afraid it will turn viewers off, but because they want it to be as surprising to the audience as it will, apparently, be to Josslyn. From what I understand, Josslyn is enjoying the single life, living and loving as she pleases, and is as shocked as anyone when she starts to have serious feelings for someone, and that it happens to be another woman.
I’m not sure how they will approach the topic of sexuality, whether Josslyn will start to identify as gay or bisexual, or if she’ll choose not to have a label at all. At the TCA event, Jes said her character is a little thrown by the sudden realization and asks herself, “Now that I’m a lesbian, how do I walk?” (Thankfully, it seems the ultimate message is that you don’t have to walk differently if you find yourself in love with a woman for the first time. Though swagger is always encouraged.)
You do get a little peek of Josslyn and Alex kissing in this promo:
Cheers to dirty little secrets!
Jes Macallan (@JesMacallan), Alyssa Milano (@alyssamilano), and Rochelle Aytes (@rochelleaytes) will be live-tweeting the premiere tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC. Tweet along with them (and me!) and use the hashtag #HomoWrecker to find fellow AfterEllen readers.
What are you looking forward to most about Mistresses?
