By the time she stands up (quite literally), it feels like a vision of the Blanca we know, the one Christopher first fell in love with. Credit where it’s due: Rodriguez’s ability to capture a fragile but steely resilience is what makes Blanca such a revelation watch her in those two “meet the Huxtables” scenes and notice how she’s constantly shuttling between shrinking herself to be liked and gritting her teeth for making herself do so. She may claim she’s lost her self-confidence, but there’s something in Blanca that will always make her stand out and stand up for herself.
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Watching Blanca, for instance, navigating a terse outing with Christopher’s parents filled with euphemistic barbs (his mother finds the prospect of Blanca’s having owned a nail salon “stimulating” and her growing up in the projects “colorful”) only to then see her standing up for herself is as heartwarming as it is empowering. It’s not just that I couldn’t have fathomed seeing the kinds of conversations about addiction as tied to the grief over HIV/AIDS on a show like 90210 back when I was a teen, but that now, in my 30s, seeing those same conversations feels powerful in and of itself: Much is made of what a show like Pose is doing for younger generations, but I’m constantly reminded (especially in those moments where intergenerational rivalries and solidarities flare up, as between Pray and Lemar, or Pray and Ricky) that this chronicle of a queer past is a potent call to arms for our very present. So yes, if there are some moments in the episode that feel a tad ham-fisted or slightly overwrought, I’m inclined to look past them. Pose is both a belated corrective and a fabulous reworking of that kind of storytelling, filtered through the specificity of its queer and trans characters, many of whom (like Pray) carry with them traumas and burdens that span generations. Seen side by side, especially when operating in the kind of “very special episode” vein that an entry like “Intervention” so recalls, 90210 and Pose almost feel like sister shows, intent on serving as narrative PSAs that embolden viewers young and old to understand why some people make the ill-conceived choices they make. There’s always been a welcome didacticism to Pose, an understanding that the FX drama hopes to be this generation’s Beverly Hills, 90210.
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“Intervention” may hint at the staged gathering wherein Blanca (Mj Rodriguez) and the House of Evangelista lovingly attempt to get Pray Tell (Billy Porter) to acknowledge the fact that he has a drinking problem, but there were several scenes peppered throughout that followed that very same dynamic (see: Papi and Angel, Elektra and Lulu).īut the bluntness of the episode’s title speaks also to the tacitly understood structure of the show. Only, it would have perhaps been more accurate had the title been a plural. The title for the second episode of Pose’s final season (which aired in tandem with its premiere opener) hints at exactly what dominates the hour-long proceedings.