TV Review - Gayliens

Mark Bessenger's anthology series features gay men dealing or interacting with extraterrestrials. Each episode has different characters in different stories that are unconnected. Each episode has some kind of horror aspect, but not every episode is necessarily intended to be scary. One episode in particular feels like it was meant to be comedic. Arguably, each episode involves an air of cheese, a bit of arch. The tone of each episode is somewhere between Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and Mel Brooks' Spaceballs (1987). Each one is essentially a B-movie.

One episode references The Twilight Zone (1959), which is probably Bessenger's closest comparison. That Rod Serling classic could often be campy, but Serling's writing always had a sharp edge of terror that generally managed to keep audiences uneased. Bessenger's writing is able to achieve that unease in a couple of episodes but the injection of extended, soft-core erotica and utilization of costumes and visual effects seemingly pulled from Spirit Halloween or Star Trek (1966) undermine any unease or terror built in the narrative, often in exchange for cornball or a punchline.

With the exception of one episode, the majority of the episodes are two-handers, or simply a pair of guys alone in a space relating to each and often resistant to face the surrounding or outside world. This dynamic is not new for Bessenger. His feature Bite Marks (2011) basically involved a gay couple who become trapped in the cab of an automobile, specifically a tractor-trailer, as they have vampires threatening them from outside. Bessenger's first episode here all but mimics that premise.

His award-winning feature The Last Straight Man (2015) was about two guys essentially trapped in a hotel room, not trapped in a physical sense but in the sense that they or at least one of them could only express their homosexuality in that hotel room. The Last Straight Man involved a debate about identity and one of the guys arguing the identity of the other. Bessenger's second episode here all but mimics that dynamic. If one listens to the dialogue and specifically the dialogue style of actor Mark Cirillo in The Last Straight Man, that same dialogue style is mimicked by actor Randy Frank in Bessenger's second episode here.

There have been numerous science-fiction thrillers about people trapped in a confined space with the threat of aliens or monsters beyond the walls or outside the door. Signs (2002) is one that Bessenger specifically name-checks in this series. There's critically acclaimed and box office successes from Hollywood like 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) or A Quiet Place (2018), which also could have been inspirations here, specifically for Episode 3. Those kinds of genre features don't normally have gay or queer characters. Bessenger's series allows for that representation, which is refreshing in many ways.

These episodes though are mainly potboilers. The only one thus far that could be extolled on a level that would make The Twilight Zone comparisons absolutely appropriate is Episode 4 called "Duck Duck Alien." For that episode, Bessenger breaks the format or structure of just having two guys trapped in a space that he employed for the first, three episodes. For "Duck Duck Alien," he instead has five guys trapped in a space.

However, his writing here is clever and shocking in a way that feels like Serling in his prime. In fact, Bessenger's fourth episode reminded me of a couple of Serling's most iconic episodes like "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up" (1961) or "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" (1961). Yet, Episode 4 reminded me of those things in a way that didn't feel derivative but instead fresh and topical with allusions to Trump era politics that felt insightful.

His direction also feels fresh with cool uses of split screen that kept up the energy of the episode. He balances the humor and the tension in Episode 4 fairly well. The performance of the cast here is incredible too. Each actor stands out brilliantly and the performances in general are probably the best of the whole series. Special shout-out though to Tamario Fletcher who appears in Episode 1 and walks a fine line between straight-acting, closet case and frustrated football star stuck in a dead-end town.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 30 mins. / 6 eps.

Available on Here TV.