“Tough Love,” a new non-gay series released by Black & Sexy TV, reveals what’s been missing from Black Gay Web Series for all these years.
To be honest, besides being well made, there’s nothing very original about this series by Caleb Davis and Roni Simpson. Check out the official synopsis:
“A Web Series about Six millennials experiencing the struggles of life, relationships and love in NYC.”
Yo, it’s like they didn’t even try. I could throw a rock out of any random brownstone in Brooklyn and hit a random film crew filming a series/movie with the exact same plot.
I’m actually not even mad at it, though. Why reinvent the wheel if the goal is to just tell everyday stories about everyday people in relationships?
Personally, I’m a little bored with Black content creators sticking to the tried & true “relationship drama” stories. But these web series are popular for a reason: People like to see characters and situations that they can identify with.
It’s that simple. And while watching “Tough Love” I realized that is what has been missing from Black Gay Web Series.
From “About Him” to “Freefall” to “Triangle,” most gay web series lack any depiction of normality. Everyday life.
Every gay story seems to be about Sex, Late Night Hookups, Melodrama, Drug Use, More Sex, Shade and Random Reasons For The Actors To Get Naked.
Not only are Black Gay Web Series not interested in normal life, they perpetuate the misguided narrative that gay men are sexual deviants. True, some gay men are obsessed with sex, just like most men in general, but web series like those created by Black & Sexy TV show life beyond just “getting a nut.”
Check out the trailer for “Tough Love”:
Now watch the trailer for “About Him,” the current most popular Black Gay Web Series:
See the difference? Both series are about sex and relationships. But one shows the real life challenges that come with maintaining healthy (or unhealthy) sexual lives as young adults…the other shows what it would be like to get a blow job from your older brother’s best friend while he’s in the very next room.
The recent success of the feature film “Moonlight” should be a sign to Black Gay Filmmakers that they do not have to resort to softcore porn to get viewers and fans.Across the board, people have said they loved “Moonlight” because they can relate to the character of Chiron in so many different ways. A lot of fans have said they loved the third act the most, which just features men on a date, no sex at all.
And that film was made by a heterosexual man. Gay men should be telling our authentic stories. This is no different than a White Director making Black films, while acceptable, it would be nice to see a Black Filmmaker at the helm. Without the need to resort to porn.
Question to Black Gay Filmmakers: Which honor would they prefer? An Academy Award Nomination…or most viewed Myvidster Video? The latter, it would seem.
Shows like “Tough Love” have their fair share of eye candy and sex scenes, but they are earned with strong character development and motivations. We’re not just waiting to see the next sex scene or when the actors will get naked. We’re waiting to see how they maneuver through everyday life.
That is what’s missing from our Black Gay Web Series: Everyday life. Relatable Characters and Situations. Engaging Drama not Melodrama. Romance not Foreplay. Authenticity not Pornography.
Watch the full length episodes of “Tough Love” via Black & Sexy TV HERE.
“TOUGH LOVE” SCREENSHOTS
It is one of my favorite webseries
I would like to see more black,gay content creators challenge themselves.
Looks Dope. Gotta check that out
I’ve been a fan of this web series for a while now. I find that I enjoy web series surrounding straight characters more than the gay themed web series. It makes me wonder what the issue truly is. Is it the creators or the audience? If the audience just wants to see a bunch of sex then of course you’re going to have people jumping on the bandwagon to try to capitalize on it. I;m not going to act as if I didn’t enjoy About Him because I did. On the other hand, I can admit that I wouldn’t have watched that if it weren’t for the sex. If gay men could somehow step outside of their hormones for a moment and try to open their minds to other things I think the quality of projects would increase.
I must admit “Tough Love” looks like a must see web series. It’s definitely interesting how they are both arranged around a similar premise although only one seems to be telling a story. But truth be told it makes me wonder if the gay content creators are making this type of series because they may truly believe that’s all their gay male audience is interested in? Because I don’t think gay men value depth but more so value the surface…. However maybe if one web series content creator stepped outside the box to bring something different to the screens, it could show our fellow gay male viewing audience that there is value beneath the surface and providing them with different content to identify with.
Because most of these web series seem to be about closeted gay black man, who live in Atlanta and party all the time with no depth really to their character. And as a millennial myself, I really can’t relate to that. One because I don’t live in Atlanta, and the rest aren’t everyday realities for me.
But let’s hope they change up their content. I know you guys saw my post in the city boys thread about a plot for a groundbreaking web series….. now I really an idea like the one i proposed could really change the game.
I consider About Him porn with a storyline. Usually when we watch regular pornography we get the usual bs of two men randomly bumping into each other, or one guy tricks another guy, or the two guys are best friends with a bicurious interest. About Him is the kind of porn I like to see where there’s a legit story, and a sex scene that is nice to watch, and coordinated perfectly. However, I don’t want to classify About Him as anything else, but porn.
I agree with you that we need to challenge black gay content creators to give us a show with more depth to the characters and a more realistic focus on the storyline’s progression (i.e. going past sex). This one web series called No Shade was close to doing this, but this show failed, in my opinion, because it seemed like just a repeat of Noah’s Arc with a transgender included. I’m still waiting for that authentic, masculine, black, gay, web series. :/
The thing that got me about "About Him" is that it actually started off really strong storywise. Then the dicks started coming out behind trash cans and there was no turning back. I can't say too much, but I believe a show centered around both lesbians and gay men in "normal" situations is on the way.
I love that you mentioned that scene of the “dicks behind the trashcan” because that definitely was the turning point for the worst and it was getting good prior to that and the introduction of Rico Pruitt’s character.
You guys don’t think that “Triangle” does a good job of depicting normalcy? They are more of a soap opera but they really delve deeply into family dynamics, friendships, business dealings and management/organizational conflicts. The side project “Davenport Diaries” explores what it’s like to work in an organization where things are controlled by a family & everyone’s is vying for position & to advance themselves. And the other side project “3siders” had entire episode about safe sex, testing, condom use & being informed. One of the new main characters is POZ. And the thing that I think sets “Triangle” aside is they feature many heterosexual storylines and give the female characters strong storylines. It’s not like there’s a hatred between the gay and straight characters aside from the normal situations that may cause dramatic conflict. They could stand to improve their production values (sound, camera shakiness) and the dramatic tension is sometimes sudden without proper build-up what led to it (cheap work up to a dramatic story arc?) but it’s a pretty dope show.
I literally say the same thing all the time! There is not much substance in the majority of gay films/web-series. The focus on character development just–doesn’t seem to be the focus, lol. I love how you put the two trailers side by side so we can all see the big difference right in our face. QUALITY is another issue, like you briefly pointed out. Great post!
Thanks for telling me about this new web series. For some time, I just looked at black gay web series. And since they did not fulfill me the way I expected, I went with the straight black one. In between this time, I watch a Lesbian web series and was truly disappointed and a mixed casts with a white producer. This one was very interesting actually. I thought I would never watch anything with a gay white male casts as lead. But because I ran out of available black gay content that appealed to me, I needed to take the dive. Although I will continue to look at Black Gay content involving black males, because that is who I am, I will keep my horizon’s opened.
Anyway, you are right about About Him. It missed it mark. I was completely taken when that kid put his hands in pants without thinking what the audience felt about him. At this point I considered it TRASHED. It took me several months before I could mustard up enough guts to watch future episodes. Although I was amused by the sexual content, I was left empty about what was actual going on.
As you know, there is a battle going on between the writer and the producer of this series. Now they are two season by two different production companies. To be honest, the producer has more experience in the cinemas area, while they lack in producing better content. Meanwhile, the writer stories can be interesting at times, but his cinema is off quite a bit. All I can wish is these guys good luck. But there is no way, the writer is going to win over someone with a track record of producing cinema for several years.
oh in time I’ll “win”
That was hard to get into or follow because all those episodes are scattered on BallroomThrowbacks, it's a weird why to put out your material if you want new viewers if you ask me. But I believe they have their own channel for it now, maybe I'll try to binge one day. But thanks.
Yeah they released the first 2 seasons in a kind of disorganized way but if you subscribe to the site ($9.99 a month or the much more economical $50/year) everything is laid out on a VHX channel in a very organized way. They also have a lot of ballroom content from years ago for those who are interested in that type of thing.
I know this is old but I just started watching the show and Im hooked.
I hate to be thirsty but when I saw the scene when Darius (Devin Coleman) was cooking in the kitchen and they showed how thick he was from behind ……JESUS Mercy! lol :whew::khart1::rejoice::foine:
He is thick in ALL the right places!
I forgot the actor was the same model that took the pick a while back. It just dont make any sense how thick dude is.
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