piggybacking off this post by @edwardteachswombtattoo, i'm all the more floored that our show got cancelled, even as we're approaching the second anniversary of its cancellation. like, i thought i would have reached a level of acceptance, a level of "well, that's just how the industry is these days unfortunately and that's that."
but god that's just the thing!
because the fifth season of stranger things dropped, right. rampant spoilers have been creeping around tiktok as they do. and i just so happened to see a clip where will not only witnessed robin very openly making out with her girlfriend, but also where will and robin had a whole discussion about being gay and how freeing it feels?
i recognize that this might be corporate pandering to some degree. like, "disney's first openly character" type stuff to some degree.
i'm literally losing my marbles because i feel like stranger things is the streaming catalyst. i feel like it was the show that sent all the other streaming services into a frenzy. it was the show that everyone wanted to replicate the success of. it's streaming boiled down to its essentials.
and yet there it is, being openly gay.
and that drives me bonkers! bonkers!
because if the show that every other streamer ever is trying to copy is out there being gay, why can't we be?! like, after what all dad has said on bluesky lately, there's a very good chance that we were cancelled simply for being too queer, because we weren't "middle of the road" enough for "general audiences." or that having a queer flagship was "too much of a risk" or something along those lines.
so, hello? hello? stranger fucking things stepping up its gay plot lines? hello?! do you see what i'm getting at here?!
point being, if the streaming television show can up its queer game in 2025, with all that's going on, why the fuck couldn't hbo suck it the hell up for one more season lmao. why the fuck couldn't hbo just see it through?
((the answer honestly might have something to do with harry potter, too, which is just salt in the wound with lemon juice squirted atop it. like either they wanted to gut whatever they could to make financial room for it, and went for diversity first because of course, or they wanted to appease jkr and oops can't have a gay flagship with genderqueer characters. whiiiiich lmao! lmao!!!))
regardless, pissed. and wanting our third and final and DESERVED season so very badly.