Canary catch up: momtok, manosphere and good old BBC homophobia

Welcome back to Canary catch-up, your weekly natter about the most talked-about TV of the week. This week in between copious amounts of TV, I’ve also been enjoying some live music. Last Sunday, I saw Lily Allen perform her full West End Girl album, which was incredible, raw, feminine rage. It was also topped off by her opener, the Dallas Minor Trio performing her hits on strings. With all that’s going on in the world, I can’t tell you how much I needed to shout along to a classical version of Fuck You.

Anyway, on with what I’ve been watching!

Can Dadtok survive this? I fucking hope not

My guilty pleasure show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, is back! Make no mistake, TSLOMW is utter fucking trash, I know it, the producers know it, and Momtok knows it. There is nothing you can say that will convince me Layla isn’t a plant because that lass is just evil and not subtle. But I cannot get enough. This series, however, something gross has emerged – Dadtok.

“Oh I know what we need in this show about women breaking out of the patriarchal religious archetype, some sexist men!” said the producers, seemingly, because this series you cannot fucking get rid of these toxic men and their need for attention. Aside from this the other highlight of the series is Demi being desperate for clout but refusing to take any ownership by refusing to do interviews, so the producers decided to interview an empty chair. Which is even funnier when you realise the Wives are all executive producers now.

Louis Theroux’s ‘groundbreaking’ doc is old news for women

The internet has been abuzz this week over Louis Theroux’s new Netflix show Inside The Manosphere. The filmmaker delved into the murky world of male influencers who are all racist and massively misogynistic shitbags and exposed just how little they actually believe their own shit. But they portray themselves as wealthy with their pick of women, and young working-class boys look up to them.

The thing is, though, as bad as some of the shit in it was, it was nothing women didn’t already know. This is the shit we see and get thrown at us all the time. But it just didn’t go deep enough. As journalist Jess Davies pointed out, the show didn’t mention the patriarchy once. While much of the focus is on teenage boys, there’s also no mention of how teenage girls will have this harmful misogyny forced on them.

And that was where the show fell down for me. It didn’t do enough to address society, the media, and the government’s involvement.

The Walsh Sisters shines a light on family dynamics and addiction

I’ve been loving The Walsh Sisters on BBC iPlayer this week. The Irish family drama based on Marian Keyes’ books is a sharp look at family tensions and addiction. It’s the beauty and the brutal reality of adult sister relationships. They’re both your best friends and someone who knows exactly which button to press and when. Your co-conspirator with overbearing parents and the first one to slyly make a dig about you.

But all of this gets even more complicated when addiction is involved. When Rachel goes to rehab for her drug and alcohol addiction, some of her sisters are shocked. In particular, Claire, who questions her parents decision, mainly because she often drinks as much as Rachel, if not more. This was a common thing I got when I first got sober. Many were shocked as they drank more than me. But this really speaks to just how ingrained drinking culture is.

Good old BBC homophobia

The BBC announced this week that its flagship queer dating shows, I Kissed a Boy and I Kissed a Girl, had been axed. Hosted by Dannii Minogue, they were the first queer dating shows in the UK. but not anymore, apparently. The broadcaster said the decision was due to ‘funding challenges’:

Unfortunately, we have to make difficult choices in light of our funding challenges and there are no current plans for the show to return.

The BBC can blame funding all they want. But it’s interesting that of, all the shows they could’ve cut, they cut the only two specifically representing queer people and not Mrs Browns Boys isn’t it? After also airing racism, covering for genocide, and demonising benefit claimants recently, it looks like the BBC just got a full house.

Canary Catch Up will be taking a break next week as I’ll be flouncing about the Scottish Highlands, but join me back here on 28th for more telly talk

Featured image via the Canary