Pose proved to be a self-consciously radical show in Season 1

Variety

Past transgender portrayals focused on tragedy. "For a long time, this was the only kind of story transwomen got to see about themselves onscreen, making it that much harder to imagine a life without such a tragic ending," says Caroline Framke. But FX's 1980s-set series on ball culture refused to do that. "The show doesn’t ignore the harsh realities those characters would have faced as real people; HIV diagnoses, poverty, and racism loom omnipresent," says Framke. "But over the course of eight episodes, Pose did a downright radical thing by not just focusing on its characters’ pain, but their defiant triumph in the face of it." She adds: "In choosing to tell marginalized stories by trumpeting their triumphs louder than their heartbreaks, it isn’t just heartwarming, but self-consciously radical."

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• Pose showed a deeply American story about self-creation
• The words "remarkable" and "revolutionary" used to describe the show were right on the money
• Pose has been a fierce and flawed addition to the queer pop-culture canon
• Co-creator Steven Canals sees Season 2 as moving more into politics, particularly activism revolving around HIV/AIDS