Why FX's Pose is the "Queer Full House"

Slate

"As I watched the season finale of Pose, I couldn’t stop thinking about Full House," says Inkoo Kang. "Like the FX drama, the onetime TGIF staple began in 1987, followed an unconventional family geared toward raising kindhearted (if slightly dull) children, and took place in a fantasy version of its urban setting where nothing truly lethal was allowed to happen to any of its core characters." Kang adds: "Make no mistake: Pose is revolutionary in ways that Full House never was, with trans women of color leading the cast and trans people both in the writers’ room and behind the camera. But Pose also deserves to be celebrated for its most traditional element, its deep respect for (all kinds of) family, which offers viewers, but particularly queer people of color, one of modern life’s great comfort foods: the wholesome family show. Family sitcoms have long been instrumental in normalizing the struggles and ambitions of various underrepresented groups. The tradition goes back decades, at least to the 1950s, when I Love Lucy was built around an interracial couple. In the ’70s and ’80s, Good Times, The Jeffersons, and The Cosby Show allowed black viewers to find versions of themselves—and/or their dreams—on screen, while the original One Day at a Time showed a family headed by a single, divorced mother."