Hey, love your videos! I just started the show "Why women kill" and I feel like you could do a whole video on that! It takes place in 3 different eras and approaches polyamory and cheating in such an interesting and layered way.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend explored a lot of non-conventional relationship situations and different ways to explore your sexuality and I really appreciated it! One of the main characters is an older bisexual man (already a tv rarity), who is also a single father, who has both a male and female love interest in the show (though not at the same time), who also platonically (and non-sexually) makes a baby with a friend who exists in the baby's life but not as a mother figure. Darryl Whitefeather my beloved.
I don't think it counts as a sitcom, but Our Flag Means Death has a wonderful little poly group of four that gets right up to being on the verge of forming in season two.
Everything's Gonna Be Okay has some pretty good nonmonogamous rep. It's about a gay australian fellow who moves to the US to take care of his teenage half-sisters when their dad dies of cancer. The older sister, Matilda, is in a queer relationship with another AFAB person from her autism group, who is also on the ace spectrum. Matilda is still into men, and sex, so they decide to open up their relationship. There's an episode in the second season where Matilda invites an older guy over to hook up, and the older brother character has to interact with him, which is extremely awkward, but feels real. At the end of the episode Matilda and her partner do this weird cleansing ritual to mend the vibes in the house and reaffirm their relationship. It's so delightfully specific to all the characters involved and their story, and doesn't feel like it's trying to represent some sort of universal poly archetype with all the edges filed off. Even in 2020 it felt ahead of its time, but I hope not by too much. I want to see more stuff like that. Best autistic rep I've seen in a sitcom, too.
In one of the latter seasons of New Girl there was imo some polyamory subtext with Jess, Nick and his partner Reagan (Megan Fox's character, canon bisexual). There were winks of moments where Jess and Reagan seemed attracted to each other, plus the obvious Jess/Nick stuff, and there was a confrontation that Jess was overexerting herself by unofficially "dating both of them" (by doing the emotional labor) and that Reagan and Nick didn't work without her....and then it's used as an excuse for Reagan and Nick to break up, and then Jess gets with Nick and we never hear from Reagan again. Drives me nuts! Like yeah that's a toxic start for polyamory but they could have salvaged things and been so cute together. Whatever.
Here for the pop culture detective mention. One of the greatest channels in terms of cultural education ever! Chiming in on the TBBT criticism is just the cherry on top 😄
Not a sitcom, but one show that surprised me was Scandal. It’s a long watch, and a messy one. And it is more an off comment that validates it all. The main character is a mistress of a guy whose married. It ends up coming out later, and he breaks up with his wife, and the mistress becomes his sole partner. She finds she really struggles in this role cuz she’s used to being his secondary, and after they break up, she and the ex-wife have a convo one night. It comes out that the ex-wife had known her (ex)husband had been cheating for a while. And the two woman basically agree that things were so much better when he was in a relationship with both of them, as both have different skills / needs and we’re happier in their previous roles. It’s never specified as a polyam relationship, but I found it great representation in the fact that it showed that monocentric life is not always best, and that they all may have flourished together as a V if society had actually allowed this dynamic that was clearly working for them, in a healthy way, instead of the toxic way it ended up happening.
With the Schitt's Creek storyline, since we actually see explorations of non-monogamy later (Stevie actually goes back with Jake and hangs out at his sex/cuddle parties, David encourages Patrick to go on dates with other men before deciding he's too jealous for this set up to work), i always felt like the problem with Jake was not that he was poly but that he was just kind of a weird emotionally constipated freak spending all day woodworking in his shed. But i can totally see how he could be offensive also hahahahaha
Yeah, I think the Jake of it all could actually get its video for deeper examination, since he is recurring and it is complicated. I will say I still think he's a bad example, but it's nuanced.
I know that Rick and Morty had an episode where Jerry's parents revealed themselves as poly maybe? And the joke was that everyone else but Jerry was fine with it?
warts and all, that show is generally pretty good at mining the more "shocking" plot points, while still being on the right side of the topic being discussed.
i'm curious what you would think of the polyamory in the netflix show sense8 (not a sitcom, more of a scifi drama)! there's one dynamic between three people in particular that i've always found very endearing, a gay male couple & their live-in female bestie/voyeur. there's another dynamic not as much spotlighted where one of the main characters has a mother and three fathers, and they're a very joyous and supportive bunch. enjoying your youtube channel a lot, thanks for sharing :)
@@vicky__p Geez, I loved the Rajan/Kala/Wolfgang dynamics! I was so sad when the plot began focusing more on action stuff than on relationships between characters
The Will & Grace reboot had an episode where Nick Offerman played a polyamorous bisexual man who dated both Will and Grace at the same time. I didn’t see the full episode, but from the clips I have seen I’m pretty confident it would fall into the bottom left quadrant.
Have you seen the show "Easy" on Netflix? I'm not sure it qualifies as a sitcom, but its depiction of modern and nontraditional relationships may interest you. Great video! Keep it up
OMG I remember this! I also think that Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place (which aired on the same channel either after or before Dharma and Greg IIRC) had a bunch of poly-adjacent plot lines. Wow. I was in like 2nd grade but somehow was obsessed with those shows
I think Broad City deserves something in this video series. The protagonists have some sort of queer platonic relationship, and like many such relationships, it involves sexuality quite often just without necessarily that being about having sex with each other. The sexuality of both women is very fluid with regards to gender, and both of them spend most of the time somewhat on the “open relationship dating without definitions” phase of their lives. Very realistic in a lot of ways, probably because the creators are writing and acting from lived experience.
As someone who is exploring/developing different relationships and is obsessed with tv, Your videos are a game changer! Really helps to put a lot of what I’m feeling or thinking into words I can understand, helps me unpack unhelpful things I thought I knew, and expand my knowledge. Thank you
One thing I wished I had done sooner was see if there are polyam communities in your local area. It really helps to bounce ideas off and work through tricky situations that your mong friends might not be experienced with (or even thought about 🤷🏾♀)
Will & Grace Season 9 Episode 8 “Friends and Lover” was similar to Schitt’s Creek, but treated the manipulation more in an un-serious, joke manner. It was nice seeing Nick Offerman in quite a different role in that episode.
Quick note on Leonard's mom as someone who *used* to enjoy big bang, she might be a scholar whatever whatever but she is horrible on so many levels so I think what they were trying to portray is "only terrible people do poly" which just adds to the cringe (Trying to rewatch big bang really opened my eyes, it is just not it)
This was an interesting vid. I went looking to see if you had done anything on the L Word or the L Word Gen Q. Would be interested for your take on them 🥰
The best show I have seen is called trigonometry. It's a BBC show with one season. Only down side is it's only about the start of a triad but it's very underrated
I really like your videos, you did a great job! Also been remembering the Sense8 show, but it's not a sitcom. It was the first show i guess where i saw attractive (can i use this word? I'm not a native speaker) represenation of polyamorous people.
Sadly, the New Girl version is more real than I want to admit. There was a poly-household near where I used to live. they were very openly poly, they were even featured on some investigative news show (60-minutes or something similar, I've seen clips of it). They lived in a house together and it was a full on disaster. I attended a party there once (it was a friend of a friend situation, so I knew like 2 people). I don't think anybody in the house knew how to do laundry, dishes, wipe off a counter or clean a litter box. Only a couple people of the group held down a job consistently. They were together for several years before breaking up (I think one couple was legally married and may have stayed together at least for a while after).
Not a sitcom, but when my bff told me ‘you’ll really love the bastard son and the devil himself, you need to watch it, no spoilers’ I honestly should have realized it had a poly trio.
It isn't a sitcom, but if you haven't seen it, Swingtown is my favorite poly show. They still lean into drama with some unfavorable situations, but it's very supportive of non-monogamy overall.
Oh my gosh, I thought I was the only person who ever watched that!! 😆 I’m old enough for the era to resonate with me, and glad of the rare non-monogamous representation. Been non-monog and relationship anarchist for 25+ years, for reference ☺️
this was a great breakdown of how this stuff's been represented in popular media. i've got family who's watched a lot of these more progressive shows that hit the right marks, which gives me hope that these models are being normalized in tasteful ways.
Wow Idk how I found my way to this video but it wa such a cool look at polyamory and really educational for someone like me who's never really been into it but like knows it exists!!
I thought all the sides in a love triangle had to connect. So, Josh and Greg would also have to have feelings for each other for a triangle to form. 🤔🤔
Great video :) There is a Norwegian romcom tv-show on Netflix called 'Home for Christmas' where it is revealed towards the end that the parents of the main character are in an open relationship. She first does not understand that they are open and thinks that she caught her dad cheating on her mom, but her little brother explains the situation to her.
Even though it was played for a joke, the New Girl episode was where my little 20 year old self first learned what a triad was and that launched me into researching more about polyamory and diving into it. So I am forever grateful for that episode 😊
Big bang was great to kill time while i was depressed af... it's "easy" and you don't have to think a single thought while still feel kinda clever for understanding the jokes... it was one of my guiltyest pleasures back then and i am glad that time is over
Great video! I also hate the big bang theory 😊 I was wondering if you’ve watched Ted lasso? I feel like they were setting up a relationship between Jamie, Roy, and Keeley 👀
In SWAT, I believe it's in Season 2, one of the main cast enters into a Poly relationship which plays out over a number of episodes and.... I don't think it was handled well. It had a few good moments and I was excited for the storyline when it started, but how they chose to end it was kinda gross IMO.
Shameless!! I actually (for the most part) liked the way they worked through the challenges, it's a disaster like the entire show as a whole but I think it's worth taking a look at! Thanks for this video I think you did a great job analyzing these shows! ❤
Its not a sitcom, but Dr Flox in Star Trek Enterprise is polyamorous, but i believe it mostly occurs off screen. I was also going to mention Avenue 5 but someone beat me to it
I appreciate you making poly content ❤ I hope to be a poly researcher and activist! I was surprised by Ally because I’ve asked my lawyer partner about poly rights 😂
I'm curious what you think of the polyamory representation in a show called The Expanse. One of the main characters has 8 parents, then later a different main character is one of 6 spouses. This is a science fiction tv show, that had 3 seasons on the sci-fi channel and 3 on Amazon Prime.
Carol and the end of the world had a central group of characters in a poly relationship that was very similar to the Rick & Morty example but I think was hop scotching back and forth across that joke/serious line.
Okay I have a few things for you. First off I can hear two other shows where I saw polyamorous relationships although neither one was exactly a sitcom. First off the very first place I ever saw a polyamorous relationship was on Masters of science fiction which what is this science fiction anthology show that was used to the summer replacement and I forget the name of the exact episode but there was one episode that took place on a spaceship and you saw a triad getting married. And another polyamorous relationship I saw although we might really more be called polygamist I'm not sure if it was Boston legal or the practice but there was an episode where a woman had two husbands. And lastly I want to explain to you why people love Big bang theory it's because we can actually relate to the characters I'm autistic and the character of Sheldon is an exaggeration and no one's going to argue on that one but there's a lot of things he does I can totally relate to such as when Sheldon was on his honeymoon he was not very comfortable having marital relations even though he loved his wife I'm basically an asexual. Sheldon doesn't understand sarcasm. A lot of times Sheldon will offend people without even realizing he's offending them I've done that so many times I can't even count the amount of times that I am oblivious to other people's perceptions of my actions
I find your entire video subjective, biased, and entirely to “preach to the choir” - your complaints were superficial and your explanations’ supporting evidence is “gafaw gafaw hoity toity laughter we aren’t like that 😅” Really? So not a single person who’s polyamorous has neglected to reveal this information to someone they’re about to go on a date with? Really? So not a single polyamorous relationship … (insert this comment for every time you said “we aren’t like that!”) I just get a very “fox without a tail” vibes from you 😂
30:38 Look at the room you recorded this video in - you have nonspecific plants, nonspecific painting/picture, and white/beige walls. Nothing about your background shows any kind of personality - it says “I am devoid of personality” please explain to me why anyone would like to live in a place with such a drab interior. See how I look denigrating an inoffensive background? Nothing about it specifically should be offensive And that’s why people watch the Big Bang theory: it’s inoffensive. I can talk about it with my liberal mom or conservative dad 🤷🏾♂️ no one should be getting offended at any of the stuff on the show - anyone who is has some deep personal issues 😂 Deep psychological film flam reasoning? It’s like looking into a mirror and getting upset at the reflection, not realizing it’s yourself you see. P.s. I don’t actually find your background offensive, but I do find it boring and inoffensive.
I am not a polyamerous person but I hope representation gets better for you guys, I still see the hate for it in the wold and I don't understand. Good luck and I hope being able to live your life stop being considered a problem for those who are ingnorent☺
