Billed as “like ‘Harry Potter’ but with sex and drugs,” SyFy’s “The Magicians” has compelling storytelling and an interesting (if not quite revolutionary) premise. I binge-watched it in two days and I loved it, even though I don’t typically like drama television. But the characters in “The Magicians” were so well-written and acted that I fell in love with each and everyone one of them. But there is one glaring problem.
Eliot is, by far, the most interesting character. He is funny, sharp, witty and arguably the smartest of the core group of characters. So why, despite being featured in every single episode, does he still feel like the sassy gay sidekick? He is clearly the “gay best friend” to another character who has infinitely less potential and who is, frankly, more boring — though that’s not to say that I don’t still adore her.
It is to say — or scream, “Please give me a sassy gay main character and please make him Eliot Waugh.” The sassy gay sidekick, sassy gay friend, or gay best friend is such a tired trope. He — and it’s always a he — seems to crop up every time a show wants “more diversity,” or “representation.” But this isn’t 1998 anymore. “Will & Grace” is far from groundbreaking now. I am not satisfied with Kurt from “Glee,” Damian from “Mean Girls,” or Titus from “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and D’Fwan from “30 Rock.” Notably, three of the four are written by Tina Fey. These characters don’t represent the lives and experiences of real gay people and they add about as much diversity as the token black friend.
While I’m all for comic relief and I love a well-placed, “gurl,” I feel like I’m starving for a modicum of realistic gay representation in a world filled with one-note gay men. It’s not the character of the sassy gay sidekick that bothers me, it’s the lack of depth he’s given by showrunners. While D’Fwan was little more than a running joke, characters like Kurt, Titus, Damian and, yes, Eliot are interesting people if only their writers would let us see into their rich lives.
So I’m not asking to see them be less sassy as much as I am asking to see them. To really see them the way I see my own sassy gay friends and, to be frank, myself. We are our own main characters with real, complex and nuanced stories to be told. So is Kurt Hummel. So is Titus Andromedon. So are D’Fwan and Damian. So is Eliot Waugh, darn it. Make them the sassy gay main characters of their own shows.