Docendo Discimus

I'm a little surprised that there's been so little fanfare about "Commander in Chief" on ABC tackling HIV. The scripts have been rather two dimensional up to this point (maybe we've been spoiled by "The West Wing") and Donald Sutherland --until this week-- was a villian right out of "The Perils of Pauline." They humanized him-and in so doing, there's hope for the scripts to come.

I've seen nary a word in the blogs (other than the official site for the show) commenting on the episode. Not that it isn't out there... I just haven't had time to really look. What those who have commented have failed to mention (maybe they're too young to remember) is that President Clinton had both gay and HIV positive staffers in his administration. Even Bush Sr. kept a token gay or two around (the Log Cabinettes will probably chime in with a huff as to the total head count of G & L or HIV positive appointees by current and past Republican administrations).

For my money, Anthony Azizi, who plays Vince Taylor, is way cuter than Matt Lanter, who plays the president's son Horace (and so it would seem the odds-on favorite cast member of gay boys, in part to his role on a reality show last year). I do appreciate that they put him on the high school swim team, though, so we'll have lots of Speedo scenes. Somewhere in Nebraska --and the Castro-- men and boys of all ages will be recording those scenes. (yep-one site even had the video of the pool scene!) The official blog did have one correspondent who noted the legalities around firing a person with HIV. The issue is so 80s. How soon they forget...

The best part of Azizi's role thus far was a week or two ago when he had to repeatedly remind people that he doesn't speak Arabic (his character is supposed to be a Palestinian, which I thought was enough to lay the groundwork for future plotlines concerning him).

Given the shortage of openly gay characters on primetime television this season, at least we have one who won't be a comic foil.