Ryan Murphy Wins Hollywood With the Self-Identifying Gayest Television Show Ever

There are multiple ways to measure the prospects of a recently ordered-to-series television show. But no better way than announcing it has set the record for the most transgendered characters and LGBTQ actors in recurring roles. Honestly, why even explain more. Hand out the trophies.

Ryan Murphy has had two previous targeted demo hits with Glee and American Horror Story. Both reveled in their ability to have a vital character from every plagued member of society and one cis-gendered straight stupid or evil male caucasoid. You really want a blend. With his new show, Pose, set for FX, Murphy is headed no-holds-barred into the ribald “LGBT ball” culture of New York in the 1980’s. Ryan Murphy diehard fans and Andy Cohen have already declared it the best new show on television that hasn’t filmed a single series episode yet.

You can make a quality show set in any backdrop, though maybe you should see it before anointing it “history making” solely for its gay quotient. That seems demeaning. Mostly to gay people. They’re not the Special Olympics of Hollywood. They’re the Ethiopians of distance track events. If a West Virginia coal mining operation wanted to tout itself as the most LGBT-stocked deep underground dig in the world, that’d be newsworthy. Christiane Amanpour could stand outside the mine entrance on a live satellite hookup. Not so much a Tinsel Town banner declaring we got more gays than ever before.

If you’re still on the fence about setting up your TiVo for Pose, know that it’s being co-produced by Gwyneth Paltrow’s new fiancé. Talk about gay quotient. In the end, if you don’t like what you see, change the channel. I’m talking mostly to myself now.