A Revry original, Unconventional is a really well-liked queer dramedy that feels totally different from the usual stuff. The heart of the story is about two pretty eccentric queer siblings and their partners trying to build a family that doesn't follow the traditional rules. It takes a super raw and unfiltered look at queer life, diving deep into things like mental health, addiction, and how complicated identity and relationships can get. It’s not afraid to get messy or show people at their most vulnerable, and it really pushes boundaries while showing a lot of different queer experiences. The first season has nine episodes, and each one is about a half-hour long. The story centers on Noah, a grad student who’s been struggling for years to wrap up his PhD. He’s been with his husband, Dan, for nine years, and they’ve recently gotten married and moved to Palm Springs. While they're trying to figure out how to start a family and have a baby, they decide to shake things up by in...
Starting with home, Stephen Fry starts in his home country, talking to gay icons Elton John and David Furnish. This was the couple who inspired Stephen to be open about his sexuality as well as many others. He then travels to Uganda, where the government was considering, and in January 2014 implemented, a new law that would make homosexuality a capital crime — putting gay people to death for their sexuality. He then travels to US, a country quite famous for all sorts of 'conversion therapies'. He talks to a therapist and also with a former patient, after which he tells us that for all the talk of his successful conversions, he was unable to find one of his ex-gays to talk to us. Episode 2 starts with Brazil, where one gay person is murdered every 36 hours, and interviews Brazilian anti-homosexuality politician Jair Bolsonaro, who sadly is now the president of the country. Fry also visits Russia and speaks with politician Vitaly Milonov, again to meet with similar responses about homophobia. He finally travels to India, where he thinks things are getting better. He covers the ostracism of hijras community in India, but is happy to see the middle class educated Indians at least doing well.
Unlike most other countries, Fry doesn't talk to any political person in India, where it is more to do with culture and religion. In Russia and Brazil, it was more about the government clamping down and making some very very strict rules against LGBTQ people and their stories. Uganda had some of the most horror stories. I am personally privy to some of that, because when that law was passed I was visiting the country for work and had to be flown out on the first available flight, fearing repercussions of my co-workers knowing about myself sexuality. Interestingly, the minister of ethics and integrity in Uganda almost threatens to have Stephen arrested for his views. Some of the conversations that he has with political people across Russia, Brazil and Uganda are so absurd that they don't make any sense. The, claiming that gay people are out there to recruit, promote homosexuality etc was bizarre to the core. And of course when people like these come to power, one can only imagine what goes on. A nicely made documentary ends well with a very relevant statement "Homosexuals are not interested in making other people homosexual, but homophobic people are definitely interested in making other people homophobic". (6/10)
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