POSE’S FINAL BOW
The Groundbreaking Show's Last Season
TV is losing another great TV show — and one that was groundbreaking. The last season of FX’s Pose starts May 2, marking an end to an incredible series that put transgender people of color at the forefront.
From the creative mind of Ryan Murphy, Pose was the first TV show nominated for Best Drama at the Emmys that featured an all-black cast and mostly trans actors. The show focuses on ballroom (and no, we don’t mean dance) scenes launched in the late ’80s, early ’90s. Also called voguing, the once underground activity has since become a cultural staple and gave way to some of the best queens living today.
The series explores the chosen family and the bonds formed under the houses of the queens. And in the final season, that theme is still at the forefront. As Billy Porter’s character battles HIV, we see pivotal moments in the fight against AIDS and the people who stood up to make effective change. Much of the cast is set to return, including the ever-stunning leader Mj Rodriguez, who finds herself working as a nurse.
Porter told Deadline in 2019 that he hopes the series is creating change: “I mean, my hope is that it creates empathy, and it creates a conversation that moves us forward. That’s my hope. From what I see and hear on the ground, people seem to really be responding positively to it. I’m not sure if we’re not just simply preaching to the choir still. I don’t really have control over that. I would hope that we would be able to maybe affect some people who never heard of this before and create a space for change. That would be my hope.”
Pose has been instrumental in making trans people of color visible and showing storylines with HIV+ characters. According to GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV report, only three HIV+ characters were on TV in 2020 — all of them on Pose. It’s a shame we only got three seasons of this groundbreaking show, but hopefully, it won’t be the last time we see these incredible actors.
