Pose 1×8 Review: Mother of the Year

While I have not been able to do weekly reviews of Pose on here, I have definitely been keeping up with it. Ryan Murphy’s newest creation is one of the best queer shows on television and that’s why I hope it finds a bigger audience for the upcoming second season. The finale, ‘Mother of the Year,’ tied everything nicely together. Our characters have gone through a lot, and I was glad to see them experience some happiness.

Pose boasts trans talent as main characters and does a wonderful job of telling a story of the trans experience in the LGBTQ+ community. Set during the 1987-1988 era in New York, it shows the hardships the queer community, especially trans people of color, had to go through on a daily basis. It’s unfortunate a majority of the community continues to face the same problems even to this day.

Ryan Murphy can be hit or miss when it comes to running new shows. However, Pose is definitely one of his better works. Fingers crossed the series’ quality remains consistent going into season two.

‘Mother of the Year’ concluded the current arcs of our main characters and also allowed them to grow for the better. Of course, Blanca (Mj Rodriguez) ended up winning the prestigious award, because like I said, the finale tied everything nicely together.

While I liked Blanca as a character, compared to the rest of the cast, she didn’t necessarily go through major character changes during the first season. She was kind before and she continued being kind. I wonder what her arc in the second season will be. Maybe her body will begin to show symptoms of being HIV-positive? I don’t want her to die, but then again, keeping her around for too long won’t make narrative sense.

The best character growths, in my opinion, were for Angel (Indya Moore) and Elektra Abundance (Dominique Jackson). Elektra finally opened herself to receiving kindness and being kind to others. It was also amazing to see Elektra allowing her body to go certain changes even if the cost for doing so was giving up her previous lifestyle of luxury.

Angel understood the importance of her true family in ‘Mother of the Year.’ I loved how she rejected Stan’s (Evan Peters) proposal. Angel didn’t need a white knight to save her. She already had more love than she could dream of already around her. She just needed to see it.

While I heard from some viewers they didn’t like Damon (Ryan Jamaal Swain) always acting like a kid, I have to say I kind of liked him. Not everyone is mature enough even if they are 17 or 18 years old. Give Damon some time and hopefully, he will become better. Hopefully!

Anyway, if you haven’t watched Pose yet, I highly recommend you do. The eight-episode first season features a well-written depiction of queer culture and doesn’t shy away from talking about racism, HIV, fetishizing the trans community, and more.

Are you a fan of Pose? What did you think of ‘Mother of the Year’? Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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