Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! A subsect of the gay community is the “Bears” and are men that are usually larger and hairy. Bears themselves are split into a variety of different groups, muscle bears, otters, cubs, chubs, etc. The “Bear Movement” started in the 1980s and continues to evolve and become more well known and accepted. With more acceptance means that more media has been produced which involves and mainly deals with Bears and the Bear Community and life style and the trials and tribulations that come with it. Although not your typical television shows, two series have gained mainstream prominence and both were made using “crowd funding”.
BearCity (2010 – 2016)
BearCity is the story of Tyler (Joe Conti) is a young, gay actor who is attracted to Bears, but is himself considered a twink. He is afraid to tell anyone as there seems to be some bias towards that community. On an audition, he meets Fred (Brian Keane) and later becomes Fred and his husband Brent’s (Stephen Guarino) roommate. The couple is looking to spice up their relationship and talks about becoming “open” which creates some friction between them. Tyler begins to be more comfortable and accepted into the community but when he meets Roger (Gerald McCullouch) the two feel an immense attraction to one another. Roger has a reputation as a “player” and someone who only sleeps with members of the Bear Community, this keeps him emotionally unavailable and leads to some hurt feelings on Tyler’s part. The third couple in the film is Michael (Gregory Gunter) and Carlos (James Martinez). Carlos loves Michael and is attracted to his large size, but Michael is considering having lap band surgery as he is having trouble finding a job and believes size discrimination is the reason. This drives a wedge between Carlos and Michael.
This film is a well written and performed movie with some wonderfully subtle emotional scenes as well as some humor. Gerald McCullouch is wonderful as Roger, who is a complex individual whose own fears have led him to be very detached so that he flees at the first sign of love. The audience will both dislike Roger and root for him at the end. And Joe Conti is wonderful as the young “twink” trying to come to terms with what he wants and not always looking for approval from his friends. The rest of the cast are all very good in their parts. The film spawned two sequels which were produced using “Crowd Funding” campaigns and continue the story of the main characters.
Where the Bears Are (2012 – 2018)
Where the Bears Are is a comedy-mystery web series that ran for seven seasons and is described by the creators as a cross between The Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote. Nelson (Ben Zook) wakes up, after his 5th 40th birthday party, in bed with a hot muscle bear named Todd (Ian Parks) to the disbelief of Nelson’s roommates, Reggie (Rick Copp) and Wood Burns (Joe Dietl). But Todd’s roommate is then found dead in Nelson’s bathtub. Nelson, Reggie and Wood, all being suspects, begin to investigate on their own. All clues begin to point to “Hot Toddie”, but Nelson doesn’t want to believe that someone that shows actual interest in him could be a cold-blooded murderer. The trio argue and demean each other, but in their hearts they all love each other and cherish their friendship. In the end, all turns out well for our heroes.
The first season was named Best Gay Web Series of 2012 by both AfterElton.com and the LGBT blog Queerty and I do have to agree that it was fun and enjoyable to watch. I am a huge murder mystery fan and so this was right up my alley. It is witty and a little zany at times. The acting isn’t always “amazing” but is passable and the story is intriguing. The only issue I had is that I did not particularly care for either Nelson’s or Reggie’s characters. Wood played by Joe Dietl on the other hand is so loveable with his dim-wittedness and Ian Parks is surprisingly good as the main suspect. The series runs for seven seasons and all but the first was produced by crowd funding campaigns. The series sees some pretty high-profile guest stars, like Margaret Cho, Perez Hilton, and Chaz Bono, with most of the plots based on a murder mystery the series does venture into other genres as well with season five being an espionage thriller and there is also a musical Christmas special described Hairspray meets It’s a Wonderful Life.
The one theme that both these franchises had in common, at least in their first installments, was the coming to terms and acceptance of one’s body image. I think this is something many in the Bear Community suffer from. In BearCity, Michael contemplates lap band surgery, which all his friends are against, since he doesn’t need it for his health and would only be getting it to acquiesce to social norms. And in Where the Bears Are even though Nelson tries to convince himself that Todd is not the killer, he has a hard time believing that someone as gorgeous as Todd would actually be attracted to him. In each of these story lines, the characters come to terms with their own self-worth.
