Pose Season 2 Review
Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.
On August 14, 2020, I started watching Pose’s second season with my little brother and finished on August 25. What a great way to spend the last eleven days with him before he had to go back to college for fall semester. Watching this season was a real life-changing experience, but it also pissed me off because all the trans actors were snubbed for Emmy nominations.
The series is centered around the ballroom culture during the 1980’s—now 1990’s going into the second season. Two years had passed in-between seasons, which revealed how more dangerous the world had become for our main characters and the queer community.
The main threat going into season two is the HIV/AIDS Epidemic, and how the death rate quickly jumped from 5,000 to well over 14,000 during the time jump. Season two opened with Blanca (MJ Rodriguez) and Pray Tell (Billy Porter) visiting Hart Island, giving us a clear visual on the numerous bodies dumped there in unmarked coffins and deeper context for the funeral they attend later. For Blanca, this funeral was number 452. For Pray Tell, 210. This disturbing revelation was a rude awakening for the audience—especially for those unaware of how bad the USA’s Capitalist profit-driven healthcare system really is.
The ideological conflicts set-up through this Epidemic are shown through Blanca and her former Mother Elektra (Dominque Jackson). Blanca and Pray Tell—plus the rest of House Evangelista—join an AIDS-awareness activist group called ACT UP, joining them for a protest at a church that is preaching about abstinence and not protective sex. Then there’s Elektra, who retreated from the situation thinking she was above it and “not likely to catch it”. As Pray Tell put it later in the season, Elektra chose to whistle through the graveyard.
Pose also dove into pop culture, particularly Madonna’s number one hit “Vogue” and its cultural appropriation when the song hit mainstream. While Blanca initially believed the song hitting the number one charts meant their community was finally going to be acknowledged, it also revealed a subconscious mentality that most minorities probably have somewhere inside of them.
In order to make it in the world, a white person has to acknowledge you or your people, and that acknowledgement is a sign of real progress for said minority group like white people hold the key to the great promise land. The season’s second half exposed how this mentality had affected Damon’s (Ryan Jamaal Swain) Vogue classes and Angel (Indya Moore) trying to start a modelling career.
The “Chosen Family” message blended further into the narrative during this season, showing how comfortable the show got with its characters and their stories. This was most apparent in season 2 episode 9—the penultimate episode—when all the transsexual women decided to go on vacation. Arguably without giving too much away, that amazing episode was the most fun one out of the entire series so far.
I would highly recommend watching Pose—this joyous series—for the amazing story, characters, and trans representation. The show was renewed for a season three, but the ending to season two felt like a fitting series finale due to the obvious fear of cancellation. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next in this show. Thanks for reading my season review, everyone! I’ll see you all later on the dance floor! And the category is…