N. 🐝

then someone gets brave and makes a character who is a real bastard and makes all the wrong choices and is maybe even malicious at times and they make this character explicitly queer. and then fans are like "this is what you think of us?? worst representation ever" and the creator gets absolutely lambasted, ESPECIALLY if theyre queer themselves

then everyone else sees this and either thinks its too risky to include a queer character, or wants to make sure they're only doing the good and nice representation with no flaws or mistakes

Steps for this.

Now that I’ve seen/listened to pretty much all the Joel Fry stuff I can get my hands on, it’s time to do some summations. Normally, I like to do a Top Five or Top Ten when I finish an actor deep dive, but for Joel, even a Top Ten felt tricky. So to indulge myself—and to work in some guaranteed variety—I decided to do multiple Top Fives across different categories.

This week, we’re kicking things off with TV roles (series regulars, not guest starring performances, which will show up in a later category.) While Joel Fry is pretty consistently great, I think his TV work is where the best magic happens!

A couple notes at the outset. First, these are Top Five roles, not TV shows. They’re my favorite TV performances/characters from Joel, regardless of how well I like the show as a whole. Some of the shows on this list are excellent. Others? Less so. But Joel is always terrific! Second, the roles are listed in chronological order, not ranked.

Darren, White Van Man

(GIF by @derekstilinski)

Oh my god, Darren is just spectacularly funny! The line deliveries are impeccable and the physical comedy is a thing of beauty. Darren offers up a fantastic blend of deadpan slacker and absurd sidekick, but even when he’s outrageous, he’s pretty much always internally consistent as a character. I love how observant he is, and that his “laziness” as a sidekick comes down more to his distractability and his refusal to do something without a compelling reason.

Leighton, Trollied

Leighton is such a special character to me—one of my absolute favorite autistic-coded characters! Pretty much everything about him just feels pitch perfect, and Joel Fry’s sincerity in the role is what takes Leighton from fun comic relief to an immensely endearing character that I’d pledge my fealty to any day. He’s consistently hilarious but can also be so moving in more dramatic moments. I’ve seen all kinds of wonderful performances across Joel Fry-days, but I think more than any other, Leighton is the one who makes me grateful that I went on this deep dive of Joel’s work.

Stylax, Plebs

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Plebs, and it’s definitely not my kind of show, but I adore Stylax. For an archetypal Horny Best Friend character, he mostly manages to avoid overt creepiness and is instead an enthusiastic (albeit horny) ray of sunshine. Joel Fry offers up terrific line readings and a bright, breezy energy that make Stylax just so damn endearing!

Frenchie, Our Flag Means Death

This one’s a no-brainer. Frenchie was the character that got me started on Joel Fry-days. So incredible, so uncategorizable! You kind of never know what you’re going to get with Frenchie, because there are so many facets to him, and yet everything he does feels so essentially Frenchie. Joel Fry’s performance makes everything hold together: the goofy bits, the clumsiness, the shrewd intelligence, the superstitions, the observation skills, etc. There is just So Much Character in this character, and I love it!

Daniel, Alice and Steve

(GIF by @derekstilinski)

i see people trying to hype them up too by showing off really impressive practical effects for the time, and sure, that's nice. but I unironically love seeing very obvious foam boulders bounce off people, and wooden swords clash, and bright flashes of light from "laser guns"... and it is so much better than 90% of shit today, and you know why?

key fucking difference: they inhabit it. everyone on screen is putting their entire soul into it. and I think people forget that tv is at its very essence theater, you tune in and suspend your disbelief, and you are always aware you are watching a story. if you go to a play and see someone stabbed with a very obvious fake knife, it doesn't fucking matter, does it?

because everyone's forgot that you're not there to see how good of a real-looking fake knife somebody can make, you're there to see people who can make you believe in the emotional truth of a story.

xena warrior princess is superior to every single marvel movie that has ever been made for the key fact that i can watch two actors struggling in "quicksand" which is very obviously just dirt that they were buried in up to their chests, but they are SCREAMING, wailing, crying: they are selling it and I am there for them ---

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