Why People Like Us Makes For A Good Binge
As a fervent couch potato, I keep most of my existentialism at bay by watching series or episodic shows that keep me coming back for more, for better or for worse.
While webisodes are not something I would usually binge on, I stumble upon a series produced by our neighbour down south that really caught my attention during a deep-dive on past posts of a now defunct subreddit.
Dubbed People Like Us, the series is a slice of life on the often turbulent take of your everyday Southeast Asian gays produced by gayhealth.sg, a community based organisation that aims to help improve the sexual health and services within the gay/bi/msm community through advocacy and empowerment.
Fair warning, if you are about to watch this, it may contain suggestive elements so be aware of your surrounding before you start!
Of Sexual Identity and the Scene
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In the first episode of the series, we are introduced to four men and how their distinct experience and lives intertwined with the scene. We have the hopeless romantic Joel who is out and about to seek a meaningful connection; then there is Rai, who has an equally hard time in the dating game; the jaded Ridzwan, who looks to underground promiscuity as a way to cope with the duality of his life, and the adventurous Isaac, who literally is new to the scene after coming with terms of his sexual identity.
Throughout the first season, we see each of them tackle with issues that many gay men are all too familiar with such as cruising in bathhouses (sauna), the casual hookup culture, living with one’s faith, tradition and societal expectations while juggling with their sexual identity, and the tribulation of intimacy within the gay/bi/msm community.
Different Countries, Same Struggles
Right now you might be thinking, those are not isolated issues and that the gay/bi/msm community around the world faces in a whole, so what makes this series a lot more relatable to us folks here in Malaysia?
The localised portrayal in the series really hits close to home
As a country that was formerly part of Malaya, Singapore shares many things that resonate with Malaysians such as the ethnicity of the characters. They too represent the majority population of Malaysians which are the Chinese, the Indians and the Malays. It goes without saying that there are dialogues from the cast which are not just in English, but with a touch of Malay and Singlish (and to a certain extent, Manglish). While not entirely represented colloquially, it still draws parallel to a narrative that we as Malaysians can picture ourselves in when compared to other western-based gay-centric narratives.
In spite of this similarity, there are still a lack of narratives that better reflect the state of the LGBT community in Malaysia itself.
But why?
Gay Malaysian Short Films, Where Art Thou?
As Malaysians, we find ourselves at a loss in terms of proper representation in media simply because there are plenty of regulations as well as censorship dictated by LPF (Film Censorship Board of Malaysia). So why not take it to a platform that is not governed by them, you ask?
The answer is fear.
Fear of prosecution. The fear for all who are involved would suffer from unwarranted witch hunt.
There is not a lack of creative content producers in our country let alone the means of producing them. Only the lack of implements to ensure that they can be portrayed in media without resorting to unneeded censorship or facing dire repercussions.
While it may not do us justice in portraying the pain points and struggles of our own gay/bi/msm community, People Like Us is as close as it gets.
One Thing I Would Like to See If There is a Season 3
Should this series continue to be in production (fingers crossed), I would love to see them touch on a specific issue that may not be talked about a lot outside of our own community.
At face value from the two seasons so far, all of the main characters portrayed are cisgendered males and that there has yet to be other parts within the gay/bi/msm community itself that has been represented. Perhaps they could add a character who is a FTM with his orientation to either be gay or bi and how the current character(s) would interact with him.
Overall, I do hope that there will be more episodes to come for People Like Us. Who knows, it might even pave the way for our local content producers to put together something this audacious and beautiful.













