The bisexual
During the first two episodes of The Bisexual, I kept thinking, &#;There&#;s not a single queer person on the internet who isn&#;t going to be offended by this in some way&#; — and by the end of the season, I understood that was the point. Miseducation of Cameron Post director Desiree Akhavan&#;s new series, a partnership between the UK&#;s Channel 4 and Hulu, tells a story you think you&#;ve heard before, but you haven&#;t. Akhavan, who&#;s bisexual in real experience, plays Leila, a self-identified female homosexual in her mids who breaks up with Sadie (Maxine Peak), her partner of ten years, because Sadie wants to get married and have children and it makes Leila panic. Not long after their break, Leila decides to examine her attraction to men for the first second in her life. What follows is the impact, for her, for Sadie, for their lesbian friends, for their co-workers, for their parents, for everyone whose lives touch hers in some way.
Akhavan has done something truly brilliant here. She&#;s created a show for an audience that understands the joke &#;Bette is a Shane trying to be a Dana&
New Trailer Shows Desiree Akhavan as a Bisexual in London in Channel 4 and Hulu Comedy Drama
Desiree Akhavan can be seen as Leila, a Modern Yorker in London trying to get to grips with her sexuality and life in the English capital, in a recent extended trailer for “The Bisexual.” Akhavan directed and stars in the comedy, which bows on Channel 4 in the U.K. on Wednesday and will launch on Hulu in the U.S. later this year.
The “Appropriate Behaviour” and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” indie filmmaker also co-wrote the series, with longtime collaborator Cecilia Frugiuele.
Channel 4 has been airing a short trailer, but in the full promo Leila can be seen struggling with her newfound bisexuality. “It’s tacky, it’s gauche, it makes you seem disingenuous, like your genitals have no allegiance,” she tells Gabe (Brian Gleeson), her new flatmate and wingman.
The show also stars Maxine Peake as Leila’s ex and business partner, Sadie, who can be seen in the trailer making an awkward trip to the gynecologist. Peake (&
The Bisexual
Smart and instantly lovable, this fresh series' charm hinges on its sparkling dialogue and characters who are by turns exasperating and adorable, just love real people. Leila, Gabe, and the other characters in The Bisexual do things that characters don't do too often on television. They stammer. They pause in awkward silence over cups of coffee. They lie in bed in their underwear watching bad TV on their laptops. And in between, they go to clubs and they go to serve and they gather friends for dinner, and if that doesn't sound eventful, you haven't heard the extraordinarily entertaining conversations and connection they're having in these ordinary places.
Leila gets most of the best lines (naturally, because she writes them for herself). "Mommy and Daddy both affection you very much," she assures her employees when she and Sadie describe their romantic partnership is on keep . "Bisexuality is a myth created to sell flavored vodka," she tells Gabe, who feels out of place at a gay lock. Dramas in which funny women crack wise while exploring new facets of their sexuality are a
Production company Hootenanny (a Sister Pictures company)
Commissioners Fiona McDermott and Jack Bayles (C4); Jessica Kumai Scott (Hulu)
Length 6 x 30 minutes
Executive producer Naomi de Pear
Director Desiree Akhavan
Producer Katie Carpenter
Writers Desiree Akhavan; Cecilia Frugiuele
Line producer Holly Pullinger
Editor Selina MacArthur
DoP Daniel Stafford-Clark
Location manager Helene Lenszner
Production designer Miren Marañón
Costume designer Emma Rees
Costume and make-up designer Lisa Mustafa
Story producer Rhian Petty
Post house Technicolor
The Bisexual is a comedy drama that offers a candid watch at love and sex and what different people’s approach to it reveals about them.
It’s told from the perspective of Recent Yorker Leila (Desiree Akhavan), who has always been bisexual but has never told anyone or slept with a man.
After breaking up with long-term girlfriend Sadie (Maxine Peake), Leila starts sleeping with men and women under the questionable guidance of neu