So, I apologize if someone has already posted but did a search and did not find anything. Anway, I was wondering if anybody has watched Logo's show Fire Island and what they thought about it. I haven't watched it, but am curious to. wanted to hear what people thought of the show.
The commercials are enough to induce nausea; they make last season's The Single Whore (or was it called Finding Prince Charming?) look like Citizen Kane.
I'd never call for legislation banning such vapid, shallow, mindless, vulgar programming, but I think that it does perpetuate ultimately grotesque and potentially harmful gay stereotypes. So I won't be supporting it by viewing.
I don't watch the show, but have two friends that have. They feel completely differently about it- one loves it and calls it his guilty pleasure, the other thinks it's damaging to gay America because it perpetuates the stereotype that all gay men are promiscuous.
I didn't watch it, though I know a few friends who did and enjoyed it enough. For me, my issue isn't that it's a trashy reality show- I don't think any homophobes are watching Fire Island just to get proof that we're all promiscuous sluts. I just found it ridiculously boring. The guys are all good-looking, but I can find that elsewhere.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
Unfortunate that the Logo Channel can't provide very much original programming as I would imagine was the intent when the channel first launched. Instead we get a lot of Facts of Life, One Day at a Time, Alice, Roseanne, Mama's Family, Green Acres, and Silver Spoons.
Having spent many summers in the Pines, I found the show to be pretty close to what it was like. The guys I was with weren't as promiscuous as that group, but the show is true to life in many ways. Having said that, I don't think their lives on the island are interesting enough for a tv show.
adamgreer said: "I don't watch the show, but have two friends that have. They feel completely differently about it- one loves it and calls it his guilty pleasure, the other thinks it's damaging to gay America because it perpetuates the stereotype that all gay men are promiscuous."
Jane2 wrote: "Having spent many summers in the Pines, I found the show to be pretty close to what it was like."
That sounds like a rather limited experience. Of course, there are houses of pretty, promiscuous, empty-headed party boys; but (in my experience) there are at least as many houses (if not more) of other types of people - more mature; more articulate; more concerned with issues not related to the gym, plastic surgery, getting attention, or sex.
These people just tend to make less of a spectacle of themselves.
I don't think my experience was limited. I spent quite a bit of time at other houses, and they were so varied, as you say. My experiences ran the gamut. On the Pines, we went to lots of pretty wild parties, for which without them, the Pines wouldn't be the Pines! Of course we had plenty of friends who were the opposite of party boys. Our house was one example. One interesting fact is that our house was next to Calvin Klein's (yes, a looooong time ago) and our view was into his pool, lol.
Back in the day, the Grove wasn't at all wild, but pretty quiet, as it was where the older set lived. The wild times there were going to the parties and dancing at the Ice Palace.
Anyway, you're right newintown, there are all types of people on the pines. I should have been more explicit in pointing that out.
VH-1 was screening the first few episodes right after RuPaul's Drag Race on Friday nights so I caught the first 2-3 episodes then. Agree with many of the commenters who say it was trashy and shallow, but then so are all the Real Housewives shows. I wouldn't say it's a complaint so much as a descriptive. Every so often, trashy and shallow tv is exactly what I'm looking for.
Then VH-1 stopped airing them; I don't get Logo, and my life became just a little less trashy and shallow.
Agree that the recaps on Vulture are still worth the read.
Fire Island is fun for a day, two days tops. All The circut parties and easy sex made me question life my choices.
I can't imagine spending an entire summer there, quarter-sharing a sh*t shack with five other people, sounds like a real blast.
Not unless you were rich and owned a home there, even then if I had the money, I'd go buy something in the Hamptons where theres more to do.
As far as the show goes, I lasted about 20 seconds, I couldn't watch it. But I readily watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and New York (passively, I can live without them) so call me a hypocrite. I don't know why I can stomach one but not the other.
I spend a week in Cherry Grove with friends every summer and it's always a highlight of the year. Yeah, there are parties and sex to be had, but there's also the fact you are on a gorgeous island with friends.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
"I can't imagine spending an entire summer there, quarter-sharing a sh*t shack with five other people, sounds like a real blast."
Well, from one who spent weekends there with a group of best friends, those were the most fabulous times of my life.
Actually, now that I re read "sh*t shack", I'll have to speak up. I don't know who stays in those, but our house was in Architectural Digest..And as I said, the "five other" people were all long time close friends.
I did spend some time at East Hampton and disliked it. Too snooty for me.
There are certainly gorgeous, gorgeous homes in the Pines. But there are quite a few that are decidedly less glamorous, particularly in the innermost walks furthest from the water.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
Well, being that the Pines is only a few blocks wide, with the ocean on one side and the bay on the other, the most inland you can be is about a couple of blocks away from the water. Fire Island Blvd. is the central walk. So, if you're on the blvd, you're as inland as you can get.
The coops are on Fire island Blvd. They are very small and plain, but you can buy a one bd one bth for about $200,000 and a 2 bd for about $500,000.
Of course, there are a few "shacks" on the Pines. They are the very oldest homes. I stayed in one near the dock one month, on Cedar Walk. I wonder if it's still there.
^ You seem angry about the, harsh real estate realities shall we say, that exist on Fire Island.
500k for a two bedroom? Certainly not my 500k.
I respect that you're nostalgic, and that you 'had the time of your life' on Fire Island. That's awesome you got to stay in a house straight out of "Architectural Digest." Not eveyone can afford that. Which is what I was merely pointing out.
Don't get me started on the Pines/Cherry Grove War. That's just ridiculous.
Like I said, great for you. My experience of the island was different, and its fine.
You think I seem angry? ok, you're entitled to your opinion.
"I can't imagine spending an entire summer there, quarter-sharing a sh*t shack with five other people, sounds like a real blast."
You sound like something didn't go very well for you, writing that sarcastic reply to my having a good time there.
To be clear, I am not a rich girl. We were guests of our friends who paid for the rental of the house. One of the houses we stayed at was built and designed by our friend, who could afford it. The house still stands, it is on the beach, but with time, and the passing of our friend, additions were built onto the house and it no longer has the charm it once had.
I didn't know there was a Pines/Cherry Grove war going on.
p.s. You said you prefer the Hamptons? That's where the 1% go. It makes Fire Island look like Cannery Row.