In the Life
PBS · Check Local Listings
In an age when the cerebral nutritional value of most television shows is usually comparable to a pack of stale Ding Dongs, we should consider ourselves downright lucky to have public television still fighting the good fight by providing us with first-rate, commercial-free, highly informative programming. Still, despite, (or, unfortunately) because of its continued nonprofit, educational do-gooding, PBS has retained its crusty reputation for offering us shows we should watch, but probably won’t.
However, boring gets a bona fide beatdown this October when In the Life, America’s longest-running gay and lesbian news magazine, returns for its 16th season with a new look, a chummy new host (Michael Billy), and a fresh collection of compelling mini-documentaries chronicling the lives and struggles of LGBT people across the world. The three-time Emmy-nominated series’ hour-long premiere is divided into five segments, ranging from Schism In Episcopal Church, an examination of the tensions inside the Anglican Communion surrounding homosexuality within its ranks and amongst its parishioners, to Beauty On the Black Market, a story detailing the harrowing world low-income transgender women are often forced to navigate in their search for black market hormones and silicone.
In the Life dodges the humdrum label by placing disparate topics side by side: Caffe Cino, the biography of a 1960s Greenwich Village café-turned-theater, is followed by Lulu Gets a Face Lift, a look at plastic surgery and aging from a drag queen’s perspective. The show also lets the stories, told by the people who have lived them, do all the talking. With a segment on the life and culinary career of Josie Smith Malave (perhaps most famous for her recent stint on Top Chef) thrown into the mix, don’t be surprised if the 16th season of In the Life has you flipping to a channel you hadn’t considered watching since you were six and harboring that not-so-secret crush on Mr. Rogers.
REVIEWED BY Noah Michelson
