Eastsiders

I was hooked on Eastsiders from the start! The emotional roller coaster that is Cal and Thom soars from the beginning of Season 1 to the end of Season 2. The Eastsiders characters are authentic, entertaining, and most importantly likable - yet flawed. I find myself pulling for Cal and Thom while also rooting for their shared exploration to find purpose in their relationship and in their lives in general.

The richness of the supporting characters - Cal's Mom and sister, Quince, Ian, the Silver Lake setting - completes the tapestry of the Eastsiders universe. The club scenes feel genuine - hilarious and at the same time meaningful. I loved the cameos from Johnny McGovern, Jai Rodriguez, and the local drag performers. I couldn't stop laughing during the scenes in the free clinic.

The production quality, writing, and cinematography of Eastsiders is impressive not only within the LGBT genre but across the entire drama and comedy spectrum.

Finally a series that speaks to a Gay (and general) audience that pretty much ticks all the boxes. It has nuance, humour, heart and soul wrapped in an intelligent script and delivered with expert acting and high production values, to deliver an engaging and touching story that will make most viewers want to watch it all in one sitting. This is everything that its predecessors isn't. It's the series that hits the sparsity of good Gay television choices right out of the ballpark. Eastsiders sets the bar at the level a LGBT audience deserves. Highly recommended! Thank goodness for subscription television! Eastsiders is a stunning example of what channels like Netflix can deliver. I loved this!

EVERYONE should check out this show!!! It's about relationships....and love.....and life....and acceptance. It's funny... and sad ... and beautiful... and poignant.... and smart. When you love someone can you truly love them for the flawed imperfect person they are? Can you forgive? And what can that look like? Certainly it will be flawed and imperfect.... and beautiful. If you are looking for a well written show with great dialogue, fantastic acting and a killer soundtrack head over to Netflix and binge this show (and you WILL binge it)! EastSiders was funded with Kickstarter. Their two episode project on YouTube in 2012 created enough interest and donations to develop a web series. Now with four seasons streaming on Netflix and translated into more than two dozen languages - this is the little series that could. I have fallen in love with these characters as I laughed and cried with them and watched them develop over the years. Did I mention the soundtrack?!?! Song choices and placement are just fantastic. I had made myself a YouTube playlist of my favorite songs from the show (the closing credit songs from the first two episodes still being my all time favorites). Recently I found out the soundtrack is on Spotify and I am over the moon.

This show is a funny, dark, quirky gem filled with flawed and endearing characters. It has angst and laughs and love. I have enjoyed watching it grow and I will miss it. A two episode update every few years, in honor of their two episode beginning, would complete me.... just a check-in to see how they are all doing. Having just watched the final season, I think it's time to rewind to the beginning to see where it all started. Feel free to join me.

Season One: 7/10

Themes: Drama, LGBTQ+, Gay Couple, Cheating, Hurt & Relationships.

Review: These characters were honestly all extremely unlikable. They constantly did things that would frustrate me and generally just annoyed me. Sometimes it was also a little hard to understand their thought-process since the editing and writing of this series is done in a way that leaves out a lot of details. Not only are the episodes short, but the dialogue is also not very revealing. I genuinely felt like I was missing certain information and feelings. Nonetheless, though, I did find the lives of these characters interesting and I was pretty emerged into the story. I honestly think this all had the potential to be a lot better if the writing had encompassed more detail.

Top three characters: 1) Thom, 2) Kathy and 3) Ian.

When Eastsiders hits the sweet spot it's great. Touching, authentic, funny, and sad - all the feels! But in between the splendid highs is a lot of relationship and existential navel gazing. I get it that 20-somethings into the 30-somethings are inclined to wonder out loud a lot about where they've been, where they're going, who they're going with yadayada but this ensemble are way to easily distracted by their own self-importance. Personally, I think the writing and character development improves over the seasons, although I loved the short-format of its early days. It never gets any less unbelievable that everyone in Silverlake knows each other, are hot as anything and have great sex all over the place, but these aren't exactly drawbacks. Traci Lords and Willam Belli playing it for the cheap seats are fabulous. I really like Eastsiders a lot. It's good tv and way overdue in the 21st century.