‘Mid-Century Modern’: Four Queens Beat a Straight Every Time

Real friends are there for you. They listen to you whenever you need to complain. And, most importantly, they delete your browser history to spare your mother’s shock, embarrassment and shame.

Hulu’s Mid-Century Modern is a blend of the familiar with the sass of a contemporary comedy series. It has been likened and compared with the immortal The Golden Girls, and, yes, that blueprint is there while including the sharpness of creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick’s iconic Will & Grace. This multi-cam comedy could’ve been tired and overwrought, but it twinkles with glee and shimmers with heart. Trade the nighttime cheesecake for an extra strong martini, because Mid-Century Modern declares itself as an essential viewing pleasure because of the chemistry of its cast. It’s irresistible.

Nathan Lane can do no wrong in my eyes, and we are invited to bask in his comedic glory as Bunny Schneiderman, owner and proprieter of a chain of women’s underwear boutiques. His Palm Springs digs show us how lucrative his business is: “It’s not home…but it’s much,” he says coyly in the first moments of the first episode. Mid-Century actually begins at the funeral of his friend George before he is reunited with Matt Bomer’s Jerry, a flight attendant, and Nathan Lee Graham’s Arthur, a former fashion journalist. With such a huge home and a little loneliness settling in, Bunny invites his two best gal pals to relocate to Palm Springs so they can take comfort in each other’s company and have someone to bounce the bitchery around with.

This trio of queens is actually a quartet, because, lest we forget, that Bunny also lives with his mother, Sybil, played with the driest of dry wits by the late, absolutely great Linda Lavin in her last on-screen role. If we are going to compare this new comedy to The Golden Girls, then all Sybil needs is Sophia Petrillo’s wicker purse. She will use it to hide Fig Newtons from her son as she slyly, and lovingly, keeps everyone in check. One of my favorite qualities about Lavin as a performer is how her eyes lock in on someone as she cuts them down, but there is constant mischief in her eye. When Bunny, Arthur, and Jerry decide to visit Fire Island, Sybil is confused as to why they would abandon one gay hotspot for another. “You want to meet gay men? Open the door and yell, ‘The Oscars are starting!'” Lavin has a three-word delivery on the phone with a scammer that will make you howl with laughter.

Instead of making jokes about aging at the expense of its characters, Mid-Century Modern celebrates that friendship can give everyone the oomf to go on. There is a surprising undercurrent and awareness of what queer and gay men have gone through like when they casually toss off lines about “what happened in the 80s,” and Bomer’s Jerry is constantly using his experience of being a divorced Mormon to inform his outlook on life. Bomer and Rose Nylund would get along swimmingly, but he gives Jerry a plucky naivete that is never grating and always endearing. Jerry would swoon if Hawkins Fuller was on one his flights.

Lane and Graham’s characters have more practice at living with jadedness, but this first season allows them to explore how older gay men are perceived within the community–Bunny and Arthur will never be ignored. Graham’s clipped delivery always lands, and it’s a joy seeing his eyes narrowing just before a before a bitchy retort emerges. Lane, who has played Roy Cohn to Starina, is perfection. No one delivers lines like him. I could literally dedicate the rest of this review to a list of his quips, but you should experience them yourself. There is dancing (pill organization breaks into Chicago‘s “Cell Block Tango”), puns galore (a one-night stand is referred to as Tricky Ricardo), and gorgeous production design by Glenda Rovello. Her work remains unparalleled. Zane Phillips appears as a muscled and closeted Mormon seeking advice from Jerry. Stephanie Koenig plays a Lauren Boebert-like congresswoman with an older pooch named Reagan, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson sports an oversized bow as a nasty shopgirl who delights in cutting down Arthur.

There is comfort in how Mid-Century Modern feels familiar. It’s like seeing an old friend you haven’t had a chance to spend time with in years, and it hits home the evergreen notion that while you forget a lot of the bad times and some of the good, you will always remember how that friend made you laugh. If this is what us gay men have to look forward to in our best years, consider us lucky.

Mid-Century Modern debuts all ten episodes on Hulu and Disney+ on March 28th.