{"id":4158,"date":"2021-12-09T14:18:13","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T14:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/?p=4158"},"modified":"2021-12-09T14:18:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T14:18:16","slug":"coming-out-colton-explores-colton-underwoods-journey-warts-and-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/?p=4158","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Coming Out Colton\u2019 explores Colton Underwood\u2019s journey, warts and all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are moments in Coming Out Colton<\/em> (\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606), a new reality show on Netflix, that feel like a Public Service Announcement for the struggles and rewards of admitting to everyone in your life that you\u2019re a member of the LGBTQ community. This is not at all a bad thing, as the engaging, meticulously crafted, six-episode docu-series may help a closeted youth living in the middle of nowhere feel less isolated. At its core, Colton <\/em>presents a positive, hopeful pathway for living one\u2019s authentic life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharply directed by Josh Barnett, the GLAAD-approved series follows a distinct narrative course, one unencumbered by unexpected twists and turns and too many complexities. The path is about as \u2014 ahem \u2014 straightforward as it gets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Episode by episode by episode (with one departure into Nashville and a mind-numbingly dull gay-lister party), Colton Underwood, an ex-NFL star, and, more importantly, former meat rack of desire on ABC\u2019s cringeworthy heterosexual dating fest\u00a0The Bachelor<\/em>, reveals to his family, friends, high school coach, teammates, pastor, and inevitably the whole dang world via a high profile interview with Robin Roberts on\u00a0Good Morning, America<\/em>, that\u2026 he\u2019s gay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s aided on his journey by fellow athlete Gus Kenworthy. In addition to providing additional eye candy for those only coming to quench their Underwood thirst (he is a handsome man, no question), the Olympian serves as a sort of catchall Jiminy Cricket, offering guidance, advice (really, really good advice at times), sex-positive tutelage (their visit to a Nashville sex shop is priceless), and some much-needed slutty counterpoints to Underwood\u2019s Golden Retriever puppy dog chasteness. Truly, with Underwood\u2019s gee-whiz expressions and aversion to kissing anything that comes within lip-shot, the man feels like a sentient chastity belt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t to imply that every gay man should, upon proclaiming his sexuality to the world, pounce into bed with the first penile object he spies, but Underwood takes prim and proper to new heights, to the point where it\u2019s even shocking to watch him sip wine from a novelty penis straw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were serious issues with Underwood prior to his coming out \u2014 notably the obsessive stalking of his\u00a0Bachelor<\/em>\u00a0mate, Cassie Randolph, who (wisely) declined to be part of this show. She has surrogates turn up instead, and boy, do they lay into the former Bachelor.\u00a0Coming Out Colton<\/em>, to its credit, doesn\u2019t avoid the dark parts of Underwood\u2019s story, but it does attempt to pave over them, smoothing out the rocky bits by explaining his aberrant behavior as a product of externalized stress from being entrenched in the closet for so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew that if I let her go, I would have to deal with me,\u201d Underwood says. \u201cAnd I didn\u2019t want to. I wasn\u2019t ready for it.\u201d Being on The Bachelor<\/em>, he tells his father, was his last-ditch attempt at trying to \u201cpray away the gay,\u201d as if dating 30 women on national TV were some cure-all for secretly reveling in gay porn. \u201cI distinctly remember thanking God for making me the Bachelor for getting me out of being gay,\u201d he later tells his pastor, whose response to Underwood, a devout Catholic, is that as a sin \u201chomosexuality is really, really bad,\u201d right up there with abortion and divorce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Coming Out Colton: Gus Kenworthy, Colton Underwood, Michael Sam \u2014 Photo: Courtesy of Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Underwood\u2019s struggle with faith, how to reconcile his Catholicism with a church that clearly wants no part of him, is the most emotionally gripping and fundamentally important aspect of the show. Underwood is presented with an option, the MCC Church, which allows him to be who he is and still feel a connection with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect of the show that resonates, quite brilliantly, is how sports reinforce a toxic climate for gay athletes. A segment where Underwood and Kenworthy have a roundtable chat with Michael Sam, Esera Tuaolo, and David Kopay, all former NFL-ers and all now out, is particularly potent. (Sam, who had a very different, much more negative coming out experience, deserves a series of his own.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ditto for the moment in which Underwood nervously confronts his high school coach about the homophobic toxicity of the locker room. While the coach, who seems to be straining to hold back discomfort with Underwood\u2019s admission, expresses his love and support for his former star athlete, he also, more or less, shrugs off homophobia in the locker room as immutable, as in \u201cOh well, boys will be boys.\u201d Nothing\u2019s changing anytime soon at\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show does beg the question: What would Underwood\u2019s coming-out moments have been like without a camera crew in tow? His family is instantly, graciously accepting, though his father at least acknowledges in later episodes that he\u2019s still wrapping his head around the gay thing. But mother, brother Connor, and father all say the same thing to Underwood after he reveals his truth: \u201cI still love you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s that \u201cstill\u201d that gnaws at you. It\u2019s a qualifier, and quite frankly, when you think about it, kind of a barbed one. Why not just \u201cI love you\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cstill\u201d is likely said daily to some young (or older) person proclaiming their truth to a family member or friend. So if Coming Out Colton<\/em> leaves us with anything, it\u2019s that when we get to that point where the \u201cstill\u201d is vanquished, then true societal progress will have finally been made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All episodes of <\/em>Coming Out Colton are now available on Netflix. Visit <\/em>www.netflix.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are moments in Coming Out Colton (\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606), a new reality show on Netflix, that feel like a Public Service Announcement for the struggles and rewards of admitting to everyone in your life that you\u2019re a member of the LGBTQ community. This is not at all a bad thing, as the engaging, meticulously crafted, six-episode docu-series may<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4guysmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}