Friendship – there’s nothing quite like it. A good friend can provide a shoulder to cry on, a shoulder to lean on, and a shoulder to help you move the body of that Jehovah’s Witness when the neighbours start complaining about the smell.
But what of friendships – really, really close friendships – between two guys? They’re inseparable, they argue like an old married couple, they know each other’s likes, dislikes and food allergies, and they spend all their free time together- does this count as friendship, or is it dating without the sex? Well, grab your bestie as we examine the ins and outs of Two Guys and a Girl (Weekdays, Ten-3:30pm) And is it really without the sex anyway? There only seems to be one bedroom…
The now-in-repeat Two Guys and a Girl, which began as the superior titled Two Guys and a Girl and a Pizza Place, takes a simple premise- two young men working different shifts at a pizza shop meet through a mutual female friend and end up liking each other more than they like her, so much that they flat-share together, then she moves next door- and stretches it out into a surprisingly funny mid-Nineties sitcom. All manner of bizarre things happen to the trio, from a naked cat burglar targeting the pizza shop to a Halloween special involving a psychotic pizza boy, evil clones and body snatching scientists. From these humble beginnings, three things were made, the career of Ryan Reynolds, the career of Nathan Fillion and the most homoerotic television show ever made.
This was indeed the show that put Ryan Reynolds (Blade III, Buried, The Proposal, Green Lantern) and his phenomenal torso on the map and into the dreams of gay men everywhere. Reynolds plays Michael “Berg†Bergen, a final-year med student. It’s interesting to watch this early Ryan- he’s got all his acting quirks in place- particularly the odd pauses between words and the eyebrow tics he uses as punctuation. Additionally, whilst Two Guys era Ryan is still buff, he’s not-super buff. I actually prefer him here, cute and seems approachable, like if you recognized him on the street he’d give you a hug. In 2011 super-ripped Ryan looks like he’s about to burst in a explosion of too-tight muscle and steroids at any moment and seems colder, like if you recognized him on the street he’d let you hug him, but then bend your arm behind your back until you gave him your wallet.
The second of the two guys is Pete Danville, played by possibly gay actor Richard Ruccolo (The X Files, All Over the Guy). It’s a pity that Ruccolo didn’t break out of the show like Reynolds and Fillion did, as he’s definitely the best actor on the show, and is quite cute in a ‘sexy geek’ way.
The ‘Girl’ of the show, Sharon, is played by the endearing Traylor Howard. Howard plays quirky well, actually coming across as genuine and likeable, unlike other actresses (cough Jenna Elfman cough) who seem to confuse quirky with psychotically deranged and aggressive. Based on all the homoeroticism between Pete and Berg I suspect Sharon was just added to the cast to defuse any implication of a sexual relationship between the guys.
The show’s other break-out performer is Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle). The sweet, and hot, actor is in fine funny form here as Sharon’s well…sweet and hot fire-fighter boyfriend, Johnny. Well meaning but clueless, Johnny is often the catalyst for some of the show’s more homoerotic moments.
Yes, lots of homoeroticism is found in Two Guys and a Girl. I’ve seen non-Gay specific shows that are homoerotic/slashy before- Mulder and Krycek’s in The X Files, Tommy and Merton in Big Wolf on Campus, Nick telling Greg he loved him in sign language in CSI, and any bit of dialogue between Dean and the Archangel Castiel on Supernatural but compared to the homoerotic hi-jinks of Two Guys and a Girl the aforementioned shows look about as gay as Lethal Weapon.
Every single episode usually contains some form of implication that Pete and Berg are sleeping together and a running gag is them being mistaken for a couple and not being bothered by it. Even the show’s official website got in on the act, inventing a Drinking Game for the show.
An American sitcom that’s actually funny and has cute guys aplenty, grab a Pizza and a best mate and watch it!
