Posted in: FX, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: Angelica Ross, balls, billy porter, bleeding cool, Brad Falchuk, cable, drama, fx, LGBTQ, pose, ryan murphy, season 3, streaming, television, tv

Pose Ending with Season 3: "We Got to Tell The Exact Story We Wanted"

After three seasons entering every ball purse first, Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals' groundbreaking and award-winning series Pose will be coming to an end. The series is set to kick off its third and final season on May 2 at 10 pm ET/PT with the first two episodes of its seven-episode run (wrapping up on June 6). According to the released season overview, "In this final season, it's now 1994 and ballroom feels like a distant memory for Blanca (Mj Rodriguez) who struggles to balance being a mother with being a present partner to her new love, and her latest role as a nurse's aide. Meanwhile, as AIDS becomes the leading cause of death for Americans ages 25 to 44, Pray Tell (Billy Porter) contends with unexpected health burdens. Elsewhere, the emergence of a vicious new upstart house forces the House of Evangelista members to contend with their legacy."

"We got to tell the exact story we wanted, as we wanted to tell it, and I'm incredibly honored and grateful. Pose's story may end in 1996, but its impact will go on forever. Pose has been one of the creative highlights of my entire career," said Murphy about the series' ending. "From the very beginning when Steven Canals and I sat down to hear his vision and ideas for the show, it has been a passion project. To go from the beginning of my career in the late 90s when it was nearly impossible to get an LGBTQ character on television to Pose — which will go down in history for having the largest LGBTQ cast of all time — is a truly full-circle moment for me."

Hitting the television stage in 2018, Pose would go on to not just earn critical and viewer praise and awards but was also know for a number of firsts for television. Executive producer, writer, and director Janet Mock would be the first trans woman of color hired as a writer on a TV series, as well as the first transgender woman of color to write and direct a TV episode. Series star Billy Porter would go on to become the first openly gay man to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. With a spotlight on New York's underground ball culture beginning in the 1980s, the series offered an authentic look at trans people of color and the AIDS epidemic of the era and featured the largest cast of trans actors in series regular roles: Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore, Hailie Sahar, and Angelica Ross– who starred alongside Porter, Dyllón Burnside, Angel Bismark Curiel, Sandra Bernhard, and Jason A. Rodriguez.

"My life has been forever changed because of Pose, a drama series that centered around trans and queer people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and Black and Latinx people – without trepidation or apology," said Mock. "Though I am heartbroken to say goodbye to our beloved characters, I know the work my fellow writers and producers, our crew, and the trailblazing cast did on Pose will live forever as a glittering, heart-filled, bright beacon of love, acceptance, family, and community."

"I, along with my incredible collaborators, never intended on changing the TV landscape," said Canals, who saw the void of Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ characters on television. "I simply wanted to tell an honest story about family, resilience, and love. How fortunate am I to have done that for three seasons. I'm filled with gratitude to our intrepid writers, cast, crew, and producers who worked tirelessly to make Pose come to life, humbled by our loyal audience, thankful to the ballroom community who trusted us to tell their story, overwhelmed by the critics who warmly embraced us, and forever indebted to Ryan Murphy, FX, and 20th Television for changing my life."

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