Why Uncle Saul is gay
TV Guide’s latest issue features a big splashy article called “They Did What?!” in which “Insiders answer this season’s biggest burning questions.” And you wouldn’t think Brothers & Sisters would have anything to contribute to that, having peacefully ended its season without the kind of cliffhangers, bodily peril, or explosive revelations so popular these days. But there our little show is, amongst all the splash and flash, with one simple question for show creator Jon Robin Baitz: “Why did you decide to make Saul gay?”
Personally, I didn’t think this character move was such a surprise, since Saul himself has been such a mystery throughout the season, the loyal elder statesman with no discernible life of his own. It almost seemed as though Saul had been written as deliberately vague with this sort of twist in mind. But nope, as it turned out, they just ran out of ideas and went fishing for one. As Baitz told TV Guide:
“The story lines for Saul [Ron Rifkin] were just starting to run on fumes, and we kept looking for more areas to explore with him — the business and stuff — but none of it seemed as juicy as this. Next season, Saul’s going to struggle to come to terms with himself and confront his shame — ‘I’m a nice Jewish boy. I can’t be gay.’ But it took me a month to ask Ron. It wasn’t what he had signed on for and I thought, ‘Is this really what he wants to be doing?’ I hadn’t even finished the sentence and he was like, ‘That’s great — why would that be a problem?’ He’s thrilled.”
I’ll bet. It’s nice, in a big cast like this, to have some actual work to do. Saul’s drifted and out of the story this season, and Rifkin’s too good an actor to keep in the … well, closet, I guess. Who’s going to pay the price for that extra screen time, though? Sarah Jane Morris, who’s also been enormously underutilized this season, better hope that sleeping-pill scene in the finale was pointing toward a big post-partum depression storyline, and not a quick fatal overdose.
Photo: ABC.com
Brothers and Sisters, Saul, Ron Rifkin, season finale, TV Guide
September 20th, 2007 at 11:51 am
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