Why Mid-Century Modern Made Us Wish for a Power Outage
COME OUT & PLAY TONIGHT! It’s Musical Bingo Night at Wang Chung’s. Games at 7:30/8:00/8:30. So much winning!
When we heard Hulu was launching a sitcom about three gay men living together in Palm Springs, we clutched our pearls in anticipation. A spiritual successor to The Golden Girls, starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, and Nathan Lee Graham? Yes, please! Inject it straight into our veins.
Unfortunately, what we got was less Golden Girls and more Aluminum Aunties, wrapped in tired punchlines, telegraphed sass, and the kind of acting choices that make community theater look like the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Mid-Century Modern cast (l-r): Matt Bomer, Nathan Lane, Nathan Lee-Graham, Linda Lavin.
Let’s start with Nathan Lane, who delivers his lines with all the subtlety of a cruise ship drag queen during lifeboat drill. He’s playing Bunny Schneiderman (yes, really), a flamboyant, over-the-top character who seems to think “witty” means louder, slower, and with more eyebrow arching. Every line is delivered like he’s still doing eight shows a week in The Producers—except now he’s aiming for the back row of a theater that doesn’t exist. He plays Bunny with the stagey flair of Patti LuPone in Evita, only without the vocal control or the Argentinian dictatorship. You can see the punchlines coming from three scenes away, and when they land, it’s less “zing!” and more “thud.”
Matt Bomer, bless him, is trying his best. He’s too handsome for this script and clearly knows it. His character, Jerry, is supposed to be the sexy, sensitive one, but instead he delivers lines like he’s just been interrupted during a skincare tutorial. The writing gives him nothing to work with, and his charisma feels wasted—like putting truffle oil on a gas station hot dog. You can almost see him calculating how many more episodes he’s contractually obligated to endure.
And then there’s Nathan Lee Graham, whose character Arthur feels like a bottle of LaCroix: sparkling, stylish, and somehow still flavorless. Graham is a wildly talented actor (Zoolander, The Comeback), but here he’s forced into a role that’s one-dimensional and written entirely in zingers that never quite… zing. His wardrobe does more acting than his dialogue.
Critics agree:
📝 Decider called the first episode “more tired than timeless,” noting that the one-liners “fail to rise above cruise ship patter.”
📝 Houston Chronicle wondered aloud if this was “a sitcom… or a drag brunch with no bottomless mimosas.”
📝 Reddit threads are filled with gays wondering if Hulu just used AI to write a show based on stereotypes from 1996.
The sets are nice. The production values are high. But none of it can distract from the fact that Mid-Century Modern feels like a relic—ironic, given the name. It’s sitcom taxidermy: well-dressed, technically intact, but utterly lifeless.
In a world where shows like Hacks, Uncoupled, and Colin From Accounts exist, Mid-Century Modern proves that being gay isn’t enough. You’ve gotta be good. And this? This is not good.
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Nathan Lane is giving Patti LuPone at full volume in a 99-seat theater. Bomer looks bored and beautiful. Graham deserves better. And the show? It's a mid-century misfire.
Because Hawaii will not be watching episode two. We're busy. Flossing. Rearranging coasters. Anything else.
