Since the last time we saw Blanca (Mj Rodriguez), Pray Tell (Billy Porter), Angel (Indya Moore), Elektra (Dominique Jackson), and the rest of the “Pose” crew, things have changed. “The balls ain’t what they used to be — cash prizes and tacky lip-syncs,” Pray Tell says in the trailer for the FX drama’s third and final season. “There used to be this sense of urgency and community and then folks just started dying.”
The new season is set in 1994, and AIDS has devastated the queer community, including ballroom culture. Pray Tell is battling the virus while Blanca has taken a new job as a nurse’s aid.
But the chosen family comes back together and decides to return to the balls, at Blanca’s behest. “We rose from the bottom and we became stars. We walk together, we make a statement,” she declares. “I’m done running from myself, my destiny. I’m not running no more. Who’s with me?”
A heartfelt look at the ballroom culture of the ’80s and ’90s and its participants — who were mostly gay and trans folks of color — “Pose” has won a Peabody, a GLAAD Media Award, and two AFI Awards. Janet Mock made history as the first trans woman of color to write and direct a TV episode with Season 1’s “Love Is the Message.”
Tina Mabry (“Mississippi Damned”), Gwyneth Horder-Payton (“American Horror Story”), and Jennie Livingston (“Paris Is Burning”) are also among the series’ directors.
The final season of “Pose” premieres May 2 on FX.
