Web Video / The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo

center: Caleb;
clockwise from top: Billy, Benicio, Karen, Freckle, Len

This show feels so real and divorced from reality at the same time

— Up-voted YouTube commenter CJ Curmudgeon

The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo is a comedy web series produced by Brian Jordan Alvarez. It follows a group of young friends in Los Angeles desperate for love and thrills. Can be watched here. Following the life of an aspiring acting teacher and his actor friends, this 5-part series delves into the complexities of self-discovery, diversity, and emotions that accompany relationships.

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Contains examples of:

• Above the Influence: A guy drives Benicio home when he's sober but feeling forlorn.
  Benicio: Do we make out?
  Driver: Ehh, I don't think that's what you really want, lil' buddy.
  Benicio: Yeah—yeah, I know.
• The Alcoholic: Freckle, and it's always Played for Laughs: they admit to being drunk even when they're on six beta blockers.
  Freckle: I'm always prepared! Unless, of course, "prepared" means "sober". In which case, I'm rarely prepared.
• Attention Whore: Freckle.
  Caleb: Oh my god, I hate it when you don't give me attention and you just want me to watch you perform.
• Back for the Finale: Caleb's advisors and their lover return for Caleb and Benicio's wedding in episode 5.
• Best Friends-in-Law: Best friends Caleb and Karen simultaneously peruse relationships with their mutual crush Billy.
• Bisexual Love Triangle: Caleb and Karen both develop an attraction to Billy, who realises to be bisexual. While this creates conflict between Caleb and Karen, towards the end of episode 3 they start shifting towards Threesome Subtext.
• Bland-Name Product: Star Boars. It's a "forty million dollar budget movie," "a big studio movie".
  Karen: Oh, what's it [this audition] for?
  Len: Star Boars.
  Karen: OH MY GOD, Star Wars?
  Len: No, Star BOARS. Like Boar's Head deli meats.
  • They use the term Jedi, though.
    Len: You know, like, my agents came in for all this shit and I'm like, "Am I really a Jedi?"
    Karen: Are they using that term in this movie?
    Billy: Isn't that copyrighted?
• Cast Full of Gay: Out of the main cast of six characters, two (Caleb and Benicio) are gay, one (Freckle) is genderfluid, and one (Billy) eventually comes out as bisexual. The exceptions are Len who initially "comes out" as bi but it doesn't stick, and Karen who's a straight woman. Then there are the numerous queer side characters. But hey, what did you expect from a series titled The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo?
• Character Title: Caleb Gallo.
• Citizenship Marriage: In episode 5, Caleb and Benicio get married to ensure Benicio doesn't get deported.
• Everybody Has Lots of Sex: It kind of looks like All Gays are Promiscuous due to the demographics of the cast, except that straight girl Karen has roughly the same amount of sex with the same range of partners as the gay men do.
  Caleb: I should have said that before; This is my boyfriend, Benicio.
  Andy: Well, most gay couples are open, so—
  Benicio: Wow, that's bold! [...] So are you implying we should be open?
  Andy: Well, it's just a fact that most gay couples I know are open so...
  Benicio: Well, we're not.
• Full-Name Basis: Caleb's college advisors always refer to their lover as "Mike Wake".
• Gay Best Friend: Inverted Trope—gay man Caleb is the main character, and Karen is his straight girl best friend.
• Grand Staircase Entrance: Invoked at the end of episode 4, when Benicio descends the stairs to Caleb's apartment in his pink dress after they make up.
• Group Hug: Len calls for one in episode 5 to diffuse the drama (though it may also count as an invoked Cooldown Hug as Len is starting to become notably stressed).
• Guy on Guy Is Hot: Everyone seems to think so when Benicio and Billy kiss during the party at the end of episode 4, especially for Caleb as they are his boyfriend and his crush respectively.
• Hair Flip:
  • At the end of episode 3, Caleb takes a shower and Karen makes out with Billy. The editing cuts between the two scenes, as "Hungry Eyes" plays, and they both flip their hair quite a bit.
  • In episode 5, Freckle does an epic one, hitting the paper bell behind them. And everyone cheers.
• Happily Adopted: Caleb is white; his little sister Tatiana is black. Their parents, who we meet an episode later, are white.
  Len: So you're, uh, Caleb's sister?
  Tatiana: Don't be racist.
  Billy: Yeah, Len, have you ever heard of adoption?
  Tatiana: Yeah, Len, have you ever heard of adoption? You are so incredibly beautiful.
  Len: Thank you. You're Caleb's adopted sister?
  Tatiana: We're both adopted.
  Karen: They're both adopted, yeah.
  Len: How did I not know that?
  Tatiana: I imagine nobody told you, and that's okay.
• Large Ham: Many of the characters such as Freckle and Tatiana at times, but special mention must go to Len bursting into his monologue at the dance party.
• Long-Distance Relationship: Caleb and Benicio start this way.
• Love Dodecahedron: Caleb likes Billy and Benicio. Benicio likes Caleb. Billy likes Caleb and Karen. Karen likes Billy and Len and Malcolm. Len likes Karen. Freckle likes Len.
  • Lampshaded in the final episode, in which Len is able to disperse the relationship drama by insisting that the one thing that keeps them all together is their love for each other, before getting them all to hug it out.
• Political Over Correctness: In episode 4 Caleb interrupts Freckles' story when he gets uncomfortable with them mentioning the race of two boys they're trying to hook up with, citing a race problem in America. Freckles counters that there's a racism problem in America, and that their story isn't racist for acknowledging the boys' race, but diverse, and that being "color blind" or every character being white would be racist. Caleb concedes the point.
• Running Gag: Two in episode 5:
  • People mistaking Malcolm for a fashion model, and him insisting that he's a visual artist.
  • Freckle asking if anybody has weed.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: In episode 2, Caleb and Billy end up comparing dick sizes, which then suddenly cuts to Caleb on his knees in front of Billy, which is the interrupted by a call from Benicio.
• Shout-Out:
  Karen: What's a throuple.
  Billy: It's like a three-way relationship. Like in The Dreamers.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Protagonist Caleb's main conflict stems from entering a monogamous relationship with Benicio, while at the same time being unable to stop his growing (and mutual) attraction to Billy.
• Polyamory: Caleb's college advisors and their lover—this is described as a "lesbian-centric, semi-non-sexual throuple".
  Advisor: It means we don't have sex with him as often as we have sex with each other but we do love him, and he does live here, and he's in this relationship.
• Threesome Subtext:
  • A budding one between Caleb, Billy, and Karen.
  • The ending implies that one could blossom between Karen, Billy, and Malcolm.

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