Netflix’s Daybreak welcome take on queer couples
Netflix’s show Daybreak introduces a queer couple that breaks media’s sexual stereotypes. It’s a welcome change to see testosterone-fueled athletes in such vulnerable, sentimental situations.
The show takes place in post-apocalyptic Glendale, California. A nuclear blast occurs killing all the adults or turning them in “ghoulies.” Only the kids and teenagers are left to fend for themselves. The cliques from the high school separates out into tribes.
The storyline mainly follows Josh who’s on a mission to find his high school sweetheart Sam. But here the supporting characters drive the storyline forward.
Along the way Josh, once a loner, teams up with Wesley, an African American football jock, and Angelica, a pyromantic kid genius whose dream is to be a drug lord. The show has flashbacks to what the characters were like before the blast and in their current adventure.
Wesley in the post-apocalyptic world becomes a samurai and takes an oath of non-violence.
In the first episode the trio ends up in trouble with the jock tribe led by the, aptly named, Turbo Bro Jock, who wears a hockey mask because his face is scarred. Turbo Bro Jock is the antagonist trying to kill Josh.
The show doesn’t have a stereotypical coming out but rather at the end of episode one a simple conversation reveals that Wesley’s gay.
“I know your secret,” Eli said.
“Everybody knows I’m gay wake up nobody care about the shit anymore,” Wesley said.
“Not that the other secret,” Eli said.
[Spoiler ahead]
After a rescue mission of captured kids from Baron Triumphs lair, Turbo is captured and kept in the lair. It’s revealed that Wesley and Turbo were in love before the blast. Wesley goes back to the lair when everybody was gone and releases Turbo.
They kiss passionately and reveals the romance they’ve been hiding since the apocalypse. It turns out that Turbo felt like a lover scorned all this time. Turbo would devolve into a jealous tyrant killing anyone he thinks likes Wesley, which is why Wesley left the jock tribe before he met Josh.
Sexual stereotypes in the media often times show characters being gay as their fundamental character trait or definition. Rather, in Daybreak Wesley’s and Turbo’s characters aren’t defined by their sexuality. And at times each of them show frames of having toxic masculinity.
