labingi

I am admittedly overinvested in the subject of sexuality as regards this show, and a study of it is one of the various pieces of meta I have toyed with writing. Jeremiah fandom was my introduction to slash, simply because this was not a show or fandom at all focused on female characters (to my frustration).

While I agree that there are complications to slashing characters which fanfic writers tend to ignore or gloss over, I do feel there is a slight difference between the requirements for realistic slash in a universe grounded in our own reality (like your Starsky & Hutch example) and a world which is fundamentally different to our own. Part of the allure of speculative genres is their capacity to break with historic and current structures of thought, so the fact that, as you say, homosexuality is scarcely alluded to in any way in the series canon, could be viewed as offering more room to maneuver, not less.

I think a key question (which the show does not answer, despite direct engagement with other social issues) is whether homosexuality is even visible enough to be noticed, by and large. Jeremiah and Kurdy are joined at the hip for the entirety of season one, and nobody (to the best of my recollection, anyway) cracks any homophobic jokes about them, because it's not seen as weird for two guys to spend all their time together. Unless they engaged in public displays of kissing, I'm not sure anyone would actually notice if they did hook up, given they already share a room at Thunder Mountain.

I wholeheartedly agree that the show dropped the ball with Markus and his relationships (with Jeremiah or anyone else). So much potential always placed in the background, and personally, I always found him most compelling when paired with Lee, so you are not alone with that idea.Very interesting angst, indeed!

Sorry about the length of my reply here. I wish I knew more of your fandoms, because you write very cogent essays which I enjoy reading.