The Silence on Roscoe Kaan
The year was 2012, and times were a bit more simpler. Our president was black. Marvel’s Cinematic Universe was still in its infancy. Adele’s 21 was still dominating the charts. And at the beginning of the year, Showtime low-key blessed the world with a hidden gem called House of Lies.
The series followed Marty Kaan (Don Cheadle), a management consultant, his pod (made up of Jeannie van der Hooven played by Kristen Bell, Clyde Oberholdt played by Ben Schwartz, and Doug Guggenheim played by Josh Lawson), his tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife, Monica Talbot (Dawn Olivieri), and his relationships with his father Jeremiah Kaan (Glynn Turman) and his son Roscoe Kaan (Donis Leonard Jr.).
And while there were a lot of things to love about the series, it was Roscoe Kaan that really sealed the deal for me.
In season one, we meet Roscoe when he’s young and still just experimenting with his gender expression. Marty is uncomfortable with the idea of his son wearing dresses and liking boys and girls, but he does his best to be supportive. Jeremiah, on the other hand, is quite encouraging and affirming of Roscoe’s gender expression and sexual orientation. By the time the series is over, Roscoe is confidently queer, and he’s dated/hooked up with people cis and trans people.
Roscoe is also not just defined by his queerness or blackness either. He’s a complicated character that’s allowed to be a rebellious teenager who messes up in school and steals and does drugs and all the things messy teenagers do when they think they’re invincible.
He was one of very few queer black characters in the past decade that’s been on television that’s been allowed to be black and queer and not be relegated to the sassy black friend who gives good advice, or never has a love interest. We get to see him grow, and see a black family love and grow to accept him without his being disowned by them or them spouting hateful bible quotes at him. Roscoe helps Marty grow as a character as much as Marty tries to help Roscoe be a better person. In a blog post for The Huffing Post about Roscoe, series creator Matthew Carnahan said:
When I set out to write a son for Marty Kaan, Don Cheadle’s ethically challenged character on House of Lies, I thought, “What kind of kid would just undo this guy? What kind of kid would unbalance and upend Marty? What kind of kid would take him out of his role as smug superman who can solve any “case” using a variety of consulting tricks and genuine analytical genius?” And I came up with Roscoe, based loosely on several children I’ve met over the years whose gender identities have come differently from those of the majority of their peers.
And for all these reasons, even after the series was cancelled, and especially in a post- Moonlight world and in light of the love and adoration of Lionel in Netflix’s Dear White People, it’s wild to me that not much has been said about Roscoe Kaan. Granted, House of Lies didn’t rise to the level of popularity of Moonlight or Dear White People; however, it’s a shame that it didn’t, specifically because Roscoe came about during a time when we were beginning to demand more and better queer representation in the media, especially for queer characters of color.
So, if you have some spare time and access to Showtime or the internet, I urge you to find a way to watch House of Lies. It’s by no means a perfect show, and it doesn’t try to be; however, if it’s not enough to see a show about the rise and fall and rise of a black man trying to start his own management consultant firm in a racist world, and how he struggles to be a good father and lover, watching to see the development of Roscoe Kaan should be incentive enough.
Originally published at https://medium.com on July 3, 2018.
