Maybe I just haven't watched enough of the show (only got sucked in by Ben Edlund's "Hollywood Babylon"), but the characters read as completely platonic to me. The emotionally fraught looks, meaningful pauses, and physical intimacy that would have me yelling "Oh my God, they ARE SO DOING IT!" about friends in a buddy cop movie are subsumed into the more powerful sibling dynamic and don't give an impression of slashiness at all. Likewise, macho posturing and slurs against one another's (well, OK, Sam's) masculinity that might raise the specter of Methinks the Lady Doth Protest Too Much among frat brothers just seems perfectly normal and subtext-free between the genuine article. I wonder if at least a sizeable portion of the audience that sees them through slash colored glasses has never been around brothers of close ages in real life, and is applying sensibilities learned from unrelated male friends to the onscreen relationship?
I also don't get why third parties on the show would ever mistake them for a couple, unless specifically told that they have different last names or something like that. In my experience it's not that unusual for brothers to travel together, share motel rooms on the road, and bicker constantly. All things that are considerably more subtext-y if displayed by guys who aren't related.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2007-06-18 08:34 pm (UTC)I also don't get why third parties on the show would ever mistake them for a couple, unless specifically told that they have different last names or something like that. In my experience it's not that unusual for brothers to travel together, share motel rooms on the road, and bicker constantly. All things that are considerably more subtext-y if displayed by guys who aren't related.