Pose Demands Attention in its Celebratory, Legacy-Considering Final Season | TV/Streaming

Blanca’s upward ambition coincides with Pray’s tumble downward, and this final season of “Pose” uses their stories to explore big themes of self-love and forgiveness, cynicism and regret. “We all carry our pain,” a counselor tells Blanca, and Rodriguez and Porter are each exceptional: the former increasingly confident and no-nonsense, balancing her character’s unending compassion with a deserved assertiveness regarding who she lets into her life, and the latter phenomenally angry and bitter, enraged by the feeling that their community is screaming into the void to no avail. Rodriguez and Porter are the primary actors in the season’s two best scenes, one a knock-down, drag-out fight that tests their friendship, and another a ball performance to a triumphant version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Another Emmy nomination shouldn’t be out of the question for Porter, but Rodriguez deserves one, too.

Around the characters of Blanca and Pray, “Pose” predictably bounces between fantastical indulgence and inconsistently weighted depictions of drug use, Mafia involvement, and death. Fashion remains a focal point: The premiere includes an over-the-top food fight scene that sees Porter scream in agony while someone shoots mustard and ketchup all over his beautiful brown tweed suit; in a later episode, a character has an Oprah-style moment where she hands out designer wedding gowns to dozens of friends. Flashbacks fill in Pray’s childhood and Elektra’s backstory, including how she created House Wintour and amassed Blanca, Angel, Lamar (Jason Rodriguez, an early villain this season), the deceased Candy (Angelica Ross, whose ghost appears, as it did throughout season two, to speak with characters), and Lulu (Hailie Sahar) under her wing. A subplot involving Elektra’s mysterious trunk has a heist vibe; guest stars Jackée Harry, Janet Hubert, and Anna Maria Horsford do more than offer a nostalgia kick; one-liners still zing (“Your god sounds like a real asshole”); and a recreation of the ACT UP Ashes Action is profoundly moving.

As is the way with this show, these scenes put viewers through the entire emotional wringer, from the pain of birth-family rejection to the pleasure of chosen-family acceptance. That’s not to say that everything entirely works: certain characters’ crack use is mostly a punchline until the series suddenly decides to take it seriously; a breakup feels slightly contrived; and there is a scene that directly attacks “Sex and the City” on the basis of its white-focused perspective, which is a valid argument, but feels tacked on here. But those are quibbles for a season that otherwise embraces the grandiosity of which “Pose” has always been fond while also directly engaging with questions of the show’s legacy and influence. In her song “My Love is Your Love,” Whitney Houston—who has long been a part of this show’s fabric—sings “The Lord asks me what I did with my life/I will say I spent it with you,” and that sense of gratefulness suffuses and strengthens this final season of “Pose.”

Season screened for review. “Pose” premieres with its first two episodes airing on May 2 on FX.