Growing up in the U.S., I don’t think I could have imagined a queer and nonbinary actor of Asian descent starring in a show on a major streaming platform. Bilal Baig, who co-created and starred in the HBO series “Sort Of,” defied what many of us thought was possible on American TV. And as the third and final season drops, Baig’s journey is worth both admiration and examination.
The series explores South Asian identity, chosen family, and queerness with nuance and transparency. What sets the last season apart, though, is its main character’s full lean into the complexity of their identities.
“Sort Of,” which first aired in 2021, follows nonbinary Pakistani-Canadian millennial Sabi Mehboob (Bilal Baig) as they navigate family, friendship and work life. Set in a multicultural Toronto, Sabi’s cut-and-dried humor gives the series a hilariously mundane, everyday feel. Embedded in the everyday, however, are dozens of tiny moments of noteworthy transition and in-betweenness, which serve as snapshots of a larger queer Asian experience. Sabi is constantly navigating familial expectations and constantly choosing between authenticity and disappointing their parents.
In this season, Sabi’s father, whose severe personality is palpable even though he is far away in Pakistan, passes away, freeing Sabi to make decisions they had put off for years. Feeling relieved by the death of a parent is already a complicated situation to convey, and Baig admits that they felt particularly nervous about the release of this season.
“This was messiest in so many ways and the rawest,” they say. “I think the characters are saying the realest things to each other, and sometimes they hurt each other.”
Though there was a roughness to Sabi and their father’s relationship, the characters did see each other as complex humans, and that allowed for tenderness as well. The subplot was all too real for many queer children of immigrants.
The fact that so many queer and nonbinary…
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