Jaws, Monty, Pearl and Mingus made their comeback on Sunday night (11 May) when the
second season of The Lab premiered on SABC3.
Because the
first season was on a while ago I caught up with one of the show's stars
Graham Hopkins to relive Season 1 to remember important things and fill you in if you missed it.
Graham, who plays Monty, has been involved with the show's process and storylines since before it was written and he's fully into the ins and outs of things:
Tashi: Monty was straight at the beginning of Season 1 and now he's gay - what's been the most difficult moment for him?
Graham: When he actually jumped out of the closet and accepted his sexuality - that was really his first step. Then telling his good friend Jaws and some of his close colleagues - that's were it got to at the end of Season 1.
I think it's a very, very difficult thing for someone who's spent all their life pretending to be someone else ... to suddenly admit to it and acknowledge it to himself.
In Season 2 it becomes a question of owning his sexuality in the world at large and what it means to be an openly gay man - to live an openly gay lifestyle and to still interact with a very conventional, conservative business community. Often I think the business community becomes a bit of a boys club and that makes it difficult.
I was genuinely gobsmacked when it turned out that Monty was gay but looking at this pic now - it's a grab from the beginning of Season 1 - I can't believe I missed the tie!Tashi: Will we get to see lots of dude-on-dude kissing this season?
Graham: *laughs* No, no fortuna .. well, I won't say fortunately, *laughs* No you won't - it's not about that - it's about the character coming to terms with his sexuality and living openly. There's still a lot of wrestling he has to do with it.
The season has various watershed moments where he has to grapple with things - one very notable one is in the boardroom. There's an incident coming up in the boardroom where he has to stand up for it and it's crucial to him.
Tashi: While Monty's managed to find love in Andre across seasons - Jaws's managed to lose himself both his wife and mistress. What's Monty's take on Jaws's lust life?
Monty: Monty and Jaws have a long history together - they were at university together, they created the company together, they had a vision to create the first fully black empowered financial services in the country and all that's starting to unravel this season. Their mutual trust and friendship as well.
Their friendship's very key this season - Monty will stand up for Jaws when he gets into difficulty and will compromise himself.
Tashi: Is it all a consequence of Jaws losing the women in his life?
Monty: No, you know what men are like - they don't engage on that level. They don't really discuss their love lives but there are other issues: business issues and other dark issues that come between them.
One of the reason's Monty lost his position as CEO in Season 1 was because he did something technically illegal and Jaws stood up for him and this season the shoe's on the other foot and this's going to bring up all sorts of things.
Tashi: What's most important to Monty about his relationship with Pearl?
Monty: Effectively she took his position as CEO in the first season and this past week - in the Season 2 premiere - he made a huge ploy to get his job back from her.
There's a mutual jealousy, a mutual antagonism which is going to blow up in a racial issue which has to be resolved between them. It's a big journey that they face together.
Tashi: One of my fave relationships in Season 1 was Mingus's relationship with his mom. There were times when it cut me to the core - his conflict of being proud of her versus being embarrassed. What's their relationship like right now?
Monty: It's a good relationship but it still carries those dynamics. There's a bridge between Mingus's world of high finance, being educated in London, working for a multi-national bank, earning huge money then coming back to his mothers home in the township and the gulf between his life in the fast lane and his mother's life and what she expects of him.
This remains a very important relationship in the new season - you'll see plenty more of it examined in greater depth.
Tashi: Are there similarities between their relationship and Monty's with his dad?
Monty: No not at all. The antagonism between Mingus and his mom is based on growing up in different worlds whereas Monty and his father's is based on personality.
They come from the same world, they've lived the same kind of live except Monty's thrown a cat among the pigeons by not getting married - which happened in Season 1 - and in this season he's going to have to admit to him that he's gay - which has surprising consequences!
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| Andre |
Tashi: What's your fave moment from Season 1?
Monty: It was a scene - Monty'd come out of the closet, he'd been betrayed by Jaws and Pearl - they'd voted against him. He went on a bender to a nightclub, took ecstasy - basically he came off the rails.
We see him coming into the boardroom the next morning in sloppy street clothes, unshaven and he fights with members of the board and as he's on his way out, Jaws tries to remonstrate with him and he tries to punch Jaws.
It showed what he is: angry, passionate - his bottled up sexuality might have had something to with that - he's reactionary, a passionate man. What made it interesting was seeing another side of him - the fact that his belligerance could come out in such a bizarre way to swing at his best friend.
Tashi: For anyone who hasn't watched the first season - what would you say the most important things are to know about the story?
Monty: Well, Monty and Jaws founded the Lab together, they brought in Pearl at a later date. Because of what happened in the first season, Monty lost his position as CEO and he was usurpsed by Pearl.
Both Monty and Jaws have had their executive power curtailed - in terms of the business, that's important.
In terms of personal relationships - Pearl's unattached, Monty's with his boyfriend Andre and Jaws is in the process of a divorce from his wife - which you saw this week. The consequences are that it's placing Jaws under financial pressure because he agreed to a settlement of R3 million and he can't make it because the bid for the underground railway fell through and he's broke.
Tashi: And Mingus?
Monty: He's highly ambitious - he's still highly ambitious. He's troubled in many ways - he can't find someone, he's very possessive, he likes everything defined. All this is going to have very interesting social consequences for him.
Ends
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