After three seasons, the GLAAD Media Award nominated and two-time Peabody Award winning series Sort Of will say goodbye.
In the final season which is now streaming on Max, Bilal Baig continues Sabi’s journey as they come to terms with their mixed feelings of grief and a unique sense of freedom following the death of their father. Throughout the season, Sabi will navigate their identity which leads to a lot of major life choices.
True to Sort Of‘s brand the final season will be messy, funny and hopeful. It also welcomes internationally acclaimed gender non-conforming writer and creative Alok Vaid-Menon and actress, singer songwriter and human rights advocate Angelica Ross.
Baig co-created the series with Fab Filippo and serves as executive producer. That said, Baig bids a fond farewell to the series and they talked to GLAAD about how it feels to see Sort Of come to an end and the impact it had on the LGBTQ community.
How is it like to bring Sort Of to an end after three seasons?
I just keep reflecting on how special it feels to be a part of putting a story like this into the world, and how powerful it feels for a queer story to find its own natural ending. It’s bittersweet for sure, but I’m relieved knowing Sort Of will always exist and can be discovered or re-visited whenever.
What has playing Sabi taught you about yourself?
Playing Sabi has definitely invited me to continue to cultivate my relationship to myself, my own personhood. I’ve been able to ask myself who I want to be in this world, what does my community look like, what more do I want to do in this world? Like Sabi, I have a hard time centering my own needs and desires and I’ve been working on that more consciously through playing this role.
How do you hope season 3 puts a satisfying bookend to Sabi’s journey for audiences?
I think tonally, the ending is so in the world of the show — a little funny, a little achy, always searching. It’s not a neat, nicely wrapped-up ending. It’s a little messy, and there are questions you’ll be left with in the end. And my hope is that allows audiences to keep thinking about the characters and how they may continue to transform after finishing the final episode. That all feels really satisfying to me.
When it comes to queer POC stories, there seems to always be that other layer of “otherness” that TV series and films have to navigate. How do you think Sort Of balances Sabi’s queer identity and Pakistani culture while making the whole show universal?
I’m a big believer in the more specific you are in the writing, the more universal it feels. And it’s a major asset that our writers rooms have always been so cosmopolitan, reflecting diversity across age, gender, race, etc. And this project has always been the result of mine and Fab’s worlds coming together, and in some ways we couldn’t be more different from each other, and I think that informs why the show feels the way it does.
How does the final season of Sort Of speak to where you are in your career as a writer and actor?
Sort Of was a total crash course for me in what it takes to make television. It was the best education I could get in this kind of work. I feel like there’s still so much for me to learn, and I feel energized to figure out how to work across all these mediums — television, theatre and film — in as balanced of a way as possible.
After three seasons, what legacy do you hope Sort Of leaves in LGBTQ television history?
I hope more queer and trans artists of colour are given the opportunity to tell their stories, with exactly the kind of support they need and deserve. I hope we can be remembered for our honest storytelling, and our commitment across all three seasons to give diverse writers, directors, crew and cast the space to really flex their creative muscles.