Jordan Gavaris is the big queer heart of The Lake, the rightful show of the summer

Here & Queer is an interview series hosted by Peter Knegt that celebrates and amplifies the work of LGBTQ artists through unfiltered conversations.

There are few current TV shows better suited for summer viewing than The Lake. Bitchy, hilarious, smart and self-aware, the Canadian-made (and set!) Prime Video series provides the kind of escapism you want from a midsummer night's binge — particularly if you like your escapism queer.

Because one of the many things so delightful about The Lake is how boldly it presents a world devoid of heteronormativity. All of its characters seem to at least be a little gay, if not a lot. And the latter is most certainly the case when it comes to the show's protagonist, Jordan Gavaris' Justin.

Gavaris — who, before The Lake, was best known for his five-season run as Felix Dawkins on Orphan Black  — stopped by the Here & Queer set to discuss, among other things, how meaningful it was for him to play Justin, and what it was like spending the last few summers antagonizing Julia Stiles (who co-stars as his stepsister). You can watch the entire episode below.

"I had been waiting for this character to be leading a television series," Gavaris says. "I had been waiting for this person not to sort of exist in the periphery of a narrative, but to be smack in the centre of the universe, [with] the audience following his perspective."

The universe Gavaris is the centre of in The Lake (which debuted its second season on Prime Video last month) is one that was formed when his character returns to the Ontario lake he spent his childhood summers with the teenage daughter he gave up for adoption (Madison Shamoun). But his plans are thwarted when he discovers that his late father left their family cottage to his estranged stepsister, Maisy-May (Stiles).

From there, hijinks ensue as the show evolves into an exceptional ensemble piece featuring other summer residents of its titular body of water.

"I never had a summer camp experience," Gavaris says. "I was terrified to go to camp because I was a little queer boy and camp seemed like a place ripe for bullying. That was really scary to me. So this was sort of my my second act at summer camp."

"This was an opportunity to do something as a grown-up that I never had the chance to do when I was younger. And it felt great to sort of get this communal group of people together that I had so much in common with and make this show that we're all intensely proud of."

Gavaris said that when it came to incorporating queerness into the show, it was "authenticity first."

"Nothing's done for the audience's benefit," he says. "Nothing is done for the benefit of an idea of queerness that exists in the zeitgeist. Julian [Doucet, the show's creator] writes from the perspective that, like, 'Why can't all the characters seem a little bit queer? Why can't we show up in northern Ontario and have two gays have a meet-cute at a gas station?'"

Gavaris says that TV shows that really capture the way the world is for queer people are obviously important — "but I think that it's also very important to make shows that are aspirational," he says.

"That, to me, was something that was so appealing about The Lake: its aspirational queerness. It may not be exacting the reality of the world, but it's something to hope for."

Both seasons of The Lake are streaming now on Prime Video.