Warning: this article contains some spoilers for the third and final season of Pose.

Larger-than-life, confetti-ridden lip syncs of Whitney Houston, Madonna and Diana Ross songs – all backdropped against the theatrics of ballroom culture – are what come to mind when speaking about Pose.

The show has always walked a delicate balance between the uplifting and the painful, thanks to its unflinching approach to the realities of being an LGBTQ+ New Yorker during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. But the true power of its third and final season rests not in its bigger storylines, but in its potent instances of normalcy.

Pose season 3: how the show’s true power lies in its narrative of joy beyond trauma