Now and then our NBN gets knocked out for a bit and I have to rely on other sources of entertainment. I’ve been playing Stardew so I decided to throw on Queer as Folk since it has the most mileage of everything on my decrepit laptop, and as a happy consequence, I’m now sucked into binging all five seasons. Of course, I’m referring to the US/Canadian remake, not the UK version or recent reboot. The Canadian connection also means I get a couple of Degrassi actors thrown in.
I thought this show aged badly, I thought I’d also written a lot about it, but I don’t think so. As it transpires, it’s shockingly current for how early 2000s it was. Clothes haven’t changed all that much. Neither have the conservative attitudes or cattiness associated with the gay crowd. Yes, the language in this horrendously outdated and Gen Z wouldn’t appreciate it, but the millennial gays are reclaiming a few of the slurs so it wouldn’t be harsh on their ears. Gay marriage was a hope then and a reality now, however the show ends with a sense of uncertainty that was very real at the time. The sex is less risky and casual now but this was also the pre-Grindr generation, all the internet dating was done on computers, nobody had smart phones but they were willing to hook up for the same amount of filth and fun. And the conservatives are still spouting the same shit as vehemently as ever. It’d be nice to think the prejudice in this show became a thing of the past. The only thing dated in this show is the tech.
I appreciate Mel and Linds were very much a typical couple aside from the lesbianism, it was only a shame the show leaned into pure biphobia when Lindsay slept with a man and refused to acknowledge she was bi, we already know she and Brian had a thing in college and it was a mutual attraction. Drag was drag, it wasn’t well represented, nobody was trans or non binary, however a transgender benefit is mentioned and that wasn’t a commonly used term in the early 2000s. This was Ru’s world before Drag Race. It makes sense to us “olds”. The comedic relief is still amusing, but using Mel and Linds as the crazy hopeless straight couple stand-in who also suffer a bout of lesbian bed death and two cheating debacles, you could recast them as a straight couple and it’d make sense for the most part. The nudity is off the wall though, and they didn’t pull punches with the language. They rely on the “hero” of the show, Brian, to give them a son, and the other main male character Michael provides them with a daughter, then throws them into a custody battle after Lindsay sleeps with a guy. It was a decent drama, and a hilarious comedy, complete with a meta-narrative show called Gay as Blazes. I still love Justin, I still grin inanely when he and Brian dance at the prom, even though it’s right before Justin’s a victim of a gay panic bashing. That didn’t go away, they’re still blaming gays and non binaries for being beaten up by straight people, there’s no punishment since the law is governed by homophobes. The US is edging closer to signing a death sentence on its most vulnerable by letting the same criminal they had to get rid of with Biden back in. Like they’ll never learn a lesson. There really isn’t anything in this version of QAF that wouldn’t resonate with the current gays. The third iteration had some amazing current moments, it was more diversely cast, it compensated for the disproportionate amount of straights, it had Kim Catrall leaning into lesbians and Juliet Lewis as the dedicated mother of our hero non-binary. But it wasn’t a great show. It didn’t get a second season, when the UK version only got two episodes after an eight episode first season. So the one that survived sadly was the one full of straights, only three of the main cast identified as gay.
(Also I’m highly aware of how inappropriate the relationship between Justin and Brian was but again, this shit happens a lot more than people want to admit and it’ll keep happening regardless).
Ageism is still an issue too, I think now the gays in their 40s aren’t fading into the background they can see people my age aren’t fossils, but anyone over 30 in gay world is old. Poor Ted’s very attractive but has a receding hairline, he’s “old” at 33. Now I’m a good decade older than the main characters it’s not entirely a fair representation. The cast chemistry made up for a lot. It had some really solid stories and arcs, Justin’s being the most profound. I don’t know if Russel T Davies of Dr Who fame had all this in mind for his characters originally but I think for the most part, this version was genuinely the best it could be in the climate it aired in. It was unapologetically gay and horny and it had a fire soundtrack of late 90s early 2000s house. It was the show on SBS the racists homophobes called porn, I managed to catch it on actual TV now and then, between that at Six Feet Under. On the other hand, I totally appreciate the gays being insulted watching straight men make out. I watched a bunch of lesbians and bis watch Chasing Amy and all of their criticisms were valid. I was waiting for them to point out how Holden completely diminishes Alyssa’s impassioned speech about choosing him by joking she needed a deep dicking. I also wasn’t aware the script wasn’t entirely based on Smith’s relationship with the lead actress, or that the whole thing was fraught with issues due to Smith agreeing to make the film for a pittance so he could have the cast he wanted. (Smith’s also had major ties with Weinstein so he’s mea culpaed for that ever since. It’s not entirely fair, EVERYONE thanked Weinstein back in the day). And Smith wasn’t the epitome of a healthy adult back then. His film was as much a product of the time as QAF was, however QAF still handled the material with more grace, I want to think the crew and writers were more diverse with their sexuality than the cast was, it still possessed a degree of sensitivity and chose a cast that was capable of expressing the subject matter with sincerity and maturity, certain things Smith lacked in his script, and hasn’t really amended since.
The way I consume my media right now is unconventional. As it stands, I’m watching an “acquired” copy of a TV show from the 2000s on a laptop from 2015, the E key of which has officially fallen off, and it’s attached to a TV I bought in 2008 that’s also attached to a desktop Linux system which I use for streaming shows and gaming. I still have two players in use, and everything I watch and listen to is either digital on multiple devices, (including another desktop, which I have also used for gaming and work) or physical copies I’ve purchased over the last 20 plus years. It’s an absolute chaotic mess I can’t do much about.
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