Every once in a while you get into a Netflix slump where you find yourself re-watching the same shows that you’ve already seen and know the outcome of. I found myself in that phase back in September. When I had the downtime and desire to watch Netflix, I’d go back to the episodes of “Friends” or “How I Met Your Mother,” which are always reliable, but lack anything new or unpredictable. I wanted to find a show that while being funny was also unique, not following the same mold of every other comedy. Lo and behold, it took less than five minutes for me to find Showtime’s drama “Queer As Folk.”
The show, following the lives and interpersonal relationships of five gay men in Pittsburgh, Pa., tackles various controversial topics that are not often — if ever — discussed on television. Several of its storylines include topics such as coming out, gay-bashing, serodiscordant relationships — where one partner is HIV negative and the other is HIV-positive — and safe sex. Each of these storylines gives the viewers terrific insight into the lives of some people within the LGBTQ+ community. Additionally, the show addresses the social and political discourse that is particularly strong during its run from 2000 to 2005, which coincided with former president George W. Bush’s first term in office.
“Queer As Folk” excels in its realistic representation of the LGBTQ+ community and the daily triumphs and struggles that it encounters. Perhaps the most significant reason behind the realistic nature of the show is how devoted the writers were to ensuring that the characters can be viewed as multidimensional and relatable, regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of the viewers. There is no moment in the series when a character is placed into a corner and depicted in a one-dimensional way. The perpetual waywardness of Brian Kinney (Gale Harold), the ringmaster of the group and Pittsburgh’s most eligible sex machine, who gradually falls in love with 17-year-old Justin Taylor (Randy Harrison), is built off of the free-spirit trope, but develops in such a way that the character is able to shed his fear of genuine affection, resulting in unapologetic, emotional growth.
Likewise, with the importance of family being a constant theme throughout the series, the audience is able to empathize with the emotional turbulence that follows the unexpected loss of a loved one, as well as how that loss affects different people in different ways. The death of Kinney’s best friend Michael Novotny’s (Hal Sparks) uncle, Victor Grassi (Jack Wetherall) due to AIDS-related complications is one of the moments that stretch the actors’ abilities. Whether it is the heart-wrenching scene when Novotny’s mother, Debbie (Sharon Gless) slaps Kinney for what she perceives as insensitivity toward her brother’s [Grassi] death or Novotny’s realization that the same could happen to his partner Ben Bruckner (Robert Gant), who also lives with the reality of being HIV-positive, the actors never once allow their characters’ bona fide situations to be exaggerated or interpreted as stereotypical.
Perhaps the aspect of the show that hits the hardest, though, is its continued relevance to our current social and political climate. While much has changed for the LGBTQ+ community over the past 15 years, there are still striking similarities. The episode “I Love You,” the 10th episode of the fifth season, ends with many of the leading characters and their friends exposed to an explosion that occurs in the fictitious gay nightclub, Babylon. The explosion, which is determined to be the result of a bomb planted as a hate crime, is eerily similar to the shooting that occurred on June 12 in Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. More so, the bomb is aimed at the characters attending an event that supports voting “no” on “Proposition 14,” homophobic legislation aimed to take away the already limited rights of people in their community, not much different than the excruciatingly real House Bill 2, which requires transgender individuals to use the restroom in government buildings that coincides with the sex on their birth certificates.
As a whole, “Queer As Folk” offers representation for a community of people who are oftentimes shown in mainstream media for the purpose of being “token characters” or the butt of a joke. On the show, the characters are treated as dynamic, layered individuals who believe in their rights and most importantly, fight for them with all that they possess. Nonetheless, it is easy to feel concern for our current social and political climate, much as the characters do throughout the series. However, perhaps Novotny sums up not only the show’s attitude but also what our culture’s collective attitude should be in the closing monolog of the series when he says the following:
“So the ‘thumpa thumpa’ continues. It always will. No matter what happens. No matter who’s president. As our lady of Disco, the divine Miss Gloria Gaynor has always sung to us: We will survive."
