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NY Times Review of QAF
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/06/arts/television/06mart.html
August 6, 2005
An End to Notches on the Headboard
By NED MARTEL
"Queer as Folk," which has its finale on Showtime tomorrow night, was just a more honest "Sex and the City." Carrie Bradshaw and company enjoyed a turnover of partners that seemed more appropriate to gay culture, and those women discussed the tawdry details of their escapades in gay-worthy repartee. The writers even winked to the connection by naming Carrie's most eligible prospect after a gay-pornography legend.
So it stood to reason that television audiences were ready for an all-male version. And when Showtime came out with the gay ensemble drama "Queer as Folk" five years ago, the initial shock was really not because of all the restroom-stall sex. Instead it was a revelation that real gay men could speak their minds on television instead of having their thoughts channeled through babes in asymmetrical skirts or, to go back a decade, through the silver foxes of "The Golden Girls."
Overnight, Brian Kinney (played by Gale Harold), the überstud of "Queer as Folk," became an accumulator of headboard notches that would put Samantha Jones to shame and that made her double-entendres seem like an also-ran's at a drag contest. A gay coterie in Pittsburgh followed Brian's lead: Emmett, the shop girl who dreams of stardom; Ted, the repressed accountant who loves Callas; Michael, the comic-book enthusiast and doormat; Justin, the boy wonder who just might be an Important Artist.
In short order the woes of this clique found a predictable rhythm. The shows introduced new loves (a gazillionaire sugar daddy, a classical music virtuoso, a closeted football star), each of whom upset the balance among this ersatz family of friends. Each satellite romance met some resolution, always with a rainbow-bannered lesson.
The show was always tackling this subtheme or that. Of course, there was an incident of gay bashing, a romance wrecked by crystal-meth abuse, a probate dispute when a dead man's family attacked the surviving partner, an Internet-pornography addiction that led to a business prospect, and most tediously, the sharing of biological children with a lesbian couple. Imagine the possible complications, and they all basically showed up in the scripts, never with as much depth or surprise as befits the newness of this subject matter. The adolescent dialogue was too often rushing toward a dramatic climax, sounding unbelievably oratorical, and then sashaying on to another crise de coeur.
Like its all-female precursor, "Queer as Folk" delighted in its own wordplay, losing its audience with groaners. (A straight mom tells her embittered son, "By the look of your face, I should have ordered a sour-apple martini.") To their credit, the "Queer" guys were much less afraid of the dark side than the "Sex" gals had been. Of course, parental acceptance is an issue throughout gay and lesbian life, and we saw the humiliatingly loud embrace of gay culture in Michael's case and unwavering hostility in Justin's.
The men were always wedging themselves too far into each other's business, both personal and professional. Toward the end of this final season, the coldhearted Brian balks when Ted insists on consoling him. But it's not as if Brian doesn't have a grasp on his own damage: "The fact that I drink like a fish, abuse drugs and have more or less redefined promiscuity doesn't help - much. As a result I've lost the two people in my life that mean the most to me."
"There," Ted says. "Don't you feel better?"
"No," Brian replies. "But I'm sure you do."
All along, Brian has served his purpose in tamping down the irrational exuberance of gay liberation. He's a smug sourpuss, and he gets away with that because he's butch and sexy and could fly to Mardi Gras in Sydney on a whim. What he lacks in self-doubt he makes up in a chilly, informed cynicism. This season has become, in a way, Brian's song as he rebounded from cancer and felt his own acute losses. He knows where he made mistakes, but the force he really blames is none other than the gay-rights movement.
The more the gay world has made its demands known about assimilation, the more its quirks and freedoms and faults have come into fuller view (on shows like "Queer as Folk," when you think about it). Brian says he doesn't want the juicers and Ginsu knives that come with marriage. He accuses his gay friends who do of defection.
All this leads to an incendiary ending, one that toys with a main character's life, as I guess all series finales must these days. The last episode begins with typical opening credits - a silly, swishy Gap ad of gay life - and ends with nut cases and histrionics and "I should have told you this before" hugs. In this sad denouement, the show proves it has moved past its initial usefulness, except that it helped "The L Word" get a time slot. In fact many in the gay audience now watch "Queer as Folk" as a civic duty and also to howl in mortification at the countless stereotypes.
It's too bad that pioneering productions don't know how to bow out gracefully, that hits often hang on too long. (Not true of the original British version, whose brief run is still revered for its élan and impact.)
Above all there's an impulse to thank the straight actors in the "Queer as Folk" cast, although it's never completely clear which are heterosexual, for doing things that didn't come naturally. It couldn't have been easy to put bodies through such motions. But of course, swimming against the behavioral stream is familiar to the gay legions who tried not to be gay, who groped for answers, who learned their orientation by acts that went against their instincts. For that artistic challenge, the cast deserves spirited applause, if not a call for "Encore."
Queer As Folk
Showtime, tomorrow night at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.
Ron Cowen, Daniel Lipman and Tony Jonas, executive producers; Sheila Hockin, producer.
WITH: Michelle Clunie (Melanie), Thea Gill (Lindsay), Sharon Gless (Debbie), Gale Harold (Brian), Randy Harrison (Justin), Scott Lowell (Ted), Peter Paige (Emmett), Hal Sparks (Michael), Robert Gant (Ben), Harris Allan (Hunter), Peter MacNeill (Detective Carl Horvath).
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