Inspired by this post, I have been watching this series over the past weeks. I am now in the middle of the last season (5), and I must admit that it is much better than I remembered. For the most part the writing is good at the very least and at various points knock-your-socks-off great. Maybe that is just easier to perceive when you can binge three or four episodes at time and get the big picture faster than once a week.
Hal Sparks, Gale Harold and Randy Harrison play Michael, Brian and Justin - the love/friendship triangle at the heart of the American version of Queer As Folk.
At the core of
QAF is a startlingly original character:
Brian Kinney. "I don't believe in love; I believe in fucking." The 29 year-old sex god can (and does) have any man he wants - but usually only once, then he is off to his next conquest. Brian is emotionally self-sufficient - a skill that helped him survive his childhood. Actor
Gale Harold plays Brian as a shark constantly moving forward melting hearts and stiffening dicks and sloughing off the rest of the world with no regret, with occasional glimpses of generosity sacrificing for his friends while cooling denying any such thing has happened.
The one person that snuck in to his heart early and never left was his school chum
Michael. Michael, as played by
Hal Sparks is almost a mirror image of Brian - emotionally open, easy-going, loyal and loving. He's a cute boy-next-door who never seems to get the good guy (or fuck) he deserves, partly because he is always playing wing man to Brian. And what everyone except Michael knows is that Michael is in love with Brian (who doesn't do romance, and won't mess with his best friend).
Brian (back) teases Michael (front) with just enough affection to keep him close and attentive - but will never go all the way.
But over the years they have developed a symbiotic relationship. Michael gives Brian the love and loyalty he could never ask from anyone, and Brian gives Michael an excuse to not grow up and look for his own life and love. Everything is stable and moderately happy.
That is, until
he shows up. The third person on the see-saw. The wrench thrown in to the machine. Minutes in to the pilot episode, a new face shows up on the dingy streets of Liberty Avenue:
Justin Taylor (
Randy Harrison). He is a blond teenager in high school, and ready to shed his innocence and set foot into gay life. And he has barely made an entrance before he captures the attention of Brian. They tangle, Michael is forced to drive the couple back to Brian's sex loft, and in one of the most explicit gay sex scene ever put on commercial television at that time, Brian carefully deflowers Justin (who he learned was a virgin). He then drops him off at school the next day, ending what, for him, was an interesting adventure. But to Justin it was a revelation.
Justin:"But, when will I see you again?" Brian:"You'll see me in your dreams."
That's the pilot. Yes, there are other characters and they carry a lot of interesting and relevant stories. But it's the balance between Brian, Michael and Justin that power the series and makes it something unique. What happens when you put friendship, sex, insecurity, and love in a blender and try to pretend like none of it matters and life is never going to change?
In the first season Michael finds a doctor who sees all the wonderful things in him that Brian ignores and offers Michael an actual adult relationship. But where does that leave Brian? Justin's parents find out that he is gay and has been seeing a nearly 30 year-old man. Justin runs to Brian, who brings him back to his parents. But when they insist he stop being gay, Brian admires the way the kid stands up for himself and gives him shelter. Something is breaking through the defenses.
The season ends with Brian showing up at Justin's prom (after refusing never to go near the place) and surprising him with probably every gay man's prom fantasy. He sweeps Justin off his feet and in what feels like a classic movie moment insists "no one is gonna put baby in a corner" and the crowds part as the couple dazzles with a romantic spin around the floor.
Of course, in the final 10 minutes of the episode something gut-wrenching happens that changes the course of Brian, Justin and Michael's lives. To this day it is one of the best season finales I have ever seen.
Seasons two through four each proceed to deepen these characters and improve the story. They face the things we all do - prejudice, violence, health scares. They have to figure out how to navigate love when one party is HIV+. They have to watch love walk away when they can't give the person what they want. They struggle with the difference between holding on to queer urban identity versus staking their right to a life in the suburbs, if that's what they want.
If anyone is interested, I recommend finding the first season and watching the pilot - it's damn good and should let you know if you'd like it. (I got all the DVDs in my local library system. Netflix and Amazon also have it).