Queer as Fuck

I remember like it was yesterday the first time I watched an episode of Queer As Folk. It was either late 1999 or early 2000 and I was flying high on the energy of going to a college I really liked, being in the honeymoon period of a relationship that had just started and feeling like the world belonged to me (Goddes, was I wrong!). Everything was new and exciting and I could not have enough of my life. Everything was simple and easy and things just 'happened'. Or at least it seemed to me to be like that. it was a big group of friends and we would all pile up in Matty's living room and would laugh and cry and gasp and laugh again at the antics of Stuart, Vince and Nathan and their friends. Did you watch the original series?

I had never watched anything like it on TV. Ever. The idea of seeing gay men live and laugh and fuck on the small screen was absolutely new to me. It was sexy and fun and unprecedented. Seeing men that could be me or somebody I knew on a TV series, being gay and unapologetic was a rush. Having a gay soap opera seemed impossibly progressive. There was no gay marriage back then. Don't ask don't tell was a thing.  People could walk around airports without restrictions, JNCO jeans were a thing and Believe by Cher was a huge hit. It seems like yesterday but it was more like at the turn of the century when they relocated the series to Pittsburgh and we got Mickey and Brian and Justin (I always found Ben to be way hotter than Brian, but that's just me).

Now there's a new version of Queer as Folk coming to people's screens. Big was complaining yesterday about the many streaming services there are out there and I think I can agree with that sentiment: too much of a good thing can be not too good for many people. The reboot comes out today on Peacock (I don't know anybody who actually gets that service, rats!) and it's going to offer us Queer Folk updated for the new millenium. It's also gonna offer us more diversity, up to date storylines and maybe some of the same self-involvement and flaws the first two iterations had (I watched both the original series from the UK and the HBO series) but I am not asking for perfection. I stopped doing that many years ago. Also, LGBTQ+ people can be (and are) self involved and selfish. So what's new?

Many known faces are gonna pup up: Kim Cattrall (I've missed her!), Ryan O'Connell (from the fantastic Special) and Juliette Lewis (last time I saw her was in Yellowjackets) and many new faces are going to become familiar. It also takes place in another city (not Pittsburgh) and even though I'm sure the plot will get convoluted and the speeches will get ham handed, I think it could be a success. It's always good to have queer stories told on TV. Especially now, when LGBTQ+ rights are in danger, Trans people are under relentless attack from the Repuglyclowns and the religulous wrong and all the gains of the last twenty plus years could be lost due to a SCOTUS that is apparently less Queer friendly than the one we had twenty three years ago. 

Isn't it ironic, Alanis? I hope the new series gets good ratings and gets, if possible, renewed. It can fill up the blanks where the other two series (too white, too privileged, too self-referential) left open and give us characters and storylines that feel much more like... today. There's always room for improvement, no?

XOXO