How Queer

PREVIEW BY RICH BENNETT

Though audiences have
welcomed the feel-good
comic exploits of Will &
Grace into their living rooms,
the acceptance of gay
lifestyles on American televi-
sion get a test on December 3
when Showtime premieres its
drama series Queer as Folk.

To get a sense of what the
show will be like, imagine
Will & Grace at its funniest
and bitchiest, add more gay
and lesbian characters, toss
out all the well-intentioned
politically correct dialog, and
graphically show Jack doing
all the things he only talks
about.

Adapted from a controver-
sial British series, Queer as
Folk promises to be a flash-
point for both ends of the
political spectrum. If reaction
invthe UK is any guide, the
right will be shocked and
appalled, and the left will crit-
icize the show for perpetuat-
ing stereotypes of urban,
image-conscious gay men
who live for sex. i  A ' A

In the original series, the
show focused on the relation-
ship between a pair of 29-
year-old friends, Stuart and
Vince, living in Manchester,
England. Stuart is a success-
ful advertising executive
whose life revolves around
his libido, and Vince is a self-
effacing grocery manager
who has carried a torch for
Stuart since they were school-
mates. That relationship
undergoes upheaval as two
new people enter their lives:
Nathan, a teenager who has
just come out, and Alfred, a
child Stuart has fathered for a
lesbian couple, Lisa and
Romey.

The show’s frank depiction
of homosexuality garnered
lots of attention. There was
abundant nudity and plenty of
outrageous encounters, but
nothing we haven’t seen
before between heterosexual
couples in an R-rated film.
But that in-your—face sexuali-
ty and Nathan’s age (15) had
many up in ‘arms.

Despite all the controversy,
the show became a hit, pri-
marily due to the strength and
intelligence of its scripts.
Russell Davies, the show’s
writer and co-producer, creat-
ed characters who felt no

need to apologize for their
lives or justify themselves, no
compulsion to spell out exact-
ly what they are feeling and
why. It is left to the audience
to figure out the ‘why’ for
themselves. Invariably, peo-
ple interject a bit of them-
selves into the motivations of
the characters, thus making
the drama more compelling.
As with many gay-themed
dramas, the scathing remarks
of the characters are among
its highlights. When Stuart
arrives at the maternity ward
with Nathan to see his new
son, Lisa snipes to Stuart and
Romey, “So, you’ve both had
a child on the same night.”
On his ever-present cell
phone, Vince describes a
straight bar he has just
entered, “It’s all true.
Everything we’ve ever been
told. Oh my God, flock wall-
paper... Can you believe it,
they’ve got toilets in which
no one’s ever had sex.”
Though Showtime is mak-
ing alterations to Americanize
the series (Nathan will be 17,

the .,_action-. takes place in,-

Pittsburgh, and all the charac-
ters are being renamed),
there’s no doubt there will be

December 2000 I Out in the Mountains [21

is America?

Queer as Folk

Premiere episode

- December 3, 2000
- Showtime

 

controversy.

In Britain, the controver-
sial nature of the show led the
show’s sponsor, Beck’s Beer,
to pull out. Things are no dif-
ferent here, where even the
suggestion of what Queer as
Folk might air has led a slew
of companies to shun lucra-
tive product placement
opportunities. New York mag-
azine has reported that major
brands, including Versace,
Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis,
Old Navy, and Abercrombie
& Fitch, have refused to be
associated with the show. The
NFL was so concerned that its
name or that of the Pittsburgh
Steelers would be mentioned

on the show that its marketing

director wrote to the producer
demanding the removal of
any such references from the

RELATED WEB SITES

.Showtirne - 'queer.sho.com

In the Life - inthelifetv.org

CITV - www.c1tv.com

PlanetOut - p|anetout.com

a&e:

script.

The controversy has creat-
ed good word of mouth for
the show. That, combined
with the posting of video clips
on the Internet, has whetted
American appetites.
Anticipation was further
heightened when GLBT tele-
vision newsmagazine In the
Life produced a documentary
about the show. Though the

series has been available in

England for some time,
European videotape and
DVD format incompatibility
with American players mean

the Showtime version will be
the first chance for most peo-
ple to see what all the fuss is
about. CITV, a small cable
television network, controls
distribution rights to the
British version in the U.S. It
did air the series in a number
of markets, but cut much of
the sexual content. (The only
way to see the original series
in its uncut form is to order
VHS tapes from the CITV
Web site or through
PlanetOut.)

T»

American fan site - geocities.com/queerasfolkfanl ‘_

British fan site - que~erosfolk.virtua|ove.net/