Last year, here in Canada, the original British mini-series, Queer as Folk (1999, available for sale, but you’ll have to hunt for it; stars Aiden Gillen and Craig Kelly are pictured above) aired uncut and uncensored on Showcase, a commercial network. This year, the American version, a regular series also called Queer as Folk (Showcase, Mondays, 10pm), is running on the same network. Amazingly, all advertisers remain uncontroversial, unboycotted and unprotested. Take that, United States of America.
I’m going to get this out of the way right now: the original is better. I don’t know why, but somehow the British Queer as Folk seems more realistic than the American Queer. Perhaps it’s the British accents, or maybe it’s just that I saw it first and the new one just seems like a been-there-done-that kind of thing. Or maybe it’s that the “American” Queer was filmed in Toronto. Right near where I used to live as a matter of fact - I even recognized a few places, like Priape, a wonderful underwear store.
The British Queer wasn’t aired in Canada until more than a year after it’s premiere in the UK solely because they needed to get the Canadian rights to all of the songs used in it. Warnings preceded every airing, as did a brief commentary about what you were about to experience. I’m not aware of the sexuality of any of the cast members, but the three leads are utterly fearless in their depiction of horny gay men. There are some flaws, like the painfully lame ending (easily made up for by the events leading up to it) and a gratuitous explosion. But the clever writing, great leads and the general sense of pure casual enjoyment by everyone on screen makes this Queer superior to nearly all American television.
The first two hour episode (2 ½ with commercials) of the new, shockingly raunchy (but no more so than the British version), Queer as Folk pretty much sums up the first four hours of the original, which is too bad. With the extra time, the Brits were able to flesh out their key characters more, so that you actually cared when the one guy died (I won’t say who). The American Queer spends WAY too much time on the lesbian couple that were little more than a distracting plot point in the original. Now they’re key players, and the scenes with the close-up of the breast feeding and nipple fondling were particularly out of place. Speaking of the lesbian couple, geez they bug. I didn’t care for them in the original, and now that they have more to do, they have the potential to ruin a large part of the show. It’s not that I don’t care for lesbians, it’s just that (surprise, surprise) I find the cute gay boys to be more interesting. I won’t even mention the convenient alphabetical cast listing with the actresses playing the lesbians named first.
Fortunately, the new Queer has a good lead actor in Hal Sparks (he used to host Talk Soup, a show that has never aired in Canada). The admittedly heterosexual Sparks is completely convincing in his tight shirt and equally well fitting pants, ravenously making out with another guy. The fact that his character’s Doctor Who obsession has been replaced with a fondness for comic books is something that I’m willing to ignore, for now. As Sparks’ mother, Sharon Gless looks like she’s having lots of fun - she’s a wildly accepting and even encouraging woman who wears shirts that say things like “Got Lube?”
My main problem with both Queers is the rampant drug use and constant casual sex. To be fair, if they didn’t include these things, the shows would be criticized for not being realistic, which is just stupid. Personally, I’ve never used drugs and it annoys me that people, especially those in the gay community, assume that all gays do. But that’s a rant for another time... oh, and I don’t engage in casual sex either. But that’s my problem.
Queer as Folk (UK): A; first episode of Queer as Folk (US): B+
