Tonight we watched the season premiere of Queer As Folk. Eh, it was okay. This is a show that I really want to like, but my main criticism since the beginning has been the writing, which is flat and soap-opera-like, instead of nuanced and compelling. Maybe I’m setting the bar too high? Maybe I should just accept it as a prime-time soap and leave it at that? I’d fallen off the QAF bandwagon after the first season, so I was hoping the show had gotten better, but it’s still kind of blah, despite a few good moments, like a tender conversation in which Ben reassures Michael that taking Hunter out of town to protect him was a courageous thing to do. Say what you will, Thom. Hal Sparks is all right by me. Another of the few actors there that I enjoy watching is maybe the least likely: Sharon Gless. Granted, her character is quite different from the others, but while they flounder to be so earnest with what little they are given, she has such an ease with her role.
Okay, I didn’t mean for this to be such a negative review–of course I’ll keep watching–but once I get started…
5 replies on “Getting folked”
Debbie is the best! If you think Queer As Folk is soap opery, try watching The L Word. It’s not terrible, but it’s a gay soap opera. Queer As Folk is much better.
We stopped watching it during the second season, and eventually we got rid of Showtime, because the only reason we had it was to watch QAF. I’d have to agree about the writing. It got to the point where I’d predict at the beginning of the episode what was going to happen by the end, and what they were going to set up for the next episode. I was never wrong.
Babe, my only complaint about Hal Sparks is his appallingly bad attempt at acting. If he’d just shut up and not attempt to speak or emote (you can’t get but so much mileage out of rolling your eyes, smirking and SHOUTING ALL LINES WITH A HINT OF EMOTION IN THEM), I’d be more than happy to watch him, especially in those sex scenes with Robert Gant.
What I hated about QAF was that the plot elements came out of thin air, and their only reason for existing was to create a story line rather than illuminate character (the AIDS-ridden uncle getting arrested for propositioning an officer?!). And they always got resolved at the end of the hour.
Nowhere near as intelligent and subtle as the British QAF, alas.
Was I the *only* person who had to pause for a minute and ask myself, “Sharon Gless? As in Cagney (and/or) *Lacey* Sharon Gless?” I feel so out of the know…
–Rajani, editing as she posts.