December 1, 2000 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE L. PIEF WEYMAN/SHOWTIME (2)

There's naught so queer on TV

Peter Paige as Emmet, Hal Sparks as Michael and Scott Lowell as Ted.

Queer as Folk Showtime

Reviewed by Kaizaad Kotwal

Shock value has been left valueless in many ways with the many avenues in which the culture has opened up to sex, sexuality and a host of other previously taboo topics. With the onset of cable and its less stringent codes of language, nudity and content, network shows had to start competing fast and furiously. In the era when Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke slept on separate beds, the nudity of NYPD Blue, the profanity of The Sopranos, the ever-present sexual innuendoes on Friends and the sultry libidos in full blossom on Sex and the City, would have seemed incomprehensible and unforeseeable. You bet, we have come a long way baby!

Today it is not uncommon to see a female and even male derrière on a prime-time network drama. Double entendres that leave little double meaning to subtlety are rife on

ises to break even those barriers shattered by the Brits.

Queer as Folk is based on the lives of seven friends, gay and lesbian, who navigate through each other's complicated and convoluted existences. It is, if nothing else, one of the most brutally realistic portrayals of human beings to have graced the small screen, and we get to see these individuals in all their glory, literally and metaphorically, flaws, warts, weaknesses and all.

The American series is set in Pittsburgh, a city that has many kinships to Manchester, where its British counterpart was located. Pittsburgh's East Coast tendencies, blended with its blue collar brashness, makes for an interesting melting pot against which to play out the shenanigans of Queer as Folk.

It is also refreshing to see a series about gay America that is not set in West Hollywood, Castro or Chelsea, but rather in the Midwest. Presumably, Columbus, with its largest per capita gay population in the U.S., would have made an equally good setting, but I suspect that Pittsburgh won out be-

Gale Harold as Brian, and Randy Harrison as Justin.

just about every sitcom. And sex, whether talked about or actually performed, is now a part of mainstream expectations in the world of television.

The small screen is certainly not smallminded any more. But, with all this openness and proclivity towards permissiveness and profanity, there is another side. It leaves us all a bit more jaded and a lot less inclined to have any subtlety left in our public or private lives.

So shock is not so shocking anymore. That is until you get your hands around Showtime's latest offering, Queer as Folk. Based on the brilliant and yes, shocking British series of the same name, originally broadcast on Channel 4 and distributed worldwide, the American incarnation prom-

cause it is less white collar and more a melting pot than Columbus.

Queer as Folk is as unapologetic as anything you are likely to have seen in the world of entertainment.

It is unabashedly honest, political correctness be damned. Unadulterated truth is the lingua franca of this television series. Whether American audiences are ready for such honesty or not remains to be seen, but regardless, this show promises to be a milestone in television history for a variety of reasons. All eyes, gay and straight are going to be on Queer as Folk and on both sides, folk are likely to have some queer responses to this show.

For many gay and lesbian folk, this show will raise some fears about being seen solely

as bar-hopping, drug chugging, anonymous sex-having people. Other gay men and lesbians will find themselves portrayed accurately for the first time in a mainstream

venue.

And yes, for some, Queer as Folk is the stuff of wet dreams and masturbation fantasies galore.

Our straight counterparts will be glued to the hoopla around this show because if they thought Ellen was gay, they ain't seen nothing yet. For many, this show is going to be a bold education in the ways of certain demographics of the gay world.

And yes, get ready for the religious right and the moral police of this country to start chanting, "See, we told you so!" Many of them will probably never watch the series, and yet rant and rave about the promiscuity of gay men and their Sodom and Gomorrah "lifestyles." Be ready to hear about NAMBLA again, since one of the central characters is a 17-year-old (15 in the British series) who is just awakening into the world of gay sex. Perhaps the test of good television is that it gets people talking about stuff we are reticent to bring up around the coffee machine. In an era in which art is seen as something to coordinate with the new sofa, it is refreshing to have a piece that is so politically and culturally charged that gay and straight people are sure to be talking, and loudly at that, about what it means to be queer in America at the turn of the millennium. Great and important cultural artifacts from Picasso's Guernica to Tostoy's War and Peace have never been for the faint of heart, and Queer as Folk is no exception.

While the show does focus on the mating rituals of a certain subset of gay men, it is also the first piece of television to portray gays and lesbians as real people, in all their complexity, quirkiness and colossal humanity. Enough kudos cannot be given for those who have ventured in this direction. Unlike the British version, the Yankee Queer as Folk expands the lesbian story lines, and the lesbian sex is as frank as the men.

The ensemble cast includes many newcomers and some veterans. The trio of men at the center of the drama, Michael, Brian and Justin, are played by Hal Sparks, Gale Harold, and Randy Harrison respectively. Sparks (of Talk Soup fame) plays Michael Novotny, a complex gay man who is out to his friends and closeted at work. He is the voice of moderation in the trio, and he has an unrequited love for Brian.

Sparks' performance is steady and fresh. He understands the complexity of a man like Michael. The nuance that Sparks brings to his role, from the frustrations of unrequited love to the humor of being the odd one out, is detailed and endearing all at

once.

Brian Kinney is the unabashed hedonist who lives each moment for sex, drugs and, Continued on page 12