Queer as Folk
Queer as Folk
#0Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 7:45pm
My boyfriend and I started watching season 1 a few nights ago. I didn't get the chance to watch it while it was still on TV (my grandparents wouldn't allow it). I've seen a few episodes, but missed the entire last three seasons. I've read comments on other sites that say the characters are too generalized, and stereotype, but wasn't that the point? I remember seeing the disclaimer (in US) that said something to the effect of "It is not meant to reflect all of gay society".
Discuss.
#1re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 8:00pmYou're optimistc because you've only seen Season 1. The rest of the series is seriously lacking in comparison.
Wanting life but never knowing how
#2re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 8:43pm
I've heard it's because they used original stories instead of copying from the UK version.
Is this true?
#3re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 8:48pmSomeone gave me season one as a gift this past Christmas, and once I got past the fact that it wasn't "fiercely realistic" (as one blurb would have me believe), I enjoyed it well enough - but not enough to rush out and get any other seasons.
#5re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 9:24pm
I strongly disliked Season 1. It was a lot like the soft-porn you catch on skinemax on the weekends, you know?
I liked seasons 2 and 3, then I just watched out of habit.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. - Randy Pausch
#7re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 9:46pm
I've heard it's because they used original stories instead of copying from the UK version.
The UK version didn't run nearly as long as the US version, so I think only part of the first season is close to the UK version.
They ran out of ideas after they stopped what was essentially remaking the UK episodes.
#8re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 9:56pmWell, I'd never seen the show before, and the "fiercely realistic" quote was on the back of the box, so it kept running through my mind every time I thought, "People don't f#ck like that."
#9re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:00pm
I've heard that it's illegal to have sex in bathrooms in Pennsylvania.
And why Pittsburg? It's not exactly the gayest city that comes to mind.
#10re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:05pm
I've heard that it's illegal to have sex in bathrooms in Pennsylvania.
Bathrooms, stairwells, alleyways... It's like the entire cast had tractor beams in their anus.
#11re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:07pm
Ugh, I know. I heard someone claim that the network higher-ups wouldn't let them set it in Toronto because US viewers are turned off by blatant Canadian shows. Apparently, doing a shoddy job making it "Pittsburgh" was more acceptable...*grumbles about Chinatown episode*
But they wanted it in an industrial town to match Manchester, where the UK version was set.
Wanting life but never knowing how
#12re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:07pmAccording to that show, all gay men do is have sex and do drugs. My mother loved the show. She hated Melanie and Lindsay, though.
#13re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:10pmI loved the episode where one of them dates a "fat" guy.
#14re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:15pmI watched Queer as Folk off an on during it's run as my family didn't get Showcase until recently. I really have no opinions on the story lines or anything, as they're not really things I know enough about. I guess my only *real* problem was Brian was really hot until they turned him soft in the last season. I guess his prostetic was not working for him.
#15re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:30pmwasnt a fan becuase of the fact jersey girl brought up
C is for Company
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/16/05
#16re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/20/06 at 1:31amMissed the first season, really enjoyed the 2nd and 3rd, hated the 4th and 5th. The writing became too dramatic and cliche, the episodes just lacked and did not match how fresh the previous seasons were.
jimnysf
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/10/05
#17re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/20/06 at 2:49am
Multiple Emmy Winner Sharon Gless is really the only reason I continued watching it. She is brilliant but I've loved her ever since that TV show, "Switch" which was a take-off on "The Sting". She co-starred with Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert. Then there was "House Calls". She stepped into that one when Lynn Redgrave left because she couldn't breast feed her kid on the set. After that was "Cagney and Lacey" and then "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill". She also starred in the TV movie, "Revenge of the Stepford Wives" with Don Johnson and Marge Simpson herself, Julie Kavner.
http://finnish.imdb.com/title/tt0072574/
#18re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/20/06 at 7:33amAh, Cagney and Lacey. TV's first lesbians. On judging Amy, they brought in Sharon Gless as an old college friend and collegue of Tyne Daily's. It was a great episode.
#19re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/20/06 at 8:14am
Trivia on Sharon Gless: who knew Loretta Swit was originally Cagney?
#20re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/20/06 at 10:01amI've seen the first three seasons and LOVE the show...I hope to own all of them on DVD in the future.
#21re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/20/06 at 10:22am
"I've read comments on other sites that say the characters are too generalized, and stereotype, but wasn't that the point? I remember seeing the disclaimer (in US) that said something to the effect of 'It is not meant to reflect all of gay society'."
Keep watching. The show never decided what it was. It would hammer on the cliched topics of equality, HIV awareness, adoption, meth abuse, etc. while at the same time flippantly showing the same characters doing just the opposite of whatever they preached in later episodes. The first season started out ok, but it quickly went downhill. And the idea of Brian as some sort of most-wanted sex god in the city was just ridiculous. Nearly every other guy featured on the show was hotter, especially Michael's boyfriends. I think Emmett was the only character who didn't turn into a total hypocrite by the end.
#22re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/20/06 at 10:40am
I disliked the first season for being too much like softcore porn. I grew to love the show more and more with each passing season as we began to know the characters better. I think Ted & Deb were the most interesting characters-they really had some identity issues to struggle with. The show got grittier as time went on. I think part of the issue was the directors and writers. There was a mixed bag. You could always tell when Canadian playwright Brad Fraser was behind the wheel. Things got very dark, like in most of his delicious plays.
However, I could live without another extended sex scene between Brian and Justin. Talk about snoozefest. They really annoyed me-codependency at its finest. I thought the hot woman who played Justin's mother was a wonderful, organic actress and was grossly underused. I also loved Thea Gill who played Lindsay-she was a fantastic actress and I hear she's a killer jazz singer. I'd love a QAF movie, but I doubt there's any interest.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#23re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/20/06 at 10:50amI was and am a HUGE fan of the UK series (I own it on DVD), but found the US version, a bland third-rate soap opera, poorly acted, poorly written and nothing more than an excuse to put lame gay soft core porn on tv. I barely made it through the first season before giving up on it and other than catching 10 minutes of it here and there occasionally when flipping channels(and realizing it looked as bad as ever) I couldn't watch it again during the remaining years it was on.
#24re: Queer as Folk
Posted: 7/20/06 at 10:54amI've only seen the U.S. version. Why is the U.K. version so much better? Is the storyline different? Better acting? Maybe I should check it out...
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