Queer As Folk – Two Decades Later

That title is probably going to sound like a re-watch but I didn’t actually watch Queer As Folk back in the day. I don’t remember hearing that either the British or American versions existed until years after the fact. I didn’t have Showtime in 2000 so that was one barrier to knowing it even existed. Probably more than anything though I was just deeply in the closet and being curious a couple of years after Matthew Shepard’s murder probably felt too unsafe to me.

By contrast not so long before I had been curious enough to watch Tales of the City based on the books by Armistead Maupin. I saw the original mini-series on PBS when it aired in 1994. However, I didn’t see the two follow-up miniseries until relatively recent. Again those came out on Showtime when I didn’t have the channel.

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Anyway I heard about Queer As Folk off and on in recent years and I finally decided I needed to see what I missed. It is after all little piece of queer history I lived through but didn’t experience. I’m not sure what I would have made of it 23 years ago. I’m three episodes into season one now and I’m interested enough to continue. It was slightly crushing though to realize that Brian and Michael who are about to turn 30 in 2000 were basically my age. I turned 29 late that year. So far though of the characters, poor Ted feels more relatable. Every so often there are bits of Michael that resonate.

The whole thing with Justin is… I think even in 2000 I would have found that relationship troubling. Not only is he in high school and not yet 18, he’s a decade Brian’s junior. I’m not against age gap relationships but when one of them is not yet an adult, then it feels very questionable. If anything comes of this don’t tell me. I’ve purposefully not read about the series even on Wikipedia for fear of having details of 23 year old TV show spoiled for me.

I don’t plan on posting a review of every episode or even necessarily any individual episodes at all going forward but I do expect I’ll eventually post some other odd observations while catching up on five seasons of Queer As Folk 23 years after it originally aired.