Queer as Folk...The Final Season

In 1999, Entertainment Weekly's TV critic Ken Tucker called the original, British Queer As Folk, "the best TV series you'll probably never see." He went on to call the show, "ribald, witty [and] unexpectedly moving." With so much acclaim, it's no wonder that the production team of Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman (the brains behind the Emmy winning series Sisters) wanted to Americanize the popular series. In 2000, Cowen and Lipmand launched Queer As Folk on Showtime, a station looking to compete with cable powerhouse HBO, who at the time was airing Sex and the City and The Sopranos.

The initial plot was similar to its British counterpart, focusing on the lives, loves and friendships of a group of homosexuals living, this time, in Pittsburgh. At the center of the narrative was the tumultuous relationship between Brian (Gale Harold) the 29 year old, hard living, promiscuous, wise-ass and doey-eyed, inexperienced 17-year-old (upped from 15 in the British series) Justin (Randy Harrison).

At its launch, the American version wasn't as well received in EW - "I hate to be one of those reviewers who tells you that the original, difficult to locate item was superior to the subject under review, but...it was." Giving props to Harrison's acting debut as the neophyte in the city's queer community, the review went on to diss Brian, stating that the character lacked depth and that the show overall was missing soul. It looked like the American adaptation was never going to get the same praise the British show received.

That was then and since its first shockingly explicit season five years ago, the show has flown below the critical radar, garnering little press, but still maintaining an avid viewer ship despite a move from a 22 episode season down to about 13 for the last few years. Now in the middle of its fifth and final 13 episode run, Cowen and Lipman's eccentric look at gay and lesbian life works to prove that the more things change, the more they stay the same - so be prepared for the inevitable "will they or won't they" Brian and Justin fiasco. But that's not all.

Stretching the 10 hour British series into a five year long drama was no easy feat. QAF saw an explosion of characters, including a lesbian couple and Debbie (Sharon Gless), essentially a den mother to the guys, as well as a more politically motivated plot. What five years did allow for however, is growth. Whatever reservations critics may have had at the advent of the show, regarding the difficult to balance drama-comedy-sex-capade ingredients, it seems that Cowen and Lipman finally found the right proportions. That's not to say that everything gets wrapped up in a nice little um, package. Cowen and Lipman, along with their group of writers, stay true to QAF's unpredictable nature, but you might want to keep a box of Kleenex handy, just in case. Brian, though still overly self-righteous and indignant, undergoes his share of eye opening and humbling moments, but the show, as it did in the beginning, belongs to Harrison. His Justin is both innocent and wise-beyond-his-years as he teeters between a promising art career and the security of Brian's bed.

Even though the final season has set Cowen and Lipman free to envision the future for their characters, they do so with the current political climate of the US in mind and that leads to some over the top, bordering on educational video dialogue about gay rights. (Still, after checking out the views of anti-gay action groups in last week's New York Times, their concerns are merited). But that is part and parcel of the show's mandate: to show the true day-to-day lives of homosexuals in Pittsburgh. And since they haven't shied away from explicit sex, it's a safe bet that they wouldn't shy away from explicit politics. In a letter to the press, Cowen and Lipman wrote that QAF was "a family drama: a family of choice...it was the story of boys becoming men. Somehow, it didn't occur to us until the end that it was our story too." And it is. With its political theme, QAF became a seminal educational resource, not only for the queer community, but for the show's straight audience.

I have to admit that QAF caught my attention because of the sex. But the "thumpa-thumpa" (the character reference to the gay vibe at dance clubs) sucked me in, as did the characters - characters that have grown, matured and come full circle. In many ways, QAF eclipsed its British counter part, not only because of its shelf life, but also due to its ability to venture into relevant and affecting topics like gay marriage and hate crimes, without ever losing sight of Babylon - the club where the guys go to dance and hook up. It may have taken them a while, but Cowen and Lipman ended up with a real winner of a season on their hands, one that is ribald, witty and truly, unexpectedly moving.