Queer as Folk - Series 1 (British TV Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)This DVD contains the first series - 4 hours on two discs - of *Queer as Folk* as it was originally seen on television in the U.K. I hesitated for awhile, wondering whether it was worth the rather steep price for two discs. (Actually, I didn't know how many discs there were -- search as you might, I dare you to find that information here). Plus, I wasn't crazy about the what I saw of the U.S. version. Finally, I'm always scared by films and television from the U.K. because the regional accents are often indecipherable to my Yankee ear. Anyway, I bought it and I'm glad I did.
First, I had no problem with the accents or the regional idioms. All the "shagging" and "wanking" wore off on me a bit, actually. ("Do you think ov'im when you av'a wank? No? Then ee's your Boyfriend alright.") The teleplay is flawless. Other reviewers are better at synopsis than I am. The point is, it's how the story's told that really sells this.
The ensemble cast, led by Aiden Gillen, Craig Kelly, and Charlie Hunnam is terrific. Where the U.S. show had guys who really looked good but weren't very interesting, this show has more or less normal, but still good looking guys who look better and better as you get to know them. As Stuart, Aiden Gillen, for example, plays a character who "doesn't even have to work for it." But it's not so much that he's a god, physically, it's rather his attitude, which is so much more complicated than the voracious party boy he pretends to be. Craig Kelly broke my heart as Vince, Stuart's best friend, who apparently has been smitten by Stuart since they were both 12. And Charlie Hunnam swipes every scene he's in as Nathan, the 15 year old who starts out as a victim-waiting-to-happen, and ends up a hero, both to himself and to his adopted community. The setting is realistic too: straight people who run the gamut from insane homophobes to fellow-travelers; and gay people who have carved for themselves a community, but who have also found out that the world isn't "Will and Grace" and liberation is an inside job.
This show never panders to those who want easy or politically correct answers, or who want everything to be tied up nicely in a bow. Instead, it overflows with insight. Inthe U.S. version, this seems mere melodrama. Here, it works on so many dramatic levels. One of the best things to be said about it is that it truly is "made for t.v." Which is to say that it totally exploits and expands the medium. I could no more imagine this on the big screen than on the stage. It does, in other words, everything that T.V. should do and none of the things it shouldn't.
There's a lot of sex in the show, some of it more steamy than most U.S. viewers have ever seen on the tube (not counting HBO), but it's never played for shock value. It propels the story. It's honest. And yes, it's erotic.
So the bottom line is, this is a very fine show, and you're not likely to see it if you don't buy it. So if you *can* afford it, you probably should.

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