This thread is inspired by my pick of Brian Kinney as #181 on the list of The CHUD TV All-Stars: 250 Greatest Characters thread. That thread allows for conversation (as RathBandu very kindly made clear), but I just want a little more breathing room. I tried this before, in 2005, after QAF went off the air, before I had some perspective. I allowed that thread to blow away in the end (not that I had much of choice, CHUD is not the place for QAF fans), but hopefully this one will have a little more life to it.
When it first premiered 8 years ago, the American version of QAF purported itself to be an unflinching drama that took an honest look at the trials and tribulations of gay life, but that’s not what it was, not really. QAF was a highly entertaining, sexy, sweaty, sometimes poignant, sometimes glaringly stupid, well-acted soap opera. Despite my better judgment, I came to accept and appreciate this.
I’m not a big TV person, the number of shows that I’ve followed from beginning to end (all hour long dramas, I’m not all that interested in genre shows) can be counted on one hand, Queer as Folk is not the best of them, not by a long shot, but it is my favorite.
The actors, even when faced with some of the dumbest fucking plotlines ever, strutted in front of the camera, dignity intact. Peter Paige / Emmett Honeycutt, was king at this shit. As the “comic relief”, Paige’s Honeycutt repeatedly faced being undercut as an effective character with painfully dim arcs involving “chatroom addiction”, HIV scares, “conversion therapy”, Internet porn fame, television stardom, and love affairs with closeted multimillionaire geriatrics and professional football players. The writers almost never gave this character a break, and Paige was besieged with this kind of bullshit for five seasons, but he totally rose above it, he made it work.
Brian Kinney, if I may quote the Urban Dictionary: “Brian Kinney is God. That's all you need to know. He is one of the main characters from Showtime's hit series Queer As Folk. He's powerful, rich, a sex god, and he's the straightest gay guy you will ever meet at first impression, that is until you see him in Babylon one night... and that's just because he's having lots of sex in the back room. He's cold hearted and sarcastic, but everyone loves him for it”. The character’s narcissism, often cited as his most distinguishing feature second only to his libido, occasionally veered towards sociopathy.
A particular scene comes to mind (Season 3) where the above-mentioned Emmett Honeycutt appears at Kinney’s office to ask his help in keeping their mutual friend, Ted Schmidt, out of prison. Kinney coldly rebuffs this request, reducing Emmett to tears and begging for help. Kinney, often shown to make the wrong decisions before he makes the right ones, eventually decides to help Ted.
I guess I’m different from the writer’s assessment of human beings here, because while I’d be grateful for the help, as Emmett and Ted are, I would not mince words in letting Brian know that any and all ties from that moment forward would be severed, and that we’d never need to see or speak to one another ever again. This of course, does not happen. Michael Novotny is Brian’s best friend, as well as Ted and Emmett’s, the bond is never challenged by this should be deal-breaking situation. That made, and still makes, zero sense to me.
Ted Schmidt. Often paired with Emmett for comic effect, Schmidt was QAF’s piñata. He was older than his friends (33 or 34 at the start of the show), and as a nebbish accountant with exceedingly low self-esteem, he had almost no luck in getting laid (a fact Brian Kinney took vicious pleasure in reminding him of every chance he got). His flaws, inexperience, and trusting nature led him to a drug-induced coma in the 3rd episode of the 1st season, losing his job in the 2nd season, facing prison and financial ruin in the 3rd, and a nasty crystal meth addiction (the lowest point of which found him to being gang raped on video by a dozen junkies) that would dog him until the end of the 4th season. Ted Schmidt was a middle-aged Charlie Brown, and Emmett was his Snoopy.
That’s just a brief overview of some selected characters and actors, and some of the clichéd, soap opera material that they gamely contended with. If this thread picks up (with perhaps maybe the 3 or 4 people that will actually care to respond), I’ll throw in more stuff, likes and dislikes. I’ve just been watching the show on DVD for awhile and have been feeling the need to document my feelings on it and perhaps explain, mainly to myself, why I was so drawn to it. The final episode, which ends with Brian dancing at Babylon (the gay dance club of the series), camera swirling around him, worshipping him as it was wont to do, and then smashing to black, never fails to give me a little heart palpitation.
Give it a go if you care.
When it first premiered 8 years ago, the American version of QAF purported itself to be an unflinching drama that took an honest look at the trials and tribulations of gay life, but that’s not what it was, not really. QAF was a highly entertaining, sexy, sweaty, sometimes poignant, sometimes glaringly stupid, well-acted soap opera. Despite my better judgment, I came to accept and appreciate this.
I’m not a big TV person, the number of shows that I’ve followed from beginning to end (all hour long dramas, I’m not all that interested in genre shows) can be counted on one hand, Queer as Folk is not the best of them, not by a long shot, but it is my favorite.
The actors, even when faced with some of the dumbest fucking plotlines ever, strutted in front of the camera, dignity intact. Peter Paige / Emmett Honeycutt, was king at this shit. As the “comic relief”, Paige’s Honeycutt repeatedly faced being undercut as an effective character with painfully dim arcs involving “chatroom addiction”, HIV scares, “conversion therapy”, Internet porn fame, television stardom, and love affairs with closeted multimillionaire geriatrics and professional football players. The writers almost never gave this character a break, and Paige was besieged with this kind of bullshit for five seasons, but he totally rose above it, he made it work.
Brian Kinney, if I may quote the Urban Dictionary: “Brian Kinney is God. That's all you need to know. He is one of the main characters from Showtime's hit series Queer As Folk. He's powerful, rich, a sex god, and he's the straightest gay guy you will ever meet at first impression, that is until you see him in Babylon one night... and that's just because he's having lots of sex in the back room. He's cold hearted and sarcastic, but everyone loves him for it”. The character’s narcissism, often cited as his most distinguishing feature second only to his libido, occasionally veered towards sociopathy.
A particular scene comes to mind (Season 3) where the above-mentioned Emmett Honeycutt appears at Kinney’s office to ask his help in keeping their mutual friend, Ted Schmidt, out of prison. Kinney coldly rebuffs this request, reducing Emmett to tears and begging for help. Kinney, often shown to make the wrong decisions before he makes the right ones, eventually decides to help Ted.
I guess I’m different from the writer’s assessment of human beings here, because while I’d be grateful for the help, as Emmett and Ted are, I would not mince words in letting Brian know that any and all ties from that moment forward would be severed, and that we’d never need to see or speak to one another ever again. This of course, does not happen. Michael Novotny is Brian’s best friend, as well as Ted and Emmett’s, the bond is never challenged by this should be deal-breaking situation. That made, and still makes, zero sense to me.
Ted Schmidt. Often paired with Emmett for comic effect, Schmidt was QAF’s piñata. He was older than his friends (33 or 34 at the start of the show), and as a nebbish accountant with exceedingly low self-esteem, he had almost no luck in getting laid (a fact Brian Kinney took vicious pleasure in reminding him of every chance he got). His flaws, inexperience, and trusting nature led him to a drug-induced coma in the 3rd episode of the 1st season, losing his job in the 2nd season, facing prison and financial ruin in the 3rd, and a nasty crystal meth addiction (the lowest point of which found him to being gang raped on video by a dozen junkies) that would dog him until the end of the 4th season. Ted Schmidt was a middle-aged Charlie Brown, and Emmett was his Snoopy.
That’s just a brief overview of some selected characters and actors, and some of the clichéd, soap opera material that they gamely contended with. If this thread picks up (with perhaps maybe the 3 or 4 people that will actually care to respond), I’ll throw in more stuff, likes and dislikes. I’ve just been watching the show on DVD for awhile and have been feeling the need to document my feelings on it and perhaps explain, mainly to myself, why I was so drawn to it. The final episode, which ends with Brian dancing at Babylon (the gay dance club of the series), camera swirling around him, worshipping him as it was wont to do, and then smashing to black, never fails to give me a little heart palpitation.
Give it a go if you care.
