‘Queer As Folk’ Gets a Reboot, and It’s Trendy to a ‘T’ – Opinion

Queer As Folk is back, but it’s not your grandmother’s gay and lesbian soap opera.

If I could wish one thing for today’s adolescents, it would be historical perspective. They lack historical perspective more than any generation before them, and that is a lot to do with television reruns.

We’re living in the most rerun-less era since the start of syndication. Yesteryear’s kids caught over-the-air and cable TV, featuring programs from decades past. Young people now take cultural cues at the moment from social media. They watch movies and series online, maybe watching something they learned about on the internet.

In other words, the only world today’s youth know is the one happening now.

Surely many in their teens can’t comprehend: Just a few years ago, there was no such ubiquitous term as “trans.” “Gender identity” and the “gender binary” — much less “nonbinary” — occupied no space in the American lexicon.

School kids are likely unaware that such subjects — as they presently and prominently exist — are brand new.

A fantastic example of our cultural change comes courtesy of NBC’s Queer As Folk reboot.

The first serial drama was broadcast in the United States in 2000. The serial drama aired for half a decade on Showtime. Networks like NBC were not allowed to air it.

On Wikipedia, here’s how the old show’s premise is described (for brevity, I’ve removed the actors’ names):

The series follows the lives of five gay men living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Brian, Justin, Michael, Emmett, and Ted; a lesbian couple, Lindsay and Melanie; and Michael’s mother Debbie and his uncle Vic. In the second season, Ben was introduced as a main character.

Now consider the 2022 reboot’s rundown of characters, as listed by an email from Peacock TV:

• Brodie (he/him)
  An affable, sometimes chaotic commitment-phobe who discovers a reason for staying in New Orleans when tragedy hits his neighborhood.
• Mingus is he/him/they/them
  High school student who is confident despite not having any real-world experience.
• Ruthi (she/her)
  Trans, semi-reformed party girl struggling to mature.
• Shar = they/them
  An unbinary professor navigates the difficult transition between punk and parenthood.
• Noah (he/him)
  One of the most successful lawyers isn’t as well-organized as his appearance.
• Julian (he/him).
  An avid pop culture fan with cerebral palsy.

America is done with amateur nouns; we’ve all gone pro.

There was once a time when there were only the LGB. And then, Mr. ‘T’ came along. The new cool kid was in a matter seconds. Pity the fool who doesn’t pay him/her/them respect:

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Features Its First Transgender Model, Who ‘Embodies the Well-Rounded Woman’

It’s Official: Barbie Goes Transgender

Transgendered Contestant Becomes Iconic Game Show’s Winningest Woman

Church Pastor Claims Jesus ‘Transgenders Himself’ in the Bible

‘Nonbinary Gender Affirming’ Doctors Offer Sexual ‘Nullification’ Surgery

Transgender Revolutionary Joe Biden Is ‘Advancing the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons Around the World’

Queer As Folk’sThe new version boasts impressive talents, such as Ed Begley, Jr., Juliette Lewis, Kim Cattrall, and Kim Cattrall.

And it’s tackling hot topics; from Decider’s coverage of Episode One:

Opening ShotTwo men engage in vigorous sex amid a beat-making electronic music track and video clips of thinly-clad men.

Gist One of the men is Brodie…who is back in New Orleans after leaving medical school in Baltimore. Of course, he hasn’t told his family yet, so he’s looking for somewhere to stay. He was offered a place to crash by the other guy, until Brodie sees a BLM tattoo on that guy’s very white skin. …

Then there’s Mingus…a 17-year-old who is determined to get into a drag school sponsored by a local club called Babylon. To go, he gets a fake identification. He also asks for a passing grade from his English Lit teacher, Ruthie O’Neill…so his mother Judy…will let him go. Ruthie, who is friends with Brodie, is about to have twins with her wife Shar… …

[Ruthie’s] already settled down with Shar and about to embark on parenthood, but there’s an element of her that feels that she’s fading from the community she knows and loves. It’s why she finds herself at Babylon despite the fact that Shar is extremely pregnant.

How does the critical reception look?

For one, Decider was decided this way:

Were we going to need another? [version]This is Queer As Folk? Well, on the spectrum of series reboots, this one seems to be closer to the “necessary” side than most. It’s because the world of the LGBTQIA population has changed so drastically in the 17 years since the American version ended. The legality of same-sex marriage has been restored and it is now more mainstream. As with the return toThe L Word it was a good time to examine what it’s like being young and queer in 2022.

It has drastically changed, indeed — though a new generation of Americans may never know how much.

-ALEX

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