Watched Queer as Folk (UK) for the first time

[Gazza123]

What did everyone else think of it?

I was sorta in the middle ground on it. I mean the guys were good to look at but on the other hand it seemed to force the idea that gay guys only want sex. I don't know what to make of it cuz the guys weren't presented feminine although some other lesser character were that type. I don't know.

Also how do you think lesbians were presented in it.

Discuss

[Ben]

Aah I love it. It's so brilliant, especially as it was made in the late 90s.

[Revan]

I've seen both. And honestly the first episode of UK bored me compared to US. Which is sad because I LOVE UK, but honestly...just didn't work for me.

[Black Cat]

Originally Posted by Revan

I've seen both. And honestly the first episode of UK bored me compared to US. Which is sad because I LOVE UK, but honestly...just didn't work for me.

I was beginning to think I was alone in that opinion.

The overall dullness of the first episode put me off the whole UK series, whereas I've seen the entire US series multiple times over...

I didn't find it offensive. Sure there are loads of gay men out there that don't cruise for sex constantly, but the folks who'd rather go to the museum, the movies, or stay in and watch Wheel of Fortune don't often translate well to TV characters.

Queer as Folk taught me many things about being a gay man. I mostly watched the US series, so I won't elaborate, but my point is I really liked the show, which may be why I am not offended by the over representation of the hypersexed homosexual.

[Gazza123]

Originally Posted by Black Cat

I was beginning to think I was alone in that opinion.

The overall dullness of the first episode put me off the whole UK series, whereas I've seen the entire US series multiple times over...

I didn't find it offensive. Sure there are loads of gay men out there that don't cruise for sex constantly, but the folks who'd rather go to the museum, the movies, or stay in and watch Wheel of Fortune don't often translate well to TV characters.

Queer as Folk taught me many things about being a gay man. I mostly watched the US series, so I won't elaborate, but my point is I really liked the show, which may be why I am not offended by the over representation of the hypersexed homosexual.

Well I haven't seen the US version. Maybe bits on youtube but not enough to compare. I'll have to see if I can find it and maybe watch an ep or two to see what its like.

What makes it better than the UK in your opinion?

[qboy]

Originally Posted by Ben

Aah I love it. It's so brilliant, especially as it was made in the late 90s.

Indeed - That was part of it's appeal - Gay visibility on UK TV prior to Queer As Folk had been the father of Tiffs child falling in love with Tiffs brother on Eastenders

+ YouTube Video

, and an advert for Impulse body spray (where the scent being sprayed on a women was enough to turn gay men straight for about two seconds)

+ YouTube Video

. That was really it! Another thing which is easy to forget now is that Nathan was about 2 and half years below the age of consent for gay men when the series was broadcast (it was only twelve months after the series finished that it was equalised to 16 for gay men (previously 18) and lesbians (previously there was no age of consent for lesbians)) - this was bound to spark controversy and therefore it was in the broadcasters (Channel 4 and S4C) interests to ensure that you could pick up the story from episode 2 after it was splashed all over the papers!

UK Dramas tend to allow a bit more character development and the first episode is often a bit duller than the US equivalent (which is often a pilot which needs to be very good on it's own to justify a full series, where as the UK often commissions a six episode series to begin with). I tend to find that QaF US (I'm about 3/4 of the way through series 3 at the moment) drags some stories on a fair bit too long as well.

It's amazing to see how far representation of gay characters have come on TV since then and I think that will be one of the legacies of QaF UK - I'm not sure we'd have seen all the soaps have a gay character by the mid-00s if it wasn't for QaF.... That being said the equalising of the age of consent, the repeal of section 28 (which banned the promotion of homosexuality in schools*), the ban on gays serving in the armed forces, the prohibition of discrimination based on sexuality, the introduction of civil partnerships, and the announcement of plans to legalise same sex marriage by 2015 inevitably play there part too!

* Not once in our sex education or PSE (Personal and Social Education) lessons was it mentioned how could actually fall in love with another guy or how to protect yourself if you were having sex with another guy - dispite being shown how to put a condom on a huge cylindrical plastic "penis" (imagine the size of a kitchen roll centre with a mini-tennis ball shoved in the top and you get the idea!) every year for five years. No mention of anything in the anti bullying classes/assemblies either (loads of stuff about not discriminating against the Asian kids, girls, or people of other religious faiths though**) - indeed it was Queer of Folk where I learnt what the name I had been called pretty much every day for high school (i.e. queer, or queer boy) had meant.

** Alas it wasn't just gay kids ignored - there was nothing about not bullying black kids until around 1995 after we got a few kids who's parents had returned from South Africa after the fall of apartheid - not that there were many black kids in our school (IIRC not one in our whole year, and just three mixed race kids) - it was about 85% white, 14% 3rd generation Asian (i.e. Indian sub continent).

I've also said it before - when people rave about such and such being the best film/song of all time they are taking into account when they first saw it, how it was such a step change from anything which had gone before. If you end up watching one if it's successors years later and that is your introduction to the plot premise/genre (etc) when you watch the original you are left underwhelmed as it isn't actually that good (especially as it will have been bigged up by the people who saw the original first). Where as someone who saw the original and then sees the follow ups doesn't really see anything about the pretenders that is better, except that they may have a bit more polish - but it's more of a "me too" that anything original.

[Ben]

^ Nice post : )

As for it being slow-paced, I just think that's a general difference between US and UK drama. I love the first episode of UK QAF.

[Gazza123]

Originally Posted by Ben

^ Nice post : )

As for it being slow-paced, I just think that's a general difference between US and UK drama. I love the first episode of UK QAF.

I'm just glad my parents didn't catch me watching it. I'm mean I know it's like, graphic in its sex scenes, but I would have felt totally awkward if they walked in when I was watching it

[qboy]

Originally Posted by Ben

^ Nice post : )

As for it being slow-paced, I just think that's a general difference between US and UK drama. I love the first episode of UK QAF.

If you want slow paced try watching some Scandinavian drama (put BBC FOUR on on a Saturday evening and some will be on)

Originally Posted by Gazza123

I'm just glad my parents didn't catch me watching it. I'm mean I know it's like, graphic in its sex scenes, but I would have felt totally awkward if they walked in when I was watching it

I remember watching it on my hand held TV under the bed covers on S4C (my brother whom I shared a room with was still awake when it broadcast an hour earlier on Channel 4)! Didn't get to see it properly until I got the DVD in summer 2002, and only then did I realise I didn't have any DVD playing software in the DVD player on my PC That and the Shawshank Redemption were the first DVDs I bought!

[Gazza123]

Originally Posted by qboy

If you want slow paced try watching some Scandinavian drama (put BBC FOUR on on a Saturday evening and some will be on)

I remember watching it on my hand held TV under the bed covers on S4C (my brother whom I shared a room with was still awake when it broadcast an hour earlier on Channel 4)! Didn't get to see it properly until I got the DVD in summer 2002, and only then did I realise I didn't have any DVD playing software in the DVD player on my PC That and the Shawshank Redemption were the first DVDs I bought!

It's one of the programs where I expected the sex to be somewhat, what's the word "glossed over" or something.

I mean they weren't explicit but I'm sure glad my parents did come in when they were on. They actually showed a lot more than I thought which kinda took me by surprise

[qboy]

Originally Posted by Gazza123

It's one of the programs where I expected the sex to be somewhat, what's the word "glossed over" or something.

I mean they weren't explicit but I'm sure glad my parents did come in when they were on. They actually showed a lot more than I thought which kinda took me by surprise

Channel 4 at well after 22:00 - was never really going to be glossed over too much! They seam to have a policy of only screen home grown stuff Mary Whitehouse would hate (I wonder if QaF had a single think she would have liked? ) - especially at that hour!

[Gazza123]

Originally Posted by qboy

Channel 4 at well after 22:00 - was never really going to be glossed over too much! They seam to have a policy of only screen home grown stuff Mary Whitehouse would hate (I wonder if QaF had a single think she would have liked? ) - especially at that hour!

Yeah. Well when it first came out I was young (9) so it wasn't really a blip on my radar let alone my sexuality as gay

[WillowMaiden]

I only watched te U.S. version. The UK was too slow for me too. I got so bored watching the episode that I just didn't bother to look into the rest. I loved the U.S. version though, I've watched it many times. It was a good show.

[Sayu]

I started watching it like two years ago, but to be honest, I didn't really like it. There was too much sex and just like you've said, it seemed like gay guys only thought about having sex. I quite like this Hunter guy tho, he seems really nice, I literally love this video

[SimplyJay]

Even though I'm in the US I got the UK DVD's first & thus watched it first. (I've watched both series 1 & 2 more than once. On the US version I've seen season 1, 2, & a bit of 3)

While both are good, I like the UK version a bit better

Oh and...
The UK soundtrack is awesome I'd say those are 4 of my most-played CD's

[farah]

I did not like how they portrayed gays, my straight female friend watched that show(all 5 seasons) & she thinks that gays have a mental disorder. I mean what the hell is up with that? She enjoys watching it but then she comes & claims they have a mental disorder? What about her watching it? Is that okay? There were some parts however I liked such as Michael & his partner dealing with Hunter. But overall, I'm not too fond of it.

[awesomeyodais]

I've watched a few episodes of the UK version, was ok with it but I think I preferred the US version(actually mostly filmed in Toronto) partly because I could identify and relate more to the cultural references, accents, etc. Those small aspects made it more "real" for me as finally seeing characters going through issues I thought of but had never seen on tv before.

Not to take anything away from the "trailblazer" aspect of the original work, which indeed was surely instrumental in moving opinion and legislation towards equality in many aspects.

BTW I get the "resonance" thing when watching "Being Human" UK vs US (that one's shot in Montreal).

[MusicIsLife]

I got into this series like 4-5-years ago. I love it But like most other people, I couldnt really get into the UK one :/

[SunSparks]

I Just started watching the US version... still on season 2 but slowly working through it. I never really had any time to watch an entire series before this summer... I'm think while, yes they do bring up the topic of sex a lot, they also have a lot of REAL problems in them. Plus, LGBTQ is a sexual orientation... it wouldn't make sense to avoid the topic of sex if the topic of the show is about a SEXual orientation. While I think that they do oversell all of the sex, they can make real comments on life as well and its not something that bothers me as much because of the fact that they do incorporate hardships that the LGBTQ community goes through.