Get ready, folks, because the hotly anticipated new web series West 40s is finally making its debut later this summer.
The series follows five gay men in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen gayborhood on their various quests for sex, love, and companionship while at the same time navigating what it means to be gay in their 40s.
The series, which is co-created by Mark Sam Rosenthal and Brian Sloan, was funded through a Kickstarter campaign last year and is being described as a “coming-of-middle-age comedy.”
“It’s often like, ‘My life is over, I’m depressed.’ We wanted it to reflect our lives where we don’t feel that way,” Sloan tells DNA Info. “There’s a lot of humor and a lot of laughter around it. You have to laugh at it.”
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Watch the teaser trailer below.
Zambos271
I didn’t know 40s were middle aged. I guess so if you look at the average life expectancy.
It looks funny. I just wish these shows weren’t always in New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco.
Chrisk
Hell no. I’m 50 and that’s middle-aged. I’m going to live till a hundred. Maybe 200 if they can perfect the head transfer technology.
topsyturvy
From Postcards from the Edge (1990):
Suzanne (Meryl Streep): Ma, I’m middle-aged.
Doris (Shirley MacLaine): Dear, I’M middle-aged.
Suzanne (Streep): Really. And how many one hundred and twenty year old women do YOU know?
ShowMeGuy
Where else would these shows be set? You need a functioning film industry and something that resembles a gay community. The only other logical options are Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, and Miami. The people with the idea for this show are probably living in NYC…….so……..
Lookyloo
@ShowMeGuy – Nobody needs a local “functioning film industry” for low-budg webstuff.
Quality equipment can be got cheap these days, cast and crew filled by friends and locals, filming locations can be arranged with no red tape, post prod all done with home studio software – no entertainment infrastructure needed.
Tons of quality not-quite-pro stuff like that is all over youtube.
But I agree @Zambos271, it would be interesting to see a gay-themed series about guys in a place that isn’t a gay-mecca – and maybe also something that didn’t feature versions of the same over-used stereotype gay characters we constantly see in fiction.
Gigi Gee
Queer As Folk was set in Pittsburgh.
Chrisk
Actually it was Toronto or Montreal.
hnwalters00
Queer as folk was set in Pittsburgh, but was actually filmed in Toronto.
blueyedirish
Yeah, they should make some shows in my hometown Miami, too! Most, I’ve seen have been San Francisco and all they do is whine about the rent and how everywhere else is nowheresville. Ha!
barkomatic
That show looks absolutely hilarious and I’m excited to see it. I’m in my 40’s and it is without a doubt middle age. Anyone saying differently is in denial.
mz.sam
No shit, Sherlock…its truly de-Nile.
Chrisk
Well from the preview it looks really good. Kind of a male sex in the city thing.
Esscourt
Titanic-sized YAWN.
surreal33
Exactly, predictable, lazy, cartoon!!!
lauraspencer
The show looks fun. I will check it out. Looking at the cast though I wonder why they didn’t go with the title “West 50’s” ??? That seems to be the new middle age and I would be surprised to find out the actors are in their 40s. They look older.
ShowMeGuy
That was funny.
GetReal101
Men over 45 still flaunt their sexuality in such a distasteful way? Some men never grow up and are forever obsessed with immature thoughts.
Chrisk
I agree gurl! Next thing you know they’ll be dancing and laughing and and even having sex. Our virtuous girls knitting club will never accept that!!
andrewl
Hell you are not middle aged when you are in your forties. I felt and looked pretty much the same as I did in my thirties. Now your FIFTIES are a totally different ball game. I am 53 now and middle age has well and truly hit. Gaining weight, thinning hair, aching joints, wrinkles, slower sex drive, my God the horsemen of the apocalypse! As they say my bucket list is getting shorter but my f*ck it list is getting very long!
Lookyloo
@andrewl – You are middle aged in your 40s
Middle = The point at an equal distance between one end and the other.
In the case of age: One End = Birth / The Other End = Death
The average American man lives to age 78
Middle age = 39
MikeE
middle age is everything from 45 to 65.
Walker
Yeah, sorry Looky, but the dictionary definition of middle-aged has been the same during my lifetime, and it is: “the period of life from about 45 to about 64.” And as someone in marketing that has always been how we define the demo. Just because you want to be pissy to people who are older than you are doesn’t mean you get to redefine very established phrases.
Walker
Also, by your standard, Middle Age would begin at 26. Right? Because it’s the mathematical “middle” and it’s an “age” — not a year. So 78/3=28. Congrats! You’re middle age now!
thisiswhatithunk
This looks like a missed opportunity. Why would you blatantly ape SATC? It’s not a comedy it’s a parody. Plus, 40s are not middle aged anymore. You can’t think of it literally either (like being half way to 80) you have think it in terms of lifestyle, behaviour, attitude. In the 1950s, 60s & 70s middle aged was 30 years old! We’ve moved on. Also, these guys are way older than 40!!
millhouse
West 40s is a play on the Hells Kitchen location (34th to 59th), but yes if you’re in you mid to late 40s, you’re middle aged