The U.S. adaptation of the hit British drama Queer As Folk premiered on December 3rd, 2000, and nearly 15 years later there still hasn’t been anything quite like it on TV.
Our friends at Buzzfeed gathered some gays who had never seen Queer As Folk for a variety of reasons (one was 8-years-old at the time, another was at sea in the Navy), and made a pretty funny video documenting their varied reactions.
One guy notices “a lot of white people,” (we remember only one black guy with a speaking role in the entire series) and another is as shocked about that initial Brian/Justin hookup in 2015 as we were in 2000.
And, seriously, who has ever poured water on themselves in their own apartment in an attempt to look hot?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Watch the watching below.
MacAdvisor
Brian is hot with or with out the water. If all I needed to look hot was to pour some water over myself, my house would have puddles in every room.
Ronnyboy
Ok children it wasn’t last century. I forget how long it ran but I think ended 10-12 years ago.
Ronnyboy
It is pretty amazing how fast life goes by. I was roughly the characters ages and my life kind of mirrored theirs too. Clubbing, sex, and just learning the gay facts of life. Now we’re all middle aged and Club Babalon seems like a long distant memory. \
It would be nice if they did a comeback show on where their all at in life.
Ronnyboy
First episode date: December 3, 2000
Final episode date: August 7, 2005
AtticusBennett
i was in high school when the US version premiered. my family watched it. THAT was a massive life-changing thing for me. before the first season ended, i’d come out to my family.
THANK YOU QAF!
AtticusBennett
BTW – here’s Sharon Gless speaking about her role on the show….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XugLLvNOqD0
Glücklich
Great. Now Queerty, who shot JR?
SeeingAll
@Glücklich: Did you know that the creators of “Dallas” actually filmed several scenes of JR getting shot, each time with someone different as the shooter, so that even the actors didn’t know whodunnit ? They weren’t taking ANY chances on the solution being leaked to the press before next season.
russellhm
I watched the show when it first aired, bought the DVDs, and re-watched some. And then forgot about it. But a few months ago, I finally surrendered and signed on to Netflix and it had the entire series for viewing. And so, I would watch another film and then, for dessert, watch Q as F; because the shows weren’t that long, I would often watch two installments. And yes, I was captured by that first episode when Brian beds Justin and the realism of his topping the lad. I don’t remember feeling this way first time around, but re-seeing them made me disgusted with Michael for his always being outraged by something. I thought the actor was wonderful but the writing for his character seemed over the top. And I truly thought that gorgeous violinist would succeed in totally erasing Brian from Justin’s love and life. But, alas, the writers wanted Brian and Justin to end the series still as lovers. And so, the violinist, as devoted as he was to Justin, proved just like so many gay chaps, that he could be distracted, especially if he thought he wouldn’t be caught. I think, although it exhausted me, that that was Brian’s character’s strength, that he was always upfront with Justin, that he was gonna fuck when and who he wanted. He deplored sentimentality, a result of his parents’ misery and failed marriage. But, long run, he did truly loved Justin afterall and Justin never waivered in the long run. Great show. The British version I also owned on DVD and found it less exciting but certainly bold. I was amused that the two main characters in it, end up in the United States traveling, as they had yearned to do. I seem to remember the finale ending in Arizona in the desert.
Jeff Phillips
hopefully they are watching the British version, the original
Richard Holaday
Seriously? For the first time?? Where have they been living?? Under a rock?? ð???
Misty Bolling
Love QAF
dvlaries
One thing we can agree on: just as the next bold post-Brokeback Mountain cinematic step is overdue, so too is the gay TV series that raises the stakes beyond QAF.
dvlaries
>And, seriously, who has ever poured water on themselves in their own apartment in an attempt to look hot?<
*
Someone who could afford a cleaning service, because we certainly never saw Brian Kinney mopping a floor, pushing a vacuum or washing a plate. The realistic cost too, of heating that open, cavernous loft apartment of his warm enough for people to walk around naked in a Pittsburgh winter would have been almost grotesquely extravagant.
*
I remember now. Either Time or Newsweek describing that first sex scene with virgin Justin wrote, "In its first twenty minutes, Queer As Folk rips the door off the closet, and tosses in a stick of rainbow dynamite."
Ronnyboy
@dvlaries: We did. It was called Looking on HBO.
charlietex
Hello cute ginger. If you are reading the comments message me. : )
Ditamo
I binged watched the show on my first year of college as a freshman. Was in 2008, really nice show.
Glücklich
@Richard Holaday:
Please. I’ve only ever seen clips of the show in bars that show little comedy skits and music videos and the like. I was aware of it but could relate to it as much I could relate to a Chinese costume drama.
Belle & Sebastian and Morrissey are fine to listen to. I don’t need to see the songs’ whiny, woe-is-me, *angst-ridden* story lines acted out on screen.
onthemark
Didn’t have Showtime back then but I binge-watched QAF some years later. It’s entertaining, but has every gay cliche in the book. Right down to Emmett joining an “ex-gay” church group for awhile, lol.
Apparently Pennsylvania is very lax about alcohol laws since Justin was always hanging out in bars at 18, 19 (& even 17) without ever getting thrown out, or even carded. And he looked more like 15. Or maybe 12!
And yeah, QAF is white white white! Weirdly so. I’ve been to Pittsburgh several times and it’s just not THAT white.
The character Brian never made much sense to me. At 29 he still wasn’t out to his parents? Even though he hated them and didn’t care what they thought about anything? That’s not how it works. And they were shocked when they found out? (And he wasn’t an only child, he had a sister who seemed gossipy enough.) Didn’t add up. Brian’s parents never guessed, and yet it seemed like half his closeted clients had such good gaydar they figured him out right away?
Maybe it’s just me, but I thought the actor playing Brian wasn’t THAT good looking. He looked kind of sickly, and not even in an HIV way, more like an Anne Rice vampire way. And yet we were to believe that he could f*ck any guy he wanted? Yeah right.
The character Michael, well he’s the exact same character as Patrick on “Looking” who everybody hates so much now. Except Michael has a nice PFLAG mom, and a nice gay uncle! Aside from that, they are the exact same annoying whiny character.
onthemark
@onthemark: A few posters addressed my QAF gripes when I brought them up recently in another thread. I appreciated their explanations! My point here is merely, QAF was hardly perfect. But it WAS entertaining. Even cliches have their place, I suppose, if they’ve never appeared on screen before.
crowebobby
Watching QAF today and thinking you’re going to have the same reaction you would have had watching it in 2000 is like seeing a Model T Ford for the first time and thinking you’re going to have the same reaction your grandfather or great grandfather had when he saw it for the first time in 1908 . . . exaggeration deliberate. You would have to erase every gay film you’ve seen, every gay experience you’ve had and all of gay history of the intervening 15 years; it can’t be done.
MinnesotaNotNice
“Looking” was a far better series than “QAF”. It wasn’t perfect at all, but more believable in their story lines.
onthemark
@crowebobby: Good point, never thought of it that way but you’re right! I missed out on the original experience.
AxelDC
For those too young to remember, Queer as Folk was like Looking, only interesting, with better lighting, and with characters you could give a damn about.
AxelDC
@AxelDC: Like Looking, it was on the air 2 seasons too long.
stranded
i only really liked the show for masturbating material. I was in middle and high school during it’s run and i couldn’t at all relate to the characters. I watched it again in college and i still didn’t really like it. But i can appreciate it’s impact on society and power those characters have on those who could relate to them.