The Bottom Line: I_would_not let myself believe That you might stray And_I_would stand by you No matter what they’d say, I_would_have thought I’d be with you Until my dying day ~performed by Sara McLachlan
susidee34's Full Review: Queer as Folk - The Complete Second Season
Queer As Folk Season 2 picks up fairly close to the ending of the initial season. After the near death gay bashing Justin received, he returns to his family life but is greatly changed. For one thing, tremors in his hand make him believe he may have to give up his love of art and throw the talent he obviously has away. Another aspect he faces is the obvious lack of communication between he and Brian. We, as outsiders, know Brian feels responsible on many levels for the beating Justin received from a schoolmate. He also feels helpless because, although he was at the scene, he couldn’t reach Justin in time to prevent the attack.
What Justin doesn’t know is Brian spent every night camped outside his hospital room, silently holding vigil until he could be released. In order to preserve his individualistic aura, he pretends he isn’t concerned about Justin and has no interest in his recovery. Naturally the only person he is fooling is himself because everyone else can see and knows that Brian is totally hooked on Justin.
When Justin tries to rekindle their relationship, Brian turns a cold shoulder until he is confronted by Justin’s mother. She shows up at his job, with Justin’s bags packed, and tells Brian to take him. Do whatever he needs to do, but make Justin happy again, give him a reason for living. So Brian, much to his own amazement, takes Justin in and the ‘bachelor’ pad takes on an entirely different persona now that they are unofficially an official couple.
Of course, their relationship is open, both continue their wild and crazy lifestyle with certain rules. However, at heart Justin is a romantic and he doesn’t ever believe he will be able to tame the beast that is Brian Kinney. We know, naturally, that Brian is hooked, even if he doesn’t.
As far as the other players this season, the girls decide to solidify their life and have a commitment ceremony. After approaching her parents for help with the wedding, Lindsay becomes depressed, almost canceling the wedding. However, it does come off and is a nice occasion with little pomp and circumstance. In the end, it is about love and it doesn’t matter if you love an alligator or a person of the same sex … love is love.
Their year doesn’t go without a few hitches though. Deciding to remodel their third floor into an art studio, the girls are stumped since it appears they aren't very adept with tools. Fortunately Mel’s ex-lover, Leda, arrives in town on her motorcycle for Pride, and convinces the gals she can do the remodeling in exchange for a place to stay. All is going well until the girls hit a bump in their sexual relationship and Leda is more than happy to lend a helping hand to revive their cooling spirits.
Michael, after his breakup with hunky Dr. Dan, returns to work at Q-Mart, at a lower position. Disgruntled, he decides to take the plunge and buy the local comic book store, realizing his dream to live completely surrounded by comics. Until one day when a local professor, Ben, enters the store inquiring about various comics to present to his class on sexual behavior in super heroes. He also, somehow, convinces Michael to speak before the class.
As their relationship grows, he eventually moves in with Ben, much to Debbie’s dismay. It isn’t that she didn’t like Ben, it is the fact that he is HIV positive that has her fiery locks flying. That’s not the only thing that has her knickers in a bunch though … she has a man in her life. Yes, the detective that investigated Justin’s beating has become totally smitten with her and neither one of them quite know what to do about it. Especially since he comes off as a tad bit homophobic and, trust me, that isn’t something you want to be around Debbie.
Ted, in his sturdy and boring job, is caught by the boss perusing a porn site during hours and is fired. After practically becoming a recluse, he finally gets out of his funk by starting, of all things, a porn site of his own call JerkAtWork.com. I won’t even bother to go into the details of this enterprise which initially began with only Emmett at the threshold, to put it nicely. However, by the end of season 2, it has become a highly lucrative enterprise that has grossed Ted a nice nest egg.
Emmett, through his guest appearance on the site, grows quite the fan base and catches the eye of billionaire George Stickle [of Stickle’s Pickles]. George is a much older man, keeping his privacy about his attraction to men to “maintain” for society sake. Both Emmett and George learn a lot from their relationship which comes to a harrowing end.
The owner of the ad agency where Brian works decides to sell to a competitor, after promising Brian a promotion to partner. When the new owner arrives, he gives Brian one week to prove why he should keep him on the payroll. This is at an unfortunate time because Justin is feeling a bit forgotten and had hoped they could get away for a snowboarding trip. Brian promises him a week away but has to cancel when faced with this new responsibility with work.
As Brian gets deeper and deeper into his work, he leaves Justin to fetter about on his own. The few minutes he hasn't devoted to work, he insists they continue to spend all their time at Babylon, where Brian can work his magic and feel powerful. The entire time I’m yelling at him … wake up dummy, pay attention to this kid, you are losing him. Of course, Brian doesn’t hear me.
Justin, feeling adrift,starts a relationship with a music student at his college. Ethan, a brilliant violinist, captivates Justin and he is equally taken with Justin. What starts as a tentative relationship soon blossoms into something with a life of its own. While Brian can see this happening and is completely aware he is losing Justin, his arrogant nature closes him off and he turns the other way.
And all of this continues to center around Babylon with its pounding music and depraved back rooms.
Season 2, to me, was a much darker grouping than season 1. The first year we are just meeting the guys, and gals, and introducing ourselves to this life and their lives in general. The second year we are delving much deeper into the individualistic nature of each person. We don’t always like what we learn and, sometimes, they don’t like it either.
They brought Emmett and the girls to the front more in this season, giving them more screen time. It can’t always be about Brian, despite what he thinks. The extras, bonus disc, gave some really great in depth interviews with a lot of the participants behind the scenes and showed you how it all came about and how scenes were built and constructed and so forth.
The acting remains top notch, which, I am sure, is often difficult. A good deal of the people that participate in this show are not gay or lesbian yet they perform some fairly explicit scenes with great attention to detail. I am still astounded that we managed to get this on television, albeit on Showtime.
Thinking back, when I watched it originally, I can’t remember the language but I’ll say that on the DVD series it is quite raw at times. Not that it offends me, but it could some. Then, again, if language can be offensive to you, then you probably wouldn’t be all that thrilled with the sex scenes either, which I think are beautifully done for the most part. Those backroom scenes at the bath house and Babylon, though, scary.
As a point of interest, it is noted at in the first show of each season, someone walks into that infamous back room at Babylon and says “Hey, Ted, how’s it going?” And Ted always says “Fine” and doesn’t miss a stroke while talking. Just a bit of black humor that they decided to add to the series so look for it in the opening segment of each season.
Can’t wait for season 3 and find out what happens with Justin and Ethan and how Brian reacts.
The first groundbreaking season of Showtime's QUEER AS FOLK introduced the series's main characters: Michael an insecure 29 year-old Brian an ad execu...More at Family Video
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