Queer as Folk

This is really a delight. Despite seeing all episodes in one marathon session, it remained great fun all the way. The high-energy and really interesting characters (including some great lesbians) kept interest from flagging.

I am a straight woman who was fortunate enough to see "Queer as Folk" at the Los Angeles Outfest. I found it absolutely the best television series I've ever seen, on a par with HBO's "Oz," only more explicit and weaving comedy into the mix. The characters are painstakingly developed, and will capture your interest immediately. We all know a Stuart (arrogant sex freak hiding inner doubts and insecurities), a Vince (sweet, self-effacing, afraid to ask for what he wants), and a Nathan (15, impossibly romantic and willful). Though these are the main players, there are also wonderful supporting roles, including Nathan's concerned and sympathetic mother, his best school chum (wise-beyond-her-years "fag-hag" Donna), and Keith's irrepressible parents. The heady excitement of clubbing is captured perfectly; it made me itch to go to discos again! The production is altogether a class act. It's a shame that we here in the States are so under the thumb of the "family values" hypocrites that we may never get a series of this quality. Call your friends in England for a copy of the video, go to your local gay/lesbian center, do whatever you have to do to see this.

I am one of the few people in the US fortunate enough to

see this British TV series. It's certainly better than the majority of American sitcoms and mini-series. The story lines give a mature, humorous, satiric look at the life of gays in Manchester, England. There are serious elements of parents rejecting their gay children, homophobia, and the dangers of picking up people, but overall the stories are

kept brisk, funny, and delightful.

The closest that American TV comes is DYNASTY, MELROSE

PLACE, ACTION, and MARRIED...WITH CHILDREN, but this show

is more gutsy and even has Shakespearian irony. It presents interesting characters, bold plotting, and transcends its own open sexual elements. Following the

adventures of the three main characters (sexual-magnet

Stuart, unrequited romantic Vince, and teenaged conqueror

Nathan), the story includes a whole wide world of other

people and in wonderfully playful.

It would be nice to think that one of the US cable lines

will be bold enough to show it.

Down in Brasil, they aired the Portuguese dubbed US version of this show, and I hated it (and yes, I am male and attracted to guys). I just thought it was ugly, stereotypical and just a downright humorless gloom fest.

However, my friends showed me the UK version. I was hesitant at first, but I gave it a chanse. In fact, I love the UK version way much better than the USA version. Good acting, actual fleshed out characters, and some humor thrown in here and there (unlike the other one). Yeah, even thouhg some of the gay men here party and are sexually aroused, but this time they are more portrayed as humans and not stereotypes (and yes, in the UK, those are ACTUAL gay people, from what I heard).

Only if they air the show on Brasil TV and play it in Portuguese even.

This series are really the best gay-soap of all times!! It's never boring, you get always a laugh and the characters will be more interesting by every episode of the series. I think that this TV-series will go to the classics... Well, I hope so. I'll give it 12/10 (!)