Watching the brit version of QAF

You mean the original QAF, the American one was the remake.

And still a million times better than the US version.

I loved it when I was young, and I found the US version unwatchable. The first episode at least was an almost shot-by-shot recreation/reinterpretation, and it paled by comparison. It felt artificial and soulless to me.

Manchester back then was so exciting. You'd stroll down Anal Treet and pick up a boy coming out of Via Fossa or Mantos.

Sex, drugs and the music were amazing. It's now a pale shadow of itself.

I thought the British original was much better than QAF USA.

The original QaF was proper 'event television' back then. I was a young closet case still in school and we all watched it. It also managed to introduce the non-gay population of the UK to rimming.

It's difficult to explain how important that series was at the time in Britain. The writer, RTD, became so famous for it it was a slight scandal when he got the Doctor Who job. All these DW geeks who'd probably never had sex in their lives screaming about the writer of QaF working on their beloved series.

The American remake seemed tame in comparison. It'd had already been done and wasn't as shocking.

R5 is right.

Aiden Gillen was such an interesting choice for the superstud character, Stuart. He was masculine and attractive (more so than gale Harold as the American counterpart character), but also short and not very muscular or very striking. He made you believe his character was so studly through acting so much confidence.

Ah, Queer as Folk. Fucking loved that series when it came out. The American remake was just that - a remake. Nothing special, nothing brilliant or groundbreaking - just a remake for Murrican sensitivities, bless.

Does anyone else remember Tinsel Town? It was on about a year later.

R5: The best part of UK QAF was Davies stating it was over the air. So he knew closeted tweens and teens were in their bedrooms, blankets over their head, watching it on portable TVs via antenna. He said that made the whole series worth it.

RTD did a slight QAF crossover on an episode of Cucumber where the ghost of Hazel, Vince's mother, is a spectral watcher over Canal Street warning guys about the dangers of untrustworthy hookups.

Hot scene @ 5:31 but Charlie towering over Aidan is so funny to me.

“Was not hot yet?” Huh?

R11 you don't get that, moron. He was a fem twink in QAF. He only got hotter when he was older.

What I think QaF did for a lot of gay kids in the UK was demystifying some aspects of the gay scene. I still get chills thinking of how Phil died. That show - that one episode - did more to put me off drugs than any number of crappy "don't do drugs!" adverts. And - here's something for OP to think about - RTD *wanted* the men to be "ordinary blokes", as a sort of "fuck you" to the media stereotypes that still exist to this day. I found Stuart sexy as all fucking hell, more so than any gym-queen. As my boyfriend says - it helped show guys that *anyone* could be gay.

R11 “Hot” to that person obviously means nothing other than creatine-and-protein-supplement-built Instagram cookie-cutter bodybuilder bros who post photos of themselves posing, juxtaposed against bland Successories-style sayings about being your best self.

The British original knew when to be over. Unlike the US version.

“And - here's something for OP to think about - RTD *wanted* the men to be "ordinary blokes", as a sort of "fuck you" to the media stereotypes that still exist to this day. I found Stuart sexy as all fucking hell, more so than any gym-queen.”

Yep, one of the things that makes the original so superior. The Showtime US version was too glossy, too focuses on generically hot guys fucking in an effort to win ratings through titillation, and to rake in cash for as long as possible. The original had a point of view and a point to make, and it broadcast only as many episodes as it took to make that point without degrading itself into an unwatchable soap opera.

One thing I’ve noticed about most of HBO’s brilliant and groundbreaking television series is that most of the actors are normal-looking people, not supermodels who look beautiful and professionally styled no matter what their characters are doing. That’s not an accident. The focus is on story and humanity, not filming people you want to jerk off to.

My pussy is so wet.

Hunnam fucking.

Yum.

The US version had dyke drama that was hilariously awful and a hard to believe guest star in Rosie O’DONNELL as a men’s tally challenged abused straight woman who had a crush on Sharon Gless

Anti-gay hate speech is anti-gay. Always has been, always will be. Even the title of this show is homophobic as fuck.

[quote]The US version had dyke drama that was hilariously awful and a hard to believe guest star in Rosie O’DONNELL as a men’s tally challenged abused straight woman who had a crush on Sharon Gless

Wow. I take back every bad thing I ever said about the last season of [italic]Gimme A Break![/italic]

R21 I think you're confused. "Nowt as queer as folk" is a Northern saying and has nothing to do with hate speech or slurs.

In this case its use was pretty clever and had a lot to do with the success of the series. By taking a normal phrase used by normal people and using it to describe pretty average gays living their lives in Manchester, it was pretty important in changing a lot of peoples' minds about gay life.

The same "Nowt as queer as folk' line is used (with less success) in Northern set film The Full Monty to describe a gay couple.

One thing I'll give both the US and UK versions-- they portrayed the full range of masculinity in the gay community, from the "no one would suspect he's gay" Stuart/Brian characters to the queeny Emmett (forgot the UK version's name)

Currently it seems we're only allowed two varieties-- the flaming queens of Modern Family and Will & Grace or the flip, the "he's so stereotypically masculine and macho and yet-- get this!!!-- he's actually GAY!!!" characters.

The first three episodes of the British version were amazing. After that it went worse with each new episode. To me the second series / season is unwatchable.

Sure, the Showtime version had many flaws, but it managed to make the characters more likeable. Love Peter Paige's Emmett, Hal Spark's goofy nerd character Michael, Scott Lowell as conservative Ted, Robert Gant as passive agressive Ben, and of course Sharon Gless as Debbie. Didn't care much for the main attraction (Brian & Justin) or the Lesbian drama.

Sorry R25 but as has been said on here many times, Sparks' complete inability to act ruined the US version for me. It often felt like a character from an ABC sitcom had accidentally wandered onto the set of a Showtime drama.

I thought Harold, Lowell and Gant were strong, Gless was overacting and then some.

r26. Your opinion about the show is as valid as mine. I loved it and I love the Michael character. Don't care much for Hal Sparks outside Queer as Folk though.

Not true R27

My opinion is far more valid. I am a privileged cis-white man in an executive job and since the series we are discussing are from the early 00s, my opinion on them is actually more valid as those were the mores of the time.

Modern Family is dead to me after that transkid propaganda. Now I know why Ed O’Neill wasn’t invited to Amanda Bearse’s wedding to a woman.