The Homeowner: The 'Folk' grow up

By Mike Prevatt

I never thought a billboard advertisement would cause my car to swerve from one lane to another, but it happened a few weeks ago. I was driving through the Valley. And as I situated myself in the left-turn lane, at least four cars from the intersection, I spot these massive black letters towering over the street about three blocks down: "SO GAY."

Uh-oh, I think. I can't see any other words, so the absent context leaves me anxious, and we're talking about a phrase that's normally used in an offensive manner. So, I look over my right shoulder, see a hole, edge out of the left-turn hole, stomp on the gas and book it down the boulevard. I'm going about 50 mph if only because I'm impatient to discover who is behind this billboard and what it is they're selling.

And then I see the smaller lettering below it and smile. It's an advertisement for the fourth season of Showtime's drama series, "Queer as Folk." Wow, I thought. If this prompted my homo ass to take a detour down a more congested road, imagine the reactions of the soccer moms, accountant dads and Eminem-blasting teen drivers who normally populate these streets.

There are a handful of gay-themed shows on TV, but none of them is as unabashedly gay as "QAF." What I mean by that is no gay-themed program has featured two men eating ass during its pilot, as "Folk" did in 2000. Showtime may have adapted the show from the trailblazing 1999 British TV series of the same name, but its true inspiration seems to be rival cable station HBO's "Sex in the City," which popularized frank sexual dialogue in serial programming. Some people thought Samantha describing anal sex was too much. Well, nearly every episode of "QAF" shows it, and there's never a woman involved.

I have a love/hate relationship with "QAF." I have seen every episode from every season, and there's never been an installment where I haven't grimaced at least once from its pun-soaked, so-overtly-witty-it's-not dialogue. Despite a few genuine laughs and non-saccharine moments of drama, the painfully obvious banter is the show's Achilles' heel. On the other hand, the show is celluloid crack. I don't know anyone who rented the first disc of the first "QAF" DVD set and didn't speed through the other five in a matter of days--gay or straight. It's neither terribly profound nor remotely subtle, but there's something compelling about it.

It is no surprise the show has made it to season four--the season, as the "SO GAY" advertisement makes obvious once you're right under it, that the serial "comes of age" (and for once, that doesn't appear to be a double entendre). Seeing how "QAF" is a week-by-week re-enactment of extended gay adolescence, I dismissed the marketing gimmick until I caught the first episode for this season (which aired Sunday evening) at a screening last week in Los Angeles.

Some things never change. Arrogant man-slut Brian is hot for twinky Justin. Michael is the ultimate do-gooder. Emmett is the resident queen. Everyman Ted hates himself. And Melanie and Lindsey, the obligatory lesbian pair, are preparing for the arrival of their second child (as they were their first in the 2000 pilot).

However, Brian is showing some humility (he's accepting financial assistance after a costly campaign that defeated an anti-gay candidate). Michael is breaking the rules (by hiding a troubled young HIV-positive hustler from his deadbeat mother). Justin has become an outspoken, politically charged young man. And Emmett and Ted--former best friends and former lovers--are taking charge of their lives. Everyone is growing up, and as a result, the show is maturing, too.

When "QAF" premiered, it suffered a bombardment of criticism--mostly from the gay community--because it was over-the-top without the irony, it gave the impression that all young gay males care about is casual sex, and its characters were seen as stereotypes at best, minstrels at worst. Four years later, the humor has sharpened a bit, the sex usually involves one of the four couples among the leading cast members, and the people portrayed have evolved beyond caricatures. Timely topics such as hate crimes, crystal meth addiction, gay child-rearing and civilian action against politicized homophobia are all addressed.

Perhaps most striking about the new-and-improved "QAF" is how its storylines are intertwining to make grander, more complex statements about gay life. In the season premiere, vignettes are divided by short, artful performances of a torchy drag queen. At hour's end, when the characters are celebrating at a local bar, the drag queen happily departs for his car, perhaps rejoicing a gay victory himself. He is then severely beaten by three thugs, the images of which alternate with scenes of jubilation. "QAF" is still losing its innocence, but instead of rim jobs, it's now coming of age by something more urgent and relevant.

The Homeowner appears biweekly. Send your comments and nude pics (especially if you look like Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to oughtabeinporn@yahoo.com.