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Posted: 08/14/01
© 2001 Filmmonthly.com Queer as Folk 2 (2000) Same men, new tricks... |
 The BBC likes to do things a bit weird. Then again, on the far side of the pond, viewers pay annual license fees for their TV sets in order to finance the whole shebang. The end result is that there aren't really regular seasons like here. The BBC decides to proceed with a "series," meaning a collection of episodes of a particular show, usually six or eight, runs them to death for a few months and then, at some arbitrary point in the future may decide to give the show another series. It can make for some rather bizarre effects -- for example, the show Red Dwarf has had eight series scattered over the course of eleven years, but during one long production gap the original model of the eponymous space ship was destroyed, so it was written out of the show for the duration.I only bring this up because it's one of the reasons that Queer as Folk 2 is quite a bit different than the original Queer as Folk, despite having been created only one year later. Rather than doing an entire second series, the producers chose to present us with a two hour "movie of the week" style wrap-up telling the further adventures of the Boys from Manchester. For this reason, it doesn't have time to build up the same overall impact that the first series did. On the other hand, if you've seen the British version of Queer as Folk, then the sequel is a must-see. If you haven't seen the first, then events and relationships here won't make much sense. You'll be watching the game without a scorecard.  Queer as Folk 2 picks up shortly after the first left off. Nathan (Charlie Hunnam) has left for distant London, while life-long best friends Stuart (Aiden Gillen) and Vince (Craig Kelly) continue to keep each other at arm's length while everyone else wonders how long it will take the two to wise up and realize they're supposed to be a couple. We open with a rather hilarious attempted three-way, as Stuart and Vince pick up some young thing at a Canal Street club. However, while Stuart is hot to trot, Vince comes up with every excuse imaginable to avoid playing along. Meanwhile, Vince is up for a major promotion at his grocery chain job and Stuart is suddenly having family problems, thanks to an accidental discovery by his evil minded, blackmail bent eight year-old nephew. Nathan returns triumphant from the south, while Alexander (Antony Cotton) is having family problems of his own, refusing at first to even visit his stroke-afflicted father, then later having a very odd encounter with his cold and distant mother (Kate Rutter) which drives Stuart to extremes. All the while, everyone is assuming that Vince and Stuart are boyfriends, much to the latter's annoyance and the former's chagrin. Everything proceeds apace to a stunning and technically flashy finale on Canal Street, followed up by a very strange coda that may or may not be reality. As with the original, many of the scenes here stand out for their brilliant writing, humor and performances. One of the most effective moments comes when Stuart defuses his would-be blackmailer by delivering a grimly funny monologue, admitting to being queer while using just about every possible derogatory phrase ever invented for same. Another bit of triumph comes when Nathan, being taunted by classmates while one of his teachers ignores it, answers the class roll-call by replacing "here" with "queer," and then daring that teacher to make an issue out of it. Nathan, as always, wins.And, as always, Vince's mother Hazel (Denise Black) is one of the most interesting and fun characters. She hangs out in the clubs, lives with an older gay man and is just as raunchy and foul-mouthed as any of the boys. In short, she's the kind of mother every gay man probably wishes he had. A sequence in which she does a little meddling to help her son get the promotion over his openly heterosexual rival for the job is priceless, as is a later scene when she commandeers an overhead projector to deliver an important message to Vince mid-seminar. There's also a wonderful scene in which Hazel and the other two mothers -- Nathan's (Caroline O'Neill) and Stuart's (Ger Ryan) -- get together to commiserate and get into a very funny discussion of "the butt thing," with which it turns out some of them are not unfamiliar. Once again, show creator Russel T. Davies gives us a caustic, brilliant, funny script in which it's often the most important things that are left unsaid. A great case in point is when Stuart's mother meets Nathan and finds out he's a fifteen year-old schoolboy. Davies never explicitly mentions the following, but the characters are so well-drawn that we connect the dots immediately -- Stuart's been babysitting for his young nephews, and his mother's reaction spells out all the forboding worries that cross her mind.  The center of the story, as always, is Stuart, who has to be one of the most complex characters ever put on television. He's not even all that likeable, and he continues his bad behavior here, veering from the merely callous to the quasi-legal as he decides that, "Just telling 'em to 'fuck off' isn't enough anymore." Compared to the first series, Stuart has surprisingly few one-night stands this time around. There is one thing missing from Queer as Folk 2 -- the rampant, gleeful shagging -- but perhaps that was part of the point this time around. The Boys of Manchester are finally, belatedly, learning how to act like men. If you're a fan of the original, then Queer as Folk 2 is most definitely a must-see.Jon Bastian is a playwright, screenwriter and TV hack living in his native Los Angeles. Like Nathan, he dreams of some day going to London. Got a problem? Email us at filmmonthly@hotmail.com |