Is there really so much difference between fifteen and seventeen?
Not from the vantagepoint of thirty five, I can tell you. I also doubt there's that much difference between a 15 year old boy in the UK and a 17 year old boy in the USA. Either boy having a relationship with a 30 year old man would excite comment of the scandalous variety in both countries.
I'm finding the American version enjoyable, even if the first couple of episodes were nearly, uh, shot for shot remakes of the British series.
It's extremely refreshing to me to see gay men portrayed as something other than penis-less comic relief. For the first time outside of gay pornography, American gay men have been portrayed as the selfish, self-centered insatiable rutting sex pigs they most certainly can be, and most likely, have been. Let's face it, all we queers know a Brian Kinney (played really really well by newcomer Gale Harold). I find it also pretty remarkable to consider that we also probably know a queeny seventeen year old like Justin (played by another newcomer Randy Harrison). We've come a long way, baby.
For so long I've heard my queer brethren bemoan the lack of a realistic portrayal of the gay lifestyle in popular entertainment. You know, one that shows the boys, the sex, the loneliness, the assholes, the drugs, the friends, the freaks and the family in something approaching a realistic light.
Now that it's here, a lot of those same people are upset that it's somehow not as flattering as they expected.
Reality is seldom flattering.
Update 10 May 2001
I've now watched the entire first season of this show, and it never failed to hold my interest. I found some of the stuff to be high soap opera ... I mean, we're talking Melrose Place, here. However, some bits held tellingly true, and special mad props must go out to the actress that plays Justin's mom. What a terrific job she's done, and is now on my short list of actors to watch. I stand by my original comments more than ever.
Does QAF portray homosexuals and their lives accurately? Absolutely. If you're gay and couldn't find anything at all in the show with which to identify, you're just a damned liar, and you need to get over it.
Also, do all shows about heterosexuals begin with an apologetic message that states that the show one is about to watch doesn't necessarily portray the lives of all heterosexuals in existence? Of course not.
My gay brethren really need to lighten up, methinks. The show has broken ground here, my brothers and sisters. Said ground now ready for tilling. If you can do better than Queer Eye, I'll buy your DVD's too!