Created by the screenwriter of the film “Philadelphia”, Ron Nyswaner, the series “Fellow Travelers” follows the romantic passion between two men during the time of McCarthyism, a period ripe for the hunt for communists and homosexuals. On CANAL+.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT ?
The charismatic Hawkins Fuller leads a political career and avoids romantic relationships, until he meets Tim Laughlin, a young man brimming with idealism. They begin a romance at the same time that Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn declare war on “subversives and sexual deviants,” thus initiating one of the darkest periods in 20th-century American history. Over the course of four decades, Hawk and Tim cross paths through the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco hedonism of the 1970s, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
Fellow Travelers, a series created by Ron Nyswaner.
WHO IS IT WITH?
At the heart of this series, a duo of actors: Matt Bomer (FBI: Very Special Duo; Magic Mike; The Normal Heart) and Jonathan Bailey (The Bridgerton Chronicles). Explosive on screen, they opposite Allison Williams (Girls, Get Out), Jelani Alladin (Tick, Tick… Boom!), Noah Ricketts (American Gods) and Will Brill in the role of Roy Cohn, formidable American lawyer who actively participated in the witch hunt carried out in the 1950s.
IT’S WORTH CHECKING OUT ?
In the United States, from 1950, the fear that plagued the country was distinguished by two colors: the red fear, symbolizing the hunt for communists, and the purple fear, which designates the hunt for homosexuals or “sexual deviants” as lawyer Roy Cohn, right-hand man of Joseph McCarthy and himself secretly homosexual, liked to call them.
This liberticidal climate is hitting America hard. Denunciations, espionage, lie detector interrogations… anything goes. In just two years – from 1953 to 1954 – an estimated 10,000 people lost their jobs, not to mention the suicides committed in total indifference.
Showtime Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey in “Fellow Travelers.”
In this societal and political upheaval a love story is born. A clandestine, outlaw passion, not so different from Shakespearean tragedies. Fellow Travelers follows the destiny of two men, Hawk and Tim, who will consummate their romance at the risk of losing everything. Unlike the eponymous book by Thomas Mallon of which the series is the adaptation, the creator Ron Nyswaner – screenwriter of Philadelphia with Tom Hanks – being the action over thirty years.
Thus, rather than offering a look at this specific period of American history, the creator revisits three decades of the history of LGBT+ movements. From sexual liberation in the early 1970s to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, Fellow Travelers is an epic and exciting work that sets in stone the struggles and sacrifices of the heroes of the time.
Showtime
Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer in “Fellow Travelers.”
Far from being content to be a simple boring school history lesson, the mini-series goes all out on the costumes, the settings and its subplots which echo both the great Hollywood noir films of the forties as well as to the dramas of Douglas Sirk.
Of all plans, Matt Bomer And Jonathan Bailey, whose alchemy could well explode all the thermometers on the planet, bring the right amount of charm and strength to their characters. The series does not hesitate to make the physique of its actors a major asset, particularly during numerous hot sequences, and embraces it.
This is perhaps the genius of screenwriter Ron Nyswaner: never using glamor and sexy to the detriment of substance. Through its many subjects, Fellow Travelers remains extremely relevant today and encourages us not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Fellow Travelers can be discovered on CANAL+ and myCANAL from January 18.