Available on Starzplay, the Queer as Folk series is a revival of the series that became cult in the 2000s.
What is it about ?
New Orleans. A group of friends from the LGBTQ+ community have their lives changed in the wake of a tragedy.
Queer as Folk, a series created by Stephen Dunn with Fin Argus, Candace Grace, Jesse James Keitel, Ryan O’Connell… Available on Starzplay and on the SVOD offer of Canal+ Séries.
So 2022
It will be 23 years since the creation of Queer as Folk under the talented, funny and touching pen of Russel T Davies and 22 years since its adaptation in an American version which will have lasted five seasons. And we owe this reboot to Stephen Dunn, a young Canadian director who stood out in the world of independent cinema in 2015 with Closet Monster.
New series, new decor and new atmosphere as explained by Devin Way who plays Brodie in the series: “The series takes place in New Orleans instead of England. It is an ultra-bright, musical vision where all cultures mingle. The spirit of this city is so electric.
This new version of the show is more inclusive than ever, representing the society we live in today with the full range of LGBTQ people in the community.“
Alyssa Moran/Peacock
Despite this radical change of scenery, this new version still retains a certain basic tone in common with the original series. “Some roles will remind you of characters you may have met in the other version of the series. It is also a reflection of the functioning of the queer community where everyone refers to everyone“, confirms Johnny Sibilly who plays Noah.
The characters in this new version are all colorful and reflect the full spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community. “Our series continues the tradition of the best representation of the LGBTQ community possible, as the show did in the 2000s. I think the vocabulary has grown to define who we are in this community“says Fin Argus who plays Mingus.
A face known to series enthusiasts also participates in the series. This is Ryan O’Connell, who plays Julian here, but who had his own series on Netflix, Special, of which he was the creator and the main character. It told the story of a young gay man with a disability who is looking for love. He too sees this reboot in the light of a much more open era:
What’s different with this version of Queer as folk is that all the actors on the show are LGBTQ. This would not have been the case twenty years ago with the launch of this format.
This Queer as Folk 2022 takes on a much more tragic dimension than the previous two because this time the issue of violence against queer people is openly addressed with a shooting in a gay club, just like the Pulse attack in Orlando in 2016.
The characters are then confronted with various traumas and must go through reconstruction. This return to life goes less through psychoanalysis sessions than real panic attacks and a less traditional cure that goes from the consumption of drugs to the consumption of bodies in a frenetic way.
Ultimately, this new Queer as Folk, tells a larger and more disparate set of stories. The series manages to produce a narrative that is significantly more queer than its predecessors and deeply rooted in its times.