For Jon Z.
Very good series which got it right in many ways. The sexual frenzy of being free at last in a big city. The depiction of the incredulity and even denial when AIDS started to kill people is so well done. The fear and more denial when it starts to strike hole.
For the first time in history, despite the general feeling of homophobia in society, gay men were allowed to be themselves and have all the sex they wanted only to be targeted by a mysterious sickness that seemed to punish them for daring to be so free. No wonder they thought it was a conspiracy.
For most people under 40, this series will feel like a period piece, as far away in the past as the death of Kennedy or Pearl Harbor. So much has changed since. We know what causes AIDS, HIV has been tamed by the ever more efficient treatments, life expectancy of treated HIV positive people is the same as everyone else, PrEp reduces the risk of contamination, and a vaccine, (thanks to Covid) is maybe in the offing.
There are still too many countries where you can be killed just for being homosexual but large swathes of the world the mores have switched from rejection and hostility to, first tolerance (which is far from enough), then acceptance and the discovery, with the banality of same sex relationships including marriage, that the Gay Agenda includes shopping for groceries, doing the laundry, paying taxes, raising children (of at least, cute dogs or cats)…
The cast of characters is of course a little stereotypical. One for each “type” of homosexual more or less. How could it be otherwise in such a short mini series (239 min) but that’s how every watcher identifies with a different part I guess.
I was Colin and I grieved when he died. Even more so because he caught HIV in what looked more like a rape than consensual sex.
Most of the women here are great, caring, understanding, strong. Except for the “mother from hell” in the last episode blaming everyone but herself.
Anyway, worth watching whatever your age. If you are young? You’ll get a little education on the sexual revolution that took place in the seventies only to be thwarted after a few decades. And if you ate a little older to remember what it was like to see friends and lovers helplessly dying and, on top of it, be blamed for their fate.
The series ends on a positive note. A party with laughs and tears and memories of people we loved and will keep loving…
