From the mind of Russell T. Davis comes the highly successful show that spawned a US re-make and confirmed Davis as a talent to watch. A drama which follows the lives of three men living in Manchesters gay village. Stuart is rich and gorgeous Vince is funny and Nathan is young and wild as he finds his own identity... Featuring all the episodes from the complete series.
Television has become so much a part of our lives that it rarely surprises us anymore, so when a series like Queer as Folk comes along--truly shocking and genuinely touching--it's an event to be remembered. Originally broadcast as eight half-hour episodes on Channel 4, QAF follows the lives of three men through life, love and all the travails of such in Manchester. That the protagonists are all gay--and Nathan (Charlie Hunnam) is just 15 years old--is treated as matter of course, and were it not for the fact that every character who is introduced is so vividly realised, it would be the only point. The ultimate triumph of QAF is not that the explicit, explosive subject matter is handled (mostly) tastefully, or that it made it on screen at all--it's that the characters are so intriguing that the unflinching looks at sex and relationships almost fade completely into the background. The series certainly starts with a bang: in the first episode, young Nathan is deflowered, Stuart (Aiden Gillen) becomes a father and Vince (Craig Kelly) pines away with an unrequited love that quickly establishes itself as the series' main theme. (That Vince spends half of QAF with a boyfriend complicates the situation some.) Nathan has already come to terms with his sexuality by the time the series starts, but that doens't mean that the rest of his family--or his fellow students--have; Stuart, the biggest (or, at least, busiest) stud in town, and QAF's approaches 30 and starts to re-examine his life; and Vince has to live with the rest of them. The parents, families, friends and co-workers of all involved get plenty of screen time, and occasionally steal the scenes themselves--especially Denise Black (hairdresser Denise Osbourne from Coronation Street). The DVD includes a Photo Gallery and a handful of interviews, which add little to the package. --Randy Silver
Picking up where Queer as Folk left off, QAF2: Same Men, New Tricks exists primarily to wrap up the series. Consisting of two one-hour episodes, it occasionally moves fast--but it won't leave anyone who watched the first series behind. Stuart is still, we're constantly reminded, "a twat", and it's around him that this sequel revolves. Trying to come to term with his place in the world, he finds young Nathan a formidable protege, his family needing him less, and his friends... well, Stuart never was much of one for relationships. Vince, his one friend, has started to take charge of his own life, leaving Stuart to grow less and less connected to anyone else's definition of responsible behaviour. It's maddening, but it's also what makes the show so much fun to watch. Then comes the ending: keeping in mind that QAF2 was done solely to ensure that there would be no conceivable way to do any further series, the fantastical final 15 minutes is extremely effective, if a bit incongruous with the rest of the show. Camp and way, way, way over the top, it's an ending that the guys in the show would probably relish. --Randy Silver
A drama which follows the lives of three men living in Manchesters gay village. Stuart is rich and gorgeous Vince is funny and Nathan is young and wild as he finds his own identity.... This special collector's box set contains all the episodes from series 1 and 2.
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