rusty_halo | queer as folk season three

I liked Queer as Folk season three much better than season two. (But it still wasn't even close to as good as season one.)

I was pissed that it was so short, but pleased that it meant less inane filler.

The dismissal of Ethan was nice (he was so smarmy), but too abrupt.

Hunter is a cool character, and brings out really interesting qualities in Michael and Ben.

The steroid story was painfully lame.

The theme of the season was "growing up," and they showed that pretty well with all the characters. But dammit, why do TV show themes always have to be about lame shit like "growing up"??? Why can't they be about, I don't know, breaking down, or experiencing life, or like, more interesting, less PC stuff?

Every single plot is resolved way too quickly and neatly. Brian gets accused of molesting his nephew; Justin fixes it by the next episode. Ben gets addicted to steroids; Michael fixes it shortly. Etc. And no real consequences, because there's always an easy fix coming up. Such a contrast to Buffy (in its heyday), where issues were rarely nearly resolved, and often had long-lasting and painful consequences. I miss that.

Missed the lack of Brian/Michael interaction. But Justin is growing on me; I can see intellectually how he and Brian work well together, but emotionally Justin just doesn't do anything for me.

I can't decide who I hate more, Ted or Lindsay. They are both weak, whiny, pathetic little people. Ted is also skeevy and creepy and unbelievably wussy. Lindsay is a least kind of hot, but she's so unbelievably bland, condescending, self-righteous, conformist, and lame. I think I hate her more, because no one calls her on her patheticness; they all act like she's some kind of saint, and pay attention to her ridiculous pontificating.

It sickened me to see Melanie being treated like public property once she became pregnant, and the fact that she just went along with it. Reason #500,000,000 why I will never get pregnant.

Why do the token lesbians have to be the ones all about conformity and motherhood and family and behaving exactly like straight people? How about some female rebels? Seriously, not all women are so lame.

And how about some bisexual people? The show is all about binaries: gay/straight, male/female, etc. It's really stale and simplistic.

Not sure how I feel about Brian giving up everything to do the right thing. Sort of reminded me of Highlander, "Comes a Horseman/Revelation 6:8," where Methos finally has to make a decision, and risks everything for what's right, and gives up his old badass life. But that gave me such a delightful squee, whereas this really didn't. Maybe because for Methos it was more ambiguous, and he was more clever. Methos would've figured out a way to discredit Stockwell without getting himself in such trouble. And there was a risk that Methos wouldn't do the right thing, that he'd put his own survival above all. Whereas with Brian, you know deep down he'll do the right thing, because he always does.

I don't know. I'm very wary of Brian "growing up" (blech) because that usually means conforming and becoming boring and lame (like Lindsay and Melanie, uuuugh). But then again, he gave up his material possessions in order to protect his right to have anonymous public sex and do lots of illegal drugs. So that was cool.

I love seeing a character like Brian who is not a villain. I love that he counters mainstream notions of love and sexuality; I love that his relationship with Justin is so non-traditional. I think that is the only really revolutionary thing about this show. All the gay people falling in love and having babies and proving that "we're all really the same" ... nothing really revolutionary about that. They're just trying to say "look, we fit into the dominant paradigm too!" Brian is the only one saying "fuck the dominant paradigm; I do what I want, regardless of what anyone else thinks."

Which is, of course, why I love Brian, and really the only reason I'm watching the show.

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My main quarrel with S3 is that the season needed at least another four-six episodes to resolve the plot lines. As you said, too much was resolved much too quickly. In particular, I hated how Ethan more or less turned on a dime, and then after he and Justin exploded, Brian took Justin back almost as fast. IMHO, Justin should've had to grovel for a least a few weeks before Brian forgave him for the public dumping at the end of S2.

But then, I don't like Justin, and always want him grovelling. So perhaps I'm prejudiced.

See? Now you totally got to see the reference BtVS was making about Scott Hope being gay...

Hunter always sort of bothered me; but maybe it was the actor. But he does add interesting angles to the story (and lord, it needs SOME...any... angles...)

Interestingly enough, the trailers for the new season show Lindsay finally has decent hair. Maybe that means her character becomes more interesting.

I never searched for additional info online, but I think there may have been questions at one point about why weren't there any bisexuals, and I remember the excuse was kind of lame. But, I have no clue about what was said--it's been four years!

I can't even remember what happened last season. I may have to look up some synopsis site.

queer as folk season three

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