Queer as Folk (2022 TV series)

Did You Know?

• In Australia, the series premiered on Stan on June 10, 2022.
• The series aired in Canada on Showcase beginning June 26, 2022.
• The series was picked up by Starzplay for distribution in the UK, several continental European countries, and Latin America.

Cast and characters

Fin Argus portrays Mingus, a non-binary teen and high school student who aspires to be a drag queen; Mingus is saved from gunfire at the Babylon nightclub when Brodie tackles them, and becomes smitten with Brodie. Candace Grace plays Shar, Ruthie's partner who uses they/them pronouns and the parental term "Zaddy"; Shar gives birth to twins the night of the shooting, with Brodie as the sperm donor despite Shar's disapproval. Jesse James Keitel appears as Ruthie O'Neil, a trans woman and English teacher at Mingus's high school, who is Shar's partner and Brodie's best friend since Catholic school. Ryan O'Connell plays Julian Beaumont, Brodie's brother, whose homosexuality is unknown to Brodie until Julian is arrested for sex in a mall bathroom. Johnny Sibilly portrays Noah Hernandez, Brodie's ex-boyfriend and a lawyer who struggles with addiction and grief after the death of his secret lover, Daddius, in the Babylon shooting; the new party Ghost Fag is held in Noah's home. Devin Way stars as Brodie Beaumont, the complicated protagonist who drops out of medical school to return to New Orleans; he takes a bullet in the arm saving Mingus on the night of the shooting, and is the sperm donor for Shar's twins. Kim Cattrall plays Brenda Beaumont, the eccentric mother of Brodie and Julian. Juliette Lewis portrays Judy, Mingus's free-spirited mother. Ed Begley Jr. appears as Winston Beaumont, Brenda's rich husband and father of Brodie and Julian. Armand Fields plays Bussey, a drag queen and LGBTQ+ community leader who works at Babylon organizing performers and teaches drag; on the night of the shooting, Bussey ignores their wounds to protect community members from media exploitation, and later takes on their former role when Ghost Fag opens. Chris Renfro portrays Daddius Miller, Brodie's best friend and Noah's secret lover, who is killed at Babylon.

Production

In December 2018, Bravo began developing a new version of Queer as Folk, with Stephen Dunn writing and directing and original creator Russell T. Davies executive producing. The project moved to Peacock by August 2019, and the streaming service ordered the series in April 2021. Dunn, who said he used Davies’ 1999 series as a starting point and ignored the Showtime adaptation, built the writer’s room while isolating at his mother’s condo in Newfoundland during the pandemic. The entire writing staff, except one assistant, was queer. Casting announcements came between August 2021 and March 2022, adding Jesse James Keitel, Candace Grace, Johnny Sibilly, Devin Way, Fin Argus, Ryan O’Connell, Kim Cattrall, Juliette Lewis, Ed Begley Jr., Armand Fields, Chris Renfro, and others in regular, recurring, or guest roles. Filming started in New Orleans by October 2021. Peacock canceled the series on September 23, 2022, after one season due to low viewership.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series received an 80% critic approval rating with an average rating of 7.6/10 based on 20 reviews; the critics consensus called it "Sprawling to a fault but packed with lovable characters and cultural resonance." The Guardian praised the diversity, writing that the show "finds ever more delicious and delirious ways of offering prickly story beats and character arcs that refuse to flatten or homogenize the LGBTQ+ community." However, the public Rotten Tomatoes approval rating was 44%. Metacritic assigned a score of 53 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating mixed reception. Some critics and the public did not warm to the iteration, and the show was canceled after one season. Camilla Long of The Times wrote that the show "toes a fine line between representing marginalized communities and potentially exploiting their trauma," adding that the reboot "feels jaded, as if we are watching things we’ve seen a hundred times before." Richard Lawson in Vanity Fair stated, "The new Queer as Folk gets bogged down in Tragedy... But is that what Queer as Folk should be? After watching all of the first season, I think my answer is no." The Boston Globe noted, "There’s plenty of emoting going on... but there’s not enough character depth and warmth in the air."