It’s a sin
Welcome to the weekend frenzy. Each week, we’ll bring you a compelling title designed to keep you from going too crazy. Check back throughout the weekend for even more gloriously queer entertainment.
The egalic: it’s a sin
Television dynamo Russell T. Davies produced some of the best work of his life earlier this year with the limited series It’s a Sin. In a career as long and successful as his, that says a lot.
Davies takes a chapter of his own personal story in the series, following the lives of a group of friends, mostly queer men, living in London in the early 1980s. At first, young gays revel in their freedom. sexuality regained, even as rumors of a so-called “gay cancer” begin to circulate. Then people start to fall dead, quietly and in the shadows at first. Within a few years, however, the entire LGBTQ community fell victim to political assault as HIV killed scores of gay and bisexual men, as well as transgender women.
By now, the story of HIV should be familiar to you, dear reader. It’s A Sin sets itself apart from the multitude of other movies and TV shows that deal with the subject by embracing the youthful idealism of its characters. Ritchie (Olly Alexander), Roscoe (Omari Douglas), Colin (Callum Scott Howells), Jill (Lydia West) and their friends are familiar with them: they seem like people we might meet today while walking down the street. We first revel in their joy and fabulously strange life before seeing them suffer. It makes the pain of it all so much deeper.
Various critics have commented on the cautious optimism Davies often weaves into his stories: Years & Years, Cucumber, Queer as Folk and his stint on Doctor Who all have that quality about them. It’s a Sin breaks with this trope: when it ends, we are not so much filled with hope as with burning rage: rage at the cold indifference with which society has treated the AIDS crisis, rage against the political demagogues who demonized the gay community, rage for families who abandoned their children to disease, lash out against the suffering endured by the community. For all the praise given to the show’s gay and male actors, Lydia West’s Jill becomes the backbone of the show. We attribute this to his rich acting gifts and the fact that Davies let his character express that righteous anger in the show’s final scenes.
It’s a Sin ranks alongside Pose and Angels in America as one of the greatest works in television history to ever face the AIDS crisis. This owes to a competent cast and, most importantly, to the power of Davies’ writing. As voices from the queer world continue to cry out that “Pride is protest,” It’s a Sin reminds us why. It is a powerful reminder of the love of a chosen and queer family, of the preciousness of life and of a crisis we must never forget.
Streamed on HBO Max.
