Fellow Travelers - I’m exhausted & horny?
Where to Watch: Paramount+ or wherever you get Showtime.
No. of Emmy Nominations: 3
No. of Beavers: 2.5 out of 5
Weaver Beaver Recommendation: See categories below:
If you’re gay and support queer TV - watch.
If you’re gay and looking for something good and gay to watch, I probably wouldn’t recommend this.
If you’re straight and either enjoy queer TV and the presence of GRAPHIC gay sex scenes isn’t a deterrent than I think you’ll love this.
Show Description: After a chance encounter in Washington, D.C., in the 1950s, Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer) and Timothy Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey) start a volatile romance that spans "the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco hedonism of the 1970s and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, while facing obstacles in the world and in themselves".
MW No Spoiler Review
Listen. I am a big supporter of queer television. I mean I watched Jarrod Carmichaels reality show for god’s sake. And I’m always saying we need more queer stories and tv (not more of Jarrod’s show) BUT I’m tired of seeing white gay stories. Give me something else. I really wish the story had been about Marcus Gaines and Frankie Hines. Hear me out. I understand the Lavender Scare isn’t something we talk about normally – so automatically this show gets a point for me there. It’s an interesting time in history that if one were to truly dissect it might be able to draw some parallels to today. Hi RNC and Grindr crash. Nice to see you – oh wait this isn’t 1950’s America where crazy right-wing Republicans are so closeted that they are on a witch hunt for those trying to authentically live their lives? It’s today? Weird.
ANYWAY! As an avid history lover, I thoroughly enjoyed going through the lavender scare and learning more about the men who tormented so many gay people back then. I hope they are rotting in some gay BDSM version of hell. HOWEVER, the white gay narrative is getting tired for me. And that is coming from someone who has written THREE scripts for a series based on a chubby white gay guy’s perspective. I just don’t think that their story was the most interesting story.
SPOILERS AHEAD…
I think the more interesting story was the struggle that Marcus faced as a queer black man in the 50s—prioritizing his fight for civil rights as a black man over his love and desire for his partner Frankie. Now I cannot comment on what that struggle is like AT ALL and I won’t, but I want to watch THAT story. I want to see his and Frankie's struggle to finally get to the love they have in the 80s when they adopt an older kid. Hawkins's struggle to be straight to advance his career and Timothy’s roller coaster through his relationship with religion to becoming a huge queer rights advocate was tired. And the ending? Didn’t get me.
Maybe I’m a bitter gay at this point, but I’m a little tired of the tragic love story. I’ve grown up on those and somehow feel that I tend to mimic them with my relationships because that’s predominately what I’ve seen. I want to see gay love just be normal and happy and not wrapped in some tragedy cause news flash we’re living through yet another gay historic tragedy where queer people are dying and denied rights. Let me escape. All in all, if you like history it’s interesting to watch, if you like gay tragic love stories you’ll love this and if you love GRAPHIC and I mean made me blush graphic sex scenes then this show is definitely for you.