Queer as Folk - The Complete First Season

Buy This Item Queer as Folk - The Complete First Season  List Price: $49.99  Available from Amazon  $25.49  on 11-28-2008     Features Actors: Gale Harold, Hal Sparks, Randy Harrison Directors: Michael DeCarlo, John Fawcett, John Greyson, Laurie Lynd, Bruce McDonald Writers: Ron Cowen, Russell T. Davies, Blair Fell, Doug Guinan, Richard Kramer Producers: Tony Jonas Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Language: English Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Number of discs: 1 Studio: Showtime Networks DVD Release Date: January 8, 2002 Run Time: 1205 minutes Average Customer Review:   282 Reviews 5 star:  (223) 4 star:  (30) 3 star:  (9) 2 star:  (8) 1 star:  (12) See all 282 customer reviews...   (282 customer reviews) Reader Reviews Queer As Folk - The Complete First Season - Collector's Edition DVD Boxed Set. A Showtime Original Series. This is an excellent original series featured on an outstanding DVD collection. I'll give you my condensed version: I enjoyed it a great deal. The acting is good, the stories are engaging and the characters seem real. I'm recommending it without reservation. First, the packaging of this set is top of the line. The six-disc collection is a double-sided fold-in design. Each disc is colored with one of the rainbow pride colors-a very nice, and unexpected, touch. Also featured with this box set-a nice little rainbow pride disc place marker-it's a six-colored rainbow ribbon. Before I get into my opinions, let me say that the discs themselves, quality wise, are outstanding. I watched every last minute of the six disc set, including the special episode editions and bonus material and had flawless picture and sound throughout. Yes, I did enjoy the series. I had never seen a single scene of Queer As Folk (QAF) before I got this DVD. That's not to say I hadn't heard about it, because I had. I've read a great deal about it: the sex, the drugs, the language, the lesbian bashing, etc. What I found, upon watching it myself, was that I liked the stories and I liked the characters. It's always difficult to forget what you've read when approaching a television series like this but I did my best to just approach it with my own personal life experiences as a guide. To address the mini-points mentioned above: There's sex and a whole lot of it. Much of it anonymous and much of it graphic. All of it gay/lesbian. Was I offended? No, not at all. As a matter of fact, the shear volume of sex actually makes it less shocking. The sex depicted in the series is not there to titillate (though it probably does); it's there simply as part of a story, part of the lives of these characters. Having watched the discs in long multi-hour blocks, it actually became a little numbing, though not to say uninteresting. There's drugs and a lot of them. They're taken frequently and unapologetically. Again, they're presented as part of the story. Was I offended? Not at all. They're not preachy about what they're presenting and not every character takes illicit drugs. "the language"-Actually this is where I get a little prudish (surprised it's with the language and not the sex?) because the mouths on these folks are trashy. I thought all the foul language was a little over the top. "the lesbian-bashing"-A little explanation here. Quite a bit of press has been dedicated to the idea that the lesbian couple in the series is verbally derided and "bashed" by the gay male characters. I was a little worried about this, being a lesbian myself. I was a little weary of it because after one episode, I was really enjoying the series and didn't want to get offended as things went on. I found though, that I was more than 10 hours into the series when I realized that I hadn't been offended yet, not in the least. There's some name-calling, some use of words I'm not particularly thrilled with, but much of the name calling, was done in jest. I didn't find it offensive or at all "mean spirited" and I was looking for it. The one time a particularly graphic word is used in a negative and angry way, it is used by one of the lesbian characters. The writer's have done a wonderful job with giving these characters expansive and full lives. These episodes deal with issues and problems:age of consent (by ignoring it), drug use (by using them), safe sex (by having it), lesbian moms (by portraying it), conversion groups (by lampooning them), school outings (by portraying them realistically), hate (by living through it), family dedication and confusion (by showing the impact of being yourself), excessive drug use (by showing the consequences). I defy you to name another series which tackles these issues. It does not feel forced; these are issues that these characters deal with. One complaint I've heard is that the "girls" have so little screen time. I'll remind everyone that there is a five man to two woman ratio so it's reasonable that the guys will be on screen more often. I'm just thrilled to have a lesbian couple featured at all. The fact that we get so much from them, with so little screen time, is a great indication of the fine writing and acting that we see here. For those wondering-we do get one sex scene between Melanie and Lindsay-its in episode 9. Quick comment on the season finale- This is the most amazing episode. It is incredibly moving and romantic and terrifying. I don't want to give away too much, but it was well written and well acted. You will be moved. On the believability scale-I'd give this series an "A. The discs-some information on the discs themselves and they way they are set up. Each disc contains 3 or 4 episodes. On each disc are six chapters you can use for scene access. Featured are each episodes "next on" promo-a feature which I liked a lot and which I was surprised to find. Each episode also contains a small summary of what the episode is about. On disc1, disc 3 and disc 5 are "special edition episodes" which repeat a specific episode with commentary by the cast and producers. These are fun to watch and it's always great to hear the actor talk about the character they are portraying. These cannot, though, be watched INSTEAD of the episodes. They are strictly extra viewing. Episode 1, episode 11 and episode 18 are given this special treatment. Disc 6 contains the last three episodes (20-22) and a great collection of bonus features listed in the Amazon page.  Comment | Permalink |  function showYesNoCommunityResponse(uId,result,value) { var msgLayer = getElement("thanks" + uId); if ( result == "SUCCESS" ) { msgLayer.innerHTML = "Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided to other Amazon.com readers and reviewers. 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Queer as Folk - The Complete First Season List Price: $49.99 Available from Amazon Price: $25.49 Updated on 11-28-2008.

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