I thought I was prepared...
I first learnt about the aids pandemic when I was around 14 years old. I was a big fan of The Big Bang Theory at the time and when I looked through Jim Parsons' (Sheldon) IMDB I stumbled across a film called The Normal Heart. If you've seen The Normal Heart then you know it's not exactly age appropriate for a 14 year old. I couldn't get through it all in one sitting. I was shocked at first by the graphicness of the sex scenes and found the whole thing very uncomfortable to watch. I wonder what kept me watching? Jim Parsons was barely in it and not acting a lot like Sheldon!
The Normal Heart had a profound effect on me. It was challenging but I think sometimes we forget how much young teens can handle. It might seem like a shocking thing for a 14 year old to watch but it was no more shocking (and certainly less derogatory) than what was coming out of my peers mouth on the school bus. Anyway, what left an impression on me the most after I'd finished the film was this gut wrenching sense of loss. These characters who you come to care and route for throughout the first half of the film are the same characters you have to watch slowly get ill and die in the second half. The funeral scene is something that stuck in my mind way after the shock of seeing graphic gay sex had worn off.
When I first heard about It's a Sin I was both excited and wary. I'm a huge fan of Russell T Davies. I grew up with his era of Doctor Who and as I got older I came to appreciate what a huge impact he's had on LGBT+ representation in UK TV. I've never seen Queer as Folk but I did watch his interconnecting series Cucumber and Banana which explored multiple aspects of modern queer life in ways that I'd never seen before. These were varied stories and experiences that were charming, funny, sexy and awkward. Ultimately they were just very well written snippets of queer life.
It's a Sin is about a group of friends living in a house together throughout the aids epidemic, stretching over the timespan of a decade in just 5 episodes. While the trailer looked great and the cast very exciting (Olly Alexander and Lydia West were big draws for me) I was aware that there was really only one way this could end. This series wasn't going to go anywhere I didn't expect it to and I was concerned that its main aim would be to get me to cry. It was either going to be cringely and melodramatic or turn into an incredibly morbid guessing game of who was going to make it to the end of the series alive.
After the first episode I realised how wrong I was. While stories about the aids crisis have been told before, there have been none that I've seen that focus solely on people in my own age group, doing the things me and my friends do and talking like us. I didn't expect to fall in love with this ensemble so quickly. I knew after episode 1 that this show wouldn't have to try very hard to make me cry, melodrama wouldn't be necessary. The shadow looming over them and the thought of losing them brought me right back to when I watched The Normal Heart. Only unlike The Normal Heart, It's a Sin assumes you already know about the aids crisis and foreshadows it heavily during the first few episodes. Prior knowledge adds to the shows tension. The biggest gut punches for me were the scenes where the characters were at their happiest because you know it's going to get taken away from them all too soon.
It forced me to think about how I or the people around me would act if it was happening today. I am very fortunate to know a lot of wonderful queer people. I think if I was there I'd be trying to help, I'd be manning phones and making posters. I think I'd be Jill.
As always Davies writing is superb. His sense of humour and character is what makes these episodes so enjoyable to watch. There's always light that comes with the dark and Davies nails that balance.
I do have my own personal gripes with the show. Once again in this kind of material Lesbians seem to not exist. At least The Normal Heart recognised their contribution to the fight while It's a Sin seems to ignore us completely. I understand that aids is a disease that mostly affected gay men and I'm not saying they should insert lesbian characters into the show for the sake of it but there is a support group in the film that Jill joins when things start to get serious and I'd just like to have seen some women around that table like I know there were. The sexuality of Jill herself is also never mentioned. I love Jill as a character but I found the lack of an outside life for her frustrating. Most of these details were probably cut due to time constraints and to keep the series focused. Again I'm not complaining, Jill is wonderful, but there did feel like there was a missed opportunity there.
What makes It's a Sin so different from other shows and films that cover this topic is its sense of fun. The storylines for each character explore more than just queerness and they do so in ways that are genuinely entertaining to watch. The chemistry within the group is electric. You believe these people are friends and some of my favourite scenes in the show are where they just get to banter round the dinner table.
Conclusion
For a lot of young people It's a Sin is going to be their The Normal Heart. The aids crisis is still something affecting our community today. It's a shared trauma for the people in that generation who had to go through it and witness the death of so many friends. There are almost scary parallels with the early lack of knowledge about aids and the early reactions to Covid. Richie's speech at the top of episode 2 where he declares aids to be a conspiracy theory made me realise how timely this series is.
One of the best series to come out in recent years and it couldn't have been released at a better time. No-matter how much you know I recommend giving it a watch. I was surprised at how much I still had to learn. I thought I was prepared but I couldn't have been more wrong.
9/10