Queer as Folk - The Complete Second Season (Showtime) [VHS]

Season two opens with Brian and Justin both a mess after Justin was bashed on prom night. Brian can’t forget what he saw, blames himself and won’t visit Justin though he stands outside his hospital room every night for six weeks watching him sleep. If that weren’t enough of a clue they are telling a dark love story here, Brian has also spent those weeks wearing a scarf covered in Justin’s blood under his shirts as the proverbial albatross around his neck. By helping Justin, who eventually tracks down his damaged lover, recover physically, Brian heals emotionally and they embark on an open relationship that Justin struggles with. Once he is better, Brian neglects him emotionally and he won’t speak up so nothing changes. Justin ends up cheating on their rules and leaving Brian for another guy. Gale Harold deserved an Emmy for that final scene where he stares across the party at Justin, his eyes bright with love, and then close down entirely, his mask of indifference back in place when Justin walks.I was torn on who was to blame for their split because Brian did a lot for Justin, but he also stopped treating him like he was anything special once he recovered. Yet Justin resorted to sulking and expecting Brian, who he knows is emotionally broken, to figure out what he wanted. In the end I decided they were both to blame, it being a first relationship both and both failing the other in different ways. People tried to tell Brian to do more, but he said Justin had no complaints...Justin had them but never voiced them. When Brian learns about Ethan he makes the wrong play. I don’t think Brian ever knew what made Justin love him so he resorts to verbally gutting him and seduction to try to keep him, which is actually what made Justin chase him last season only to fail now. Justin’s face as Brian refuses to say he would miss him and asks why he is still there is heartbreaking. Mute it and you see Brian’s body language is asking him to stay, but the words are what Justin focuses on and they are cruel. Brian actually scolds him for this in season 3 saying he didn’t hear what he wanted to he left.This is the only season Ben is interesting, the rest he is Mr Granola. They ignore the fact that saying he slept with Brian 2 years prior and that he became HIV positive 5 years prior means that Brian unknowingly slept with a positive man. Brian uses safe sex and has been tested, but obviously Ben never told him, where is the anger?I saw little chemistry with Michael and Ben, and their love scenes are a bit icky because of it. Michael is adorable so it is like watching a puppy do a sex scene. He had enough chemistry with David last season to make them steamy but with Ben...meh.Justin’s mom continues to be annoying and rather useless this season as she runs Brian out of an 18 year olds life after allowing it when Justin was 17. Nothing is ever said about Justin throwing her around like a rag doll either. She just keeps doing the wrong thing until she finally gets it right and then vanishes.I loved George as Emmett’s older lover, it was a shame it was over so quickly. Ted as a potential boyfriend is promising, although Ted’s crush on Michael is forgotten.They still gave Justin his edge this season, in later ones they seem to forget he can best even Brian. This is also the last long season, the rest are all a lot shorter. It is also the last season where they have all the guys hanging out at breakfast, Deb’s for dinner and at Babylon. With the Britin split, the group fractures and the family vibe is contained to a few scenes here and there. I forgot that Ted and Mel were friends because it gets dropped going forward.No deleted scenes, but the original music is used. The viagra ep is hilarious.

Great series with interesting characters and plot lines

Love this show! The actors are great and has an intriguing story line!

I use to watch this show when I was in middle school and it gave me so much hope as a gay kid. This show made me feel so comfortable being myself and plays a big part of me being so confident at such a young age!

Excellent representation of the gay community and relations with others for the most part… Everything happening in this is reality-based so if you want to enjoy yourself with excellent stories and acting… This is it.Plenty of important topics are addressed and usually handled very well. much language, sporadic drug use and sensuality/nudity is included. This is to advise those who do not want to experience this real life drama because of those factors… Sorry, if you do not watch because you can learn quite a bit and realize that we are all one and the same in most aspects so we should all learn to agree to disagree on a few things while we generally agree with each other on most.Yes, gay people are clearly one subset of humanity, but human beings before anything else and everybody should treat each other with kindness and patience. Your choice!

I used to watch this series with a former friend and I fell in love with it. Recently, I did a re-watch thanks to my local public library and decided I needed to own this series. Twenty years after the series originally aired on Showtime, it's STILL relevant. I know there are many people who have an issue with the age difference between Brian and Justin; but I really appreciated their story arc a lot more this time around. According to the writers of the show, they drew from real life experiences. Yes, I know Peacock is doing a re-boot of this series, but nothing will compare to the original cast.

Seller I purchased from shipped quickly and it arrived on time just as estimated.I really wish Showtime and their distribution company would've made subtitles available on this. There are not subtitles on this set. But for what I paid, I got a wonderful addition to my TV show collection. So that's fine with me.Can't wait to collect the other box sets for this show. Netflix has it to stream, but they changed the music. so another good thing about this set is everything's original just like it aired on Showtime Channel.

If you've never seen this show, you should. It shows the real world of people. It's not just for gay individuals. It will make you laugh and cry, and love all the characters.