#wellcomeoneileen talks qaf

[wellcomeoneileen]

Post 2/? on Processing QaF

End of qaf -technical points. 

This is a very logistical view on the literal end of the show. My more thematic l thoughts about the whole final season are also under this tag, in post 1. Again, conceding that I am very new to an established fandom and this is my immediate processing of finishing my recent obsession, and there are probably several other posts like this floating around.

I read every spoiler possible. I read nearly every fanfic possible all before I watched any of the last season of QaF. The endless thought pieces really did help sooth me for seasons four and five. I think I was a much more at peace with them than fans who were watching it live back in 2005. But the last one or two episodes had me pausing with my jaw dropped multiple times. I hated it!

And I contemplated why - when I knew every single thing that was gonna happen, even several lines of dialogue I knew!

And I think it comes down to the breakneck pacing and editing.

:readmore:

Because right after finishing, I paced around my home angrily muttering over what had happening. And outlining the end like that, even though I was in a mood, still sort of made sense. 

Brian has been a sex god for several seasons. He let down his guard to let Justin in. Out of fear, he did what fans/Justin thought they wanted, and asked for marriage/said I love you with Justin. Brian loves him enough to not force him to stay, Justin loves him enough to not make him change. Peacefully and lovingly, they go their separate ways with the strong and insinuation that they will either do long distance or reconcile. That sounds good! It was horrible to watch.

The show betrays itself by acknowledging the Britin arc is the most important to the show and viewers by saving it for the penultimate scene. The final episode(s) have all really revolved around Brian. Even the girls leaving was really about Brian (in its show presentation, at least). And Brian and Justin have the final scene of all the characters resolving their storylines. The final, final scene was an ensemble one (as it should be for an ensemble show) which reflected on the show as a whole. That was the epilogue, because Britin was the denouement.

This is tough in two ways.

First, because the Britin arc has a bittersweet end, yet felt more like the writers wagging their finger at the audience instead of a thoughtful conclusion that was necessarily bittersweet. Whole other post.

Second, because of their editing – both storyline wise and visual execution wise.

The decision to show Justin and Brian in bed together, not even see Justin leave, and then show Brian in bed alone was pretty cutthroat. I literally paused and my jaw dropped – but not in a good, teary way, or my heart strings were pulled way, but in a … I felt like the writers were kind of flipping me off? Or flipping the actors off? I literally googled if Randy Harrison had fought with the showrunners because of that (and allegedly, yes, lmao. You can tell!!!). That was just an unpleasant viewing experience.

Then, the writers did not give any sort of breathing room for that emotional beat to end and then the series finale beat to begin. There is no space between Brian being left alone and Brian and Michael going to the club and then dancing. No space timewise, plotline wise, or even visually, as they literally meld the end of Britin into the start of Brian/Michael final.

Because of this, even though I’m sure it was written and outlined as very separate plot points for separate emotional beats for separate scenes, it doesn’t feel that way as an audience member.

Instead, it feels like a run-of-the-mill action-reaction pair for a singular emotional beat. It doesn’t feel, or look, like two separate, contained, emotional beats.

Without being able to digest a very bittersweet conclusion to what is arguably the most important plot line of the entire show, it still feels like we’re still wrestling with that in the final scene. It is LEAPING from denouement to epilogue, which even tacky, bittersweet rom-coms don’t do, if you pay attention ( I am literally thinking of how the HARRY STYLES FANFICTION movie Idea of You handled this similar thing better, good lord.)

Therefore, watching Brian dance alone, while we’re being told the thumpa thumpa goes on, feels like he’s being reset. Because we go oh sad, Britin is getting a bittersweet end :/ then THIRTY seconds later we are seeing Brian party and it’s impossible for audience members to not directly connect those dots. Those are the only dots we’re shown!!

I read a 2005 livejournal where stayci28 said she viewed the end as more symbolic than real. It’s about the queer community continuing matter what and it’s really about people will continue to rise up. No matter what is being given to them and they will persevere, they will be proud, they will be here and they’re not gonna go anywhere. That’s a beautiful sentiment, makes a lot of sense, and is a fitting conclusion for the WHOLE show after the Britin bit is wrapped up.

However, Ron Cowan himself said that was only half true in an interview here: https://bjfic.livejournal.com/2528384.html?

He said that the dance was real and was one last outing. Though the sentiment is true – the scene was meant to be about queers surviving, not Brian being alone or an old party boy. (sidenote: see post 1 for me complaining that if this is one last outing…what is Brian doing, exactly, with his time now??)

But the editing and the pacing did not give the audience that space - and so the final scene still seems to be solely about Brian, not about the overall message of queer survival and joy. It LOOKS, at least, like (as Tumblr user @sophsun1 said) Brian was out with no son, no lover (who was in the city he wanted to be in), in a burnt out club. Rip.

The smallest of changes, like having the Britin ending coming earlier in the episode, or even inserting a single “breathing” scene between the Britin and finale scenes would have established the scene beats much better. Honestly, just changing Michael’s awful line (really that whole convo) about Brian always being young and beautiful to simply be about the ~~hopeful future~~ would have set the tone to be not about Brian being miserable.

When I see really old comments online about the end, I don’t get the sense that people fully “got” the end. From what I’ve seen, even fans who were okay with a bittersweet end weren’t really connecting that the finale wasn’t showing Brian miserable, lol.

I think the writers continuously structured the show to revolve around Brian and Britin, then wrote themselves out of that with various in your face plots/dialog, but ignored that beyond the literal words on script, story STRUCTURE impacts viewing experience just as much! These final two scenes display the embodiment of that issue.

The writers desperately needed to slow down, allow digestion, and visually show a divide of scenes if they had wanted the audience to comprehend the last two scenes as separate beats and not action/reaction.

Later this week, I have lots of thoughts about S5 replacement plotlines that would have easily fit into Cowlip’s established world, and a lot about Brian Kinney’s value system and internalized gender issues :)

#queer as folk #qaf #brian kinney #brian kinney s5 #justin taylor #britin #qaf s5 #let me timetravel back into that writing room and give me editing powers for ONE DAY!!!! #wellcomeoneileen talks qaf #i truly believe all good media runs the risk of eventually by ruined by someone thinking we dont need to edit this

[wellcomeoneileen]

POST 1/? ON PROCESSING QAF

The show’s ending was more sad than bittersweet to me. I really love heart wrenching and bittersweet and knew QaF would be, so I was surprised at how perturbed I was at Brian’s ending.

Many, many people have thought long and hard on this, so please accept this thought train as more of processing for myself and less as me thinking I’m adding something new/profound to a fandom I literally just joined.

There was a thematic letdown to the whole season and a technical letdown to the very last few minutes. Combined, I left with a sour taste in my mouth.

This post regards the thematic letdown, and the technical letdown can be found in this tag/later post as well.

The show built up to Brian’s big come to Jesus moment for four seasons, then went sidewise in season 5.

That’s because what I thought was his come to Jesus moment and what the show did were totally different. I never felt monogamy or settling down was the core issue for Brian in his view of self or in his relationships with other. I thought it was clear that was a proxy battle, and we were leading up to the bigger, real self-examination.

However, in this email from a show-writer, I think the writers really did see Brian as primarily needing the journey of romantic love, instead of needing an overhaul of his whole worldview: https://queerasfolkfans.livejournal.com/2034990.html

They seem to think Brian was a mostly happy guy, needing to better appreciate romantic love. He grew in that regard, and from it, learned to apply that to other relationships too, and then chose to still not place romantic love as his priority, but at least understands why it was important to have experienced romantic love. That’s not a bad arc, actually. That’s also…not Brian’s story?

My personal key issue, and what I feel like was many other fans, is not that he started and ended the show single, dancing, and proud to be different. The issue is that he started and ended the show lost, hurt, and unhealed.

Why did S5 treat examining his upbringing as something that wouldn’t matter?

Why did S5 end with Brian saying he would visit Gus all the time, Michael saying he wouldn’t, and Brian resigning himself to that?

Why did S5 tease us with Brian and Ted, but didn’t give substance to their friendship?

Ironically, it was the show that gave all of Brian’s conflicts, inciting incidents, and motivations be wrapped around his romantic arc. This shortchanges the viewers. The show writer may say viewers are ignoring Brian’s own wants by wanting him in a relationship, but the show itself didn’t let S5 Brian really have any depth unrelated to Justin. Even growth unrelated to Justin himself had Justin as some sort of impetus.

In S1, Brian only cares about his job and sex, and to a lesser degree, the gang. He gets more and more perspective as the show goes on. Critically, he loses both his wealth (Stockwell firing) and sex (testicular cancer) before season 5. The natural next question for S5 to tackle is, okay, if life isn’t exclusively about money and sex, what is it about?

Because the show didn’t allow Brian to examine this for himself, the obvious answer is Justin, the only other thing Brian has ever been passionate about on screen. But that’s a resounding no in-show. Okay, Michael and/or Gus? Also, the show said no.

So….what does Brian have going for him, then? The show only said “no” they didn’t dig deep enough to say “yes” to anything.

It’s like, the show said at the start, Brian cares only about youth and wealth and those things can’t sustain you. Agreed!

Then, the show said during its duration, romantic love can’t sustain you. Agreed!

But then…it stopped there? What IS sustaining Brian?? It was so obviously set up to have him embrace his community, particularly, Gus, and move beyond the reactionary, traumatized kid he started the show as.

In a good environment, young people can explore several aspects of themselves. Whatever myriad of values they have, they can find outlets for it. And Brian does clearly have several values:

Competitive, creative, problem-solver, likes a challenge, protective, stubborn, a love for flaunting the rules, and a struggle between independence and love of close-knit community.

But the abuse, rejection, and homophobia of his parents did not allow him time to safely explore these facets of himself. He had to quickly cling to whatever would give him positive attention, and he built his life around reactivity to what his parents valued.

He did not get the chance in childhood to deeply know himself. Season 5 would have done well to allow him to explore more of himself, and detach himself from simply doing things he parents would hate, and discover what he, regardless of what they may think, does love. He was primed to do in S5. But they just had him react out of fear more. His wild lifestyle and his settled down lifestyle were both fear-based reactions to trauma in his life.

He took up with tricks out of fear of losing Justin to Hollywood, then he proposed out of fear of losing Justin (and Michael). I would have loved to have seen Brian be allowed to make choices without being put in a corner first. That would have been wonderful character development and allowed more depth to him.  AND if those choices weren’t relationship focused until the end of the season, even better. The whole season could have been “If I am no longer THAT, then what am I?” and it didn’t have to have relationship drama until the end for a grand finale.

Ironically, the show itself was only reacting instead of finding their own stance, just like Brian. They wanted a character who wasn’t only into his romantic love. But they never said what he WAS into. 

In S5, they were perfectly setup, but totally fell short of completing Brian’s arc. He starts the show prioritizing sex and money. He does seem to learn that’s not sustainable. He wrestles with prioritizing romantic love, and the show says that doesn’t suit him. And yet, at the end, Michael and Gus are in places that Brian can’t really touch. So, we don’t know what exactly he should prioritize. What’s his new value set? His worldview? Literally, what will he does with his time now??

By all means, allow Brian to live a non traditional life! But they wasted time with going back and forth on MARRIAGE instead of letting us see Brian try and fail and learn what a life looks like not centered on money, sex, or childhood trauma.

Next posts will detail what I think are reasonable plotlines for S5, the small technical issue for the big last scene flop of S5, and will dive deeper into my thoughts on Brian’s value system that I mentioned in passing here :)

#qaf #queer as folk #brian kinney #qaf S5 #Brian kinney S5 #justin taylor #gus marcus peterson #michael novotny #wellcomeoneileen talks QaF

[wellcomeoneileen]

PROCESSING QAF POST 3/?

To me, season 4 was totally bearable, because I understood what the writers were aiming for, and simply squinted while I watched and revised in real time. Season 5 was beyond the pale.

An English professor once advised letting current emotion into writing even if it’s not related to the story, that passion can bleed through and you might be able to use it. Speaking ENTIRELY as an armchair psychologist here, I think this season was written with some real…displeasure on the part of the writers, and that was felt by the audience instead of being edited in a more constructive way.

I have done some googling, and this could be true and they were angry at the audience and/or cast and/or state of the world. Or, fans from 20 years ago were just coping like I am today.

However! Please allow me to present some ideas for what they could have done with their plotlines instead of (what I feel like) was repeating plotlines and throwing things at the wall. Angrily. Plenty of these ideas honor what the writers already created or even kinda got at during S5 itself.

This is very Britin oriented, because thinking about The Girls or Em truly sends me into a tizzy from which I cannot articulate useful ideas.

These ideas are rooted in my belief that S5 dropped the thematic ball that they had been steadily building, mostly with Brian, as referenced HERE.

These are pretty broad strokes, will maybe do a more structured/detailed rewriter vision later, with textual evidence.

First big point is if B/J stay together. Honestly, them splitting is a good move on the producers/advertisers side, because shows lose ratings when the main couple  stays together. However, advertising means nothing to the story quality. Let’s discuss both!

Either way, I wouldn’t want any of this to be about monogamy. Like I’ve said, I always thought monogamy was just the stand-in issue in Brian’s life for his deeper inner issues. 

If they break up:

Maybe the dust-up is Justin comes back from Hollywood and Brian is like live with me and let me pay for school again and Justin is like I’m a man now I have to figure this (living situation, no job and no education) out on my own I love you but I need to grow up.

Idk. Not married to that at all.

Then Brian is so hurt that Justin didn’t move in he blows up at the gang at a party and they cold shoulder him. Again, spitballing. Not attached to the idea for the inciting incident! 

For Justin:

Honestly have put less thought into tangible actions and motivations for Justin. That analysis requires more effort because the writers treated him as a plotpoint and mouthpiece instead of a character in S5 so I would need to give some deep thought to how to fix him, and I have only given that to Brian so far. But here’s what I think off the top of my head!

After this start of season dust-up, Justin is living on his own and he’s really processing all of the failed illusions of being an artist. We saw PIFA not go well for Justin. We saw Justin fired from Vangaurd. We saw Ethan have to sell out to be a successful artist. We see the Rage project being shut down for staying true to the source.

All of these are different disappointments with the reality of being a working creative that Justin could’ve been processing as a disillusionment of his love with art. And throughout the season, as he’s determined to make it on his own for the first time, we could see him being sort of resigned to a fate of having a typical day job. Being lucky if it’s in graphic design and maybe doing art as a hobby on the side.

And then I think the Jennifer and Tucker storyline could be really, really integrated into this. I think she could be the one to pull him out of this and say “When I was your age, I loved art but I got married to your father, started having children, and gave my passions up for a safe life. And now I’m a single mom, living on my own dating a hot younger man, and it’s scary and it’s hard and I get judged for it, but I’m finally living the life that I always wanted. I encourage you to do this dangerous thing of being an artist and yes, it’s going to keep being hard but you can do it.” 

And we see this rebirth of Justin as someone who is still incredibly optimistic - he just now has a more mature framework for that trait.

I could see this happening if there’s no B/J breakup to start the season as well, and he’s simply not letting Brian pay for things within their relationship, or something to that effect. Which!! I hope to later discuss their gendered roles and Brian’s internalized homophobia and patriarchal ideals 

For Brian:

Meanwhile, I think Brian line for season five it was actually really well set up for the writers. They just didn’t follow-through! We see in season three just Brian loses one of his most treasured assests: his wealth and career, but he still has his friends. In season four he loses his other most treasured status :His virility, but he still has his loved ones.

I would like season five to have him still be vivacious and for Kinnetik to be as successful as possible, but he no longer has his loved ones around him because of whatever happened at the start of the season (if we go with the breakup).

Brian realizes that his career and his body are not as important to him as his relationships. Or at least is forced to admit the three are equal. And we see him start to really evaluate why he is the way he is. I would love for him to dive deep into his childhood, confront his demons, and end the series by making some decisions for his adult self and not based on childhood trauma..

And then he reflects, reevaluates, and reintegrates everyone into his life through a new lens. This is really about him admitting to accepting and embracing the fact that the people around him deeply matter. Accept Debbie as a mother, Michael as a brother Gus as his son, Lindsay and Mel as dear friends and coparent, etc.

I fully acknowledge these were touched on – but he was still mostly given Justin/monogamy plotlines and emotions which I disagree with

SPECICALLY this could look like

Letting him throw down with Debbie? Because Debbie was his pseudo mom, but she always put Michael first. Which isn’t wrong, he was her actual son, but I could see Brian maybe projecting on her, or maybe pushing her away, or maybe just really re-integrating his role in her life and vice versa. That could have had some drama (for the ratings) since she’s such a fiery character. This could also be the inciting incident if B/J don’t break up.

If his second nephew came out as gay and ran away from Claire to be with his Uncle Brian, that could have mirrored season 1 with Justin, and show how he’s grown and learned since then, and forced him to confront his family history and baggage, stop generational trauma, and allow him to prevail over the ghosts of his upbringing, giving him and the audience a sense of positive closure.

And if it was the first nephew, the same nephew who falsely accused him of molestation, that could be some serious tension, and it could further the Justin S1 mirror by also showing a better version of Chris Hobbs –  a sort of what if Chris Hobbs had admitted he was gay and tried to atone instead of turning violent? 

Lots of full circles!

AND that could have sparked a fight between Brian and Michael as they disagree over dealing with their troublesome teenage runaways, if the writers wanted B/M drama. This could be wrapped into the Debbie drama?

I think having the nephew come, his own demons from his past, him fight with Debbie, then the nephew arc closes out and with this encouragement from his mentor trial period, (and having processed and moved on from his childhood abuse),  he realizes that he wants to be more involved with Gus. He then tries and fails and eventually figures out what kind of father he wants to be, and what kind of co-parent he and Mel/Linds are (God what I would do to have more Brian and Mel scenes), he and Debbie reconcile, and he has an active friendship with Ted, would have been beautiful relationships, excellent tying up, none of it focused on romance and all of it not promoting the nuclear family. I say that because the writers said they wanted to not focus on happy romantic endings, but also focused their show on Britin…so….

I also think this is where you could integrate some of attempting to be monogamous plot lines from the end of season five. Again, I wrote about what I think about that in another post, but without reflecting on that, let’s just use these elements that the writers came up with and obviously wanted.

I think he could’ve been the stereotypical father to Gus when he starts to be a part of his life. He’s teaching him to play ball. He’s starting to be strict with rules. It’s just kind of funny scenes. Likewise, he does the same with Ted - he embraces the fact that Ted is his friend, and he starts being kind and sympathetic, and not a bitch to him.

And in all of these situations he would hear from Lindsey and Ted to just be who he is. They love him. They just want him around. He doesn’t have to be a textbook Father and Friend. And I think that would greatly heal his inner child wound which again is something I’ve talked about elsewhere and as I think the big issue with Brian. But if he is able to accept his life and accept him the way he is, I think that could be a lot of his plot for this season.

I just don’t get why they didn’t allow exploration in his already pre-existing, non-traditional, non-romantic relationships. Good for his character, closure for the audience, gives plenty of conflict, allegedly what the writers wanted to get across with the ending…

 

Being separated from Justin or not, this could work.

And then, at the end of the season,

The two of them have separately reached their thesis statements of who they are. They can face each other, and these will be two characters who saw the potential in one another from the beginning when no one else did, pushed each other to potential throughout the show, and they have themselves embraced that for their own sakes, and they can choose each other for the next chapter of their lives.

Even, dare I say, (and this would be a controversial!) but I think viewers would be more open to them having a thank you for making me who I am, goodbye forever talk if we got that whole season of seeing them make that final big push in their maturation arcs. 

Or it could still be Justin going to New York, but instead of it feeling like this bittersweet hopefully they stay together, instead it’s they’ve reaffirmed their love to one another and are very confidently moving into this next chapter. I think this would change the tone of the ending to be, all these seasons have been the bildungsroman and now we are at a place to really takeoff into the future because our foundation is now so secure.

We could even have another “rules” discussion - but this time it’s like “you won’t pay for anything for me for the next three years.” “You’ll tell me when you start to fall in love for the one millionth time for some out of work actor” “you will say when you’re angry instead of ignoring my calls. You don’t have to say anything else.just don’t ignore me. Tell me. “

Shit like that. Because those were their real problems - not monogamy. Not married to that idea either - it could be way too much telling now showing or it could be a good throwback to their first rules agreement. 

#qaf #queer as folk #brian kinney s5 #brian x justin #britin #justin taylor #justin taylor S5 #Queer as folk S5 #wellcomeoneileen talks qaf