S01.E04: #F*ck Disabled People

[AnimeMania]

Marvin and Ali throw a party for people with disabilities at Ghost Fag; Brodie babysits so Ruthie and Shar can have a night out, but it doesn't go as planned; Mingus attends Bussey's drag school; Julian meets someone.

[Scarlett45]

It’s Nyle DiMarco!!! I’ve been waiting for him! He is so so hot.

I guess this is what I get for assuming, but I too thought Shar was a lady. Cocaine doesn’t just last 15min!!!

Brody no. Just no. Julian didn’t need a sex worker, he needed confidence. Also Brody, Mingus is a child, not a bandaid- cool Mom or no, I wouldn’t be cool with my 17yrs old hooking up with a grown ass man. Not someone just a bit older (like college), but a GROWN ASS man. 
 

Noah- I don’t think he’s into Julian. I think he’s depressed over Daddius and wants a bandaid, first it was Brodie (and that didn’t work because of baggage) and now it’s Julian. Ugh. 

[Starchild]

Julian is at least more compatible from a personality perspective.

I watched the previous two QAF series, as many watching this version likely did as well. I liked the original British one, but I really loved the following US version with Brian, Michael, Ted, etc. I even have that series on DVD.

This version is all surface flash so far. There's virtually no substance here. Compared to the previous version, Brodie's counterpart (Brian) was an asshole, yes, yet he was not only employed, but a genius at the top of his profession; his supreme self-confidence was justified. His lesbian friend (Ruthie's counterpart) was fully committed to her family, not a flake who runs out on them every time someone hints at a party going on somewhere.

In fact, not only are most of these characters not as well-defined right out of the gate as in the previous version, a lot more of them are assholes. I don't get Brenda's disdain for her husband. They keep telling us through her that he doesn't deserve respect. Come on, show us why. Who brings in an actor of Ed Begley's calibre and then doesn't use him? Then again, he'd pretty much blow most of his scene partners out of the water. Many of these actors aren't very good, but I'm usually willing to overlook something like that for quality writing, which unfortunately the show hasn't really demonstrated yet.

I get that they've used the framework to create different characters with different motivations, but then let's see that. 

So far the closest we've gotten to a character moment that feels like it happened to a real person is Marvin letting his guard down with the sex worker and allowing true human interaction between them, and then him putting his walls right back up again in the harsh light of morning. Although, his willingness to steal money from charity for his own personal gain seems like a false character beat after all his activist comments. Then again, something rare and momentous happened the night before and people have done much worse to hold onto something like that.

Overall, I'm not impressed with this version so far. I'll finish out the season, since it's short. Sometimes a season finale will do something unexpected and draw me back in. We'll see what happens.