The HBO Max miniseries sensitively explores a lost golden age and the dawn of AIDS.
It’s a Sindebuts Thursday onHBO Max, and its five episodes cover a decade of increasingly difficult days.
“No yanking the Yanks!”
Ben Blackall/HBO Max
Ritchie commands, and that merry tone belies traumas ahead.
But he also uses the miniseries format to evoke far-flung layers of experience.
That montage full of hope cuts to a lonely AIDS victim dead in an empty hospital wing.
The three young men wind up living together, in a flat nicknamed the Pink Palace.
“God, you’ve all had each other,” Jill says at one point.
Ritchie laughs, but it’s really a warning.
She’s already seen one friend dwindle from HIV onward and he won’t be the last.
The AIDS crisis in the U.K. hasn’t been covered much on TV.
When Colin asks about his family, Henry says, “I’ve moved on from them.”
He does not elaborate.
He votes for Margaret Thatcher, and doesn’t think children’s books should feature gay parents.
“Every single conversation has to go on and on about AIDS,” he complains.
I’m not sure it quite works, honestly, despite Hawes' tense performance.
They know what theyshoulddo, and pull out a condom.
It sours the mood, slows things down.
They both agree: You “can’t feel anything” with one of those things on.
“We’re both clean, don’t you think?”
So does the fear, and the loathing.Grade: B+
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