Metrosexuality
Rikki Beadle-Blair, director.
UK, 2001, video, 150 min.

Move over Queer As Folk. Get out of the way Ellen. We've seen the future of queer television and it's Metrosexuality, the fabulous new TV series from England's Channel Four. With a breezy style that gives "swish pan" a whole new meaning, writer/director/producer/star Rikki Beadle-Blair (Stonewall) skips through this entertaining story like a lightning-fast hiphop DJ sampling the latest tracks from Moby, Beck, or Daft Punk (while the fashion reminds you of a 2001 version of the artist again known as Prince).

As the characters in Metrosexuality hurtle through the technicolor streets of London's trendy Notting Hill Gate with the urgent velocity of a late-night cell phone call to the number in a personal ad, just keeping up will leave you whip-lashed with laughter and begging for more. Beadle-Blair heads one of the most divertingly diverse casts ever as Max, a gay-divorcé dad with bleached blond dreadlocks doing his best to cope with life as a single queer.

Things aren't made any easier by sharing joint custody of a cute young straight son with a handsome ex-husband, especially when the son is determined to get his dads back together no matter what it takes. Throw in the travails of a lesbian sister and sister-in-law, plus the escapades of your son's two gay best mates (one of whom has a crush on Dad) and their poly-amorous friends, and you've got a world where sexuality is a slippery slope and the 21st Century family is in full swing.

Sound easy for Dad? It's not. But it's a lot of fun for the rest of us in this frank, funky, streetwise comedy-drama that's like nothing you've ever seen. Don't be surprised if an Americanized version shows up on your cable TV in a couple of seasons, but it will never equal the energy of this queerer than Queer As Folk British original.

Episode One
Kwame's attempt to reunite his separated gay dads backfires. His own love-life is on hold since his fight with his girlfriend, Asha. So he takes his inexperienced gay friend, Dean, out to score some action. Kwame's dad, Max, misinterprets his son's intentions but desperately tries to keep cool about the apparent new-found sexual persuasion.

Episode Two
Kwame tells Max that he's back together with Asha. Bambi and Robin's relationship continues on its rocky road. Max swallows his jealousy over Jordan, then takes Dean home after a football match and finds that a catastrophic event has occurred.

Episode Three
Max feels it's time to move on, tells Kwame to do the same, and checks his lonely hearts mailbox for replies. Meanwhile Kwame's birth mother has discovered one of her beloved cats is dead and gathers all her women friends for a wake. They call in a rent boy to cheer themselves up but are surprised and alarmed to see that the call boy has a very familiar face.

Episode Four
Max receives another reply to his ad and enjoys a steamy phone call with the respondent, until he finds out who it is. Robin's meeting with Bambi's parents proves too much. Kwame, Dean, and Bambi, determined to forget their troubles, set out for a night of fun, but it doesn't quite go according to plan.

Episode Five
Max comforts Bambi. Kwame denies that he cares for Asha. Hilly reveals Jonno's big secret. It's Mother's Day so Dean visits the psychiatric hospital, and Kwame travels north with Hilly, his mum, to meet his grandparents for the first time.

Episode Six
Max rejects a threesome. Cindy and Doris' plot to get Gabriel and Max together works a treat, though he's torn away to rescue Kwame and the emotional Hilly. Kwame faces the truth about Max and Jordan.

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