It's A Sin

Patrick and I just finished watching It's A Sin, which proved to be one of those shows that is so good that you feel far less guilty about paying for HBO.

From the soundtrack (which I'm streaming right now), to the luscious casting, to the direction and cinematography ... I'm still thinking about every bit of it. Reminding myself of another time when so many were dying, but when no one seemed to care until it got so epidemic it could no longer be ignored (well, and until it was no longer just "the gays" who were dying). Remembering what it was like when it took six weeks to get test results. Immersing myself in London in the 1980s — so long ago and just yesterday. The show was so gentle with the subject and period, and yet so ultimately brutal.

I was particularly struck by the story of Jill, the Wendy in her crowd of Lost Boys, who reminded me so much of so many I have known (well, let's face it, I knew someone like every one of the characters, and so many who died). As I am wont to do, I read a number of reviews (well, really "hot takes") after we finished watching last night, and I was mystified by the ones who commented on their "disappointment" that Jill "didn't really reflect the lesbian angle on the crisis" — ummm, because in NO WAY was that even remotely close to her character arc. And then I remembered that these reviewers had not even been alive at that time, and they just don't understand. No, the story of Jill is that of someone who is outside the situation but intimately involved, indeed, the heart of the story. Chiding us that, in that crisis, there were many ways that lives were lost.

(Lydia West apparently held 80s gatherings to help the cast get into character. How cool is that?)

I needed this show right now. I needed to remember about other times of great loss. I needed to be reminded of a lost generation of young men and a sea change in society. I needed to feel like I was in the gritty London that I love.