Queer As Folk 2 - Same Men. New Tricks

Drama

Aidan Gillen	Stuart Alan Jones
Clinton Kenyon
Craig Kelly (II)
Denise Black	Hazel Tyler
James Foster (III)
Craig Kelly	Vince Tyler
Charlie Hunnam	Nathan Maloney
Carla Henry	Donna Clark
Antony Cotton	Alexander Perry
Andy Devine	Bernard Thomas
Peter O'Brien	Cameron Roberts
Esther Hall	Romey Sullivan
Saira Todd	Lisa Levene

Director	Menhaj Huda; Sarah Harding; Charles McDougall
Producer	Nicola Shindler
Writer	Russell T. Davies

Picking up where Queer as Folk left off, QAF2: Same Men, New Tricks exists primarily to wrap up the series. Consisting of two one-hour episodes, it occasionally moves fast--but it won't leave anyone who watched the first series behind. Stuart is still, we're constantly reminded, "a twat", and it's around him that this sequel revolves. Trying to come to term with his place in the world, he finds young Nathan a formidable protege, his family needing him less, and his friends... well, Stuart never was much of one for relationships. Vince, his one friend, has started to take charge of his own life, leaving Stuart to grow less and less connected to anyone else's definition of responsible behaviour. It's maddening, but it's also what makes the show so much fun to watch.

Then comes the ending: keeping in mind that QAF2 was done solely to ensure that there would be no conceivable way to do any further series, the fantastical final 15 minutes is extremely effective, if a bit incongruous with the rest of the show. Camp and way, way, way over the top, it's an ending that the guys in the show would probably relish. --Randy Silver