Hey guys, I have a question for anyone here who remembers watching some HBO series as they aired. I was born in 2004 and I just turned 22 last week actually. I watched The Wire for the first time in high school, then again my freshman year of college, and then again last year during my junior year. Obviously I thought it was incredible the first time around and I’ve enjoyed more each time, and one thing that has always stood out for me was the gay characters like Omar and Kima. I genuinely hadn’t seen anything like them on TV before, just interesting well-rounded characters where being gay was just a small part of them, on a show that wasnt explicitly centered around LGBT themes.
Anyway, it really shocked me. I just started Six Feet Under, and again there’s a really interesting gay character. So not one show but two, now. I had no idea before going in and I’m pretty sure this guy is a main character for the whole series. It’s honestly breaking my brain a little bit, these shows started airing before I was born and they have a kind of representation for a long time I thought didn’t exist yet. It’s just so casual, I don’t know.
I remember watching Modern Family with my family as a kid and that was kind of talked about like it was ground breaking, but how could it be with shows like the Wire and Six Feet Under airing a decade before? Were these shows popular at the time, or maybe mainstream is a better word? Or were they seen as edgy TV in a way.
Im really curious what the response was at the time, or even your own personal feelings if you were there and remember.