About Q-FORCE

 I watched the first three episode of this LGBTQ-flavored animated series now on Netflix.. I have to agree with Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter. If this series, Q-FORCE, had launched in 1997, when MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING was on movie screens and the year before WILL & GRACE made its bow on NBC, it would've been hot stuff. But what I saw was more like tepid bathwater. The music may call to mind THE INCREDIBLES, the animation is groovy and we see naked animated people -- mostly men - but it feels oddly dated. Like we've already seen these characters. It also feels like it's trying too hard to be fabulously gay. Why the mention of MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING? When the movie came out and folks loved Rupert Everett as the gay best friend to Julia Roberts' character, there was talk of a "gay James Bond" and, perhaps, Everett could play him. Q-FORCE is an animated gay spy comedy. Handsome, muscular Steve Maryweather is an aspiring intelligence operative who graduates at the top of his class from the American Intelligence Agency. He dreams of international assignments. But those dreams are dashed when he comes out while making his valedictorian speech. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" had just been repealed. Instead of being assigned overseas, Steve's homophobic boss assigns him to -- West Hollywood, an epicenter of gay life in Southern California. That's where we find the frustrated Maryweather ten years later.

He decides to put together his own ragtag group of spies -- gay spies -- and get some assignments. There's proudly full-bodied Deb, voiced by Wanda Sykes, there's a slim lesbian computer whiz and an equally slim master of disguises called Twink, because that's what he is. The majority of flaming comments about cosmetics, skin care, overnight tricks and fashion statements come from Twink. He's like an extension of Jack on WILL & GRACE. Incidentally, Sean Hayes, who played Jack, is the voice of Steve Maryweather.  Hayes is also one of the show's executive producers. The crew does the best it can in its assignments. It's joined by the brawny, thick-browed, annoying straight employee Rick Buck. Instead of a cool car like James Bond always drove,  Steve has to get around in a Subaru that lesbian mechanic Deb customized. Here's a trailer.

The first two episodes were so-so and can't match classic episodes of ARCHER. That animated secret agent series on TV has a definite gay vibe with Archer's team members gay Ray and Dr. Krieger. Couple that with the delicious "hint of mint" that frequently comes from macho Archer. Things picked up a bit with the third episode, one that does a bit of a riff on BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. The crew is assigned a mission in Heartland America. Steve has to deal with a taciturn, cowboy-like character named Ennis (just like Heath Ledger in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN). Ennis claims he's straight but he has a collection of SEX AND THE CITY episodes on DVD. This episodes shows dudes completely naked and engaged in steamy sex. What tickled me the most is that clueless Rick Buck, one of the dudes we see completely naked in this chapter, is voiced by David Harbour of STRANGER THINGS fame. Harbour is in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. He played the married guy Jack Twist started seeing when Ennis wouldn't commit.

I'm not going to give up on Q-FORCE yet. I'll give what I've seen a C+. I'll watch further episodes to see if it picks up even more.