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It’s a Sin Review

It’s a Sin is a 2021 mini-series created by Russell T. Davies. It’s such a difficult to watch, extremely heartbreaking series.

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“I could have done anything.

But I never will now“

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Depicting the lives of gay men during the AIDS epidemic in the UK, this series is a very brutal, serious drama that only occasionally inserted humor into the proceedings. As a result, I was taken aback at first by this heavy drama coming from the creator who usually focused on the more lightweight side of television, but by the end of the show I’d come to fully appreciate it for what it is – a truly devastating, important look into the worst period in LGBT history.

The series tackles this horrible pandemic in such a painfully honest, urgent manner, thus reminding modern younger audiences what it was like to be gay back in the eighties. Many young people today just can’t believe that it was this bad, but this series has the power to enlighten. Consequently, it’s a crucial history lesson first and foremost.

What Davies does here is depict the epidemic without ever condemning gay men for having careless sex. Quite the contrary, he shows the brutally hard-hitting reality of gays leaving their hateful homes to be free and happy, only to face an altogether different evil that this time around led to their demise. It’s truly a tragedy what happened and the series can almost make you cry how powerful and deeply sad it is.

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Davies also made another very strong choice and that is in the controversial depiction of parents themselves and where they stand in all of this trauma. Although the final scene with Richie’s mother was a bit too harsh, there is no denying the sad truths that the series proposes – it is the coldness of these homes and these parents that made young gay men literally rush into their death. The show’s condemnation of terrible parenting and homophobia in parents is brutal, but needed as no real parent would ever condemn their children for anything like this.

The characters are pretty good, though more could have been done with their development had they had more time as five episodes simply wasn’t enough. As a result, the show is too much a drama and not enough a lightweight, fun comedy and look into dating and sex. That prolonged depiction would have made the end tragedy even worse. The first half was very rushed indeed.

Richie Tozer is the inspirational, but also grounded in reality protagonist and the fact that the show kills off the main character is to be respected. His wide-eyed excitement and life energy are so empowering that ultimately his demise was very hard-hitting. Roscoe is the least developed of the bunch and his entire political subplot was abrupt and not that well realized. He was the least likable character here.

Colin is such an innocent sweetheart that his death was especially painful and brutal. Ash and Gregory are solid, but again more could have been done with their characters. As for Jill, I admired what she did for her gay friends, but the series was very problematic in its refusal to develop her character more besides her agency.

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It’s a Sin is technically so accomplished that it almost resembled an artistic feature film in certain areas. The 80s soundtrack is wonderful, Davies’ direction has improved considerably throughout the years and the editing and cinematography work in tandem to create some of the most impressive sequences in recent television history with the hospital scenes being particularly incredible.