HBO Max’s It’s a Sin runs through vibes and genres like a DJ running through songs. Comedy, drama, coming-of-age, romance, ’80s nostalgia-fest—the show does it all and it does it all well. Showrunner Russell T. Davies crafted a cast of charismatic, immensely lovable up-and-comers playing characters that feel so real because they make you laugh and cry. And the show’s place in the queer canon is cemented the instant Roscoe (Omari Douglas) not-so-politely tells his family what they can do with their bigotry. It’s a serve, and sure to become a staple of queer memes and drag culture.
But of all the genres that It’s a Sin does (and does well!), there’s one genre that holds it all together and makes It’s a Sin not just an entertaining watch, but a required watch: It’s a Sin is a horror show, and it’s made all the scarier because the horrors were—and remain—real.
It’s a Sin follows a group of queer, college-aged friends as they party hearty in early ’80s London—and then the AIDS crisis happens. No punches are pulled, nothing is too sacred to destroy, and happy endings are not to be expected. AIDS ravages the charming, effervescent, and lively It’s a Sin in the same manner that the actual disease ravaged the queer community.
That dichotomy, though, makes It’s a Sin feel uniquely of the horror genre, as opposed to many of its queer peers. Like, Pose is clearly a period drama, despite tackling many of the same topics (albeit in New York City and not London). But while watching the first episode of It’s a Sin, now available to binge on HBO Max after an acclaimed run on Channel 4 in the UK, it becomes clear that this show is doing something different, something menacing. The show turns its cast of characters into victims of a monster they don’t yet know exists—but you, the viewer, are all too aware of what’s coming next.
The joy is there in the first episode—even thriving at first. The young leads all convene on London from disparate towns, leaving behind their conservative families for the freedom of being young and gay in a big city. Whether at university or in the city, these young adults can finally explore and express themselves. They can study acting, they can do drag, they can find sex and love and a career—and none of them can possibly know what’s coming.
But we do.
And that’s why so many moments at the beginning of the series are layered with dread, like Ritchie (Olly Alexander) gleefully chucking the condoms his dad gave him overboard. Whispers about a “gay cancer” happen around the edges of otherwise pleasant scenes, like the hidden ghosts in The Haunting of Hill House. Even when confronted with what little evidence there is at the time, many of the characters all respond with incredulity. They don’t believe a monster is real because why would they? It’s a monster. Would the government seriously downplay the danger or withhold vital information from the public? Never! But the monster is real and yeah, the government was completely fine with letting it run rampant so long as it was killing all the right people.
The horrors of “Episode 1” all crystallize around—perhaps appropriately—the character played by international gay icon Neil Patrick Harris. For American audiences, he’s the most familiar face on the show and one of the most familiar gay people, period. Spoilers immediately after this comma, because his casting feels like Scream casting Drew Barrymore.
Harris plays the fastidious Henry Coltrane, a Savile Row tailor who takes shy, young Colin (Callum Scott Howells) under his wing. Through Henry, we—meaning the Millennial and Gen Z gays who need to watch this show—see what gay life could be like for some in 1981. Henry has a career, he has a partner, they have a house, and they even have the blessing of one of their families. They live relatively openly, so long as they never publicly define their relationship. It’s nowhere close to equality, not at all, but it’s at least aimed in the right direction considering gay sex was decriminalized in England just 14 years earlier.
But what’s most beautiful about this storyline is the intergenerational mentorship between Henry Coltrane and Colin, a fellow gay man almost 30 years his junior. Henry and his partner Juan Pablo (Tatsu Carvalho) show Colin that it’s okay to be gay and that it is possible for him to eventually live a life with the man he loves.
AIDS, like the devil it is, kills all of that. It takes Juan Pablo from Henry, and then it takes Henry. It leaves their love evaporated, their lives uncelebrated, and it robs Colin of mentors that care about fostering and empowering the next generation. It’s devastating—and that’s just the beginning.
This is why It’s a Sin is horrifying, why it has rattled my bones more than any other show I’ve watched recently. It illustrates the severity of the joy and pain that feels encoded in my queer DNA. The older this Millennial gets, the more I’m aware of what was taken from me before I came out, before I was even born. A plague killed my/our mentors, our heroes, our creators and myth-makers. AIDS took a big, bloody cleaver to queer history, severing it in half. The progress that gay couples like Henry and Juan Pablo saw in their lifetimes was snuffed out. It had to start over from scratch, completely rebooted.
It’s a Sin bluntly addresses that generational pain and makes you watch as queer people were forced against their will to give up their lives and oftentimes die in shame simply because of who and how they loved. There’s no other word for it: the real history of AIDS is horrifying. Because this show treats the moment with historical accuracy and severity, It’s a Sin is an essential entry in the 21st century queer canon… and its horrors will haunt you long after you finish it.
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