I really didn’t know what to expect with Q Force. The first episode had me cringing immediately. In fact, the first couple of episodes were just awkward. They struck me as way over the top. I was surprised they weren’t spouting something like #gaypower and #queerboss. The show felt performative, forced, and plain unfunny in every way possible.
Q-Force is an animated comedy that opens with Steve Maryweather (Sean Hayes) — affectionately and unaffectionately called Mary — who is at the top of his spy class and takes the opportunity to come out in his valedictorian speech. He is immediately shunted off to a crappy base in West Hollywood. The story jumps to ten years later where Steve is working out of the same base with the team of LGBTQ+ misfits that he has recruited: Deb (Wanda Sykes), a lesbian mechanic and driver; Twink (Matt Rogers), a gay master of drag and disguise; and Stat (Patti Harrison), a transgender hacker. The real story begins when Steve convinces the team to go rogue and find an assignment on their own. With a tip from Twink, the team apprehends a terrorist at a gay club and finds information that links him to a nuclear bomb plot.
From then on, the team heads on a series of wacky adventures ranging from infiltrating a singing competition in the fictional kingdom of Gyenorvya to sneaking into a uranium mine. Each adventure brings in more stakes than the last, both strengthening and challenging the team dynamic. Throughout the season, the team faces constant homophobia, with each character getting their highlighted moments to become more fleshed out; quirks, strengths, and all. It weaves together the personal and professional in a way that allows each character their moments. This all culminates in an evil plot driven by the princess of Gyenorvya, Mira Popadopolous (Stephanie Beatriz), that forces the team to push aside differences and work together to save the day.
Though the characters combat the homophobia, almost every joke centers around some queer stereotype and it becomes exhausting to try and figure out if it’s funny or pandering. For a show developed by Gabe Liebman (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Broad City, Pen15), Michael Schur (The Good Place), and Hayes himself, you would expect the humor to be a bit cleverer. Adult animation has proven its ability to be both smart and raunchy — look at Big Mouth or BoJack Horseman — so readjusting to Q-Force took a couple of episodes.
I almost stopped watching after the first episode, but I’m so glad that I pushed through. Yes, the show feels performative and forced at times, but I realized that’s not necessarily a bad thing. While the characters were saying things that had me cringing — not to mention that one of the characters is literally named “Twink” — I found the humor. When I finally stepped back, I let myself enjoy the show for what it is: a raunchy, ridiculous show about a group of queer super spies.
Q-Force is hardly the first show to fall into the same category, minus the queer aspects. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Archer are both the exact same type of show. Maybe the level of humor differs, but they are, in essence, about out-of-pocket characters going on insane adventures and saying outrageous things. They are vulgar, outlandish, and not necessarily the best people. When shows like these come out nobody bats an eye. I realized that the only reason I was being so harsh on Q-Force was because it’s queer. I have high expectations for anything LGBTQ+-related to be somehow magically perfect, and that’s something we all need to work on countering. Shows are allowed to be stupid and fun. Not everything gay needs some deeper meaning. There are so many shows with straight characters going on weird adventures that are way less developed than Q-Force; it’s about time that we got a queer version.
So much of gay media is centered around coming out, tragedy, and/or death. I am so sick and tired of watching shows or reading books about what straight people think is important about being gay, namely coming out or homophobia, that still centers our lives around straight people’s perceptions. Any queer person will tell you that while coming out may be a big moment, it’s hardly the end of the story — it’s the beginning. The interesting part is becoming who you are afterward. And yes, of course it is important to speak on homophobic occurrences, but why should our lives only focus on the bad? We deserve to have fun, interesting stories with characters that happen to be queer like Q-Force. I didn’t know how nice of a respite it would be until I let go of my expectations and watched it with someone who was excited to see an adventure cartoon with queer characters.
We deserve queer representation in every genre, and I am glad that we are getting shows like Q-Force to fill in the gaps. Maybe it’s not the best show you will ever watch, but if you let go of high expectations and lay back, there are some pretty fun parts. I mean, come on, they have a whole Princess Diaries rip-off country which I honestly found hilarious. Plus, I would kill for Cobblestones (an in-universe drama that takes place in Genyorvya and involves nuns, sex with ghosts, and secret plots to become the queen) to be a real show.
I started Q-Force firmly in the camp that it was pandering, over the top, and offensive. I was so determined to dislike it because I had the snobby preconception that we have to make gay media that transcends the average in order to reach more people — to prove that we are multidimensional. But seeing how much enjoyment other queer people got out of the show really turned my opinion around. Who cares what other people think? Who cares about trying to fit into some notion I had created in my mind? Isn’t the point of these shows to be entertainment? You can say a lot of things about Q-Force, but it is most definitely entertaining and it is most definitely queer. This isn’t the show that I necessarily wanted, but it may just be the show that we need.
