Gay Streaming Service Dekkoo Begins Streaming Its Provocative New Series This Fall
Dekkoo.com, a subscription streaming service dedicated to gay men, will begin streaming its new original series, Adam in Fragments, on November 17. The provocative, gritty drama follows Adam (Beau Swartz), a sex worker who has never had to worry about anyone but himself until he meets Lucy (Keiva Bradley). Adam’s urge to guide the young and naïve aspiring adult film starlet and protect her from their terrorizing handler, Felix (Francisco Antonio), triggers a series of events that sends violent ripples through the Los Angeles underground sex-trade. Adam in Fragments is produced by Dekkoo Films and The Arbor Company.
“Most television shows and films about sex work either glorify the trade or exploit it,” says Omar Salas Zamora. He wrote and directed the series with Calvin Picou. “In Adam in Fragments, we aim to examine the profession, not by sensationalizing it, but through exploring the main character and his interactions with drug dealers and johns.”
Zamora and Picou drew inspiration from 70’s crime thrillers. “We incorporated that same coarse-grained aesthetic for a story aimed at a queer male audience,” Picou explains.
Each episode of Adam in Fragments builds a new picture of Adam. In the premiere, “Crawling Back”, the young man returns to his former life as a sex worker and quickly re-engages with his seedy and often dangerous male clients. In episode two, “Meal Ticket”, viewers are introduced to Lucy and witness the burgeoning relationship between the girl and Adam as they prepare for another night of work. In the third episode, “One Hundred & Fifty”, Adam is set up on a date where he meets a young hustler who opens his eyes to playing the sex trade by different rules. “In Through the Out Door” is the fourth episode in the series; Lucy reveals the abuse she’s endured at the hands of their pimp, Felix, and she and Adam begin planning their escape. In the series finale, “Fear Eats the Soul,” Adam struggles with the price he must pay for a safe and comfortable life.
“Throughout the series, Adam remains enigmatic,” says Brian Sokel, President of Dekkoo who executive produces along with Derek Curl. He selected Adam in Fragments as an exclusive series for Dekkoo. “The moment viewers think they have a handle on him, they realize that they do not. Adam’s ability to maintain his anonymity by never getting too close to johns, pimps, drug dealers, and even viewers, allows him some level of control, and it makes the series a fascinating and almost immersive experience for the audience.”
“Mainstream society will view Adam and the characters in Adam in Fragments as irredeemable, but these veterans of the underground are, in most cases, comfortable in their skin and together, they form something of a family unit,” Omar Salas Zamora adds. “It is only when a fresh new face comes along, with unattainable dreams and false illusions about life, that chaos ensues. Adam’s mistake is that he allows himself to become emotionally accessible to Lucy.”
Adam in Fragments stars Beau Swartz, Keiva Bradley, and Ryan Ruffing, and features supporting performances from Jonathan Miller, Francisco Antonio, Nick Flaig, Joe Garcia and Tara Emerson.
“We hope viewers find the humanity in these difficult characters,” Zamora and Picou agree. “They’re not heroes, villains, or victims. They merely exist.”
Filming for Adam in Fragments was done primarily on the streets in downtown Los Angeles.
Adam in Fragments premieres on Dekkoo on November 17, 2022. For more information, visit Dekkoo.com.
Peacock Reboots a Gay Staple with Unexpected Success QUEER AF
By Arnold Wayne Jones
If you’re old enough (and gay enough) to remember watching when Russell T. Davies’ original British series Queer as Folk debuted more than 20 years ago – I, sadly, am – then you will never forget the adrenaline-rush of seeing sexually-active gay men engaged in realistic-seeming sex without AIDS, shame or suicide being the dramatic driving force. It was staggering in its radicalism. There was no marriage equality; it was still GLBT – the “A” hadn’t been added, the letters reversed, the Q codified. It was sexy, frivolous, and its politics was that of stentorian outrage at closet-cases, homophobia and hypocrisy. The original QAF – and its American remake, which ran on pay-cable for five seasons – was a kind of fantasy soap opera of bed-hopping, shade-throwing and melodramatic cliffhangers. (Question: Should we call a gay soap opera a “lube musical”? But I digress.)
Courtesy of NBC/Universal
We live in a new world now, although not always a better world. Gay weddings are now called “weddings,” Grindr gets joked about in primetime, COVID has replaced HIV as the virus of the moment, trans kids are… well, a thing. But there’s also the Pulse nightclub shooting, anti-trans legislation and the current SCOTUS membership. We’ve come far, but there’s still far to go.
Which is why, as I discovered slightly to my surprise, that we really needed a reboot of Queer as Folk. I needed convincing; I’m generally opposed to rehashing old properties simply because Hollywood is so bereft of courage or originality that it assumes audiences only want what they already know. (Unfortunately, they are often right.) Why revisit the same characters, or “new” characters regurgitating the same ideas, just for clicks and a 4.5 in the demo? The fact that this QAF was coming to NBC’s Peacock – the buggiest and boringest of the major streaming services from the most middle-brow of networks – gave me little hope.
Courtesy of NBC/Universal
Then I watched the first episode. And the second. And third. And it dawned on me that, of all retro series reboots out there, this may be the one that has the best chance to seem more relevant than the original.
In some ways, this is a critique of the American version. A dirty little secret: Most gays will concede that we often hate-watched that show. We wanted to see idealized versions of our own lives on screen (hard bodies glistening with perspiration in soft-core lighting), but these scenes were sandwiched between stereotypes, often painfully overwrought dialogue and predictable plotting. Most episodes left you with the same dissatisfaction as a Diet Coke: You asked for it, but the empty aftertaste left you wanting something better. The Peacock version needed to improve upon those feelings, and so far, it has.
Courtesy of NBC/Universal
The first amazement for me was the opening scene: A fairly explicit and rolicking anal sex scene that shows more ass and abs than I expected from NBC. The second amazement: Diversity. Another reason why the earlier incarnation was so disappointing was the total lack of color in the primary cast: Of the dozen or so regulars, every single one was as white as a Trump rally. There were token lesbians, a mix of tops and bottoms, twinks and doms but virtually no bears, no queens, and no POC. Not so this time out. The lesbian couple are mixed race – a butch black dyke and a thin lipstick transwoman; the local slut is mixed, the adopted son of white parents (including an almost unrecognizable Kim Cattrall, doing excellent character work) with a brother on the spectrum (Special star Ryan O’Connell); there are Latinos, gender-fluid teens, otters, a disabled guy and Juliette Lewis. (Sadly, no senior queers – hey, it’s still a gay fantasy.)
Courtesy of NBC/Universal
Another big difference is how the stakes seem contemporary and relevant. There’s less worrying about HIV (PrEP!) and molly overdoses and more mass shootings, social media awareness and criticism of faux allies. But there are still the cliches: Young gays having/wanting kids (heteronormative ideals are the flesh-eating viruses of most mainstream portrayals of gay culture); superficial conversations about overwrought emotions; secondary characters praising/apologizing for the anti-heroic stars; and so, so many pretty boys fucking wildly to fill in for plot (OK, I admit I like that part a lot). The trade off works, though.
Courtesy of NBC/Universal
I’ve enjoyed the acting (other than O’Connell, who is sweet but never convincing in his line delivery) and the mancandy helps the bad dialogue go down easier. I’ll definitely watch all eight episodes and probably wait for another season. And maybe two decades from now, another version will come along and rewrite the gay script over again for a future generation. And maybe it will be Queer AF too.
Meet the cast of the new 'QUEER AS FOLK' on Peacock
To celebrate the upcoming release of Peacock's Queer As Folk, GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos joins Queer as Folk cast members Devin Way, Fin Argus, Jesse James Keitel, CG, Johnny Sibilly, Ryan O’Connell and creator, writer and executive producer, Stephen Dunn and executive producer, Jaclyn Moore to discuss the vibrant reimagining of the groundbreaking British series.
From Creator Stephen Dunn, the Vibrant Reimagining of the Groundbreaking British Series Created by Russell T. Davies,
Queer as Folk Premieres Exclusively On Peacock Thursday, June 9
First-Look Images for Billy Porter’s Directorial Debut ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE – Globally on Prime Video July 22
Launching Globally on July 22 Exclusively on Prime Video
Anything’s Possible is a delightfully modern Gen Z coming-of-age story that follows Kelsa, a confident high school girl who is trans, as she navigates through senior year. When her classmate Khal gets a crush on her, he musters up the courage to ask her out, despite the drama he knows it could cause. What transpires is a romance that showcases the joy, tenderness, and pain of young love.
Director: Billy Porter
Written by: Ximena García Lecuona
Producers: Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa, Andrew Lauren, D.J. Gugenheim
Executive Producers: Ximena García Lecuona, Billy Porter, Allison Rose Carter
Music by: Leo Birenberg
Executive Music Producers: Billy Porter, Justin Tranter
Cast: Eva Reign, Abubakr Ali, and Renée Elise Goldsberry
Genre: Romance, Coming-of-Age Drama
Rating: PG-13 for strong language, thematic material, sexual material, and brief teen drinking
Soundtrack on Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
#AnythingsPossible
