The massacre that becomes a focal point of this series is complicated, as the show quickly establishes that it has a strong moral stance on profiting off of queer tragedy, yet frequently uses it to propel its plot and characters forward in a way that doesn’t always appear genuine. The show is quick to say what is right and wrong, but then exhibit some problematic behavior.
In the first episode, Brodie meets Mingus, Fin Argus’ high schooler trying to enter their first drag show, when they have a sexual encounter in the bathroom before the shooting. It is soon revealed that Mingus is a minor, and Brodie is not, and almost everyone in the show brushes it off. Sure, the character turns 18 during the first season, but do we really need another show with a minor having sex with an adult?
This murky area of consent is explored more with Brodie and Julian, when he hires a sex worker to help his brother with cerebral palsy get laid. Julian, understandably, gets upset when he finds out he only had sex with the super hot man he met in the bar because he was paid to do so. However, not a single conversation about the consent of it all is ever really had and the very iffy situation is kind of forgotten about.
When Noah, played by Johnny Sibilly, is shown to have a meth problem early on that is exacerbated by the shooting and death of his boyfriend, it simply goes away after he confesses his usage, not addressing the serious party-and-play problem in the queer community and brushing over what seemed to be a serious addiction based in trauma.
