It’s A Sin—I can’t quite find the words to express how I feel about HBO’s latest prestige miniseries. There is a sadness at the heart of the show that is almost overpowering at times. Part of that has to do with the writer not trying to create the AIDS story of the 1980’s, instead making the story of these characters. It is a crucial distinction; when you think of the many great stories told about the AIDS crisis (Angels in America, And The Band Played On) there are so many other things going on (educational agenda, activism, etc) and the AIDS story is just part of it. Those projects often lose the immediacy and the personal, empathetic connection to people.
What It’s a Sin does so incredibly well is it has the viewer fall in love with youth, and young people, at a time that many of us can relate to when we were just discovering who we were, loving music, going out, or just being in a city. And then the show presents to us something that feels (even in this era of pandemic) totally impossible: what if the things that you loved could also kill you? And no one was going to help you? And there was no way to get information? In 2021 watching that feels bitter because 40 years ago people didn’t know, there was no information. Now we have information about illnesses, and what to do, but people don’t follow it.
There are multiple ways to understand injustice and tragedy, to get an audience engaged in it; to get people riled up and angry is one of them, bringing you in to the lives and homes of people and crushing you with sadness is another. It’s a very unique position to be in with a show because I can’t think of another show that has made me this deeply, existentially, sad before. Everyone should check it out.
