https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9140342/mediaviewer/rm1209849345/
Not many writers are as adept at blending humor and sorrow as Russell T Davies, whose most late dramas have shown a profundity and maturity that pulls you in from the start. This is particularly valid for It's A Sin, arguably the writer's most accomplished series to date — and one that will have you both laughing and sobbing throughout its five-episode run.
Starting in the early 1980s, It's A Sin sees Davies consider the devastation that the AIDS crisis wreaked on a generation, the boys — and they frequently were just boys — who kicked the bucket in their thousands, the attempts to draw the authorities' attention to the developing crisis, the ways where families and friends walked away. All the more importantly, it is also about those who didn't cover up, the families, both inherited and created, who stood together and asked, "What can we do?"
At the focal point of the story are five friends who wind up sharing a raucous flat — the Pink Palace. There's the gladly flamboyant Roscoe (Omari Douglas), who has run, literally, from his strict Nigerian home; shy Colin (Callum Scott Howells) from the Welsh valleys, who has some work as a respectable men's fitter at a Savile Row store; earnest Ash (Nathaniel Curtis), a university student; carefree Ritchie (Olly Alexander), who jumps off the ship from the Isle Of Wight resolved to seize everything the more extensive world has to offer, and his new best companion Jill (Lydia West), the solitary young lady in the gang, and something of a Wendy to this gang of not-quite-yet-lost boys.
It's A Sin is arguably Davies' masterpiece – an including, devastating and frequently clever piece of TV. Of the five West, so great in Years And Years__, and Alexander, the singer with hit electronica band Years and Years (no resemblance in titles intentional) both turn in outstanding performances, with the charismatic Alexander oftentimes threatening to steal the show. Adept at capturing Ritchie's playfulness and love of all that life has to offer, he's also brilliant at the more emotional parts, with a moving speech about the great that was had and how that's "what individuals will neglect", ramming home that these were real individuals with hopes and dreams and full, complex lives.
Douglas, Scott Howells and Curtis also all have moments in which to shine, while the more established cast is strong as well, from Neil Patrick Harris as the colleague who shows Colin the possibility of an alternate life, to Keeley Hawes as Ritchie's mom Valerie, a firmly twisted ball of misery, rage and shame, all bound up in a mind boggling love she can't untangle.
Most of all, be that as it may, this is Davies' show, loaded with pin-sharp jokes and floated by a superb soundtrack including OMD's 'Enola Gay', Laura Branigan's 'Gloria' and, of course, Pet Shop Boys' title track. It's A Sin is arguably Davies' masterpiece, a heartfelt series into which he has clearly poured each fiber of his being to create an including, devastating and regularly amusing piece of TV. Indeed, even at this early stage of 2021, it looks set to be one of the programs of the year.
The productive Russell T Davies returns with his best series yet, a moving and entertaining exploration of the 1980s AIDS pandemic, which always remembers the human beings at its heart.