Okay, I’m going to go ahead and call it: It’s a Sin is easily the most important TV show of 2021 so far.
The British drama that centres around a group of gay men and their friends as they navigate the HIV/AIDS crisis really has it all.
From authentic performances to a lively 1980s soundtrack and genuine laughs, it’s a series that’s as thoroughly entertaining as it is educational.
However, since its release on Stan late last month, it has yet to receive the same kind of widespread mainstream attention as the likes of Bridgerton or even WandaVision.
Believe me, when I say that this is a colossal shame, as It’s a Sin is more relevant now than ever before.
For starters, it’s as modern as a show set over 30 years ago could possibly be. Bucking the unfortunate trend of filmmakers neglecting to cast people with lived experience of the role, each of the actors who portrays a gay character is actually queer themselves.
In fact, creator Russell T Davies estimated that the cast was made up of as many as 40 to 50 LGBTQIA+ actors, even in straight roles. On top of that, the show is also racially diverse and features several people of colour in key roles.
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As imperative to the show’s success as these conscious choices were, the thing that makes It’s a Sin hit especially close to home was nothing but an eery coincidence.
You see, the show was filmed in January of 2020, back before COVID-19 truly began to wreak havoc on a global scale. As unintentional as they were, the similarities between the way the AIDS crisis is depicted on the show and how COVID has affected us all are staggering.
The early episodes of It’s a Sin see the characters battle with constant paranoia, persistent rumours and the spread of misinformation as the world comes to grips with AIDS.
The parallels between then and now certainly weren’t lost on Olly Alexander, who stars as protagonist Ritchie Tozer. During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Alexander said it “blew his mind” how “history repeats itself”.
“We finished filming a year ago and then when the pandemic started happening and people were saying all these crazy rumours about where it came from and where it was made, honestly my character was saying the same lines,” he said.
“This is a period show about the ’80s, it blew my mind. It’s so interesting how history repeats itself, and how misinformation is so prevalent.”
Along with early reactions to the respective crises, the way in which death was handled for both AIDS and COVID had many similarities.
As depicted in the show, thousands of lives were lost to AIDS, with many people dying alone in hospital having been denied the right to see their loved ones. Funerals were also scarcely attended, a reality that has now affected hundreds of people who have lost someone to COVID.
Despite all the clear comparisons between the two pandemics that were highlighted in It’s a Sin, it’s the differences that have the greatest emotional impact.
Although misinformation about how AIDS was transmitted and to whom eventually faded, one thing that never did was the stigma attached to contracting it.
Eventually, the reason that funerals were hardly attended during the height of the crisis wasn’t due to fear of contracting AIDS, but to the shame of being associated with someone who had it.
While contracting COVID is considered a relatively random, unlucky burden, those who developed AIDS were treated with judgment and disdain.
“It’s important to remember that none of this is our fault,” a hospital worker quipped in episode three when a character’s mother questioned why her son was being held practically hostage in his ward.
In one of the most gut-wrenching scenes, family members of a character who died of complications from AIDS burned all of his possessions, as if to help cleanse themselves from their connection to him.
As people who identify as LGBTQIA+ were and still are a part of a minority, it’s a disturbing reality that many failed to empathise with a plight that they had no personal experience with.
Speaking to CNN, co-founder of British LGBT lobby group Stonewall and advisor on It’s a Sin Lisa Power explained that the UK government only sped up their response to AIDS when they realised that straight people could be affected too.
“One of the reasons there has been such an immediate response to Covid is because it affects the general population. It is far more random than HIV in who it infects,” she said.
“Everyone has a grandmother. But not everyone had a gay friend back then, and not everyone has a gay friend now.”
Along with the glaring homophobia involved, Davies also attributes the stark differences in responses to AIDS and COVID to the stigma associated with sex in general.
“We can get as embarrassed about sex now as we did then,” he said.
“If coronavirus was a sexually transmitted disease, it would be much more hidden, still.”
Above all, it’s safe to say It’s a Sin simultaneously highlights just how far we have come as a society while shedding light on where we still fall short.
It’s a reminder of where we have been, as well as what could still come if prejudices and uninformed opinions aren’t quashed.
It’s nostalgic, it’s shocking and it’s all too familiar, all at the same time.
Most of all, it’s undoubtedly the best TV show I’ve seen in a long time.
Check out the trailer for It’s a Sin:
