Fellow Travelers
By Melissa Camacho,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Weighty, mature drama mixes romance, history, homophobia.
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What's the Story?
Based on the novel of the same name, FELLOW TRAVELERS tells the story of two men who fell in love during the 1950s' Lavender Scare. Matt Bomer plays Hawkins "Hawk" Fuller, a good-looking and charming decorated WWII veteran and Washington bureaucrat who meets the boyishly naive Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey), a new assistant to Senator Joseph McCarthy (Chris Bauer), on election night. What follows is a 30-year romance that spans from McCarthy's anti-communist campaign through the HIV/AIDS crisis. As the series chronicles their journey, it highlights the legacy of homophobia in the United States, and some of the various and intersectional ways people within the LGBTQ+ community coped with the inability to live life openly.
Is It Any Good?
The weighty series mixes the fictional story of an illicit and taboo love affair with U.S. political history to paint a dark and rather sad picture of what life was like for the LGBTQ+ community during the latter part of the 20th century. With the help of flashbacks, it contextualizes the evolution of Hawk and Tim's relationship within major political and social shifts in the U.S. to bring their relationship full circle. Woven throughout are the stories of other people within this universe, like Hawk's secretary Mary Johnson (Erin Neufer) and journalist Marcus Hooks (Jelani Alladin), who are looking for ways to live full lives while simultaneously protecting themselves from the systemic sexism, racism, and homophobia in which they are forced to exist.
Meanwhile, the choices made by folks like top McCarthy staffer Roy Cohn (Will Brill) and Hawk's wife Lucy (Allison Williams) underscore the hypocrisy behind heteronormative conventions. These are complicated narratives, which, in addition to some sexually explicit scenes, makes Fellow Travelers an option best left for older viewers. But those with the maturity to handle it may find themselves reflecting on what the LGBTQ+ community has collectively been subjected to throughout U.S. history, and how its members still face challenges in order to be fully accepted by American society.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the period in U.S. history known as McCarthyism. What was the difference between the "Red Scare" and the "Lavender Scare" of the 1950s? What led to this overall panic?
Fellow Travelers highlights important sociopolitical moments in U.S. history. Did the LGBTQ+ community benefit from these changes? How?
TV Details
- Premiere date: October 27, 2023
- Cast: Matt Bomer , Jonathan Bailey , Jelani Alladin , Erin Neufer
- Network: Showtime
- Genre: Drama
- Topics: Friendship
- Character Strengths: Perseverance , Self-control
- TV rating: TV-MA
- Last updated: November 12, 2023
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