Q-Force is about the first Queer superspy team in AIA (ahem) history. Shunted aside by homophobic commanders, top spy of his class, Steve Maryweather (voiced by Sean Hayes, who was the first gay ever for a lot of American households, by way of Will & Grace,) is shunted to boring duty in West Hollywood*, where his team is an apparent bunch of underfunded and ignored misfits, who are berated constantly by their homophobe commander. Given the premise, it could be easy to dislike this series before it gets off the ground. But, while this is no Steven Universe, I would argue that Q-Force is actually worth watching.

Let’s start with the problems with this series, before we get on to why it does, honestly, exceed its limitations.

The homophobia is…not great storytelling. In fact, the first episode really bogs down as the prejudice of the people around “Agent Mary,” as they take to calling Steve, is given primacy over literally every other aspect of the story. In the early scenes, it is tiring, as Steve is pushed aside by and for wildly incompetent toxic straight men. Worse, it hits a nadir, when 10 years have gone by, and we know that our Federal agencies may still have homophobes in positions of power, but also know they are not allowed by law and policy to be…this. So, it’s a story written by/for people with paltry imagination who cannot imagine that the world, organizations or any individuals within them can move past the trauma of their past. Honestly, this continues to be a problem throughout the story, and occasionally really gets stuck in this viewer’s craw. When homophobic jerk Buck (voiced by Rick Harbour) is assigned to the team, it makes no sense, as he had been promoted to top spy. In a real story, it would be a subplot that he is being punished, but here, he is assigned there to torture Steve, which makes no sense and just is a stereotype of every jock bully ever. It doesn’t create depth, it robs it….until the last few episodes, where the story finally finds a place to use Buck cleverly.

Despite that, the story works.

For one thing the team is great, full stop. Each individual voice actor was excellent in their role and the stereotypes were treated with love and genuine humor. So, Deb the lesbian, voiced brilliantly by comedian Wanda Sykes, whose wife thinks she works at Pep Boys (does the rest of the country know Pep Boys? I thought it was a NJ/Philly thing,) is actually a great mechanic whose car is named SubaRue McLanahan. ^_^ That’s several in-jokes right there.

Stat the hacker (Patti Harrison), and drag queen Twink (Matt Rogers), make up the rest of the agents in Q-Force. For both these, their various obsessions and fandoms are given room to show up as not only acceptable, but come in handy. How many otaku dream of their favorite show being actually relevant to something they need to know right now? Everyone’s quirks are presented as skills that come in handy, from Twink’s Ariana Grande impersonation to Stat’s encyclopedic knowledge of a fictitious in-show show, Cobblestones. I am endlessly fascinated with in-media, and deeply enjoy it when it becomes part of the story.

Coming as no surprise to anyone who has ever read a review here, is my favorite character, team leader V. Voiced by Laurie Metcalf (probably best known as Roseanne Barr’s sister, Jackie  in Roseanne.) V is given a lot of depth and a whole arc of her own. An arc that, while it was ultimately more “homophobia bad, gay good,” had some surprising and funny moments.

Where the story works is, like all good ensemble casts, when they start working together. It becomes a minor triumph when they realize that they are actually a team. Having been raised on anime, I expect the story to happen at that point…and it does! The story is utterly absurd and joyously ridiculous from that point on to the end…and it all works. Every stupid sex joke, and reference to unreal media influencers, a company called, brilliantly, “Honestly?”…it all works. Like the first season of beloved media franchises, the first few episodes have to be endured so the rest of the season can develop.

At the moment, Netflix has not greenlit this for a second season…I can’t really decide if that’s a good thing or not. As a short one-season goof, Q-Force is fun. As a longer show? I don’t know how it would hold up. But because it is so short, I can recommend you watch it if you can and just let it happen. Don’t take it too seriously, don’t look for lessons beyond “We’re Q-Force! Yay!” Which made for a fun evening’s binge watching.

Ratings:

Art – Not entirely bad, with some very good moments
Story – Gays are funny, homophobes are bad, and anyone can be evil or a hero
Characters – Stereotypes, but when they flesh out, they work
Service – Yes. There are a fair amount of sex jokes, mostly male and some nudity, mostly male, but yes, service. Not all of it played for laughs
Queer – 10

Overall – 7

It had a rough start, but it quickly grows into itself and has some fun on the way.

Props to Fortune Feimster as Desk. A great supporting role that she was perfect in. I’d like to see a short with her as lead. Maybe team her and Caryn up, writers!

*Who would ever complain about being assigned to West Hollywood? I don’t do gay scene things ever, and if someone paid me to live there, I’d suck it up. Sheesh.

Okay, okay! I went and signed up for Netflix, fine. Sheesh. For the last couple of years I have been hearing about dozens of series that didn’t make me want at all to subscribe, but finally there’s one series that motivated me to sign-up. 

That series was She-Ra and the Princesses of the Power. With Noelle Stevenson (co-creator of Lumberjanes) as showrunner, and a promise of wholesome queerness, how could I not want to see it?

In this iteration of the story, Adora is an orphan who has been raised by Hordak on Fightmoon to be a leader of his armies, known as “the Horde” as one might expect. (Put a pin in this naming scheme). Her best friend Katra and she vie to be the next group captain, but when Adora discovers a mysterious sword, she learns that she is meant to be the next She-Ra and fight the Horde. She’s taken to Brightmoon by the leaders of the restance and finds everything she grew up believing is a lie. As she grows more convinced that the Horde is evil, she’s put into the position of  facing Katra as an enemy, a situation that is not resolved by the end of Season 1.

In this season, we meet the other Princesses of countries being attacked by the Horde. Their powers are primarily elemental and their personalities aren’t always good or kind. Most of them float in a range of being quite annoying in one way or another, in fact. Except for Entrapta. Pull that pin out of the naming scheme. “Entrapta” does not sound like a good-guy name. And, indeed, while the resistance Princesses have elemental (i.e., “natural”) powers, Entrapta’s powers are in mechanical design and makership. Her creations are often evil and she doesn’t seem to much care what they do as long as they work. When she find herself left behind because her friends think she is dead, Katra welcomes her with open arms and, frankly, Entrapta, with her evil name, chaotic evil creations and disinterest in people, finally finds a home, Frankly, I was kind of relieved for her. The resistance Princesses are, well, kind of jerks to her. Good for Entrapta – the Horde suits her much better.

Adora, Princess Glimmer and Bow manage to unite the Princesses despite obstacles and Adora learns a bit more about the title of She-Ra before the season wraps up. 

The story itself is simple, allegorical and adheres very closely to the kinds of writing I am used to in American Cartoons For Kids ^TM. In fact, this was my main complaint about the series. I wrote on Facebook, “It’s got all the problems of conventional cartoons, in which basically every single plot is “no one says what they have to to the person they have to say it to.”

The characters were the weakest point for me. The only character I genuinely like is Scorpia. She’s an absolute delight. Everyone else I find annoying in one way or another. I find several of the Princesses intolerable.

I was also quite confused about the queerness, as many of my friends were singing paeans to how queer it was…and I was not seeing it at all. Yes, in the Princess Ball episode, Katra came off all butch and she and Adora have a friendship/rivalry sprinkled lightly with some romantic tension, but this was not even as gay as the first season of Sailor Moon. In the final few episodes, we are at last introduced to Princesses Nettossa and Spinnerella, who are very overtly a couple. So yes, there is queerness, and it is absolutely suitable for a small child, which hits the brief this cartoon had. 

There was controversy about the character design, but only if you count the grunting of animals as something to be commented upon. I do not. This was, from the first, a cartoon designed explicitly for children, with a focus on girls. I mention all of this only to note that if you are over 12 years old and have some complaint about the art or character designs, you’re welcome to make a fool of yourself in the comments, but you will be making a fool of yourself. ^_^ I’m not saying you can’t dislike the art, just that if you want it to be sexier, it is explicitly designed to not be for you. ^_^ It gets good marks from me for body type, race, gender and romantic diversity. 

As an adult watching She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, I was not as blown away by the series as I am regularly by Steven Universe, but for what it is – which is to say, for children 50 years younger than I am – it is a pleasant cartoon. 

Ratings:

Art – 8 Honestly, I like it. 
Characters – 4 Scorpia ftw
Story – 6
Service – 0
Yuri – 6

Overall – 6

I am 100% supportive of the effort to bring empowering characters, body and race diversity and complex emotions into children’s cartoons so I’ll keep watching new episodes, but not on a loop, the way I watch Steven Universe.