'History'

Available to watch on YouTube now!

New web series 'History' explores the relationships, breakups, hook-ups, and friendships of gay men in New York City. Written and directed by Jack Tracy, who also stars in the lead role, the series follows handsome thirty something lawyer Jamie after his messy breakup with his partner of five years, Jared. With his life as he knew it gone - having lost his partner, home and friends - Jamie is more determined than ever to not make the same mistakes and learn from his past experiences, his history.

Tracy uses flashbacks to fill the audience in on what has occurred in Jamie’s recent past. The series is neatly structured into themed episodes that deal with their own important issues, but always in relevance to what is going on in Jamie’s life. The amount of flashbacks can be overpowering at times, especially when trying to keep track of the overall timeline. Every flashback is dated, some more general like “July”, others more detailed like “September 1”. There were a few moments where I had to pause and reorient myself as to what had happened and what hadn’t happened yet when a new flashback started. Overall I thought the use of flashbacks was a great idea, some colour coding would have been helpful to immediately identify switching between then and now.

While Jamie (Jack Tracy) is the clear star of the show, the other characters are just as interesting and captivating once you get to know them. Especially William (William Cohen) and Matthew (Jacob Seidman), who round out the new trio of friends post-breakup, make for wonderful additions to the show and bring out a new side in Jamie. I have to admit that Episode 4 'Saying Yes', which I immediately dubbed the “friendship episode”, was my absolute favourite and these three shine throughout.

Jumping from one hook-up to the next Jamie is desperately trying to fill the void left by Jared. He needs them to feel good about himself and fight his loneliness. He cannot be alone even for a minute. This is perfectly captured in a scene where we see Jamie clinging to his phone like a lifeline. When the battery is empty and he has to wait for the first tiny bit to recharge before being able to use it again, his life literally comes to a stop. He sits on the floor, leaning against the wall that has the phone charger plugged into it, staring at the lifeless device, not sure what to do. Once it comes back to life he immediately comes out of the catatonic state he was in. The series has a few powerful moments like these, but I don’t want to give too much away.

The series is also not without its issues. The first episode didn’t sit well with me upon first viewing. Mostly due to technical issues, the audio sounds as if it was recorded by the on-camera mic, with background noise too high to make for comfortable viewing. This issue never really went away throughout the series, but seemed to have lessened in later episodes or I just got used to it. When I re-watched Episode 1 it did not bother me as much. The one thing that doesn’t go away is some of the performances leave much to be desired. I think I would have stopped watching halfway through Episode 1 if I didn’t have to review it. That group dinner scene was uncomfortable to watch thanks to dialogue and delivery being so stilted and unnatural. But as they say, it gets better. So make sure to stick with Jamie and his friends.

Following Jamie’s evolution through his breakup, its aftermath and prelude, losing friendships, forging new ones, and most importantly discovering who HE is as a person on his own, without a
partner to fill a void, is an engaging journey everyone can relate to. You don’t have to be gay or male to know what it’s like going through the things Jamie encounters, processing what has happened to you and trying to come out the other end a better man. I really enjoyed this series and am hoping there will be more. You know what they say, never judge a book by its cover. So do not judge this series by its first episode. Give Jamie and his story and his friends a chance. I’m sure you’ll be happy you did. I know I was.

Review by Melanie Radloff.

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