Review: Queens, CBC Gem
Queens, Justin Gray’s new CBC Gem web series, is promoted as a “comedy-mystery whodunit,” a mashup between farce and darkness. And while this is technically accurate – there is indeed a sinister villain brooding in the shadows – the series stumbles in trying to balance its outsized comedy with legitimate stakes. Search Party this is not.
The six-part series moves at a brisk pace, each 10-minute episode introducing a queen (or two) as they prepare for Toronto’s last ever Miss Church Street pageant. However, someone is hell-bent on sabotaging their respective journeys to the crown, and some convoluted wackiness ensues.
There’s Elaina (Champagna Enemea) who’s reckoning with her legacy as the current Church Street title holder; Babs (Jordan “Baby Bel Bel” Timmons) stood up by her mysterious dream man; Naomi (Reid “Allysin Chaynes” Millard) subjected to a wine and gas leak induced hallucination; Minnie and Sharron (Jaime “Lucinda Miu” Lujan and Eric “Lucy Flawless”Rich) burdened with a lost child, and Paper (Dwight “Jada Shada Hudson” Giraud) who ends up at the ER under uncomfortable circumstances.
It’s a lot to pack into 60 minutes, and some suspension of disbelief is required – is it possible to coordinate a gas leak at a crowded mall that targets a single individual? Maybe not. Does it really matter? Maybe not!
Minnie and Sharon’s episode is a sweet, if heavy-handed, moment to shine a light on chosen families and cross-generational queer mentorships. Still, it feels vaguely out of place among the fisting jokes and accidental incestuous lap dances. With such a compact running time, Queens might’ve benefited from a more concise vision and consistent tone.
The jokes can be a tad lazy and lacking in subversion – 2020 feels too late for “gay people drink iced coffees and straight people wear cargo pants” – but the show is at its best when it’s leaning into its goofiness. That ever-lurking whodunit feels so inconsequential that it’s unlikely you’ll care much when the saboteur is revealed. Queens has real potential, and should it drop the mystery and lean harder into its comedy, it could become something more than the sum of its jumbled parts.
Queens debuted on CBC Gem on June 19, 2020.
Watch it here.
