Season Review: Q-Force Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Q-Force stars a group of LGBT spies who work for the American Intelligence Agency. They’ve been made fun of and underappreciated for years now, but lead spy Steve Marywhether is determined to do something about that and regain the thrill of the spy work that attracted him to the job in the first place. He ends up convincing the higher ups to send them more cases, but only on the condition that they add a new member to the team who happens to be—gasp—straight.

With the newcomer on the team, Q-Force sets out to solve problems and make their mark on the world. From espionage to Steve’s relationship drama, there’s plenty to keep the spies occupied—and it all culminates when the gang has to stop the Princess of Gyenorvya from forming a big gay zombie army.

Our Take:

Q-Force is brand-new show on Netflix, but just because it’s fresh out of the gate doesn’t mean there isn’t already plenty of opinions out there about it. When Netflix released a teaser trailer last month, it turned out to be pretty divisive, with some complaining about the forced nature of the LGBT narrative while others loved that part of it, but just weren’t fans of the quick fire approach to comedy. Now the show is actually here, and while I think the trailer did accurately represent Q-Force in some ways, the series shines above it in others.

The overall narrative setup of the show is simple enough: spies, but gay. The creators of the show have said they wanted to make it like a James Bond film, but just the fun parts, and it feels like they succeeded in that endeavor. There’s no Agatha Christie-level intrigue here, but there are enough mysterious and question marks to keep viewers moving along from one episode to the next. It wouldn’t by a spy series without the lead character’s job interfering with his  romantic life, and that happens to Steve during the course of the season.

Steve Marywhether (often called Agent Mary) is the agent who leads Q-Force. He’s a nice choice as the show’s main character: tough, smart, and of course, gay.  He’s easy to root for and most of his jokes land pretty well. A character I can see being more divisive is Twink. He’s the over-the-top stereotypically gay guy who speaks in nothing but catchphrases and Twitter buzzwords. Your mileage with him will vary depending on how much of that you can tolerate. The rest of the team is comprised of Stat, Deb, and Buck—they’re all pretty interesting side characters, but I didn’t particularly love any of them. V, the AIA’s deputy director, is probably one of my favorites for the way she helps Steve in a mentor-like way.

Aside from the gay spies angle, there’s nothing really revolutionary about Q-Force. The animation, character designs, and music are just adequately fine. It’s humor sometimes feels instantly dated, like when a character brings up the nipple cut of Cats or mentions Quibi (RIP.) Could it have been subtler and less stereotypical with its jokes and the way it portrays its queer cast members? Sure. But it still offers plenty of spy-based thrills and intrigue that’s entertaining most of the time. Is this the best LGBT-centered spy show that was possible? Of course not, but I don’t think it’s as bad as the trailers made it out to be. Just the fact that an animated show with a premise like Q-Force can get made nowadays is pretty cool.