"I think anyone can fall in love with anyone. And I think it never happens, because most people just.miss." - Alan Davies as Bob Gossage
Bob & Rose DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
In 1999, Russell T. Davies' Queer as Folk hit British airwaves. With its happily horny gay characters and frank depiction of their sex lives, the series became an international sensation, spawning the series of the same name on Showtime in the U.S. the following year. How would Davies follow up his randy creation? With a sweet love story, of course - albeit one with an unusual twist.
Rose Cooper (Lesley Sharp, who also stars in Davies' The Second Coming) is a no-nonsense thirtysomething office supervisor who is on the verge of moving in with her boyfriend, Andrew (Daniel Ryan). Andrew is a nice guy and devoted to Rose, but she has doubts about him. Although he is solid and dependable, he is not intellectually stimulating. His idea of a good time is to order pizza and watch bad television while Rose does his dishes. Rose's cheerfully flakey mother, Carol (Barbra Marten), wholeheartedly approves of her daughter's relationship with Andrew. This, too, strikes Rose as proof that Andrew is not right for her. The divorced Carol has been involved with a string of losers, the current one being Trevor (Dave Hill), a secretive James Bond freak who lost a fortune publishing a tribute magazine called Bonded. If her mother approves of Andrew, then surely he must be even worse than Rose can imagine.
Bob Gossage (Jonathan Creek's Alan Davies) is cute, charming, terribly polite, and an elementary school teacher, no less. Bob is gay, and even though he cruises the bars whenever he can, he has not been in a relationship since his boyfriend left him a few years earlier. Bob's best friend is Holly (Jessica Stevenson), a fellow teacher who secretly harbors a crush on Bob. She is so possessive of him that, unbeknownst to Bob, she wrecks his dates by scaring away his possible suitors.
After a bland night out with Andrew and an abortive pickup at a gay bar, Rose and Bob find themselves jockeying for a cab on the same desolated stretch of road. The strangers strike up a conversation as they wait for a cab to show up. Rose discovers that she is attracted to the witty Bob...so attracted that, not realizing he is gay, she tracks down his home address on the internet and arranges a "coincidental" second meeting. Bob quickly determines that Rose is, in essence, stalking him, but he, too, finds himself inexplicably attracted to a woman for the first time in his life. The two tentative begin to explore the possibility of a relationship - are they destined to be good friends, or is it more than that?
As their relationship grows, the couple learns that Bob's gayness is only a taste of the problems they must eventually face. For example, since coming out to his parents years before, Bob's mother, Monica (Penelope Wilton), has become a tireless crusader for gay rights, even heading up a chapter of Parents Against Homophobia. Now Bob must come out to them once again - only this time in reverse. Meeting each other's friends also becomes traumatic. Should they tell her friends that he is gay? How will his friends react to the fact that he is with a woman? And will Holly let her jealousy ruin Bob's happiness?
It is easy to see why Rose is attracted to Bob. Their "meet cute" is awfully cute. It is less easy to understand Bob's attraction to Rose. No matter what the religious right deludes itself into thinking, homosexuality is not a choice. A gay person simply cannot decide that he or she is no longer gay. Bob goes to great pains to say that he is not bisexual. This situation is not unprecedented in real life - Davies even says that the basic story was inspired by one of his gay friends who fell in love with and married a woman. With only a few episodes to establish the couple's relationship, however, Bob's transformation can, at times, seem a little abrupt and glib.
As the series progresses, however, this concern fades to the background. It become less important to understand why than it is to simply spend time with these interesting characters. At heart, Bob & Rose is a moving portrait of people trying - and often failing - to connect. Davies is adept at finding subtle humor in this pathos, as are the performers who are charged with delivering his dialogue.
One prime example is Stevenson's portrayal of Holly. Stevenson is excellent at playing dithering desperation. Holly could have easily been presented as an unlikable harridan. With her garbage strewn apartment, her awkward clumsiness, and sad, haunted eyes, however, the character remains sympathetic even when betraying her best friend. Her eventual confession to Rose is absolutely heartbreaking, and by the end of the series, we realize that her transformation through the course of the story is just as big as Bob's.
Marten is equally superb as Rose's mother. Her bright-eyed calculation is fun to watch. She spends much of the series in blissful denial of anything that does not fit into her plans. When this façade finally cracks at her wedding to Trevor, Marten's performance becomes so riveting that it is easy to become annoyed when the director cuts away from her to another character.
The six episodes that make up the complete series of Bob & Rose are divided onto two discs. The menus feature the series' impressionistic opening title sequence and silky theme song. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or choose an individual episode. Upon choosing an individual episode, the viewer is taken to that episode's dedicated menu which lists the episode's chapters. Individual chapters can be chosen, or the episode can be played in its entirety.
