Written by Linda
April 17, 2010
For all of its first-season clunkiness, Noah's Arc has its charm, plus I have to give it credit for being the most original unoriginal comedy.
The cornerstone series for MTV Networks new all-gay, all the time channel LOGO, Noah's Arc goes where no show has gone before: all the main characters are gay black men! That is a fact worth taking note, despite the fact that the stories are a rip-off of tried and true shows about friends, from Sex and the City, to Queer As Folk, to The L-Word, to (yes) The Golden Girls.
Noah (Darryl Stephens) is the sweet romantic of the group (see Charlotte of SATC, but with the baffling wardrobe of Carrie Bradshaw), and a struggling aspiring screenwriter who can nonetheless afford a nice one-bedroom apartment in LA. His circle of friends include Ricky, the token slut of the group (see also Brian of QAF and Shane of The L-Word), Chance, the uptight college professor (see Dorothy of Girls and Ted of QAF), and Alex, the flamey and melodramatic HIV educator (see Emmett of QAF). Throw in a straight, then maybe not straight love interest named Wade (super-sexy Jensen Atwood), and you've got endless weekly drama, girlfriend (snap!).
The first season contains 9 episodes (half an hour-ish each), and the actors get progressively more comfortable in their roles, like with any new show. Noah falls for sexy Wade, who is, for all he knows, completely straight. Chase does a quick move-in with his boyfriend, only to find him cheating shortly thereafter. Alex and his longtime partner Trey struggle with keeping their sex life and personal life sparked. And Ricky continues his humorously whorish ways (Christian Vincent as Ricky is a particular standout in the cast). Ricky has a personal crisis when he actually falls for a guy (My So-Called Life's grown-up Wilson Cruz). His character floats on humor and flirting, so his panicked response to finding out his new interest is HIV positive is revealing, and a nice way for the actor to stretch.
Fans of the show will like the extras, which include commentaries on a few episodes, deleted scenes (most notable for their raciness), and some spots the actors did for LOGO (out of character). There are also auditions "tapes", where the actors read for the different characters, which is quite interesting considering the actors and assigned roles were eventually swapped around. But I found most fascinating the inclusion of the original "pilot" episode of Noah's Arc. This 40-minute-or-so episode pretty much has the same storyline as what you see in the series, but it is less flamboyant, more graphically sexy (think QAF), and, dare I say, better acted. Noah's Arc, as it is, has its charms, but it is interesting to see what the original vision was.
