The Subversive Charms of "Q-Force"

The new animated series from Netflix hides a surprisingly revolutionary agenda beneath its bubbly sitcom exterior.

When I saw that Netflix had just released a new animated series that was being hailed as the queer version of Archer, I immediately knew that I was going to have to watch. As readers know, I’m a passionate fan of both animation and queer things, so surely I would enjoy what this show had to offer. 

Readers, I wasn’t disappointed.

Q-Force focuses on Steve Marywhether, voiced by Sean Hayes, a brilliant young agent desperate to prove that his misfit band of queer spies is worthy of respect from the higher-ups at the American Intelligence Agency. This group includes Deb, the lesbian mechanic (exquisitely voiced by Wanda Sykes), Stat, the hacker (voiced by Patti Harrison), Twink, the master of disguise (voiced by Matt Rogers), and resident straight man Rick Buck (voiced by David Harbour). Overseeing them are V (Laurie Metcalf), one of the few higher-ups who believes in Steve and his mission, and the cruel, hard-bitten Director Dirk Chunley (played with his usual panache by Gary Cole). 

Now, one would expect a series focused on a group of queer secret agents to be somewhat conservative in its outlook and in its message, and to an extent that’s true. Steve remains passionately invested in the AIA, believing that he can use his position to do good in the world. He has, in a way, been thoroughly interpolated into the national security state apparatus. 

However, Q-Force goes out of its way to shine light on the historic injustices that the organization has committed, particularly against its queer members. Indeed, Steve and company soon expose the AIA’s deepest, darkest secret: that it has been wiping the memories of its queer agents so that they forget their time as part of the organization. It’s a jarring moment in a series that is, as a rule, quite light-hearted in its approach to its subject matter. More importantly, from my point of view, it’s also a scathing indictment of the real-world attacks that organizations like the FBI and the CIA have long perpetrated against the LGBTQ+ community.

In the end, Steve and his band of misfits have succeeded in forcing change on an unwilling organization, using their superior skills to strongarm the maliciously queerphobic Chunley into giving them the institutional support he has steadfastly denied them. This might not be the radical dissolution of the system that some radical viewers might want, but it’s remarkably progressive, even subversive, in its own way.  

Given how much I enjoyed the series, I made the questionable decision to read the reviews. I had hoped to find that there were many who shared my appreciation, but the opposite was true. Though Q-Force isn’t a critical dud, exactly, it’s currently sitting at a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes, and many queer critics have been especially vociferous in their criticism. There is a growing consensus that the show ultimately ends up making jokes at the expense of queer people rather than inviting them in on the humor. In this telling, not only is Q-Force far too assimilationist; it flirts with the very homophobia it criticizes. 

I have to wonder just what show it is that these critics watched, because it is certainly not the same Q-Force that I devoured in a few sittings. For one thing, the series is full of subversive moments that challenge us to think in new ways about gender, sexuality, and desire. Stat, for example, is something of a mystery throughout the season, their gender identity deliberately ambiguous. Just as importantly, they fall in love with a robot that has gained sentience; it’s like a page straight out of Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto. 

Then there’s Twink, who is without question the most flamboyantly and exuberantly queer of the series’ characters. One would be forgiven for assuming that, given the fact that twinks are often understood to be bottoms, that a character of the same name would be so, too. However, that’s not at all the case, and Twink repeatedly makes the point that he is a proud top (in fact, one of his goals is to top resident straight man Rick Buck). 

Ultimately, the critical discourse condemning the series’ use of stereotypes reveals, I think, more about the critics’ discomfort with their own queer identities than it does about Q-Force. As I’ve written and noted elsewhere, I think it’s disingenuous to take a series to task for portraying queer people in stereotypical fashion, because the inconvenient truth is that there are some of us who actually do resemble the caricatures that we see in popular culture, and we are proud of that fact. 

There are, to be sure, pop culture artifacts that use stereotypes to inflict harm on queer people, but Q-Force is manifestly not one of those. When, for example, Deb makes a joke about how quickly lesbians move in with one another--or, for that matter, we see her settled into peaceful domesticity with her partner--it’s a moment that we can both recognize and applaud. Don’t queer characters deserve a chance at happiness, too?

Q-Force, like every show that bears the imprimatur of Michael Schur--famous for his work on such shows as Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine--is a fundamentally optimistic show about a group of earnestly good people trying to do their best in the world. Queer people are invited in on the joke, and there’s a warmth and a chemistry among the characters that sets this show apart from Archer. At the same time, it’s also a show that isn’t afraid to depict same-sex sex, with Steve having some very steamy encounters with various men (including his romantic interest, the delightfully fluffy and naive Benji).

Beneath its bubbly good cheer, however, Q-Force also asks us to think about the intersections between and among gender, sexuality, desire, and the national security state. Its light touch and charm keep it from veering into the realm of the pedantic and the didactic, becoming instead something more profound and, in my opinion, more welcome: an animated sitcom with a conscience. 

Let’s just hope that it gets a second season.