Canal+ is broadcasting the series “Fellow Travelers” in France this Thursday, January 18, 2024. If it tells the story of the LGBT+ movements over three decades, is the romance between its two characters inspired by a true story?
A few months after its broadcast in the United States, Fellow Travelers is finally accessible in France. The series by Ron Nyswaner, screenwriter of the film Phildelphiais broadcast on Canal++ from this Thursday, January 18, 2024 from 10:51 p.m. and put online on the MyCanal streaming platform simultaneously.
Worn by actors Matt Bomer (Magic Mike, The normal heart) and Jonathan Bailey (The Bridgertons Chronicle), Fellow Travelers tells the story of the LGBT+ movements in the United States over several decades through the passionate romantic relationship between two men.
From McCarthyism (witch hunt of communists who also hunted homosexuals) to demonstrations against the Vietnam War to the AIDS crisis, these are all parts of American LGBT+ history that are depicted in this mini-series in 8 episodes.
Fellow Travelers inspired by a true story?
Story of a clandestine and heartbreaking passion, Fellow Travelers is the adaptation of a book of the same name written by Thomas Mallon. The story and characters of Hawk and Tim are certainly invented, but they also weave a shifting portrait of many gay American men who lived from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Thus, all the historical elements of Fellow Travelers which weave the intrigues of the series are very real: homosexual couples have suffered from McCarthyism and homophobia. The execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, which causes shock waves in episode 2, was also a real element of American history. The sexual liberation of the 1970s also took place to shake up puritanical mores, as did the devastating AIDS epidemic in the 1980s or the murder of Harvey Milk.
Furthermore, the series Fellow Travelers takes liberties with the novel to add more historical veracity. The plot continues in this way until the 1980s, when certain characters, like Lucy Smith, gain importance. Others, like Frankie Hines and Marcus Gaines, are also completely invented for the series. The goal: to create a parallel between them, a couple of black men, and the protagonists, a couple of white men.
Fellow Travelers tells a moving love story against a backdrop of identity questions and social divisions, impacted by all the political upheavals that transformed the United States just a few decades ago.