Anyone else planning on watching? I’m very much looking forward to it - every review of it I’ve read so far raves about it (I think Tom Shales of the WP called it the best thing that’s every been on television). Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, and a bunch of others are in it - and if the previews are any gauge it should be terrific.
I’ll be watching. I read a bit of a review in Newsweek and I still don’t know what it’s about. 
It’s the only thing I’ve looked forward to since this lame TV season started. I just read that they’re showing it three ways:
(6) one-hour spots
(2) three-hour spots
(1) six-hour spot
Everything I’ve read promises a great experience.
MSNBC has a review of it. The final paragraph of the review is:
“Here’s one now as airtime nears: In a society so culturally stratified, will anyone bother to watch the film, or even acknowledge it, who isn’t already on board?”
What do youze think? Will this have a positive impact on gay life in America? Will it change how AIDS is dealt with? Or will we remain as polarized as ever on these subjects?
I can’t wait.
But based on the loudly derisive yawning I heard from a cinema audience when the AiA preview aired as a commercial before a movie, I imagine this television event will go unnoticed by the mainstream, at least until it wins every possible Emmy at the next ceremony.
That was a painful experience.
My brother died of AIDS on December 20, 1990. My mother had asked me to go to Seatle with her for one final visit, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it - I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t want my final memory of my brother to be of him in a coma, weighing all of 60 pounds, with tubes running out of his body, laying in that fucking bed waiting to die. I just couldn’t do it and I’m ashamed and embarassed to admit it.
It brought all of that back to me in wave after wave of guilt and I ended up a complete mess - I got maybe an hour’s sleep last night.
And for all that, I thought the show was worth it and I’ll watch the last 3 hours.
There’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of about that. I seriously doubt that’s how your brother would have wanted to be seen or remembered and I’m amazed your mother was able to make the trip. (Nature definitely knew what it was doing when it entrusted the care of the young to the female; they’re far stronger than the males in so many ways.)
I am sooo jonesing to see this but unfortunately I’m one of the unwashed masses without HBO. I’m really impressed by the fact that they’re following the stage directions as to multiple roles by the same major actors.
Since I don’t know if this scene has aired yet, I’ll use a spoiler box- one of my favorite scenes in any play is the scene in which
Louis & Ethel Rosenberg say kaddish for “the polestar of human evil” Roy Cohn
For anyone who missed it, there’s a repeat of the complete three-hour version (as opposed to having to piece together the one-hour segments) tonight on HBO2 at 9pm.