Unlike much of gay-themed American TV, "Queer as Folk" (the title is British slang meaning, roughly, "there's nothing as strange as ordinary people") is neither campfest nor cautionary tale. The most fascinating character on the series is a gorgeous, self-absorbed sexual conquistador who always gets what he wants, never says he's sorry and doesn't appear to be in imminent danger of becoming a made-for-TV AIDS martyr or gay-bashing victim. All of which makes "Queer as Folk" the first American series (sorry, "Ellen") to capture gay life in all its glorious complexity, without preachiness, polemics or self-censorship.

Adapted for American TV by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman (who wrote the first AIDS TV movie, "An Early Frost," as well as the series "Sisters") with the show's British creator, Russell Davies, acting as a consultant, "Queer as Folk" has everything you'd want in a well-oiled -- in every sense of the word -- serial. The show's tangled plotlines about a group of gay friends (and one lesbian couple) in Pittsburgh are instantly addictive, the cast of mostly unknowns is pretty damn fabulous and the show has wit, wisdom and heartache to spare. And sex. Lots and lots of sex.

In fact, "Queer as Folk" is all about the sex. There's so much of it (in bedrooms, bathrooms and back rooms), and so much talk about it, that it's tempting to call "Queer as Folk" the gay "Sex and the City." After all, "Queer" narrator Michael Novotny (played by former "Talk Soup" host Hal Sparks) is as adorably self-analytical as Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw, and the comical parade of Mr. Wrongs encountered by Michael and his friends rivals anything Carrie and Co. have encountered.

Although there are no full-frontal shots (well, except for the dildos, and the nude sketches and photographs that decorate characters' apartments), there are plenty of naked bodies and erotic encounters -- "Queer as Folk" makes Showtime's softcore anthology series "Red Shoe Diaries" look like "Little House on the Prairie." However, one concession to American mores has been made in adapting "Queer as Folk": A teenager who hooks up with a 29-year-old man was 15 years old in the British version, but in the American series, he's 17. (Hey, isn't that the age of consent on the WB?)

The randy, random couplings of "Queer as Folk" might unsettle some people who lived through the AIDS-clouded '80s and early '90s. And the specter of AIDS is present: One of the characters has a middle-aged uncle who is living with the disease. But this is mainly a joyful series about gay men 30 and under -- a resurgent generation, removed from the epidemic, tasting (and testing) freedom. Writers Cowen and Lipman, with co-producer/writer Jonathan Tolins (the play "Twilight of the Golds"), are under no broadcast network edict to impose heterosexual values and romantic ideals on gay characters. So "Queer as Folk" dives giddily and explicitly into something a show like "Will & Grace" is only able to talk about -- the idea that, for a gay man, love and sex, commitment and pleasure, aren't necessarily a package deal.

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