A new HBO Max Original limited series premieres today and tells the stories of three young men, at the start of their lives, who encounter a deadly pandemic that the world does not understand. Set in 1981, Ritchie (Olly Alexander), Roscoe (Omari Douglas) and Colin (Callum Scott Howells) are young lads, strangers at first, leaving home at 18 and heading off to London with hope and ambition and joy… and walking straight into a virus that most of the world ignores.
Year by year, episode by episode, crossing the whole decade, their lives change as the mystery of that illness starts as a rumor, then a threat, then a terror, and then something that binds them together in the fight. It’s the story of their friends, lovers and families too, especially Jill (Lydia West), the girl who loves them and helps them, and galvanizes them in the battles to come.
Together they will endure the horror of the epidemic, the pain of rejection and the prejudices that gay men faced throughout the decade. It is a series that remembers the men we lost and celebrates those lives that burned so brightly. A series that reminds us that even in the darkest of times, friendship and love will guide us all to better days.
It’s A Sin debuts all 5 episodes starting today, February 18th on HBO Max.
