Over half a decade after Looking — a show that memorably featured an entire plotline about the white protagonist’s reluctance to go out with a Latino man because he had never seen an uncut penis before — went off air, HBO is finally ready to invest its money in another explicitly queer series. And this time, it centers a Black protagonist.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the prestige cable network has put a series development order in for a television adaptation of E. Lynn Harris’ Invisible Life trilogy of novels, which includes the sequels Just As I Am and This Too Shall Pass.
Notable for its sensitive portrayal of bisexuality and AIDS during a time when neither were openly discussed (let alone written about), Invisible Life follows Raymond Winston Tyler Jr., a young, successful Black lawyer, on his journey of sexual self-discovery. The title “invisible life” is used to describe Raymond’s life as a closeted man who regularly engages in same-sex intercourse.
The novel was critically acclaimed upon release, and in 2010, almost two decades after Harris first self-published his breakout work, the Los Angeles Times listed Invisible Life as one of the top “20 Classic Works of Gay Literature.” Though Harris died in 2009, the author is still widely considered one of the most successful openly gay authors of his era.
Scripts for the upcoming adaptation of the novel trilogy will be penned by the celebrated and award-winning Black queer playwright Harrison David Rivers, who will also co-executive produce the series alongside Soul Food’s Proteus Spann and College Hill’s Tracey Edmonds.
News of HBO’s Invisible Life adaptation is predictably exciting — not just because E. Lynn Harris’ novels have been begging for a small-screen adaptation for decades, but also because shows centering queer Black male protagonists have been, well, virtually nonexistent in recent years. Prior to this, the only show to truly center queer Black men was LOGO’s Noah’s Arc, a low-budget (but beloved) dramedy that ran for a measly two seasons, in 2005 and 2006. Sure, the series — just like Looking — returned for a final film, Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom, in 2008, but the fact that no new shows have stepped up to carry the torch it first lit a decade and a half ago is quite telling.
It’s about damn time.
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