The DL Chronicles: The Complete First Season

This DVD consists of four 30 minute stories that make up 1 season. Yes, thats 2 hours of film time. That's considered a season these days? Anyway, besides the 4 short episodes, the acting doesn't help. There are some very cute, good looking men, but they must of just been picked up from a modeling agency, because they lack in the acting department.

The stories are okay, but 30 minutes per story is not enough for you to get really envolved or feel for any of the characters. They don't have enough substance. If you are getting it for the sex scenes, those are not even worth the money. There are better scenes in Noah's Arc.

The DL Chronicles is a very well written and acted series. It
showcases Black men together in romantic DL situations. It is
about time they did a series or movie featuring Black men
romantically involved with each other. The general media for
some reason rarely shows Black men together, I hope this changes and
soon. Noah's Ark on Logo sure was refreshing to see, but then they cancel it, go figure. In any case if you get the DL Chronicles you will enjoy it
and maybe learn something new.

I stumbled across this film looking for resources to support a paper for school I wrote tackling the representation of Black Gay themes in film. I didn't know what to expect when I purchased this, but I have to say that the script and acting were equally amazing.

The downfall with this series is the writers were concerned too much on the twists and turns in the script (which I must add were well thought out) rather than focusing on the whole DL phenomenon and its effects within the Black [Gay] Community. The only episode that successfully executed this was the BOO episode, which stands out among the four as being the most thorough and raw depiction of what today's DL Black man by definition stands for. The longest of the four, the ROBERT episode, may have come close but the twist to the story makes it null and void (which I will not give away). However, there are many issues about acceptance and struggle in the ROBERT episode that the BOO episode lack, which were on point and resonate today. Everything else was unfortunately nothing more than any given episode of a soap opera in comparison.

For anyone who has watched such promising yet flawed put-together series like "The Closet" and "Noah's Arc," you will be taken aback by how believable the cast is, for starters. The script is well written but drags at times, but the acting makes up for that.

I recommend watching each episode from beginning to end to fully understand the story and catch the links between characters from episode to episode. Because the WES episode starts out really slow compared to the intensity of those that follow, I skipped to the 4th episode, MARK (which turns out to be the most comical and light-hearted of the four), before watching the other two and saying, "Wait a minute?!" and doing some rewinding for myself. But again, watch from beginning to end and pay close attention to the character overlapping for some "Ahh ha" moments.

Another shortcoming, or maybe just a question that went unanswered, was the whole purpose of the narrator and his involvement with these men. The narrator is writing a book focusing on DL men and as the episodes intro, he is either writing or talking about the whole DL culture before he starts talking about each individual. In Episode 1 WES it is revealed how they meet, but I was left wondering how, if he is telling the story, does he know all of this information about Wes. Were they intimate (which you think is obvious as the story sets up the way they meet, but it never comes into play again)? Does he know someone who knows these people? Did they tell their stories to him for his book? Is he maybe even one of the individuals involved in the stories and he has just changed the names and instances?

Maybe another season will offer these answers, but for anyone looking for an extremely entertaining, thought provoking, well-scripted and acted Black film/series of a different kind, I highly recommend this DVD.

I rented this on Netflix; and after waiting almost 3 month's to view it, I was absolutely enthralled by the acting, the content, and the documentary. However you feel about the individual episodes, it is a must have item for my personal collection. And I am not a collector of DVD's. It was GREAT!!!!!

I'd heard about this series when it came out but only recently rented it. I definitely endorse adding this to your collection. I was most excited to see the 1st episode but felt it was the least well-acted. Although I did enjoy hearing the lead's sexy Australian accent in the DVD extras. Who knew there were black Australians?. Our large U.S. of A is a rather isolated one. The remaining three episodes were very good. It's so refreshing to find out this work exists. Not only are we exposed to beautiful black gay characters, but this collection also amasses some of the best black writers, directors and actors out there.