10 Best TV Episodes Of 2021
4. It’s A Sin - "Episode 3"
Russell T Davies’ masterpiece is not an easy watch. Depicting the lives of young gay men in London as the AIDS epidemic takes hold, it’s an indignant cry at the mishandling of a crisis, which needlessly claimed so many young lives.
Davies isn’t inclined to make purely depressing television, though, and before things take a truly terrifying turn he brilliantly captures the joys of being free and accepted like you never have before. The character who best encapsulates this is Colin, a naive Welsh lad whose dreary life has suddenly become awash with colour.
Colin is the first of the main cast to succumb to AIDS, and the last you’d expect. “Episode 3” is where It’s A Sin gets serious, and it’s not an easy watch; indeed it’s often utterly heartbreaking. Nevertheless, seeing his friends rally around him as the disease takes hold, with friend Jill taking up the cause and spreading information on AIDS, is so sensitively depicted and brilliantly acted.
There’s no sense It’s A Sin will have a happy ending from the moment it begins, but it never captures the utter unfairness of this disease better than it does here, claiming an innocent life so suddenly and painfully.