Introducing Being Brendo

It has a new name and big plans for the future but the director from one of Australia’s most popular gay web series says it will still show working class gay guys as they truly are.

Last weekend, the team from Queer As Fxxk announced the show’s new name, Being Brendo.

For the uninitiated, the show focuses on the lives of five Australian gay men, one of which is Brendan, and has had guest stars including Judith Lucy and Denise Scott.

The news came just in time for the sixth season’s finale, aired on Wednesday. But that wasn’t the only change announced.

The team also revealed they were preparing to pitch the show for mainstream television.

Colin Batrouney, Queer as Fxxk writer/director and Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men’s Health Centre heath promotion manager, told the Star Observer the name change had been a challenge for some fans.

But he said the team renamed the show to make it clearer and to name it something more original and less similar to the popular UK and US TV show, Queer as Folk.

The initial pilot show was a project between the Burnet Institute, Melbourne University and the Victorian AIDS Council.

“We weren’t really sure how an online gay soap was going to work and how it was going to work in its utility for health promotion but we think it has worked very, very well,” he said.

“We have got a fabulous online audience and it’s growing.

“Over the last two-and-a-half years, we’ve amassed more than 90 videos so it’s been a huge undertaking.

“What this show offers people that other shows haven’t in a way, it shows working class gay men who aren’t basically cliches. So the situations are quite realistic, it takes a humourous approach to sexual health but it also includes some very serious issues such as HIV and serodiscordant relationships.

“It’s a comedy but it shows a very serious side as well.”

Batrouney said the show would face some changes if it was successful in its pitch for mainstream TV.

For starters, he said the webisodes would have to grow from their five to 10-minute format to about 30-minute shows.

He said he hoped they would not need to compromise but it depended on which channel picked the show up.

“We would like to pitch it to ABC2 or SBS2 and I think on those sorts of channels there have been a number of programs which have been edgier because our hope would be that we wouldn’t need to compromise our approach in terms of the up-front nature which we deal with issues,” he said.

The show’s audience was quick to react to last weekend’s news with mostly positive feedback.

“We’ve had a couple of people who don’t like the name but it’s kind of inevitable, you can’t please everyone,” he said.

Check out the season finale below: