Review Round-up: "Fellow Travelers" Gets High Marks

The reviews of "Fellow Travelers" are in, and they are astonishingly good.

The Showtime miniseries premieres on Sunday, October 29. (For those more eager, it premieres on Paramount+ on October 27.) The series os an adaptation of the novel by Thomas Mallon that follows a romance between two men (Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer) that begins during the McCarthy era, in the 1950s. The eight-episode miniseries was created and written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Ron Nyswaner ("Philadelphia").

"Fellow Travelers" had a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes on Thursday, with more raves coming from other outlets that are not reported on that aggregate site. Here's a sample.

Daily Beast, Coleman Spilde

"'Fellow Travelers' is the kind of fiercely horny television that used to be a tentpole of pay-per-view network programming. But it's not just the sex that makes 'Fellow Travelers' so great. It's also the show's ability to use wildly erotic fornication as a tool to increase its emotional resonance. The eight-episode limited series looks and feels like classic prestige TV, earning all eight hours of its runtime thanks to cunning writing, terrific editing, and some of the best lead performances of the year. This is can't-miss television, brought back from its shallow grave...

"But something 'Fellow Travelers' does so well is ensuring that it's not merely explicit for explicitness sake. There is true, recognizable intimacy between these characters, which is what makes their developing, prohibited relationship so engrossing. I can spot the unique elements that are embedded within real queer relationships in how Hawkins and Tim interact, with Bailey and Bomer conjuring some of the most unmistakable chemistry of any onscreen pair in recent memory. (And you thought Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper were intense!) And as the threats of McCarthyism draw nearer, the series crafts gripping, interlocking storylines about trading trust for safety at a time where security was merely an illusion."

Variety, Aramide Tinubu

". . . Based on the bestselling novel by Thomas Mallon and adapted for television by Ron Nyswaner, 'Fellow Travelers' is a sweeping love story spanning three decades. It's a narrative about what it means to simultaneously spend a life completely with someone while entirely separate from them. The Washington, D.C.- set drama series is told through the perspectives of two very different men. Hawkins 'Hawk' Fuller (Matt Bomer) is a charismatic federal bureaucrat whose stoic demeanor and hypermasculine charm enable him to neatly tuck his sexuality away, mostly evading suspicion. In contrast, Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey) is the boyish new assistant to Sen. Joseph McCarthy (an unrecognizable Chris Bauer), full of idealistic views and a desire to get closer to God.

"A complex, intimate, captivating and visually stunning portrait of anguish and desire, 'Fellow Travelers' is an expansive tale set primarily at the height of the U.S. government's war on communists, 'subversives' and 'sexual deviants' and ending amid the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s. What begins as a helpless attraction and intense lust transforms into a lifetime of longing that never has a chance at a happy ending.

"The inherent heaviness of 'Fellow Travelers' is alleviated by Bomer and Bailey's electric chemistry. Hawk and Tim's relationship shifts over the decades, but their erotic intimacy and attraction reverberate off the screen, showcasing a euphoric and profoundly moving connection despite its flaws. The historical drama moves well beyond the physical, forcing the viewer to look not just at some of the most atrocious moments in American history but at ourselves and the people who put our souls at ease. The inhumanity of others has no bearing on how we treat ourselves, the memories we carry or how we choose to live our lives. 'Fellow Travelers' is a reminder of the cost of freedom and an homage to those who have sacrificed so that our lives might be free of shame and humiliation."

The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg

"Ron Nyswaner's Showtime limited series 'Fellow Travelers' has the temporal reach of 'Angels in America' but none of the formal experimentation or operatic scope (which is a bit odd since Thomas Mallon's source novel was previously adapted as an opera). A love story, a rudimentary history lesson and, yes, an ample dose of trauma porn, 'Fellow Travelers' is by turns vital and stodgy, with passionate, emotional elements – stars Matt Bomer, Jonathan Bailey and Allison Williams are consistently compelling across eight hours – in conflict with by-the-numbers storylines. . .

"The sex scenes are plentiful and graphic. Nyswaner ('Philadelphia') and the series directors, led by Daniel Minahan ('Halston'), tailor the chemistry and choreography of the couplings around Tim and Hawk's shifting power dynamics. However frequently you might think, 'I've never seen THAT position on TV,' the frequent boinking never feels gratuitous..."

Time Magazine, Judy Berman

"On April 27, 1953, the federal government declared war on its queer employees. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Executive Order 10450 authorized a witch hunt for workers who engaged in, among other activities deemed to be national security risks, 'sexual perversions.' Thus began what historians later dubbed the Lavender Scare, a less publicized but similarly devastating sequel to the Red Scare thought to have resulted in between 5,000 and 10,000 gay men and lesbians losing their livelihoods. Some investigations ended more tragically, in suicide.

"It's just months before the order drops that the sometime lovers at the center of Showtime's lively, insightful, and often devastating historical drama 'Fellow Travelers,' adapted from Thomas Mallon's acclaimed 2007 novel and premiering Oct. 27, first meet...

"'Fellow Travelers' doesn't preach liberation. In its most romantic moments, the show does better: it embodies liberation. So much so that Nyswaner almost earns his jarringly sentimental ending. (You might groan, but unless you're dead inside, you'll also tear up.) Bomer, Bailey, and Alladin (though not, sadly, Williams) can even make you forget what a stretch it is to have a cast portray the same characters over the course of 34 years, with only some makeup and gray hair to mark the passage of time.

"Nested within a case study of gay political life in the second half of the 20th century are eight episodes of gorgeous romantic drama in a medium that rarely seems suited to the genre. Savvy, selfish Hawk and self-sacrificing Tim are like magnets, but their views on how to survive in a world that hates people like them are mutually exclusive. With McCarthy and Cohn buzzing miserably in the background, 'Fellow Travelers' poses the question that haunts every story of love lost and found: Can people evolve over time, or is it only their circumstances that change?"

Entertainment Weekly, Kristen Baldwin

"When Hawkins 'Hawk' Fuller (Matt Bomer) takes Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey) out to dinner for the first time in Showtime's 'Fellow Travelers,' it's clear their relationship is doomed. Dining by candlelight at a swank Washington, D.C. restaurant, Hawk poses as Tim's uncle; it's one of many run-of-the-mill ruses that the suave State Department staffer uses to survive as a closeted gay man in 1950s America. . .

"The fraught choice between the hollow happiness of safety and the precarious dignity of freedom fuels every beat in 'Fellow Travelers'' bittersweet romance. Inspired by Thomas Mallon's 2007 novel, the limited series from Ron Nyswaner ('Ray Donovan,' 'Philadelphia') uses Hawk and Tim's torrid, toxic relationship as the nexus of a broader exploration of the American LGBTQ+ experience over several decades. 'Travelers'' execution doesn't always match its time-hopping ambitions, but the magnetism and pathos of the series' central duo remains powerful throughout. . .

"Marcus and Frankie's nuanced arc blends smoothly with the series' initial episodes, but 'Travelers'' story yields diminishing returns the further it gets from the source material and Mallon's McCarthy Era setting. The final three episodes chart the characters' lives through the tumult of the Vietnam War protests in the '60s, the burgeoning gay rights movement in the '70s, and the emergence of the AIDS epidemic in the '80s. The plotting becomes more message-driven, and Tim, Hawk, Marcus, and Frankie feel less and less like characters and more like dutiful tour guides through major gay rights milestones: The 1978 assassination of Harvey Milk and subsequent White Night riots; the creation of the country's only in-patient AIDS unit at San Francisco General Hospital in 1983; the first showing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1987.

"This somewhat didactic detour dilutes the emotional strength of 'Travelers'' back half, but the bittersweet allure of Hawk and Tim's ill-fated connection sustains until the end. Lessons aside, it's the lovers' personal history – and the painful truths they learn about themselves – that linger. Grade: B"

AV Club, Max Gao

"Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? That is one of the questions at the heart of "Fellow Travelers," the intoxicating Showtime/Paramount+ limited series about two men who fall in love at the height of McCarthyism in 1950s Washington D.C. and weave in and out of each other's lives for years at a time before coming to terms with their whirlwind secret romance during the AIDS epidemic of the '80s. Equal parts historical drama and political thriller, this eight-part series is the first of its kind, telling an epic gay love story across four decades that is as heart-wrenching as it is heartwarming.

"Based on the novel by Thomas Mallon and created for television by Ron Nyswaner ('Ray Donovan,' 'Homeland'), the beautifully shot and thematically rich miniseries, which premieres October 27, chronicles the tender, volatile, and deeply passionate relationship between Hawkins 'Hawk' Fuller (Matt Bomer), a charming and debonair war hero turned political staffer who is able to compartmentalize his life, and Timothy 'Tim' Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey), an idealistic young Fordham University graduate who is optimistic about the future and earnest about his political and religious convictions. . .

"Since Bailey's casting was announced last year, there has already been a lot of social-media chatter in anticipation of the sex scenes in 'Fellow Travelers' – and that discourse has only intensified with the release of the first intimate scenes. In one scene, for instance, Tim uses sex to get an invite to a party, asking Hawk, 'I'm your boy, right?' Bomer, Bailey, and the creative team have managed to find different expressions of Hawk and Tim's love and intimacy over different time periods, with no sex scene ever being the same.

"Those explosive scenes shift the power dynamics of the relationship back and forth and push the boundaries even on a network like Showtime, which famously aired 'Queer As Folk' in the early aughts. While Tim learns a lot from Hawk about power and dominance, Tim, on a more profound level, also opens Hawk up to the dangerous possibility of falling in love with another man again. One could even argue that this story could have conceivably been told in only a single era – in the '50s, like Mallon's original novel – but the decision to tell a more ambitious story in scope allows the audience to relive key events in queer American history and watch these characters grow and evolve over time, even if the execution wanes in the later decades."

Paste Magazine, Lacy Baugher Milas

"One part love story, one part political thriller, and one part historical drama, 'Fellow Travelers' follows the story of Hawkins Fuller (Bomer), a worldly State Department official, and Tim Laughlin (Bailey), a devout Catholic and new college graduate who arrives in the cutthroat world of Washington, D.C. politics, naively hoping to help change the country for the better. The two meet cute at an election night party on the eve of the 1950s Lavender Scare, just as Senator Joseph McCarthy began purging gays and lesbians from government jobs, stoking a national moral panic around homosexuality. Their flirtation turns into an intoxicating sexual connection, which becomes something much more intimate and lasting, despite the dangers, challenges, and other relationships that pass in and out of both their lives...

"'Fellow Travelers' isn't always a particularly easy watch – it's a love story, to be sure, but it's also a tragedy, a story of loss and regret and what-ifs that serves as a necessary reminder of how far we've come in terms of the fight for LGBTQ rights, told through the story of two men whose lives would likely have turned out much differently if they'd been born a few short decades later. It's not particularly groundbreaking in terms of the story it's telling, but that doesn't make it feel any less necessary."

Vanity Fair, Richard Lawson

"...The series is based on the novel by Thomas Mallon, which spans decades but mostly stays zoomed in on the scary persecutions of Joseph McCarthy. Hawkins Fuller (Matt Bomer) is a suave, handsome, war-hero Washington wheel-greaser, an eligible bachelor who prefers to spend his private time having rough sex (he's always the dom) with men he meets at gay speakeasies and other cruising spots. He's quite good at living a secret life, though of course a certain amount of recklessness is always in play...

"Hawk is a good enough mentor to wide-eyed Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey), a devoutly Catholic rube from the Midwest who wholeheartedly supports anti-Communist efforts and, through Hawk's help, finds himself working for McCarthy. As their career positions grow ever more compromised, the two men begin a lusty, push-and-pull affair; Hawk is the pragmatic, emotionally distant foil to Tim's earnest longing. Though we watch as Hawk and Tim move from the furtively carnal toward something like a genuine relationship, the show's multiple-timeline device tells us pretty early on that this relationship does not endure. In the 1980s, Hawk is in a long marriage to a senator's daughter while Tim is dying of AIDS in San Francisco.

"'Fellow Travelers' is a weepy, a star-crossed love story about people torn asunder by forces political and personal, by shame and fear and stubbornness. As the series unfolds, the intriguing Washingtonian-thriller trappings of early episodes – notes covertly passed, betrayals done out of ruthless self-preservation – give way to more familiar, plodding melodrama. Creator Ron Nyswaner expands the scope of the story beyond that of the novel, reaching to incorporate a whole history of gay struggle as the movement lurches its way to the progresses of the 1990s and 2000s, amidst the bitter devastation of a plague...

"It all starts to feel like a rehash of the well-meaning but hokey ABC mini-series 'When We Rise,' something that could maybe be shown in piecemeal to a high school class learning about gay rights. That is not where 'Fellow Travelers' begins. It's a shame, then, to watch the series lose its way as it over eagerly builds its world. If only these men – sorry, smitten, born at a bad time – were allowed to simply be of history, rather than forced into awkward cohabitation with the forces making it."