One of the many reasons Netflix‘s new hit dramedy series Boots has connected with viewers is how it subverts tropes and breaks precedents set in queer media. For example, the show features openly queer actors in lead roles, something nearly unthinkable as recently as the show’s own ’90s setting. Additionally, the characters have diverse personalities and are not defined solely by their sexuality. This is one goal the show’s creative team set out to accomplish, as creator Andy Parker recently told Collider’s Maggie Lovitt during an interview about the show’s emerging legacy.
“Just as the military is not a monolith, the queer community is not either, right?” Parker says when Lovitt noted that viewers had an overwhelmingly positive response to the show’s portrayal of queerness. He continues:
“So it was important that, as we depicted all these different kinds of recruits who are coming from all different kinds of backgrounds, who have different motivations for being there and different attitudes about the military, frankly, and about their service, the same is true for people in the queer community who have many different backgrounds and opinions and political perspectives. It was important that we have multiple queer perspectives in the story.“
How ‘Boots’ Used Its Characters to Showcase Nuanced Queerness
With at least four queer characters, Boots has the real estate to showcase different types of queer people. At the center of the narrative is Cameron Cope (Miles Heizer), a teenager trying to improve himself in an environment hostile to his identity. He encounters two contrasting figures in Sergeant Sullivan (Max Parker), a closeted drill instructor dealing with his own demons, and Jones (Jack Cameron Kay), a proud gay recruit with a hidden agenda. Parker explains how all these characters enrich the narrative, saying,
“Obviously, we’re coming into boot camp through Cameron’s eyes, and he, in some ways, has the most naive perspective. He is the one who’s truly coming of age. He doesn’t really know what he’s getting into. He’s not been to college. He doesn’t have this life experience. His worldview is still being formed. Then we’ve got Sergeant Sullivan, who is going through his own transformation in some ways, and he’s moving in the opposite direction of Cameron. He’s, in some ways, breaking down as his own worldview starts to run aground on the contradictions inherent in his worldview.
Then it was important that we have a character like Recruit Jones, who’s different in a way. He’s not an ideologue, but he’s more sagacious. He has more knowledge of how the world works than Cameron does. He’s able to serve as a kind of mentor to Cameron. And then, as the season goes on, we’re forced to reckon with the fact that he has his own agenda, and he’s having to make his own choice in terms of using Cameron.”
Both of these personalities influence Cameron’s decisions, especially as he progresses in his career in the Marines. “So, it was important that we not present, ‘Oh, this is the one way you can be gay in the military.’ Each of these three guys represents at least three different ways. Of course, there are a multitude,” Parker says. He discusses how this experience affects Cameron, saying, “But it was important that Cameron, by the end of this season, be faced with a real choice, and that we experience both the triumph of his victory — he’s become a Marine, he’s earned this; it’s been really hard, but he’s done this incredibly difficult thing — and at the same time, I wanted to leave our audience with the feeling of this question of, like, ‘Okay, but is this good for Cameron? Is it okay that he continues to be part of an organization that is still requiring him to stifle himself?’ I want to take that question into a potential Season 2 because I think that’s a really interesting question to keep exploring.”
Stream the first season of Boots on Netflix and stay tuned to Collider for more updates on Season 2 and Lovitt’s full interview with Parker.
- Release Date
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2025 – 2025-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
