‘Fellow Travelers’ Poignantly Follows a Gay Romance Through an Era of Dangerous Prejudice in America

Alci Rengifo

Showtime’s limited series “Fellow Travelers” brings to life an era in America where two forms of prejudice mirror each other. Senator Joseph McCarthy’s infamous witch hunt of potential communists in the United States was taking place at a time when being gay meant living in a social underground. The term “fellow traveler” was used for those who might have secretly been associated with communist groups or espoused Marxist ideas as the Cold War gained steam. This impressive series is based on a 2007 bestseller by Thomas Mallon of the same name, which expertly combines the historical with the personal. The main characters are swept up by a moment in time that directly impacts who they are, how they love and what kind of lives they will be forced to live.

The story begins in 1986, where Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller (Matt Bomer) is having a going away party. We sense he’s an important man who has reached high prominence and has an attractive wife, Lucy (Allison Williams). He’s approached at the gathering by Marcus Hooks (Jelani Alladin), an old friend and flame, who informs him about a name from the past, Tim, who is ill and settling his affairs. He has sent Hawk a mysterious package. The moment sends us back in time to 1952, when Hawk worked at the State Department and was known as a World War II hero. It was here where he first lays eyes on a new staffer, Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey). Tim is a Catholic and idealist who believed in the crusade of Senator Joseph McCarthy (Chris Bauer) to uproot any communists in the government, if not American society as a whole. Hawk and Tim soon become lovers. But their intimacy also brings out their differing personalities. 

Journeying from the 1950s to the 1970s, “Fellow Travelers” then uses Hawk and Tim as vehicles for deeper ideas. When McCarthy announces that he will also look into “sexual subversives” in the government, the “red scare” becomes a moment that glaringly targets marginalized groups in addition to potential Marxists. It is in such moments, as when wars break out, that someone’s true character is tested. The potent emotional drama builds because Hawk is the older, seasoned political operator who doesn’t seem to mind going with the flow. His own needs can be fulfilled with clandestine trysts no one needs to know about, as shown in this series’ stark sex scenes. But Tim is the younger, less experienced man who wants to really get to know Hawk, and not just have sex. The great irony in Tim’s naivety is that, at first, he doesn’t realize how his marginalization as a gay man is mirrored by the witch hunt McCarthy is carrying out against communists in a supposedly free country. Those who know the history will relish at the sight of Will Brill as Roy Cohn, McCarthy’s infamous right hand who was himself in the closet. Cohn would later become both a fixture of the Studio 54 crowd in New York and an early mentor of Donald Trump.

“Fellow Travelers” is one of those moving dramas like “Brokeback Mountain,” or Gore Vidal’s novel “The City and the Pillar,” which are stories about gay men who faced dangers and choices that in today’s America would seem unimaginable, at least for the most part. Hawk has steeled himself to where he’s able to play the double game of dating Lucy, the daughter of a prominent politician, and look like the perfect Mr. America in public. He helps Tim ascend in government, but the latter feels a growing inner conflict when he meets fellow LGBT workers, like lesbian secretaries who can easily be fired if found out. For closeted society in Washington, D.C., saving oneself could mean giving up others. Hawk eventually will give names and advise a colleague to do the same. Meanwhile, a Black American like Marcus works as a journalist and risks the hostile, racist environment by asking politicians necessary, hard questions. He boldly asks Roy Cohn why he doesn’t go fight in Korea if he hates communists so much. 

As time passes, Hawk and Tim continue to live in the shadows despite the different turns their lives take. Hawk keeps his social privileges while Tim will eventually be consumed by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. As they travel through the social changes of the various decades, from the 1970s disco and cruising scene to 1980s San Francisco, the story of these two lovers takes on a special kind of melancholy. A driving theme is that a sense of community and belonging is essential for survival. Hawk finds in Tim the kind of bond that Lucy, and later their son, can’t provide. Tim will later find solace with Marcus and his boyfriend, Frankie (Noah J. Ricketts), who is also an activist. San Francisco becomes a city where Tim can become free, unlike Hawk, who can’t find the will to surrender his social perks based on the façade he has built.

There are fantastic performances all throughout “Fellow Travelers.” Matt Bomer has the self-assured air of a successful man who knows how to hold in what he really thinks while Jonathan Bailey first burns with the sincerity of youth, before becoming changed by life’s brutal assaults. Allison Williams’s Lucy is the proper politician’s wife who knows the truth about her husband, but has been conditioned to save face. Like everyone in this story, she has made compromises. That’s what “Fellow Travelers” wonderfully challenges the audience with, the question of how willing we would be to compromise in order to feel safe. Even if it is painful to deny what we really think, feel or are, should we sacrifice it for security? Such depths make this more than another Peak TV drama. What it explores lingers long after the final episode.

“Fellow Travelers” begins streaming Oct. 27 on Paramount+ and airs Oct. 29 on Showtime, with new episodes premiering Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.