V: Sorry, that's what everybody calls you, Q for queer. I'll make them stop.
Agent Mary: I actually kind of like it.
Agent Mary: I actually kind of like it.
Q-Force is an adult animated comedy series airing on Netflix created by Gabe Liedman and animated by Titmouse.
It centers around a group of LGBT-spies working for the American Intelligence Agency (AIA) who, despite being the best in their field, are undervalued due to their sexualities and identities.
Tired of this unfair treatment, Agent Steve Maryweather (also known as Agent Mary) decides to go rogue, in order to gain the attention of the AIA leadership and finally get the recognition he and his team deserve.
Netflix ordered 10 episodes of the series in April 2019.
The first teaser was released on July 23, 2021 and can be watched here
. The first official trailer was released on August 12, 2021 and can be watched here.
The first season was released on September 2, 2021. On June 27, 2022, it was announced that the show had been cancelled after one season.
Not to be confused with the QForce from Ratchet & Clank.
Q-Force contains examples of the following tropes:
- Addictive Foreign Soap Opera: Cobblestones, Gyenorvya's most popular TV show. Also apparently its only TV show.
- Appropriated Appellation:
- Q-Force is originally an Embarrassing Nickname the other agents give Agent Mary's team, due to all of them being, well, queer. V offers to put a stop to it, but Mary declines, saying he actually likes the name.
- Initially, "Mary" and "Agent Mary" were names Buck bestowed on Steve Maryweather to make fun of him for his sexuality* , though he eventually reclaims this moniker and proudly goes by it* .
- The Bear: Benji, Agent Mary's boyfriend, is an archetypal one. Full beard, heavyset, openly gay and all. Though he is more soft-spoken than most examples.
- Big Beautiful Man: Benji is a pudgy but handsome fellow who manages to catch Mary's eye when they first meet.
- Bland-Name Product:
- The Q-Force find a guy who they suspect to be a terrorist over his profile on "Grindo" a thinly veiled parody of Grindr.
- In Episode 4 the Q-Force have to infiltrate a foreign country that is currently hosting the EuropeVision, a parody of the Eurovision Song Contest.
- The country itself, Gyenorvya, is a blatant parody of Genovia from The Princess Diaries.
- Blatant Lies: Mary loses his title of valedictorian right after coming out as gay and the honor is given to agent Buck, a straight man, instead. All while Director Chunley is insistent that Mary being gay and Buck being straight has absolutely nothing to with it.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Mary breaks up with Benji to get him, and his family, out of harm's way, racked with guilt from witnessing Benji's friend, Antoni, die in a scooter explosion that was meant for Mary.
- Butch Lesbian:
- Deb is a muscular, crass stocky woman who works as a mechanic and has short hair and a deep masculine voice. She's also openly lesbian and married to another woman.
- Dirk's assistant, Louisa Desk, a large woman who equals Deb in strength and size comes out as lesbian...to the surprise of no one since they've already assumed she's gay.
- Camp Gay:
- Zig-zagged with Mary who displays some stereotypically gay mannerisms, like speaking in a high effeminate voice and being overly concerned about his looks, but overall comes across more like a Straight Gay.
- Played straight with Twink who goes all in on the camp whenever he's on screen.
- Campy Combat: Usually averted, since most characters are Straight Gay or Butch Lesbian. But Twink is the god emperor of using campy clothes and maneuvers in combat.
- Cast Full of Gay: Aside from Buck (who is straight) and V (whose identity is a secret), absolutely no one in the Q-Force is straight. Add to that a plethora of LGBT+ side-characters and villains.
- Deliberately Bad Example: Buck encompasses the worst stereotype of the "straight white male" so much that anything he says and does makes the flaws of his majority queer colleagues look like simple quirks.
- Drag Queen: Twink regularly does drag both in his civilian job and as an undercover agent. He's pretty convincing too.
- Everyone Has Standards: The head miner in "Backache Mountain" refuses to sleep with Mary when the latter comes onto him, calling him out for attempting that kind of thing when both of them are supposed to be working and stating that work and relationships don't mix.
- Fanservice: A lot of very attractive characters, both male and female to oggle at for the viewer. This is most often invoked with Mary, who is a very handsome and muscular man and often wears outfits that emphasize his figure and butt.
- Fictional Country: Gyenorvya, a vaguely northern monarchy in Europe that is hosting that year's EuropeVision. The country is known for having a gigantic hole, celebrates Christmas every day and has it's own internet cut off from the rest of the world.
- First Gray Hair: Mary gets his after ten years without a case.This ultimately drives him to go rogue with his team, since he sees this as a sign that he's throwing his life away waiting for the agency to give him the respect he deserves.
- Flawless Token: Discussed by V in "Rogue". When she chews Mary out for going against the AIA's orders, she adds that "people like [them]" simply cannot afford to take those kinds of risks, since people like director Chunley will immediately jump at the opportunity to fire them and/or ruin any chance they might have at advancing in their careers.
- Flying Car: Well, mostly. Subaru McClanahan, heavily modified by Deb, can fly (more or less). She also has many other spy features such as remote control and an electromagnet.
- Gadget Watch: The AIA seemingly adores these, along with other Shoe Phone type accessories such as pens with hidden spy features.
- Buck has a "sex watch" that dispenses Viagra, personal lubricant and a very long string of spaghetti.
- Mary wears one that can remotely operate Subaru McClanahan.
- Heteronormative Crusader:
- Director Chunley who shows absolutely no respect for the Q-Force or their accomplishments and would rather pretend they don't exist at all.
- Buck, Q-Force's token straight, isn't much better, being incredibly toxic and homophobic to everyone around him and showing no respect for his fellow agents, simply because they're out and proud and he can't handle that.
- The AIA as a whole, since they developed Project Greyscale as a way to erase the memories of queer agents and other "inconveniences" after firing them.
- I Have Your Wife: The villains kidnap Deb's wife Pam to force their team to exchange her freedom for the uranium they took away from them. They successfully rescue her at the end of the next episode, though it leads to Pam being aware of Q-Force as well as Deb's real job.
- Ink-Suit Actor: It's plain to see that Louisa Desk's large frame, curly hair, and face are modeled after her voice actress, Fortune Feimster. Benji's two best friends are also modeled after their voice actors, Maulik Pancholy and Ira Madison III.
- Insistent Terminology: A make-up company called "Honestly?" is named after the interjection, so it's always pronounced with a raised inflection.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After ten years of not being given a case and being brushed off every time he asks for one, Mary decides to simply get the Q-Force their own case and screw what the higher-ups think about it.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Uncensored genitalia is on full display whenever a man is in the buff.
- Buck is usually seen naked for either comedy or unfortunate happenstance. "Buck naked", if you will.
- In "Backache Mountain," a low-angle shot of Agent Mary's genitals are onscreen for a second after his steamy sex scene with Ennis.
- A throng of naked men, along with Buck and Twink, were seen imprisoned in "WeHo Confidential".
- Married to the Job: Mary dedicates his entire life to his unit and neglects pretty much everything else, including relationships. He lets up on that starting in "Deb's BBQ" and starts dating Benji.
- Mean Boss: Pretty much the standard for higher-ups at the AIA with regards to their secretaries, who apparently get one day off per year if they are lucky.
- Misery Poker: When Mary talks to Deb about the pressure he feels as the first openly gay agent in the field, she half-jokingly tells him to try and be a black woman for one day. Mary doesn't get it.
- Noodle Incident:
- Twink is constantly citing these in his life, often involving celebrities and circuit parties.
- Mary is triggered by Buck derisively referring to having to mind the shop as babysitting, which causes Mary to angrily state that actual babysitting is an extremely hard job.
- Deb was in the Navy and implies that she pranked superior officers during her service.
- V mentions that getting kidnapped and finding out that your spouse is a spy is a leading cause of divorce. Whether this is in the general population or just within the espionage community is unstated.
- Only Known by Their Nickname:
- Twink's real name is Bastien, as we learn from his Troubled Backstory Flashback when his father calls him as such. Details below.
- Zig-zagged with Steve Maryweather where he's called Mary by his teammates, but introduces himself as Steve to those outside of work. So when he introduces himself as "Mary" to Benji by the end, this means he trusts him enough to let him know about his double life.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Mary gets assigned to West Hollywood after coming out and is more or less just left there to twiddle his thumbs so the director doesn't have to deal with him.
- Open-Minded Parent: Benji's parents who are nothing but nice to Steve when Benji introduces him to them. It's implied that they've always been this way, and are ecstatic whenever their son brings his boyfriends home.
- The Something Force: The titular Q-Force, originally so named as an insult by the other AIA-agents. Steve decides to run with it anyway, since he actually likes it.
- Spies Are Lecherous: Quite often the Q-Force has to resort to flirting to get information from a target. It's not just them either, as the whole of AIA actively encourages using sexuality and seduction if it gets the job done. Apparently there's even a class in Spy Sex at the academy.
- Spy Fiction: Largely a parody of Tuxedo and Martini style, with the characters using lots of spy tech and fighting rather Camp threats. When V needs to go somewhere she is prone to summoning a helicopter and flying off while hanging from a ladder attached to it.
- Stout Strength: Seemingly any spy character who is not buff has this, including Buck, Deb and Louisa Desk.
- Survivor's Guilt: "Tarzana" has Mary and Benji go to Antoni's funeral, who died from a scooter explosion back in '"WeHo Confidential". Mary spends a good chunk of the episode hallucinating Antoni's mangled corpse subconsciously telling him that Benji has no idea that the explosion wasn't an accident, and that Benji might be next. This causes Mary to call things off with Benji during the funeral.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: In "Deb's BBQ," when Buck criticizes Twink for being too effeminate in vein of Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?, he's reminded of his father (a brutish ringleader from Cirque du Soleil) criticizing him for his lack of masculinity and calling him a "clown," a word that Buck also used disparagingly. It makes certain sense why at present, he rather goes by Twink. Twink does get over it after he (while disguised as Mary) confronts Buck about his behavior.
- The Twink: Heck, one of them is even nicknamed as such, including being aware of the power he holds over other men when he proclaims to himself, "One day, I'm gonna top him [Buck]."
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The show uses this frequently at the start of Episode 3, with focus shifting back and forth from one group of cast to the other. How much each subplot has to do with the other depends on the episode.
