The good news is, if you are a queer person who finally sees yourself on television in the new reboot, it may not matter whether it’s good or bad - being seen means the world. And so, what began as a recent reporting assignment to New Orleans for a taping of the new “Queer as Folk” turned into a deeper inquiry, including conversations with friends, academics and others outside the production. I believe we are at a place - please, let us be at a place - where it’s no longer enough that there’s a queer show with characters who look like you on it diversity must be the baseline, not the finish line. “But when it’s disconnected from a deeper story line or a deeper investment in the characters or the quality of the writing isn’t good, that has an impact on audiences’ ability to connect to the show.”

“The performance of diversity”: That’s how Julia Himberg, an associate professor of film and media studies at Arizona State University, described what happened with “And Just Like That” and “Generation Q.” (She had not seen the new “Queer as Folk.”) Himberg, a lesbian, is the author of “The New Gay for Pay: The Sexual Politics of American Television Production.”