The Best and Worst Storylines of “L Word: Generation Q” Season One

There’s a lot to look back on when considering the full breadth of The L Word: Generation Q’s first season. A small child threw up in a crock pot instead of a trash can or toilet, Jeff Milner named his pony Harriet Tubman, everybody wore really cute jumpsuits, Finley left a fully functioning automobile in somebody else’s driveway, Robin Roemer wore a low ponytail, Shane got a basket of summer salami for her birthday, Micah had sex in a swimming pool, Megan Rapinoe and Alice wore blazers together, Finley fudged a priest, Bette Porter was not afraid to sleep with your wife and Felicity admitted once dating a man named Leonard.

All in all, we loved it, we can’t wait for Season Two. Today we’re taking a wide view at what we loved as well as what we thought could use some improvement. This is our third post-season wrap up roundtable: previously we discussed our favorite Sex Scenes and Ships, and Autostraddle’s QTPOC Speakeasy weighed in on how the reboot handled race and grappled with the franchise’s legacy of whiteness.

---

The Best L Word Generation Q Storylines

Kayla Kumari, TV Writer

Tina/Bette reunion

I just think Laurel Holloman and Jennifer Beals have such rich chemistry, and this heightened reunion is of course just fun for fans, but it also taps into so many things that were true of their relationship, not necessarily providing any kind of closure but it does provide context, authentic emotion, and really strong stakes for the present as it reaches back into the past. It just feels like much more honest character work than some of Bette’s other personal life developments this season (I like Felicity in theory but she is so underdeveloped and their breakup is STILTED AF).

The Throuple

I genuinely thought this was where all of the show’s best relationship writing happened. The intersecting dynamics between Nat/Alice/Gigi are all thoroughly developed and feel real. This arc touches on parenting, divorce, betrayal, healing, and roles/needs within a relationship with depth and care. The acting is also great across the board, and this sector of the show has the strongest balance between humor and drama. All that said, I absolutely hate the way this arc ends in the finale and think it ignores a lot of the character work that has been done leading up to it.

Angie + Jordi

Young queer love! The stakes feel high and yet the show doesn’t add cheap dramatics to it for the sake of tension. We need more happy young gay love stories. We need more UNCLE SHANES!!!!!!

---

Riese Bernard, L Word: Gen Q Recapper + Autostraddle CEO

Sinley

Obviously I’m gonna say Sinley! I think one of the most thrilling parts of watching television is when you THINK you’re picking up on some chemistry but you’re not sure if it’s intentional and then… suddenly, it is! Sophie and Finley were the only match-up we didn’t see coming (most others were teased or implied by previews and more obvious set-ups) and also turned out to be the one with the most genuine chemistry and intimacy behind it. I never would’ve imagined these two together from the first few episodes but retroactively it makes perfect sense, much like Alice and Dana did in the first season of the original series. These two are happiest and most themselves when they’re together and are incredibly adept at providing emotional support to each other in ways other partners have been unable to. Their growing attraction also inspired a serious reckoning for Finley, who spent the last two episodes sober, went to Rebecca for advice as a minster rather than as an ex and made the annoying but fair decision to take a break from L.A. to sort through all the baggage she left at home. Sinley is, unfortunately, also a cheating story. But I guess I expect that from television? Cheating stories have a certain urgency that stories about people who can have sex whenever they want to don’t always have! Although I agree that Dani and Sophie’s relationship was underdeveloped and we never got to see what bound them to each other, their precise level of incompatibility wasn’t always easy to see, and complicated storytelling came out of that tension and uncertainty.

Sophie Suarez

Rosanny Zayas brought so much spirit and humor and depth to Sophie, who truly lit up the screen. Alice and Finley were more squarely framed as the reliable comic relief, but Sophie’s very underrated in this regard. She’s really fucking funny!  Having her family local brought another dimension to her story and enriched our understanding of her world and how she understands love and intimacy. I found her and Finley to be the show’s most captivating characters — I was always alert and charmed when either was onscreen.

The Throuple

Worth it for the sex scene and the stuck-in-traffic scene alone, plus for sheer originality. Together these three were at their funniest and hottest. Also. Gigi. IS SO HOT.

The Messy Grown-Up Lives of Alice, Bette and Shane

Aside from having a grown daughter, there’s a LOT about Bette’s personal life this season that I identified with nearly point-by-point, especially her relationship history and where she’s landed now. But I liked how the three OG characters were shown to still be a little all over the place as adults, and grounded in their friendships to each other moreso than their relationships, which’s what we usually witness on shows about humans over 35. I also like how much of their stories were grounded in the workplace. All three are doing work that is grounded on some level in their tie to queer community and desire to invest in it, but each is approaching it from a different angle. The L Word has always interrogated how we balance our identities and personal convictions with our need to make a living, and how those work environments can be limiting or offer opportunity to “make an impact.”

Managing a Huge Cast in Eight Episodes

I’ve read a few pieces comparing the original series to this one w/r/t depth of character development and I often want to scream because TLW Season One got 14 hours to establish its world and Gen Q got 8. Considering that, I was impressed by how often we did see characters like Tess, Gigi and Angie, and how much story was covered in such a short period of time.

---

Valerie Anne, TV Writer

Angie

After thinking about it, my own answer surprised me but… I think Angie is my favorite part of this show?? She’s so smart and kind and YOUNG and even though I feel like Baby Angelica made for some of the most cringe-worthy scenarios in the original, this time around she’s a tether for so many great storyline threads. Her crush on Jordi is so CUTE and feels so true, and watching Bette be a great mom is really great. I love Jennifer Beals’ soothing mom voice, and even though she’s such a disaster in so many other parts of her life, she’s such. a good. mom. Even when she’s not getting it exactly right. The part in the finale when Bette and Angie went to the top of the mountain to scream, and then Angelica teased her about being asked out on a date? That was all so cute and pure and filled my heart right up.

---

Drew Gregory, “To L and Back: Gen Q” Podcaster & TV Writer

The Throuple

Bless the Gods of television for the throuple. It was fun while it lasted. At the very beginning of the season it was obvious that Alice and Nat were not working and it quickly became clear that Gigi was going to participate somehow. But while we were wondering if she was going to hook up with her ex-wife or her ex-wife’s new girlfriend, our dreams came true instead. That sex scene was incredible and all the banter around the relationship afterwards was hilarious. I wish it had lasted longer than it did – and I’m suspicious of Alice and Nat continuing on as just a pair – but I’m grateful for what we got. Gigi better still be on the show next year though! Have her hook up with Tess! Or anybody! I don’t care. As long as Sepideh Moafi stays in our lives.

Finley and Rebecca’s Evolution

What started as the classic story of someone with their shit together falling for an immature mess became so much deeper as Finley and Rebecca’s relationship moved beyond romance. So few characters have boundaries on this show, which is frankly relatable, but I really liked having Rebecca as a contrast. She allows herself to follow her heart even when Finley is one big red flag from the start, but she has her limits and sticks to them. But she likes Finley! And by the end of the series she’s functioning less as a “maybe they’ll hook up again” ex and more as a priest – well, minister. Finley was the character I was most suspicious of going into the new series, but by the end she was one of my favorites. Jacqueline Toboni has done such a beautiful job fluctuating between being the comic relief and revealing what that humor is hiding.

Sinley

More Finley! But honestly what I love most about Sinley is what this pairing brings out in Sophie. She’s comfortable and vulnerable around Finley in a way she isn’t allowed to be at work or with Dani or even her family. Obviously, cheating isn’t the best move, it’s such a relief to watch her let go. The gradual development of this couple in the latter half of the season was so surprising and relatable and handled with a really lovely specificity. It doesn’t make sense on paper – and I’m not sure if they’re meant to be together for that long – but I think Sophie and Finley could learn a lot from a proper relationship with each other. And while she’s been great all season Rosanny Zayas was especially great in these moments. Whether in the moments of internal conflict or the moments of giving in, Zayas was so exciting to watch. She made Sophie an impossible character not to root for even as she makes mistakes. I think we all know who I’m hoping to see together at that airport come season two.

---

Carmen Phillips, Senior Editor

Angie

One of the major reasons I was excited about a return for The L Word was that when it comes to singular focus on the lives of adult queer women, there’s very little like it. For much of the last ten years, so many beloved lesbian or bisexual storylines have been about teen girls (I’m looking at you Santana Lopez, Emily Fields, or in the backhalf of the decade, Cheryl Blossom and pretty much everyone on The CW). So imagine my surprise that in the world of adult lesbian and bisexual women who live complete lives and have hard choices to make (and plenty of hot sex to make up on! Oh The L Word I missed you) – it is teenage Angie Porter-Kennard who walked away with my heart most.

I loved Angie from the very first episode, with her rainbow Converse sneakers and school uniform, rapping Big Bank Take Little Bank and skipping school with her “bad girl” crush.” I loved her when she had her first big fight with Bette and cried about how hard it is to be the daughter of such an unyielding woman. I loved her when Bette, for the first time in the 15 years I’ve known her, choked out a sincere apology without provocation and they curled together in bed. I loved that she punched out the racist snot at her private school and that she worked crew for her high school theatre production and her gay aunts took flash pictures in the pitch dark, they were so proud – but all she cared about was Jordi. I loved that she called Tina. I loved that she blackmailed Aunt Alice to give her “the talk” by threatening to ask Shane, and that she knew that would work. I love that she wasn’t scared when she saw her mother curled up, lost to her depression. She knew how to help her find the light again.

Angie Porter-Kennard has proven to have an emotional intelligence well beyond her years and a smile that brightens any room. Jordan Hull has absolutely crushed this role. She’s a perfect little ball of a teenager and much like her Uncle Shane, I’m ready to protect her at all costs.

Sophie Suarez

I love Sophie Suarez. I loved her starting in episode two when she brushed the edges of her curly hair into place with a toothbrush (Afro-Latina realness if I’ve ever seen it) and all the way through how damn sexy she looked in that suit running through the airport in the finale’s final moments. As a queer black Latina, let’s be real here, it’s always going to be hard to find someone who emcompasses all of my identities on screen. The very first time Rosanny Zayas was cast, my heart leapt. I couldn’t believe it. But meeting Sophie in person? Beyond my wildest imagination. I also related to how family oriented Sophie is, both to the family she was born into and the queer family she chose on her own. So often queer characters are portrayed as being snarky loners and while that’s true for a lot of people, that’s never been my story. Sophie was an open heart, full of joy and quick to let out sorrow when necessary. She wept freely and smiled with just as much ease. That’s exactly what I’m looking for, and I didn’t know I needed it until it was there.

---

Natalie Duggins, TV Writer

Sophie and the Suarez Family

If I can stray a little off topic here: there’s a moment in the first season of Queen Sugar where a bunch of cater waiters arrive at the Bordelon farm to set up for the next day’s event. Charley, who’s spent years far away from the traditions of the South, ordered them, believing it’d be less work for the family on the day that they buried their father. Livid, her sister, Nova, rejects the offer and tells the servers to go back to New Orleans.

“We don’t honor our father by sitting friends and family outside at fancy tables. We don’t honor our father by having strangers serve those grieving. We serve comfort food to those who need comfort and we do it with our own hands!” Nova yells at her sister. It’s odd but that moment — that shared understanding of the value of family and food — cemented my kinship with the Bordelon family.

I thought about that moment again while watching Dani, Sophie and their respective families touring a potential wedding venue on Gen Q. Dani’s father is sizing the room up, wondering if it’ll be lavish enough to impress his colleague, while Sophie, her mom, her nana and sister wonder where the tables will go for the food that they’re bringing. And, as with the Bordelons, my love for Sophie and the Suarez family is cemented in that moment.

“I don’t want to feel uncomfortable at my own wedding,” Sophie tells Dani later. “I want to laugh. I want to yell. I want to eat the food that my family cooked.”

Whatever comes next for Sophie — whomever she runs to in the airport — I’ll cheer for her because I know that she and I are both grounded by the same things: food and family.

Angie

Before Jordan Hull even said a word, I knew she’d fit perfectly in the L Word-verse…though she’s not biologically related to Bette Porter, the fact that she looks like a younger version of her aunt feels serendipitous…like this was always meant to be. But then she shows up on Gen Q, in her rainbow-colored Converse, rapping along to some bop, and she’s everything I hoped she would be.

Angelica “Angie” Porter-Kennard is an amazingly normal teen…an amazingly normal queer teen…and we forget sometimes how rare that is to see. I love that she’s never asked to be wiser than a teenage girl should be and that we’re getting the opportunity to watch her grow up on this show. I love the way you can see parts of Tina and Bette’s personalities manifest in her. I love her relationship with Jordi and how cute and pure it is. But mostly, I love the way she grounds the adults around her.

Alice gets paid to be a talk show host and yet, when it’s time to talk to her earthdaughter about sex, she fumbles over herself as anyone else would. Shane’s the best version of herself around Angie…less withdrawn than she is with nearly everyone else. And, of course, even though her mother is running to lead the second largest city in the United States, Angie’s there to be the one person who doesn’t care about how where her poll numbers are or what she has to do for the campaign. Angie humbles Bette as only a child can.

---

Analyssa Lopez, “To L and Back: Gen Q” Podcaster

Addressing Class Issues Through Sophie’s Story

There are a lot of storylines this season that I loved, that spanned several episodes or several characters, but something I think will stick with me for a lot longer than this season is Sophie’s relationship to money compared to Dani’s. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that conversation on TV before, and while Dani and Sophie’s relationship certainly didn’t need more fighting added to it (more on that later), I would have loved to see their conversation about money go even deeper. Learning that this is how Sophie moves through the world worked to deepen her character in a really thoughtful and interesting way, something that we didn’t get to experience with all of the new Gen Q characters this season. When Sophie and her family walked through the Biltmore, her mom in scrubs and all of them wondering where the food would go because OF COURSE this family would cook the food for their daughter’s wedding, I saw more of myself reflected than I ever had in the original six seasons of The L Word. When Sophie tells Dani that she felt like she couldn’t breathe in that ballroom, I felt it deep in my bones. Every person I’ve ever dated has come from more money than I do, and it is always hard, in ways that are obvious and ways that aren’t. It’s lonely, and Rosanny Zayas incredible portrayal of that loneliness was when I knew that I would always be team Sophie, always, no matter who she’s running to in that airport.

---

---

---

The Worst L Word Generation Q Storylines

Kayla Kumari, TV Writer

Sinley

I do not understand the appeal of this storyline…at all. This isn’t even a matter of shipping; I just think it is very poorly written! It’s the execution that really bothers me. I find Sophie—outside of the context of her family stuff, which is great—to be an inconsistently written and occasionally perplexing character, especially when it comes to her relationship with Dani. But just because I think Sophie/Dani is a confusing relationship doesn’t mean I’m suddenly on board with Sophie’s exit plan. In fact, Sinley doesn’t feel like an organic or satisfying conclusion to either Finley or Sophie’s arcs this season. It seems to sacrifice character for the sake of conflict. The way that the show establishes Sophie’s history of cheating on her partners is so hamfisted (that Dani/Sophie bathtub scene, while hot, is just so weird/out of nowhere!). And I don’t love (or even really buy…) that Sophie’s reaction to Finley having a really bad day is to take her out and get wasted with her when alcohol fuels so many of Finley’s issues. It feels like the season tries to sell this as the big love story, but not only am I not feeling it, I am just truly not convinced by it. The way this show uses infidelity as a plot device without really engaging with it in a meaningful way that looks at the emotions at play for everyone involved is…a major flaw.

Jose’s secret husband

Literally—wHAT!!! The relationship writing around Micah/Jose is really lackluster and unspecific, and it sucks real bad that Micah’s only storyline in the whole season is this. Then to have it all culminate in this overtly soapy twist is just such a blah story choice. Like others have said, I would love if Micah were a more integrated member of the group and if his storylines had more detail and better writing to them.

---

Carmen Phillips, Senior Editor

Micah’s Isolation from the Core Group

I waffled on this a bit. To be honest I could have also picked the decision to have Kit die from an overdose, or all the ways that Bette’s mayor campaign was utterly unbelievable, or that Dani’s homophobic, shady businesman, drug money rich father leaned into the worst of Latinx sterotypes. And all of that would have been true.

I’ve really enjoyed Leo Sheng’s performance! This isn’t about him as an actor; he has developed a sweetness and sensitivity to Micah that I find endearing (I also think he’s a babe, which isn’t the point, but hey – still true!). I also find his relationship with Jose, once the show finally just let them be together without the strange and unnecessary back-and-forth, to be genuinely hot. I hate that it turned out Jose is married, but alás we’re watching a soap opera and “OMG He’s Married!” is the most classic of soap twists, just ask Season One Grey’s Anatomy Meredith Grey. However, having Micah date Jose instead of one of the queer women in the cast reinforced the belief that trans men don’t have a space in queer women’s communities. Furthermore, isolating Micah with Jose meant that we never got to watch him meld with the other core characters. Who’s Micah’s best friend? Eight episodes later, and I have no idea. What makes him laugh? Why does he live with Dani and Sophie when it feels like he barely, if ever, spends time with them? By the end of the first series it felt like even Tess was more central to the story being told, and while I hope they up Tess to a series regular in Season Two, it’s a problem that I learned more about her than a lead character who was promised to be a part of the core cast from the pilot episode.

It felt like the production behind Generation Q was busy patting themselves on the back by not writing an overtly offensive trans character for once, and sure that’s an improvement over the original, but it’s absolutely NOT ENOUGH! As cis people, we need higher standards for ourselves. There should be more to Micah than the fact that he’s trans, and so far that hasn’t happened. He should just be a full person, a member of the squad. There’s still time to fix this mistake, and I really hope that they do.

There are no trans lesbians on Generation Q

Jamie Clayton and Sophie Giannamore are trans actresses. One of the reasons I was so excited for the casting announcements was the expectation that this meant there would be trans queer women on Generation Q, and as we now know – that’s not the case. I 100% realize that I have a heavy dose of cis privilege here, and it’s not my intention to step over Jamie Clayton’s reported wishes to play a cis character. That’s far far from my place. But I also know that there still are a lot of cis lesbian, bisexual, and queer women who still don’t think of trans women as “real” women or as interlopers in our community. They are hateful and they are wrong. My biggest worry is that by not having trans lesbians on Generation Q, we are giving their hate a further platform when we should be choking out its oxygen. My queer community has trans masc folks, and trans lesbians and bisexuals, non-binary femmes and butches, and if there’s any television show that should be reflecting that reality back towards me, damnit it’s The L Word: Generation Q. (If you haven’t read Drew’s commentary on this specific issue, you absolutely should. She was far more nuanced and detailed than any of us have space to be in this current roundtable, and if there’s one thing that Generation Q fixes before the second season, it should absolutely be including queer trans women characters. I’ll even go as far as to say, otherwise what are even doing here?)

---

Riese Bernard, CEO

Bette’s Mayoral Campaign

I know addiction is an important topic to address and that the opioid epidemic is a pressing crisis in this country. But Bette’s focus on this issue, and its centrality to her campaign, never really went as far as it needed to in order to resonate. Not was it a satisfying way to end Kit’s storyline. The show also just chose to avoid the fact that Kit’s death would’ve been national news and certainly news that anybody would’ve uncovered if they’d done a quick google on candidate Bette Porter. Certainly Dani would’ve known. I was surprised when Bette said Kit OD’ed, ‘cause I thought the only way her death would’ve been motivation for Bette to run is if it somehow linked to a specific Los Angeles problem, like her addiction made her homeless, or made her vulnerable to police violence. And then! The incident with Felicity’s husband just… blew my mind. He attacked her and her daughter, he’s clearly violent and a heavy drinker. If anything, I think that incident would’ve sparked feminist outrage that would’ve helped her campaign and maybe provided insight into why Felicity didn’t feel safe leaving him, instead of letting Jeff Milner’s FAMILY VALUES win out in Los Angeles of all places. I did however like that the campaign brought Bette and Dani into the same workplace.

Lack of Trans Lesbians

I know there is only so much time and space on a show to represent so many different groups of people! But, we had quite a few tertiary cis characters (Lena, Tess, Jordi, Gigi, Rebecca, Quiara, Felicity, Maya, Jose) who I think didn’t have to all be cis. It’s already a pretty large group of characters to cover adequately in a short season, and if additions are made it feels like they should be butches or non-binary people, which’s why I also support providing trans visibility with characters who already exists.

---

Natalie Duggins, TV Writer

The Pre-Existing Relationships

In Gen Q‘s final episode, Sophie’s running through the airport, forced to chose between an elopement in Hawaii with Dani and reuniting with Finley and figuring out what the future holds for them. Not a single person watching wants her to run to Dani. Not one.

And while we could chalk that reaction up to the fact that Sophie is cheating or the chemistry that radiates off Sinley, the real issue is that the show never offered its audience a reason to invest in Dani and Sophie as a couple. Whatever longstanding love drives them to engagement in the pilot isn’t reflected in the story that follows. Sophie’s confusion over how Dani processes her father’s interference makes absolutely no sense for a couple in a long term committed relationship. The ease that longtime couples have together — that Tina and Bette summon so readily, even though they’re not still together — is absent from Dani and Sophie’s interactions. The show never gives their relationship any depth, it never gives you a reason to root for them…so you don’t.

The same is true for Gen Q‘s other new couple, Alice and Nat. No one watched the couple reunite during the finale and thought, “yes, this is exactly what I want to see!” Again, the show hadn’t given the relationship enough depth to make it seem like a viable option. Everything Alice told Roxane Gay she wanted — the wife, the two kids, the picket fence — she had already with Nat and, for most of the season, Alice seemed annoyed by the entire prospect. Gigi was so appealing as an alternative, not just because she was so hot — but, let’s be clear, she absolutely is — but because the underlying relationship was so stale.

Gen Q has to invest in their relationships (see also: Tess and Lena) or they can’t be surprised when no one else does either.

Bette’s Mayoral Campaign

When news broke that Bette’s storyline in Gen Q would revolve around a mayoral campaign, I put aside my general disdain for campaign stories and got excited. The story arc itself felt like a keen insight not just into who Bette is, but also of the nexus between the funders of art and the funders of liberal politics, so I hoped that this time it’d be different. It was not; I had given the show credit for what turned out to be happenstance. It wasn’t just that Gen Q got the minutiae of campaigns wrong — though, they got a lot of that wrong — it was that they only ever saw the campaign as a vehicle to talk about opioid crisis.

The problem with that, though, is there was so much vested in this campaign: our understanding of how far Bette has evolved in the last 10 years and our window into who Dani Suarez really is and what drives her. It was our opportunity to get an alternate view of transmasculinity via Pierce. It was how we came to understand the fates of two beloved L Word characters, Jenny Schecter and Kit Porter. It was how we met Felicity and realized the scope of Bette’s grief. All these things were tied up into telling this story well but Gen Q just didn’t bother…and it did all those characters a tremendous disservice.

---

Valerie Anne

All of the Cheating

Why was everyone cheating on everyone else? Why was that the only thing that was happening on this whole goddamned show? Listen I love a steamy forbidden sex scene as much as the next gay, but almost every single character on this show cheated or was a vessel someone used to cheat in this show that took place over just a few months and that just feels…statistically unlikely?? And also got boring after a while. One or two would have been fine but I’m counting three clear-cut cheating stories, two blurrier line situations but still not 100% above board, and one question mark that seems like it’s trending toward bad…that’s too many! Queer people have plenty else that causes us pain and drama and fighting, fucking, crying, drinking than being unfaithful to our partners.

---

Analyssa Lopez

Dani and Sophie’s relationship

Man I wanted to love this couple so much! Two Latinas, happy and in love and having period sex? It’s what I want to see in the world! But wow there was just nothing there to root for. Every fight this couple had was different, which feels like a real sign that perhaps they should not be together. That’s too many different fights to have with the person you’re spending the rest of your life with! And all that time spent fighting meant that we didn’t get to know Dani as well. Her defining characteristic seems to be fighting: with Sophie, with her dad, with her job. I wish we’d gotten to see a softer side to her, a human side, so that even if Dani and Sophie aren’t forever, at least we’ll still care about them both. This season felt like when there’s a couple in your friend group that everyone knows should break up, but they don’t know it and they keep coming over and ruining parties with their passive aggressive comments about each other. Please let them figure it out before the whole friend group is ruined! Please!

Tess’s Sobriety

“Worst” feels harsh, but I think I was most disappointed by Tess’s storyline this season. I wanted to see so much more of this character, and I wanted so much more FOR her than her girlfriend cheating on her, getting berated by Shane, and having one regrettable hookup with Finley. I wanted to see her working through her new run at sobriety, not telling Shane offhandedly that she was three days sober. Better yet, I wanted to see her not relapse. More than anything, Tess drinking again felt like a device for her to hook up with Finley, and maybe eventually be a wise elder guiding Finley through realizing that Finley’s own relationship to drinking was destructive. That would have been a little frustrating too, I think, but even that didn’t materialize. Tess seemed to pop in and out as needed for other characters, which felt a real waste of the character and of Jamie Clayton’s ability to make you fall in love with her in three seconds flat.

---

Drew Gregory

Quiara’s Miscarriage

SIGH. I understand that Shane might’ve been the most difficult of the trio of returning cast members to write. A lot of her 20-something behavior just wouldn’t be as cute at 40. But without it who even is Shane? After a slow first few episodes, the show seemed to find an answer! I loved that they gave Shane a wife/ex-wife who understood who Shane was and accepted that – while still advocating for her own needs. I also really enjoyed watching Shane start to grow. I wanted this relationship to continue – and maybe it might – so we could establish their non-monogamy and see how that functioned for them. But instead the season ended with what felt like an unneccessarily dramatic choice – having Quiara miscarriage – followed by a fight that felt incongruent with how the characters had been established. I understand that part of the show is throwing bombs into every relationship, but for once this felt like the wrong move.

Dani and Sophie’s Relationship

Both of these characters are so much better when not together. Part of the problem is after one episode there’s immediate conflict. We’re just getting to know these people and what they’re like together and what we quickly see is they should be apart. Their fights were all over the place which was either inconsistent writing or just a sign that they wanted to pick fights with each other and didn’t know how to communicate. Either way it got tiresome. And that’s a shame because otherwise Sophie was my favorite new character and I really enjoyed Dani in the context of Bette’s campaign.

Micah’s Isolation from the Group

I second everything Carmen said and as a very tired trans person I will happily allow her to say it all for me!

Winter 2020 TV Preview: Where To Find All The LGBTQ Women and Trans People on Your Television

The New Year, it’s here! 2020! We’re only ten days into it, but boi, does it not feel like we have lived a hundred lifetimes already in the last two weeks? Well, teevee is here to fix that. Just kidding, but it is here to distract you just a little bit. This is our seasonal list of all the shows featuring LGBTQ women coming to your televisions and phones and iPads in the coming weeks. There are plenty of returning favorites below, over a dozen new shows, and loads of series that are just picking up where they left off in the fall (those are the ones in small text with no photo, just a return date). If we missed anything, let us know!

---

December

You (Netflix) // Season 2 // December 26

// watch the trailer //

Unlike season one, the lesbians do live in season two of Netflix’s version of Lifetime’s mysteriously breakout series You. This time, Dan Humphrey/Joe has moved to the west coast to do his stalkings and murderings. Straight people cannot get enough of this series, is the main thing I know about it.

Dare Me (USA) // Season 1 // December 29

// watch the trailer //

It takes reading about 300 pages of the 2012 Meg Abbott novel upon which Dare Me is based to confirm what the reader has suspected the whole time: Beth and Addy were more than just friends. Fingers crossed that the competing cheerleaders queerness carries over to the small screen. So far it’s dripping with girl-on-girl sexual tension and a lot of mystery.

---

January

The L Word: Generation Q (Showtime) // Season 1 Continues Through January

Work in Progress (Showtime) // Season 1 Continues Through January

The Circle (Netflix) // Season 1 // January 1

// watch the trailer //

Are You The One? showed it was still possible for reality television to explore new stories about LGBTQ folks for the first time since the lat ’90s, and The Circle is coming to the U.S. to do more of the same. Contestants include Karyn, a black butch lesbian playing the game as a femme bicurious woman, a proud bisexual Latinx girl named Sammie and Miranda, a bisexual who grew up in foster care. There’s so much to unpack on EVERY LEVEL of this weird-ass show.

Deputy (FOX) // Season 1 // January 2

// watch the trailer //

Bex Taylor-Klauss plays Brianna Bishop, the butch lesbian security guard / chauffeur / de facto partner to good ol’ boy Stephen Dorff’s Bill Hollister, the Deputy in what Indiewire describes as “a very conventional police procedural, bolstered by its rambunctious lead and hampered by a disinterest in embodying his renegade spirit.”

Anne With an E (Netflix) // Season 3 // January 3

// watch the trailer //

Gay Aunt Josephine is back for four episodes of season three, the most of any season yet, as Netflix’s series comes to a close and Anne says goodbye to Avonlea. The series has been lauded for its canonical representation of queerness, and even just a year ago, having a single episode dedicated to a lesbian side character in a period piece felt revolutionary. (Try Apple+ TV’s Dickinson if this cancellation leaves a hole in your heart.)

God Friended Me (CBS) // Season 2 Returns January 5th

All Rise (CBS) // Season 1 Returns January 6th

Manifest (NBC) // Season 2 // January 6

// watch the trailer //

Bethany and Georgia are a lesbian couple who are both still alive going into season two of NBC’s supernatural drama about a commercial airliner that reappears out of the ether after five years (and, of course, after all the passengers were presumed dead). What else is going on on this show? Not even the audience seems to know!

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (NBC) // Season 1 // January 7

// watch the trailer //

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist stars Alex Newell, who you probably remember as Unique from Glee, as Zoey’s gender nonconforming neighbor, Mo. Mo is music-obsessed and tries to help Zoey understand the meanings behind the songs she registers after she gets the power to hear other people’s thoughts.

Schitt’s Creek (Pop) // Season 6 // January 7

We’re all sad about the final season of the whip-smart Canadian comedy Schitt’s Creek, starring queer actors Emily Hampshire and Dan Levy and the legendary Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara. According to TV Guide, the final season will see our minor lesbian character, “the gloriously deadpan Ronnie (Karen Robinson), “get a few more punchlines thrown her way.”

Party of Five (Freeform) // Season 1 // January 8

// watch the trailer //

Series creators Amy Lippman and Christopher Keyser have rebooted their Gen X classic and moved it to Los Angeles to explore the lives of five teenagers who are forced to grow up parent-less — not because of their untimely deaths, but because they are taken by ICE during a family dinner. We don’t know for sure, but it seems like the oldest daughter, Lucia, might be getting a coming out story.

Chicago Fire (NBC) // Season 8 Returns January 8th

Stumptown (ABC) // Season 1 Returns January 8th

The Good Place (NBC) // Season 4 Returns January 9th

Ackley Bridge (Acorn) // Season 3 Returns January 13th

This is Us (NBC) // Season 4 Returns January 14th

Good Trouble (Freeform) // Season 2 Returns January 15th

The Magicians (SYFY) // Season 5 // January 15

// watch the trailer //

The Magicians season four finale was a shocking gut punch, as it killed off series anchor Quentin Coldwater. Anything could happen in season five, including further exploration of what seems like every character’s sexual fluidity. Maybe Marina will even return from “having tons of next level fantastic world rocking sex w/ her mega smart ultra babe worth-jumping-thru-a-time-portal girlfriend.” Maybe they’ll return together.

Grace and Frankie (Netflix) // Season 6 // January 15

// watch the trailer //

Grace casually revealed that she’s bisexual last season, but that wasn’t nearly as shocking as the fact that Grace and Frankie haven’t yet admitted they are COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER. Grace is remarried now. Frankie is devastated. Who knows what their future holds? (Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin recently got arrested together IRL protesting the climate crisis, just FYI.)

S.W.A.T (CBS) Season 3 Returns January 15th

grown-ish (Freeform) // Season 3 // January 16

// watch the trailer //

Grown-ish is one of the most endearing little comedies you ought to be watching if you aren’t already! Last season, bisexual Nomi Segal fell for Shane, as we are all wont to do, but she starts her junior year with that relationship in her rear view and with lots of change in her future. She’ll tackle that future surrounded by her girls and Vivek, as they share a swanky off-campus house this year.

Legacies (The CW) Season 2 Returns January 15th

Sex Education (Netflix) // Season 2 // January 17

// watch trailer //

It’s unclear how visible queer women will be on Season Two of this vehicle for our collective Gillian Anderson lust, but we know from Teen Vogue that our fave Eric is becoming a bit of a heartthrob, Maeve will join Aptitude Scheme and continue developing her friendship with Aimee and Jackson will tire from all the pressures put on him by his [lesbian] Moms.

Charmed (The CW) Season 2 Returns January 17th

9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox) // Season 1 // January 19

// watch trailer //

Black trans actor Brian Michael Smith plays a firefighter on this extension of the 9-1-1 franchise into Texas, which sees Rob Lowe playing a New Yorker relocated to Austin with his son, where he “must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in his own life.” Natacha Karam plays a Muslim “adrenaline junkie” and “badass firefighter” who wears a hijab and Liv Tyler plays chief paramedic Michelle Watts. There will also be two queer male characters.

Batwoman (The CW) // Season 1 Returns January 19th

Supergirl (The CW) // Season 5 Returns January 19th

Awkwafina is Nora From Queens (Comedy Central) // Season 1 // January 20

Nora gives off some low-key Ilana Wexler “open to whatever” queer vibes in this show with an all-women writers room and two out queer actors (BD Wong and Bowen Yang) based on her own experiences growing up in Queens, NY.

Black Lightning (The CW) // Season 3 Returns January 20th

All American (The CW) // Season 2 Returns January 20th

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (The CW) // Season 5 // January 21

// watch the trailer //

Sara Lance has a couple more Crisis on Infinite Earths episodes left before she returns to the Waverider. In season five, the Legends are famous! And Sara doesn’t love it! They’re even planning to invite a documentary crew on board to watch them investigate the blips in time and space. What could go wrong? (Literally everything in the most bananas possible way, which is the best thing about this show.) (Well, that and the fact that Sara and Ava continue to grow as individuals and a couple.)

Fortune Feimster: Sweet & Salty (Netflix ) // Comedy Special // January 21

// watch the trailer //

Lesbian comic Fortune Feimster is finally getting her own Netflix stand-up special and the just-released trailer proves it’s as hilarious and gay as we all knew it would be. She’s heading South for her “homecoming out.”

Riverdale (The CW) // Season 4 Returns January 22nd

Station 19 (ABC) // Season 3 // January 23

// watch the trailer //

Olympic gold medalist/bisexual firefighter Maya Bishop is still hanging around being a badass at Station 19. Though she’s mostly been in a serious relationship with Jack, she did run into her ex-girlfriend last season. She was also dating a firefighter! Here’s hoping there’s more of that in season three. In the wise words of Dr. Carmen Phillips, “Listen, it’s Shondaland, so you know shit’s going to be messy.”

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) // Season 16 Returns January 23rd

The Bold Type (Freeform) // Season 4 // January 23

// watch the trailer //

It’s true — they’re putting our beloved Jacqueline out to pasture after a pretty horrible Season Three finale, and the girls left behind aren’t taking Scarlet‘s power for granted. The trailer shows Kat welcoming a hesitant Adena back into her apartment. Glee‘s Chord Overstreet will be guesting as Jane’s brother and lesbian actress Raven Symone will play a recurring role, coming to Scarlet as a celebrity model for their photo spread on anti-cultural appropriation. Aisha Dee told TV Insider that Season Four will see the girls “careers and personal lives take a shift” and Kat continue her dedication to “being a voice for people who maybe can’t speak for themselves or they aren’t able to be as loud as Kat is.”

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix) // Season 3 // January 24

// watch the trailer //

Sabrina has finally defeated her father, Lucifer, and now she’s gotta go to hell to rescue her boyfriend in season three. Lachlan Watson’s character, Theo, came out as trans and began his transition in season two — which, Kayla noted, was “as with much of the show’s narratives, an uneven road” — and will be back for season three. In fact, they’ve been promoted to series regular!

Shrill (Hulu) // Season 2 // January 24

// watch the trailer //

In Season Two, Annie will “start the season on a high” before realizing that quitting her job was a hasty move, as was, possibly, her desire to commit to Ryan. Meanwhile, her Black British Lesbian BFF Fran will be “dealing with a breakup and figuring out what she really wants out of her life too.”

---

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC) // Season 7 // February 6

// watch the trailer //

When last we left Stephanie Beatriz’s Rosa Diaz, Cameron Esposito had very nearly broken her heart! But they worked it out, despite the fact that Captain Holt was side-eyeing them the whole time and Amy was sliding across the hood of a car yelling “Yeah work/life balance, I’ve got that too!” More of Rosa’s personal life seems inevitable at this point and we’re here for it. NBC has already renewed B99 for an eighth season.

Tommy (CBS) // Season 1 // February 6

// watch the trailer //

Edie Falco plays Tommy, Los Angeles first female police chief, in this new CBS drama. Tommy is “a little rough around the edges.” She’s froƒwestm Queens. She also is a lesbian. About the role, she told The Hollywood Reporter: “I think it’s important that every single person — large, small, different colors — gets represented in our television. I think everybody in the world wants to look at television and be able to find themselves somewhere, and I think we’ve been leaving huge swaths of the population out of that experience. I could always find myself on television as a kid. The world is changing; we’ve got to change with it.”

High Maintenance (HBO) // Season 4 // February 7

// watch the trailer //

Brought to you by showrunners Ben Sinclair (who also stars as The Guy) and Katja Bilchfeld (who is a lesbian), Season Four will find The Guy back on his bicycle in episodes that play out over the course of a year. One episode will feature Ira Glass and the This American Life team, another will feature an intimacy coordinator played by Abigail Bengson.

Visible: Out on Television (Apple TV+) // Season 1 // February 14

// watch the trailer //

From Emmy-nominated filmmakers Ryan White and Jessica Hargrave, Visible: Out on Television is a five-part docuseries that takes a look at the history of the LGBTQ movement through the lens of TV. The docuseries is narrated by Janet Mock, Margaret Cho, Asia Kate Dillon and Lena Waithe and features never-before-seen interviews with Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, Rachel Maddow and Sara Ramirez.

High Fidelity (Hulu) // Season 1 // February 14

// watch the trailer //

This television adaptation of the film adaptation (starring John Cusack and Jack Black) of the Nick Hornby book replaces the male lead character with a woman played by Zoe Kravitz who is seen mostly talking about men — but kissing at least one woman! — in the show’s first trailer, and from what we’ve heard of the show, her character will be bisexual. Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s character also looks gay (and appears to be filling the Jack Black spot from the film), but we’ll see!

NCIS: New Orleans (CBS) // Season 6 Returns February 16

Indebted (NBC) // Season 1 // February 20

Dave and Rebecca are ready to start a new life after years of parenting — a plan immediately thwarted by Dave’s parents (played by Fran Drescher and Steve Weber), who go bankrupt and move on in. Jessy Hodges (who you may remember for her role as Sophie in seminal queer webseries Anyone But Me) plays Joanna, Dave’s weirdo lesbian sister.

---

March

Twenties (BET) // Season 1 // March 4

// watch the trailer //

It’s been seven years since we first wrote about the webseries Twenties, which Lena Waithe has adapted into an eight-episode TV series for BET about Hattie (JoJo T. Gibbs), an aspiring TV writer who gets a job as a writer’s room production assistant hoping it’ll open doors to her real dream job. Her best friends are Marie and Nia, a film executive and yoga instructor, who are also finding themselves in their 20s through career and romantic opportunities.

Roswell, New Mexico (The CW) // Season 2 // March 16

// watch the trailer //

Hey, another living queer woman on a sci-fi show! Unfortunately, she’s a queer woman who also murdered another queer woman. Isobel is an alien living as a human, occasionally blacking out and doing killings. It’s all very Stahma Tarr.

Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (Netflix) // Four-Part Limited Series // March 1

I yelped to see this show on the spring docket. Octavia Spencer is set to play Madam C.J. Walker, the first woman and the first black person to become a self-made millionaire in America when she debuted a best-selling line of hair and beauty products for Black women. Her daughter, A’Lelia — who will be played by Tiffany Haddish — was a vivid presence in The Harlem Renaissance, throwing lavish parties attended by princesses and dykes from Europe and Russia, New York socialites and the well-known intellectuals and writers of the Harm Renaissance. “A’Lelia Walker probably had much to do with the manifest acceptance of bisexuality among the upper class in Harlem,” wrote Lillian Faderman in Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. It’s unclear if the show will address A’Lelia’s bisexuality or feature the queer characters who surrounded herm but we sure hope so!

Westworld (HBO) // Season 3 // March 15

// watch the trailer //

We honestly have no idea what in the world is going to happen in the third season of Westworld, but we do know it stars Tessa Thompson, Evan Rachel Wood, and Lena Waithe — and, at some point, will feature this particular bisexual spooning situation.

Council of Dads (NBC) // Season 1 // March 20

Based on a book by a father diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer who formed a “council of Dads” — six of his closest friends — to raise his children when he dies, this tearjerker will include a revelation that his youngest child is transgender.

One Day at a Time (Pop) // Season 4 // March 24

// watch the trailer //

One Day at a Time being saved by Pop TV was one of our favorite pieces of pop culture news of 2019. The show’s first non-Netflix season will be released on a weekly basis. (With commercials even.) We don’t know too much about what’s coming in Season Four, but if you want to get extra-hyped while we wait for information, check out Drew’s dispatches from the Vulture Festival.

Motherland: Fort Salem (Freeform) // Season 1 // TBD

From the creator of Claws, Motherland: Fort Salem follows three young women from enlistment in a supernatural army to basic training in combat magic into early deployment. We can’t say for sure that this series will have lesbians but it’s about a modern witch academy and it’s on Freeform, so: it’s 98% likely there will be lesbians.

Classic TV From the 2000s That You Can Stream to Survive Trump This Year

It started sometime last month, during the Impeachment hearings. It kept going through Christmas. By the time people were making memes about “World War 3,” I was binging five or six episodes at the time. I couldn’t stop watching The West Wing. I thought it was my little shameful secret, unplugging from the horrors of this moment to blithely escape into the time of another, but then our editor-in-chief Riese shared an article with me from The New York Times: I wasn’t alone.

The more I started thinking about it, there’s something to this. We talk a lot about how pop culture is important because it reflects the time we are living in. Stories teach us how to be better, act better, learn in ways that creep under our skin and make us whole. So if that’s true, what could we learn from times past?

George W Bush took office in January 2001 and left office in 2009. He presided over two wars, an economic crash, an era of cruel and rampant homophobia billed as “compassionate conservatism,” and the death of thousands of black Americans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It may seem glib to focus in on television against the backdrop of those horrors, but I think there’s also a lot to learn in precisely which stories we told ourselves to make it another day. To be frank, most of 2000s television is far too white, male, thin, and straight for my tastes. Sadly, that’s also reflected in this list. For consistency, tried to keep the list to shows that ran the majority of their seasons during Bush’s presidency as opposed to President Clinton (before him) or Obama (after). When there’s exceptions, I make note in their descriptions. This is obviously not a list of EVERY show that aired during that decade, or perhaps even the best shows, but it is a list of shows I personally felt had something still to give.

We are on the brink of war in the Middle East. The majority of Puerto Rico has been without electricity for nearly 48 hours. Women’s bodies may end up for judgement by the Supreme Court much sooner than any of us can stand. An incompetent, racist, homophobic, madman is driving at the wheel of our country. But we’ve been here before. We fought back. We survived it. And I believe that we’ll survive this, too.

An * indicates that the show has a lesbian, bisexual, or trans woman character.

---

The Dramas

The West Wing

Watch it Now // Also Available on Netflix

The quintessential “George W Bush” era television show. Do you remember when the President of the United States spoke in complete sentences and read for fun? I do, too. We didn’t imagine it! But you can escape our current horror by falling into the face paced “walk-and-talk” of a competent White House administration, even if it’s fictional. (PS: If we’re honest with ourselves, CJ Cregg was definitely bisexual. Just a hot tip, from me to you!)

Friday Night Lights

Watch it Now // Also Available on Hulu

I cannot explain why I love this teen soap about football (a sport I don’t understand) in a small town in deep red Texas. But it’s one of the finest works of television in at least 20 years. Has there ever been a time when we more needed a reminder that “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose”?

Plus, Tammy Taylor’s sunglasses. If you know what I mean, then you know what I mean.

Gilmore Girls

Watch it Now // Also Available on Netflix

Gilmore Girls is my PEAK nostalgia. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, so your milage may vary (and its weakly received mini-series “update” on Netflix certainly didn’t do it any favors). Still, I will probably never grow out of teenage Rory Gilmore’s bookish shadow. And we could use some reminders of hopeful, smart women and fearless mothers who raised them.

*The Wire

Watch it Now

I’m not sure what it is about exceptionally awful Presidential administrations that they produce exceptionally wonderful television, but if you haven’t seen The Wire you should add that to the top of your television list immediately. It’s so well written that critics at the time were as likely to compare it to actual novels as they were television. Also, in case you haven’t heard Detective Kima Greggs was recently voted as one of the Top 100 Queer and Trans Women of Color Television Character of All-Time by this very website.

*Grey’s Anatomy

Watch it Now // Also Available on Netflix

To be fair, I almost kept Grey’s off this list, because I most closely associate its purposefully multi-racial, queer friendly, women led cast with the Obama era in our country.

However, Grey’s Anatomy has the distinct history of airing during three separate administrations: George W Bush’s second term in office, both of Obama’s terms, and now the first (and please God only) Trump term. That’s definitely worthy of recognition.

Veronica Mars

Watch it Now // Also Available on Hulu

Oh you like wise ass teenage girls who carry a taser, solve cold cases about sexual assault, and wear gay hair buns? I thought you might.

Gossip Girl

Watch it Now // Also Available on Netflix

What’s fascinating about Gossip Girl will also be true and fascinating about Sex and the City (featured later on this list) – its premise is based in the kind of extreme 2000s wealth and luxury that could have only happened before the Great Recession of 2008. It’s nearly a perfect snapshot of blissful ignorance of the 1%. If you’re looking for some pop culture deep dive into what Elizabeth Warren and AOC are fighting like hell to change, definitely come back here.

*The L Word

Watch it Now // Also Available on Netflix and Hulu

HAHAHAHAAAA! It’s Autostraddle. You knew it would come this.

Respect your foremothers.

---

The Sci-Fi

*Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Watch it Now // Also Available on Hulu

Teen slayer of “evil men” and the friends who love her? Yes please.

Firefly

Watch it Now // Also Available on Hulu

To be COMPLETELY honest with you — I’ve actually never seen Firefly. I know it’s a futuristic space Western is about a crew of smugglers that got cancelled after 11 episodes and is considered by many to be the ultimate sci-fi cult classic. But I’m really just here for Gina Torres toting a pistol. I simply could not pass this photo up. I’m sure you’ll forgive me.

*Battlestar Gallactica

Watch it Now 

This is maybe a bit unexpected, but I love the aughts reboot of Battlestar Gallactica for the same reasons that I adore The West Wing: Compassionate, smart, kind leadership in government.This time it comes with the bonus of a woman President, something that we very well may end up waiting 400 years until the world is taken over by clones before we actually get to see. Wheeeee!

Charmed

Watch it Now // Also Available on Netflix

One thing that fascinates me about Republican administrations is how very into witches pop culture gets while they are in office. There’s a distinct connection between the feared/direct threat on women’s bodies posed when Republicans are in power, and the drive to dig deep into women empowered mythos. I’d love to read more about that, but until then I present you with Phoebe, Prue, and Piper. They will see you through the night.

---

The Comedies

*Ugly Betty

Watch it Now // Also Available on Hulu

First things first — rest in peace to Silvio Horta, the creator of Ugly Betty, who passed away earlier this week. He created an hour long comedy that skewered telenovelas long before Jane the Virgin and a gay teen loved by his family long before Glee. The fingerprints of Ugly Betty can be found on so much of the media that we now hold dear. It didn’t get its proper due.

Similar to Grey’s Anatomy, I struggled with whether Ugly Betty is reflective more of Bush or Obama television, and given that it aired almost perfectly between both administrations, it’s probably a hybrid of the two? But I think the early seasons’ story of Betty’s father’s immigration fears is an important reminder of the humanity of Latinx people that we could all really use right now.

Sex and the City

Watch it Now

Scroll up. See what I wrote about Gossip Girl? Great.

Scroll back down. Add a cosmo.

Now you have Sex and the City.

That’s So Raven

Watch it Now // Also Available on Disney+

Almost every other show on this list I can justify because it’s giving a lesson about how to cope when faced with dangerous leadership that’s taking your country in directions that keep you up at night and you’re not sure how to handle it and you’re at your wit’s end. Here’s what That’s So Raven is bringing to that party: Laugh! Laugh at dumb shit. Don’t think about it. Find joy. Laugh. Laugh. Laugh.

*Weeds

Watch it Now

Ah Nancy Botwin. The classic tale of a suburban mom who supports her family with a little side hustle pot business. I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek, but we’re facing a moment where recreational marijuana has never been more prominent in our country, yet black and brown communities — who have already been disproportionally jailed and had communities ruined over a “war on drugs” that criminalized their weed use to a severe degree compared to white Americans, and that’s putting incredibly mildly — are being left out of this new wave at a staggering degree. In 2019 Nancy would be a multi-millionaire. The black and brown folks she bought her drugs from back in the ’00s? Very little chance that they’d be as lucky.

The Boondocks

Available on Hulu

What Aaron McGruder created with The Boondocks is one of the most severely important pieces of black cultural commentary of our time. The original McGruder-penned series has been off the air for almost 15 years, and still so many of its best episodes remain true: exposing R. Kelly; questioning Tyler Perry’s empire being founded on allegories where black women are punished for being smart and successful; taking the right-wing’s cooption of Dr. Martin Luther King as a pacifist and not a revolutionary to task.

The Boondocks was a time capsule of being black and smart and angry in the aughts, but it’s still one now. That’s while you’ll find clips of the show still distributed on Twitter, and that’s why I’m including it in this list. Also, it stars Academy Award winner Regina King as both Huey and Riley — the two main characters of the series. You really can’t beat that.

*Girlfriends

Available (for free) on The CW Seed

Do you know what you really need to get through this next year? Your friends. Friends who will break bread with you and call you out on your shit and laugh with you. Friends who will hold you while you cry. There has never been a more important time to live your life out loud as the fiercest love letter women’s friendship and sisterhood. Let Mara Brock Akil’s magnum opus Girlfriends be your playbook.

---

This is a great time to plug — yes this is an article about binging television as a much needed escape, but also get out there and take action when you can. Door knock. Sign up to work an election campaign. Check in on your neighbors. Be kind. The madmen don’t win. We cannot stand idly by and let them.

The Best TV Shows Of 2019 With LGBT Women Characters

The “streaming revolution” that began around 2013 has radically transformed what a television show is allowed to be, and each year we see the thrilling edges of that unfolding push our cultural consciousness further and further out of bounds. An ability to target niche audiences and to deliver content outside of the weekly one-hour or half-hour broadcast slot has made this form of media an honest-to-goddess thrill to cover over the past decade, especially with a specific focus on the representation of LGBTQ+ women and trans characters.

This year was no exception. This year’s list of top TV shows with LGBTQ women characters have played with form and format, from Fleabag‘s fourth-wall smashing to the drop-dead-dynamic visual style of Euphoria and Dickinson to Russian Doll’s binge-catered loops. Room has been made for stories that aren’t focused on straight cis white people and rooms have been given to the writers best equipped to write them, like on A Black Lady Sketch Show, Vida, Pose and One Day at a Time. We have a record number of shows (17) on this list in which a protagonist or other lead character is queer or trans. Ten of these programs are centered squarely on one or two lesbian or bisexual female leads — a situation that was virtually unheard of five years ago. I’m not talking ensemble shows here where there’s a queer person in a lead ensemble. I’m talking the whole fucking world revolving around her. Her face on every poster. Her name at the top of the credits on imdb. Her Emmy nomination, if she’d ever get one. In some of these, queer love and sex are centered, too and in some of them queer love and sex are centered and the protagonists are actually masculine-of-center: Gentleman Jack and Work-in-Progress. We have two shows with all LGBTQ-ensembles; Pose and The L Word: Generation Q. We are getting somewhere.

On a more technical note; 11 of these shows premiered this year, four ended this year (or, in the case of The Good Place, are about to). Only five programs from network channels (two from ABC, three on The CW). Netflix was the most represented service, with six shows on the list, and HBO had five — an impressive showing for a network with less than 20 original scripted programs currently airing.

The number in parentheses next to a show title is the number of other publication’s Best Of lists on which the specific show appeared. The lists counted are: Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Vulture, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker, The AV Club, LA Times, NPR, Esquire, Guardian, Daily Beast, Indiewire, Slant, Variety, The Ringer and Paste.

You can read about our top shows below and each individual critic’s picks are discussed shortly thereafter.

---

Top 25 TV Shows With LGBTQ Women Characters of 2019

These are the top 25 according to our internal ballots and scoring system. For each critic’s individual picks: Carmen Phillips // Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya // Riese Bernard // Drew Gregory // Natalie Duggins // Valerie Anne // Heather Hogan

25. How to Get Away With Murder (ABC), Season Six (0)

Last Year: Didn’t Rank

It’s been four years since Annalise’s bisexuality was confirmed, and this upcoming year will deliver what’ll undoubtedly be a very shocking final chapter to one of Shondaland’s very first hits. As Natalie wrote earlier this year, “No where else has a 50+ year old, dark-skinned woman, who is not a size two, been allowed to be sexualized — to be sexualized as queer — on screen, ever. Every time Viola Davis kisses someone on HTGAWM, it feels like a victory; every time Viola Davis kisses another woman on HTGAWM, it feels like a triumph.”

24. Mrs. Fletcher (HBO), Season One (1)

New in 2019

Horny women on incomplete journeys of awkward self-discovery truly had a great 2019, and with a few exceptions (Shrill, Dollface) those women were, as they ought always be according to our own gay agenda, sexually fluid. Reviews were decidedly mixed, and Mrs. Fletcher only appeared on one best-of list besides ours. But between Kathryn Hahn’s nuanced performance and Jen Richards’ turn as Mrs. Fletchers’ writing teacher, queer audiences have been in from the jump.

23. Batwoman (The CW), Season One (0)

New in 2019

Another show uniquely beloved by our team but not hitting the Top Picks for any other press outlets besides ours is Batwoman, starring queer model/actress Ruby Rose. Vulture called Rose’s performance “textureless” and “bland” and most critics settled on “some hits, some misses.” Batwoman isn’t the first lesbian superhero with a lead role on a network show, but she is the first whom the show is precisely centered on, and whose relationships with women are never sidelined or de-prioritized.

22. High Maintenance (HBO), Season Three (1)

Last Year: #11

Season Two of the webseires-to-HBO anthology series reflected showrunner Katja Blichfeld’s growing queer identity and communities. Although Season Three didn’t quite reach Season Two’s highs (or its critical reception), it still brimmed with fresh, quirky storytelling, including the challenging “Pay Day,” in which Doc (Margaret Cho) and Ayasha (Hye Yun Park) push the limits of kinky exploration into an eventually troubling financial realm.

21. Work In Progress (Showtime), Season One (0)

New in 2019

It’s unsurprising that Work in Progress has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes and yet eluded placement on any 2019 Best-Of Lists besides this one. It’s just so f*cking weird and specific and, despite the myriad shows about unlikeable men suffering mid-life crisis we’ve all endured, Work in Progress hasn’t attracted as much attention as it deserves. But IndieWire accurately calls it “the most radical queer show to ever make its way to television” and everybody who’s stuck around after the Gen Q credits roll has been very glad they did.

20. G.L.O.W. (Netflix), Season Three (2)

Last Year: #3

Jenji Kohan’s next project after Orange is the New Black bore much in common with it — an ensemble of female actors led by two traditionally attractive thin cis white women and surrounded by a diverse group often overlooked by mainstream projects. But its lack of queer characters in Season One was literally absurd. The second and third have enlarged their queer consciousness, digging into new narrative possibilities in Season Three with a Vegas relocation that, as Mashable wrote, “allowed the writers to go hog wild on developing almost every character beyond viewers could possibly expect.”  G.L.O.W still boasts one of TV’s most exciting ensembles.

19. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix), Seasons 2-4 (0)

Last Year: Didn’t Rank

Already an example of animated all-ages television’s potential for progressive messages beyond the traditional moralizing, in Season Four, Noelle Stevenson introduced a non-binary character to She-Ra. This is after a Season Two of which Decider noted, “If She-Ra Season One featured characters who could be read as queer, Season Two is blissfully, almost unapologetically gay.”

18. Euphoria (HBO), Season One (5)

New in 2019

Screwed-up, gorgeous, privileged, disillusioned, sarcastic teenagers on drugs: we’ve seen it before, we’ll see it again. But Euphoria‘s heavily stylized trip into the trope felt immediately fresh. Some of that is owed to Jules, the manic pixie dream trans girl (™ Drew Gregory), played by an actual trans actress at center-adjacent. Zendaya’s Rue, fresh out of rehab at the ripe age of 16, is enchanted by Jules, craving her like the other habits she’s been encouraged to kick, and although Sam Levinson’s interpretation of sexual orientation and gender identity is blatantly incorrect at best, you won’t be able to tear yourself away.

17. Broad City (Comedy Central), Season Five (2)

Didn’t air in 2018

Broad City, which ended its run this year, reflected an emerging queer zeitgeist but also helped construct it, delivering a breathlessly fresh take on sexual fluidity. In addition to concluding with two out queer Jewish leads, it advanced the conversation around female sexual desire and exploration. This included both its acknowledgment of bisexuality as an identity that transcends romantic relationships and its centering of a goofy, self-indulgent, transformational, hilarious and undeniably epic romantic friendship unlike anything we’ve seen on television before.

16. The Good Fight (CBS All Access), Season Three (5)

Last Year: #13

We have a lot of genre-boundary-pushers on this list, and The Good Fight remains consistently and surprisingly among them. This might be our last chance to rank The Good Fight — Rose Leslie, who played lesbian lawyer Maia Rindell, is leaving the series after a season that saw her through some serious ups and downs.

15. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW), Season Four (3)

Last Year: #9

It’s difficult to pull off a musical episode but Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna pulled off dozens of ’em, flipping embarrassing-to-shameful or otherwise impolite topics like smelly vaginas, mental illness and heavy boobs into singalong songs. In its last season-and-a-half, it finally delivered what we’d been hoping for all along: Valencia, the alpha femme vying against Rachel for affable idiot Josh’s affection, realized she was bisexual and fell for a lesbian named Beth. Consistently pushing boundaries in a colorful, shiny-boxed package until the very end, this ambitious production will be sorely missed.

14. Gentleman Jack (HBO), Season One (4)

New in 2019

Anne Lister, an early 19th-century landowner left the world an invaluable gift: volumes of diaries detailing her lesbian sexual and romantic exploits, in code. From them we have this surprisingly light-hearted but deeply felt historical drama, set amid the lush hills of Halifax and offering a dashing, confident heroine for the ages.

13. The L Word: Generation Q (Showtime), Season One (0)

New in 2019

Like its predecessor, Generation Q is really about the connectivity Alice centered on her ill-fated, off-kilter KCRW radio show — a specific type of metropolitan lesbian community where a web of similarly oriented aspirants are invariably and undoubtedly connected to each other. As the reboot’s subtitle suggests, the series pushes that interconnectivity past the its generational limits, joining a far more inclusive crew on the East Side of Los Angeles. We are drawn to it like moths to a flame.

12. Sex Education (Netflix), Season One (3)

New in 2019

Like Mrs. Fletcher, Sex Education features not only a horny teenage boy (Asa Butterfield’s Otis), but also his horny middle-aged mother, sex therapist Dr. Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson). The similarities mostly end there in a show unfortunately light on queer female representation but possessing just enough to qualify for this list. Prodded by the girl he’s got a crush on, Otis launches a sex therapy practice in school and sees a lesbian couple as clients — a humorous B-plot with a resonant emotional arc. Still, it’s hard to resist the siren song of Gillian Anderson, in general, or the charming Ncuti Gatwa as Otis’s gay best friend, Eric.

11. Dickinson (Apple TV), Season One (6)

New in 2019

“Let’s take everything we thought we knew about Emily Dickinson, tear it up, wave the lens of a teen comedy over it and see what crazy hijinks we get up to,” wrote Sally of this genre-cracker. “Through ten half-hour episodes, we follow Emily through the ups and downs of her early adulthood, from Skins-style parties to carriage rides with death, while on the cusp of entering her most prolific creative period…. I am here for as many revisionist takes on history as you want to throw at me if it’s correcting centuries of queer omission.”

10. Russian Doll (Netflix), Season One (16)

New in 2019

Russian Doll draws inspiration from a collection of influential classic films but past that, it’s like nothing that’s come before. Trippy, captivating and impossible to pin down, Russian Doll‘s queer characters weren’t necessarily central, but their presence was a reflection of the show’s devotion to social realism in a story that challenges basic physical properties of time and space.

9. A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO), Season One (1)

New in 2019

Three black queer women in the writers room (Lauren Ashley Smith, Ashley Nicole Black and our very own Brittani Nichols) and one in the central cast (Ashley Nicole Black, again) and has any sketch show not devoted to gay sketches debuted with queer content in episode one? I’m pretty sure not! Black queer culture has its hands all over this comedic revelation, including cameos from Laverne Cox and Lena Waithe. “A Black Lady Sketch Show is a shining example of the great work you get when equality comes to comedy,” wrote Eric Deggans for NPR. “The only criticism I have is that it took so long for us to get here.”

8. Vida (Starz), Season Two (0)

Last Year: #10

Tanya Saracho’s story of a Latinx family rebuilding after lost and grappling with “gente-fication” is smart, stylish, clever and specific. The Guardian calls it “hyper-sexual and celebratory” with an unrivaled “dedication to female fantasy” and we agree. It’s a rare example of a show that truly digs into a non-majority-white queer community. Like Work in Progress, Vida’s got a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes but didn’t earn a spot on any Best Of Lists for a show. Perhaps mainstream critics will acknowledge its greatness, but still struggle to truly celebrate shows so far outside of their own experience.

7. One Day at a Time (Netflix), Season Three (2)

Last Year: #5

The internet roared into action upon word that One Day at a Time had somehow been cancelled after its third perfect season. “The hard fight to survive,” wrote Kelly Connolly in The Atlantic, “and to do so vibrantly, was baked into the DNA of the series itself.” ODAAT has consistently managed a pitch-perfect family sitcom that balances a kind of civic education with laughs and warmed-up hearts, and its portrayal of lesbian daughter Elena has been bold and exacting. Luckily, Pop TV signed on to host its fourth season, premiering in March 2020.

6. The Good Place (ABC), Season Four (7)

Last Year: #2

The Good Place’s final season hasn’t given much screen time or lip service to lead character’s bisexuality, but it’s still brilliant television, and, as NPR wrote of its final season, still “somehow among both the silliest and the most ambitious shows on network TV.” Plus, Janet provided much-needed non-binary representation in an unexpectedly profound way.

5. When They See Us (Netflix), Limited Series (13)

New in2019

The Golden Globes most egregious snub this awards season was undoubtedly When They See Us, which earned Jharrel Jerome a very deserved Emmy for his performance as Korey Wise. The four-part series by Ava DuVernay tells the story of The Central Park Five, five black and Latino boys who were coerced into confessing to a crime they didn’t commit in 1989 and consequently spent a solid chunk of the rest of their lives in jail. The trial inspired our now-president Donald Trump to take out full-page ads in four NYC newspapers calling for the state to adopt the death penalty. “One of the most challenging and rewarding moments of my career was taking on the role of Marci Wise (before and after her transition),” wrote Isis King, an actress who entered the public eye as a contestant on Tyra Banks’ America’s Next Top Model in 2008, of her part in the series, playing Korey’s sister.

4. Killing Eve (BBC), Season Two (4)

Last Year: #1

Killing Eve‘s first season was the Fleabag of 2018: a smart, female-focused Phoebe Waller-Bridge project that intrigued and delighted us all. The complicated and decidedly sexual obsession of these two women with each other is the stuff lesbian dreams (and memes) are made of, and fittingly will be their respective undoings. “If Killing Eve allows Oh to humanize the trope of the no-nonsense female detective,” writes Inkoo Kang in Slate, “it gives Comer the opportunity to remake the wisecracking black hat into a wrongdoer meaner and pettier than we think female villains should be, especially when it comes to the welfare of children.”

3. Jane the Virgin (The CW), Season Five (3)

Last Year: #8

Jane the Virgin kicked off with a lesbian recurring character — Luisa, the gynecologist who accidentally inseminated our title character and the sister of Jane’s love interest Rafael — but delivered EXTRA queer representation when Petra came out as bisexual in Season Four, sparking a romance with Rosario Dawson’s JR. In the series’ final season, which Heather noted was “gayer and more romantic” than all that came before, she tries co-parenting and visits a lesbian bar! In the end, “the character with the most satisfying arc might be Petra Solano,” wrote Sonia Rao in her review of the finale for The Washington Post.

2. Fleabag (Amazon Prime), Season Two (18)

Didn’t air in 2018

Joining Chernobyl and Succession on a pretty universal consensus regarding the most critically acclaimed shows of 2019, Fleabag‘s second (and final) season confirmed the protagonist’s sexual fluidity through a brief encounter with an older lesbian at a bar, respite from Fleabag’s burning crush on an affable, funny and unfortunately charming priest.

1. Pose (FX), Season Two (6)

Last Year: #4

One of a handful of shows to portray a queer ensemble without any room for straight cis people, Pose’s time jump into the ’90s allowed it to tackle the AIDS crisis with hard-won grace and human fallibility, determined to suck the marrow out of whatever life its able to access. It also made more space for Sandra Bernhard, who returned as a series regular, playing lesbian Nurse Judy Katz, who runs the AIDS Ward at Roosevelt Hospital.

---

Our Critics’s Picks

Carmen Phillips // Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya // Riese Bernard // Drew Gregory // Natalie Duggins // Valerie Anne // Heather Hogan

Carmen Phillips, Associate Editor

11. Russian Doll (Netflix)

To be completely honest with you, Russian Doll wasn’t my favorite piece of television last year. It didn’t leave me with joy or scrambling to rewatch as soon as it was over. I didn’t necessarily find myself quoting it with my friends in our group chat (though, I have found multiple uses for a “Sweet Birthday Baby” gif on occasion). However — and this is key! — this list is not about our favorite television, it’s about what we considered to be the best television. And there is no doubt that Russian Doll was one of the most exceptional works of comedy we saw last year. It’s plot twisted again and again in my mind long after watching, provoking questions of morality and what’s worth a life well lived. It’s delicious dark (and surprisingly feminist!) and to top it all off, it came from the mind of queer creator Leslye Headland at the helm? 2019 couldn’t have given us a better present if it tried.

10. Boomerang (BET)

I consider Boomerang to be a bit of an underdog. It’s network, BET, certainly isn’t known as being a hub of high quality television (or queer friendly television, while we’re at it). It premiered with little fanfare last winter. It ran a short season of about 10 episodes. However, despite all that, it was one of my favorite comedies last year. Setting Boomerang apart from its peers is its smart attention to detail in black communities while simultaneously pushing back against any notion that blackness is a monolith. The 20-somethings in Boomerang’s central friendship group are wealthy and working class, devoutly Christian and atheist, queer and straight. The black lesbian central character, Tia, portrayed by Lala Milan was one of my favorite performances this year. On top of all that, it is also beautifully shot on camera. Boomerang invites us to spend our time luxuriating in the richness of brown hues and black skin. Taken all together, it creates a tapestry like few others.

9. How to Get Away With Murder (ABC)

Over the course of its television life, How To Get Away With Murder has suffered ups and downs. What started off as an inventive, pulpy murder mystery eventually started to succumb under the weight of its own implausibility. In the latter years, plot twists became cheap. However, in its final season, the show has returned to elite form. A lot of that is thanks to the performances currently being delivered by Viola Davis and Amirah Vann as Annalise Keating and Tegan Price. Black queer and lesbian characters are rarely (if ever!) afforded the depth or taken with the seriousness that these women have found in the relationship between their characters. Watching them continue to work their magic on screen — the final season returns for its last bow in 2020 — has not only been delightful; it’s been important.

8. Killing Eve (BBC)

On one level Killing Eve is a cat-and-mouse thriller about a bisexual assassin and the woman obsessed with her and, well, murder. More than that, it’s a purposeful exploration of the ways women are allowed to funnel their lust and rage. It’s exquisite and (surprisingly, again, for a television show that’s actually about murder) luxurious and glamorous to watch. Villanelle and Eve’s passion together — as well as separately — sizzle, even though Eve’s runs beneath her cool surface while Villanelle manically leads with her emotions first. I started out calling this show a cat-and-mouse, but in truth it is more a tango with a knife’s edge. It’s impossible to know whether your teetering on sex or danger, and isn’t that what makes blood pump after all?

7. The L Word: Generation Q (Showtime)

Sure, The L Word: Generation Q only premiered a few weeks ago, and arguably that means I’m a little premature for including it on this list. Here’s the thing: I’ve had more fun watching every hour I’ve seen of this show as much, if not more, than any other piece of queer television this year. Generation Q is a perfect example of what happens when a sum is greater than its parts. End of Year lists often veer towards dramatic severity; pieces with scripts you can dig into and layered performances worthy of award season detail. Generation Q excels, in part, because it’s light. It’s the kind of communal television that we almost never get to see anymore because we exist in an era that prefers niche. That’s why I love it;; I love having a television show that I can get lost in with a community of TV watchers. Television is an art, and it’s a business, but it’s also entertainment. I haven’t been more entertained this year than when Dani crawled up Sophie’s body to show her a period blood stained hand after going down on her. They laughed and smiled and loved each other. For me, that scene alone was going to earn Generation Q a spot on this list.

6. Jane the Virgin (The CW)

I am so sad that this year we had to let Jane the Virgin go. I’m still not over it! When we talk about the triumph of difficult genres, Jane the Virgin’s dedication to telenovela satire without sacrificing heart should be at the top of the list. In August, I called Jane the Virgin “gayest show about a heterosexual romance of our time” and while that’s certainly true, the reason I’m including it on this list is that it was also one of the most superbly written shows of our time. What fascinates, and ultimately resonates, about Jane is not only how it handles the eyebrow raising, barely believable, high wire telenovela twists — but that in the aftermath of those twists, it’s proven itself to be uniquely capable of addressing the long-term ramifications of the trauma it thrusts upon its characters. It does so, not by getting lost into the darkness, but by bringing forward women’s stories of love and family. That’s what made it addictive to watch, and that’s why I can’t stop mourning now that it’s gone.

5. One Day at a Time (Netflix)

Three years in, and there are still few programs that know how to construct stories as well as One Day at a Time. Surely by now you know the deal, in part One Day at a Time’s claim to fame is its ability to revamp the multi-cam sitcom. Their writers’ room breaks down arcs into 30 minute chunks that call back to across episodes and years, placing emotional gut punches at the moments when they will be most effective without ever sacrificing laughs.

As the show has matured, it’s also found itself becoming gayer with every year. In it’s third season One Day at a Time capped off a run that included throwaway jokes about dykes living in Portland, (funny and) thoughtful meditations on what gender neutral terms to call your non-binary partner, trans veterans serving in the U.S. army, and middle age Latina lesbian best friends, with — drumroll please! — Elena Alvarez losing her virginity in a beautiful episode about queer adolescence and consent. A person would have to go back 20 years or more, to the last season of Ellen itself, to find another sitcom that so willingly took on queer and lesbian points of view as its comedic blueprint. What I’m saying is that One Day at a Time is a marvel. It deserves every praise.

4. Pose (FX)

Some shows are so good at being great, they make it look so easy, that you almost forget how utterly game changing they are. You have to squint to even remember what the television landscape looked like before them. That’s Pose. Having just wrapped its second season, Pose may not have the same level of widespread critical acclaim as its earth shattering first year. Still, it would be a crime not to include it on any Best of the Year list, because Pose is nearly pitch perfect television — as if it was created by Janet Mock and Steven Canals in a factory of black, Latinx trans and queer excellence. Everything about Pose is rooted in specificity and love; with performances deserving accolades and awards that mainstream Hollywood is sadly still reticent to give trans talent in front of and behind the cameras (you cowards). I can barely imagine life without it.

3. Vida (Starz)

Here’s what I had to say about Vida’s second season, back when I reviewed the half-hour dramedy for Autostraddle in May:

“What’s clear to me is that Vida, while masterfully detailed to reflect the actual lives of queer Latinxs, has no interest in bowing to the rules and regulations of what a ‘good lesbian show’ should be. Their mess is the entire point… Tanya Saracho demands more from her characters, from her audience. She requires our discomfort, our willingness to bring all of our messy selves in front of the television. She asks that of us because it’s the only way that we can reach out to hold Emma’s hands (as if she would ever take it) and follow her, Eddy, Nico, or Lyn over the next ten episodes. These women flay themselves open, showing us the soft underbelly of their worst impulses and behavior. The least we can do, is do the same.”

And I meant every damn word. Vida is a masterclass. It’s humbling that we even get to watch.

2. A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)

A Black Lady Sketch Show is ridiculously good at what it does. It’s effervescent without ever being idiotic or asinine. It’s observational and absurdist. It finds room for silliness, for spy action-adventures, for cultural commentary, and yes even sci-fi. All without seemingly breaking a sweat. With three black queer women in the writers’ room during its first season (Lauren Ashley Smith, Ashley Nicole Black, and Brittani Nichols), along with a black queer woman in its central cast of four (Ashley Nicole Black, back again!) — ABLSS is guaranteed to leave you in pain from being doubled over in laughter. What I said over the summer is still true, “A Black Lady Sketch Show recognizes that ‘black ladies’ come across a variety of gender identities and sexualities. Black lesbians are funny. Black queer women are funny. Black trans women are funny. And we aren’t going anywhere, any time soon.”

I would put ABLSS against other critics’ favorites (which never center black women) such as Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Veep, Donald Glover’s Atlanta, or even my beloved Kate McKinnon’s era of SNL and I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. In fact, the genius of what’s being created with A Black Lady Sketch Show is that it has no interest in running in a pack with its peers; it’s chasing its own standards of excellence.

1. When They See Us (Netflix)

Listen, I don’t even know where to begin with When They See Us. It’s breathtaking and masterful and a complete television experience that’s probably more culturally impactful than any other similarly packaged event this year. It’s Ava DuVernay’s greatest creation; a true evolution of her craft. It’s poignant and hard to watch, but a necessary reminder of the cruelty and institutionalized racial injustice that’s embedded in our police and court systems. I literally cannot find enough words to emphasize not only its political importance, but it’s artistic merit — both of which are unrivaled. Watching it means you will be changed.

If anything, against the backdrop of this epic work of television, not enough attention was bestowed upon trans actress and model Isis King as Marci Wise, a role she plays both before and after the character’s coming out, which is still a rarity in television. King’s work on When They See Us is subtle, but never frail. She has a sense of self that’s absolutely core-shattering, even when others attempt to discredit her, and love for her younger brother is one of the central engines driving the mini-series’ emotional third act. King’s absolutely phenomenal, in what’s already a magnificent piece of art.

---

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Writer

15. G.L.O.W. (Netflix)

In its third season, G.L.O.W. heads to Vegas, heightening the stakes of all of each of its characters’ narratives by forcing them into a new place and confining them to the weird world of living in a casino full time. Also there’s finally lesbian sex on the show!!! But the main reason G.L.O.W. stands out for me has less to do with its romance writing and way more to do with its complicated friendships, like that between Ruth and Debbie.

14. Jane The Virgin (The CW)

Jane The Virgin sticks the landing with its final season, delivering the romance, drama, and intergenerational stories that reach back into the show’s long history of telenovela twists. It’s brilliantly acted from top to bottom, and the show has such a distinct voice, style, and structure that has long made it stand out. It hits all its strengths in its final chapters.

13. Riverdale (The CW)

I am always trying to get Riverdale on more lists, not because it’s necessarily an underrated show, but because I think it’s often undervalued for its artistic and narrative merits! The show uses horror camp trappings to tell over-the-top but often fascinating stories about the ripple effects that violence and systemic power imbalances have on a small town.

12. Star Trek: Discovery (CBS All Access)

I honestly don’t know why more people aren’t always talking about Star Trek: Discovery, which is a fun and flashy sci-fi adventure romp that also has a ton of heart. Amid the space thrills, it touches on trauma and complicated familial relationships quite brilliantly.

11. The L Word: Generation Q (Showtime)

It snuck right in at the end of the year here, and it’s still technically finding its footing, but the pilot of Generation Q is the most excited I’ve been for a pilot in a long time, and it far exceeded my expectations and surprised me in a lot of good ways. It’s already trying to be its own show while still tapping into some of what made the original delicious.

10. The Good Fight (CBS All Access)

The tight mechanics of The Good Fight often make it feel like a ballet, and the series slips more into the surreal in its most recent season, making for an impressive feat of controlled chaos. The show is smart in the way it interrogates boundaries (or lack thereof) between personal, political, and professional lives, and the acting in its sprawling ensemble is

9. When They See Us (Netflix)

This miniseries is a tour de force of urgent, visceral storytelling that expertly balances many characters and many years of story. Its casting is impeccable, and Ava DuVernay’s sharp, incisive direction is instantly captivating and immersive.

8. Vida (Starz)

While I still think the first season of this show is better, season two of Vida continues a lot of its strengths, especially when it comes to Emma and Lyn’s individual arcs as well as the way they both hurt and take care of each other. Its look at grief is particularly powerful, and it’s also still a very funny and sexy series. In fact, it still has some of the best/most realistic sex scenes on television.

7. Broad City (Comedy Central)

I was already sad about Broad City ending, and then the show had to really sink the knife in by delivering a decidedly sad final season! It works very well though, offering up a meta storyline that sees its characters through the closing of a huge chapter in their lives. The series finale belongs in the hall of fame of comedy endings.

6. Sex Education (Netflix)

I knew I’d be watching this show for Gillian Anderson reasons, but it ended up surprising me in so many ways. It has a wicked sense of humor, but it’s also incredibly earnest, delving into the awkwardness, confusion, and heightened feelings of early sexuality.

5. The Good Place (NBC)

The Good Place somehow pulls off blowing up its own concept over and over, and its high-concept premise is coupled with really grounded character work and simple, situational comedy. So many comedies are about flawed people trying to learn how to be better, but none are quite as explicit and convincing about that mission as The Good Place is. Janet is an icon.

4. Killing Eve (BBC America)

Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer are one of the best dynamic duos television has ever seen, and Killing Eve digs into obsession, contradictions, and violence with the precision and skill of a knife. It strikes the right balance between a flashy spy thriller and a slow-moving psychological one.

3. Schitt’s Creek (Pop TV)

The comedy of this show is so simple and so effective, aided of course by a phenomenal cast. Every season of Schitt’s Creek gets a little more emotional, and the fact that this season ends up telling such a moving story about personal growth and identity crisis via a community theater production of Cabaret?!?!?!? There truly is no other show like this.

2. Pose (FX)

Pose really sharpens its lens in its second season, leaning into its strengths and serving up characters who are complex, real, and most importantly, allowed to have fun, love, be loved despite the obstacles to mere survival that they face. Queer and trans joy are in the spotlight here, and the ballroom scenes are some of the most delightful forms of spectacle on television right now.

1. Mrs. Fletcher (HBO)

This series is the perfect recipe of sexy, emotional, funny, and honest. The way it engages fantasy and desire is unlike anything I’ve ever seen on television, and Katherine Hahn is arresting throughout—especially in some of the show’s most awkward and intimate moments. It’s completely directed by women, and it shows.

---

Riese, CEO

15. A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)

I think what sets this year’s list apart — and truly every subsequent year since the “streaming revolution” began — is what becomes possible when a series commits to itself rather than to the “masses.” A Black Lady Sketch Show is exuberant and uncompromising and that Pose sketch is undoubtedly one of the finest works of sketch comedy to ever bless our screens.

14. The Good Fight Season Three (CBS All Access)

Just when you think it’s lost its way, The Good Fight somehow snaps you right back again. The Good Fight is weird. It’s a procedural on the surface. Its world is wedded to the current moment in a way I sometimes fear will dim its legacy. But it’s also not our world at all. It’s our paranoia seen through just to the edge but never quite over. It’d be easy to call it absurd, harder to swallow that its emotional truths are more resonant than shows that limit themselves to the technically probable. The Good Fight is willing to enter all kinds of fights it has no business being party to — the results are mixed, but the attempts are valiant.

13. Pose (FX)

Queer and trans characters can tell certain stories, for sure, but often our most evocative tales require an ensemble. Pose does for trans women of color what Queer as Folk and The L Word did for gay men and lesbians, respectively: a narrative as centered on queer community and chosen family as it is on the individual lives that thrive and die and fuck and fight and love and cry and dance within it.

12. G.L.O.W. (Netflix)

The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling left Los Angeles for a Las Vegas residency in Season Three, where the city’s signature offering of escape from reality left its zany cast in a windowless casino of the soul. It also got way more queer, making more space to explore Arthie and Yolanda’s relationship, which sparked at Season Two’s end and faced some real challenges this year as Arthie’s reluctance to define herself came up against Yolanda’s hard-wrought confidence in her own identity.

11. Transparent Musical Finale (Amazon Prime)

Transparent’s celebrated for being the first show centered on a trans woman lead character, but its value has (sorry) transcended that particular cause, a fact made plain by a finale centered on that character’s actual funeral. (Jeffery Tambor, the cis white man who played Maura, was expelled from the show for sexual harassment.) Transparent’s legacy will be its radical centering of trans women, particularly Alexandra Billings’ Davina. But its legacy will also be its willingness to present an almost entirely queer family (Josh remains the only straight cis Pfefferman). The soundtrack of the musical finale was as good as any Off-Broadway show. Exuberant, catchy, sad, and so so so so so fucking Jewish, it was a fitting send-off to Jill Soloway’s little queer-show-that-could.

10. Fleabag (Amazon Prime)

Another entry in Horny Girl Summer was Fleabag’s ingenious, cheeky and aggressively honest sophomore season. Has there ever been a better time to be so smart but also so sad? There has not!

9. Gentleman Jack (HBO)

Anne Lister, despite existing at a time when women weren’t even allowed to wear pants, is one of a very small group of butch/masc leads on American TV. Gentleman Jack delivered a love story for the ages and a solid reminder that yup, lesbians have always been exactly this overdramatic.

8. Killing Eve (BBC)

Season One teased the romantic and sexual obsession between Eve and Villanelle with a light but impactful touch — true, I expected Season Two to follow through on that a little more physically than it ended up doing. Still, Killing Eve remains a gift and Villanelle’s outfits deserve an Emmy.

7. Euphoria (HBO)

With its sinuous camerawork and a manic, dizzying finale, Euphoria wasn’t always entirely sure what it wanted to be, and its representation of trans women had some major missteps. But it was breathless, intimate, and restlessly inventive. A true joy to watch.

6. Work in Progress (Showtime)

A self-described “fat dyke” eating one almond every day on a nihilistic march towards death while falling for a (much younger) trans guy? That’s a new fucking story! I love this show are you watching it?

5. Vida (Starz)

Vida is the first television show to regularly portray a shifting and thriving community of grown-up Latinx queers — and specifically offers more masculine-of-center queer representation than anyone else out there. Season Two added my forever-crush Roberta Colindrez as Nico, a lesbian military vet and bartender, whose hungry bathroom sex with Emma in the season finale was a true highlight of 2019.

4. Dickinson (Apple TV)

Daring and energetic and surprisingly poetic — my first instinct upon finishing the first season of Dickinson was that I wished I could watch it again and again and again for the first time..

3. Russian Doll (Netflix)

Tightly twisted-up puzzle-type stories like these very rarely come with protagonists like Nadia Vulvokov, reliably surrounded by a cast of meme-ready party girls and abstract queers and a lesbian in white overalls and a rabbi and her therapist. Russian Doll approaches the endless loop of trauma with wit and gravity, delivering one of the year’s most inventive stories.

2. Are You The One? (MTV)

I truly never expected I’d ever watch a reality TV show dating game, let alone call it the second-best show of the year, but Are You The One? provided truly radical bisexual visibility in an unexpected package. Between threesomes in the Boom Boom Room and drunken gender-bendy costume parties were stories of genuine sexual discovery, gender exploration and conquering internalized biphobia and transphobia. Are You The One? reminded us of reality TV’s progressive potential, once considered a given in the era of ’90s MTV’s The Real World and or mid-00s America’s Next Top Model. 

1. When They See Us (Netflix)

Its qualification as a “queer-women-inclusive” TV show is pretty incidental — transgender actress Isis King played a small role in the series as Marci Wise, the trans sister of Korey Wise, and her story wasn’t integral to the plot — but the TV team agreed on its inclusion and thus it must arrive at the top of my list. It is easily one of the most impactful and compassionate works of television I have ever seen. The story of The Central Park Five, deftly told and brought to life by a remarkable cast, is as integral to understanding American culture and history as any Oscar-winning epics about presidents or wars.

---

Drew Gregory, Writer

15. Work in Progress (Showtime)

Work in Progress is The L Word: Generation Q’s quirky step-sibling. While the talked about reboot is all pretty and polished, the show that airs right after is committed to its messy reality. I love that we have both! I love that two queer shows so different are airing on the same network back to back on Sunday nights. For all its uniqueness, Work in Progress is radical because of its normalcy. Abby McEnany allows her entire self to appear on screen and acts like that’s just the way it should be. And she’s right. This is the kind of specific queer television I crave. (Also Gen Q isn’t on this list not because I don’t love it, but because 15 is a very small number!)

14. Trinkets  (Netflix)

I spent all summer savoring what I referred to as “my baby thief show.” Often melodramatic and very adolescent, there was just something so comforting about watching these female friendships and teen romances. It’s a show that knows exactly what it is and does that thing very well. It’s almost entirely made by women and I think that’s a big reason why it feels so nice to watch. It’s like an alternate reality where teen television is casually female and queer. Also it has a great soundtrack. Shoutout to my baby thief show.

13. One Day at a Time (Netflix)

The season three finale of One Day at a Time captured a specific aspect of queerness I’d never seen on-screen before. Avoiding spoilers, I’ll just say that it allowed room for a lack of queer forgiveness in a way I deeply appreciated. So often queer stories are about the growth of cishet family and that’s seen as a happy ending. But the words of the past stick. Actions stick. And yet forgiveness is important too. The show allowed for this complication the way it allows for so many complicated discussions. This is where I’m supposed to shout, “And it’s a sitcom!” But One Day at a Time doesn’t think of its format as an inconvenience – it’s a tool. This is a family show about a wide variety of issues that affect families and it’s filled with a sharp sense of humor. Of course, it’s a sitcom.

12. The Good Place (NBC)

While it may have lost the narrative tightness of the first two seasons, The Good Place is still one of the most exciting, hilarious, and miraculous shows around. Recent episodes have elicited less of the “HOW IS THIS SO GOOD” response the show used to cause and instead have left me genuinely emotional and thoughtful. I think I like this trade-off? As we go into the last few episodes I’m grateful this show existed not just for its ambitious premise, but also its ambitious heart.

11. Jane the Virgin (The CW)

A perfect show with a perfect finale. Throughout its five seasons, Jane the Virgin never lost its clear sense of purpose amidst all its twisted plot. Jane was a love story. Jane was several love stories. No show made me cry more tears or felt more like a weekly hug. I already miss it so much!

10. High Maintenance (HBO)

When High Maintenance is at its best there’s nothing better on television. When it’s at its worst it’s still really funny and weird and intriguing. Because it’s so many stories smashed into one I think we tend to take it for granted as a TV audience, but no show this year, this decade, or dare I say ever, has this much love for people. The decision last season to provide more information about The Guy’s own life continued this season and it only acts to strengthen his point of view and therefore the stories around him. The finale this year was a tribute to New York City, and what is a tribute to New York City if not a tribute to humanity. It was a fitting end to a melancholy season that still found time for a bunch of Margaret Cho sex scenes.

9. Pose (FX)

Pose followed up its landmark (and perfect) first season with a second season that was far more frustrating. It felt scattered and disjointed, and Candy’s death was an unnecessarily cruel decision for a show that previously had found such a good balance between fantasy and reality. And you know what? Good. I’m glad the second season was a mess and that we’re still getting a third season. Because the thing about art, and especially about mutli-season television, is it doesn’t have to be perfect. When Pose was at its best this season it was still remarkable. Ricky and Pray Tell. Angel and Papi. Every Elektra one-liner. Every Blanca anything. I’m so grateful that Pose was able to take risks even if I found some of those risks frustrating. There’s still nothing else like it on television. It’s still so far beyond any other show with trans characters. It exists in the TV landscape of my dreams and I’m so grateful for its existence.

8. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend wasn’t content with simply being a four-season musical television show. It insisted upon being a Four-Season Musical Television Show. By that I mean it used its unique format to do things no musical had ever done before. A reprise hits so much harder when it’s four years in the making. The songs had an arc just as much as the characters. This show was one of my obsessions and that will always come rushing back anytime I listen to “You Stupid Bitch,” “Ping-Pong Girl,” “Maybe She’s not Such a Heinous Bitch,” “A Diagnosis,” or any of my other favorites from this miracle of a show.

7. Broad City (Comedy Central)

Broad City was so casually a part of my years living in New York. I was a queer Jewish NYU student for gosh sake. Broad City was a reference point for, well, everything. This wasn’t something I’d admit, never wanting to appear basic, but the truth of this really hit me as I watched the final season during my first months out of New York. I don’t know what to say about Broad City except that it was formative for me and I loved it so much and its conclusion is the end of an era and thinking about it still makes me a little sad.

6. Killing Eve (BBC)

Killing Eve season two was better than season one, baby! That’s right! Hot takes coming out you! It was crazier, sexier, funnier, more horrifying, and the outfits were better! I want more. I want it all. Stab me.

5. Mrs. Fletcher (HBO)

One of the smartest pieces of media I’ve ever seen about sex, Mrs. Fletcher is a difficult show to explain in a few sentences. That’s why I wrote 4,000 words about it instead. But I guess I’ll just say that Kathryn Hahn and the entire supporting cast are incredible, there are several moments that are downright painful in their sexiness, and hiring women directors makes a difference. Nicole Holofcener, Liesl Tommy, Carrie Brownstein, and Gillian Robespiere made the show great.

4. Are You the One? (MTV)

The eighth season of Are You the One? – the sexually fluid season – has the honor of being the first non-baking reality TV season I watched since Tila Tequila. And I didn’t just watch. I obsessed. This became a cultural phenomenon at least among my small bubble of a culture as we all cringed when we related and mocked when we didn’t. It also happened to say more smart things about queer culture and queer dating than any scripted show on TV this year. Fuck you, Jonathan forever and always. Amen.

3. Sex Education (Netflix)

Big in style in a way shows about horny teens aren’t supposed to be, this show was never content with supposed to’s. With every episode Sex Education pushed the boundaries of what a teen sex comedy can be and ultimately lived up to its title. I hope teenagers everywhere watched this show. I hope their families watched this show. It’s fun and casually inclusive and I appreciate its intent and its achievements so, so much.

2. Fleabag (Amazon)

I wrote three whole essays about Fleabag this year. Phoebe Waller-Bridge won three whole Emmys. What else is there to say? The writing is so good it makes me want to scream. And I’m pretty sure I have screamed. I might be screaming right now. It’s just so good.

1. Vida (Starz)

Vida is my everything. It’s a very specific, super queer show with the best cinematography on TV and the best sex scenes on TV. When I think about what TV can do, I think of Vida. When I think about what I want from a showrunner, I think of Tanya Saracho. When we talk about how difficult it is to change Hollywood or to tell certain stories or be creative in a world that runs on business, I think of this show and I know we’ll be okay. But Vida is more than an inspiration. It’s also my very favorite thing to watch. I just love it so much. Can you tell I love it? I really, really love it.

---

Valerie Anne, Writer/Social Media Co-Editor

15. Batwoman (The CW)

I’ll be perfectly honest with you, I re-narrowed my list to 15 like five times, and kept being surprised when Batwoman ended up on it. But it was the sleeper hit of 2019 for me! I feel silly about the things that gave me hesitation before, but I’m happy to report being pleasantly surprised at every turn. Ruby Rose balances the dark and the light well, Rachel Skarsten is a goddamned delight, Kate Kane’s sister Mary was an unexpected gift, and WHEW is this show GAY. I continued to find myself excited to watch every week, and Kate’s friendship with Kara Danvers in the crossover made me positively giddy, so I hope all this joy continues in the back half of the season.

14. Brooklyn 99 (NBC)

This year was not the best one for me, personally, so I clung to my go-to bursts of joy with a tighter fist than usual. Where in its first few seasons, Brooklyn 99 was a show I could throw on while I was making dinner and only half pay attention to, this year it became the show I would watch before bed to rid my brain of the day’s woes and go to sleep smiling. Rosa Diaz was of course a huge part of that, because tough-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside is 200% my jam. Plus, for being a 30-min, sometimes-slapstick (though often smart) comedy, they never make Rosa’s bisexuality the butt of the joke. Sometimes it’s part of the joke, but it’s never at Rosa’s expense, and it always feels good-natured and welcoming.

13. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix)

She-Ra is another one of my go-to happy shows, though it’s a little more risky because it has the tendency to put you through the wringer, emotionally. Friendship has always mattered to me more than romance, in stories and in real life, so this show has always had a special place in my heart, and this year’s episodes were no different. They tackled loss and heartache, fighting and forgiving, abandonment and self-worth. Plus, the addition of Double Trouble and the seamless way every character used they/them pronouns for them without it being a thing was huge, and will give so many children an example that so many of us didn’t have, and it will help non-binary littles and their peers for generations to come.

12. Killing Eve (BBC America)

I thought I had reached the height of my love for stories about serial killers until Villanelle came along. That precious psychopath murdered her way right into my heart with her cute little quirks, her accent and outfit work, her adorable brutality. Eve and Villanelle’s obsession with each other, while obviously entirely off the rails and more extreme than anything I personally have experienced, is somehow relatable. Did I murder anyone to get someone to fly to the town I was in? No. But did I memorize a girl’s schedule so I’d “accidentally” run into her in the hallway between fourth and fifth period? Absolutely. The writing is smart and hilarious and dark and it’s just so different from anything I’ve ever seen before.

11. Jane the Virgin (The CW)

Jane the Virgin is one of the most unique shows I’ve ever seen, and it certainly had its ups and downs over the years, but its final season was so great. It wrapped up so naturally and maybe it was too happily-ever-after for some people but Abuela told us that’s how telenovelas end. I’m so happy Petra’s final romance was the only person who ever matched her in prowess and power, because while I’ll always have a soft spot for my Jane/Petra ship, JR was the right choice in the end. And Rose and Luisa didn’t quite get the treatment they deserved, but I still adored them. Also I will stand firmly atop and die upon the hill that Rose is not dead, because it never stuck before and I have no reason to believe it did this time.

10. Stranger Things (Netflix)

I’ve loved Stranger Things since Season 1, but I thought for sure that the hints of Barb and Nancy (mostly subtextual, more confirmed by Ingrid Michaelson’s song Best Friend than the actual canon of the show) were all we’d get re: queer ladies on the show. I wasn’t sure if there’d be room. But you know who made room? Robin. Just when you thought they were going to ruin what was, up til then, a very cute best friendship between her and Steve, she flipped expectations on their head and said she wanted to be LIKE Steve, not be with him. Her bathroom stall monologue was one of my favorite TV moments of the year, if I’m being honest.

9. Riverdale (The CW)

THIS SHOW. KEEPS. GETTING. WACKIER. And I love it more and more the less it makes sense. Cheryl and Toni are off in an entirely different universe than their peers, Toni just happily going along with whatever whackadoo nonsense Cheryl comes up with next. Tea with her brother’s corpse? Sure. Haunted by a doll possessed by the ghost of a sibling she consumed in the womb? Cool. Feigning cannibalism to scare away evil family members? Why not! Toni’s down for anything. It’s so delightfully absurd and I’m glad these gothic girlfriends get to be a part of it. Plus, they dressed up as Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, so that was wonderful. Side note, I think their musical episodes have some kind of subliminal messaging situation going on because every year I get OBSESSED and I have been on a Heathers kick since March.

8. Supergirl (The CW)

A few of the times I did my list narrowing, Supergirl didn’t make the cut. I was as surprised as anyone, and if Impulse qualified to be on this list, it would have been much harder to narrow to 15. Because I love Supergirl, I do, but Alex has felt a little sidelined lately, and I love Kelly, but they have so much more of her story to tell. But then I remembered this list encompassed the entire year, and while Nia has been MIA for much of this season so far, the end of last season fell in 2019 too, and had some epic Nia moments, including the episode “American Dreamer” easily in my top 5 Supergirl episodes of all time.

7. Marvel’s Runaways (Hulu)

Karolina Dean and Nico Minoru are my ideal superhero pairing. One is all light struggling with her darkness, one is all darkness trying to find her light. Sometimes it feels like they’re too different to work, sometimes they feel like opposite pieces to a puzzle that fit perfectly together. I haven’t finished Season 3 yet, since it will be their last and I’m not ready to say goodbye, so I don’t know how their story will end, but I know I’ve loved going on this ride with them. I love that even amidst the chaos of their runaway lives, they always find time to have little moments of just being two teenagers in love. They are strong on their own and they’re stronger together and I will lamp them long after the show is over.

6. Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)

95% of the time, I am watching TV by myself, alone in my room. So if I’m smiling or weeping or frowning or rage-tweeting, it’s nobody’s business but my own. However, when I watch Black Lady Sketch Show, I laugh out loud in a way I cannot control, and surely my roommate thinks I’m slowly losing it. It’s silly and ridiculous while also being smart and deep. It’s pure and it’s real and it’s hilarious and the cast is ASTOUNDING and I’m sure I’m not the first to say it, but the only complaint I have is that it was only six episodes long.

5. One Day At a Time (Netflix)

I keep thinking this show can’t possibly capture the magic of the first season all over again, and I keep being wrong. The second season was just as magical, and the third no different. Elena continues to be one of the characters I relate to the most and one of the characters I most wish my teenage self had known. I’ve said this about a few different characters over the year, but Elena Alvarez is one that consistently reaches back into my past and heals old wounds I didn’t realize I’d been neglecting. It’s so refreshing to see this young, queer, nerdy, Wynonna-Earp-loving goofball love her family and her non-binosaur/Syd-nificant other, and go through all the typical family-dramady storylines teens have always been through, learning about sex and dating. It also didn’t hurt that this season a wild Stephanie Beatriz appeared.

4. Fleabag (BBC/Amazon)

Fleabag was the raunchy British comedy I never knew I always needed. If you had tried to sell me on the show by saying she talks directly to camera and broke the 4th wall a lot I would have put my hand up to stop you right there. But Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s charm makes it WORK and she makes you feel such a part of her story that if someone else even hints at acknowledging they know you’re there, you panic like you’ve been caught. It was so intimate and wonderful and strange and it was such a fun ride. This is one of the very few shows that I cried at the end, purely because it was over. I mourned the loss of Fleabag in my life as if I had to say goodbye to a dear friend I’ve known for years, not a fictional character I knew for a few binged hours in one weekend.

3. Legacies (The CW)

Legacies checked all my boxes — witches, boarding school, girl power, found family, queer af — before I spent the entire summer neck-deep (vampire pun intended) in the entire franchise of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. By the time it came back for its second season, just looking at Hope’s face made me want to cry because of how much she’d been through in her short life. Now Josie and Lizzie’s one-sided phone calls to their mother didn’t feel like exposition vehicles, but a genuine character update that left a Caroline-sized ache in my heart. While this season hasn’t paired anyone up quite yet, our three leading ladies are all canonically queer, and I feel really good about that.

2. Legends of Tomorrow (The CW)

Season 1 of Legends of Tomorrow was…rough. I watched the whole for Sara Lance, and she never disappointed, but plenty else about the show did. But the showrunners there did something rarely done before: they noticed that their “charming” male lead wasn’t working and re-centered the story around a woman. And the show took off like the Waverider through time and space. Sara and Ava’s relationship remains top priority, and both of their characters have their own shit going on separate from each other. The show has really leaned into the silly, breaking off from their Arrowverse counterparts in tone quite a bit, and it really works for them.

1. Dickinson (Apple TV+)

Dickinson is the best show I’ve seen in a good, long time. Hailee Steinfeld was absolutely perfect as Emily herself, balancing deep, introspective brilliance with over-dramatic teenage whimsy. Ella Hunt was positively charming as Sue Gilbert, allowing you to seamlessly fall in love with her, just as Emily did. The story stayed true to some of the prejudices and hardships of the time Emily Dickinson lived while also plainly pointing out we haven’t changed as much, as a society, as we’d like to think we have. Emily goes through everything from the heartbreak of disillusionment to the utter inconvenience of getting your period at a party. She writes poetry about everything from wild nights to carriage rides with death. I related to her darkness and her light. It’s a show that made me want to lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling about it. Maybe it came to me at just the right moment, maybe it really is that good, but either way I’m looking forward to another season. It dwells in Possibility.

---

Natalie, Writer

13. Good Trouble (Freeform)

It feels good to be seen. In this world that, far too often, tries to render so many of us invisible, being seen feels good. I’m not sure there’s a show on television today that is invested in letting people see themselves as Good Trouble. “Everyone’s story has value and it deserves to be told,” we’ve heard for years…and this show is one of the few that really lives up to that mantra. The show isn’t interested in diversity for diversity’s sake, either: white, black, Latinx, straight, gay, bisexual, cis, trans, non-binary….they’ve all had their stories represented on Good Trouble in a truly substantive way.

All that plus a group dance set to J. Lo’s “El Anillo” and a rendition of Swell Season’s “Falling Slowly” in the same season? Good Trouble really knows the way to my heart.

12. How To Get Away With Murder (ABC)

Few shows have disappointed me in the way How to Get Away With Murder did this year but, also, few shows have been as groundbreaking when it comes to depicting older queer women of color than HTGAWM either. It’s hard to separate the show from its murderous theatrics sometimes — if I never hear the name Castillo again, that’ll be alright by me — but, as a character study…of two queer characters of color (!!) embracing ambition while chasing power and love…it really is unmatched. It’s been revelatory to watch.

(Would a relationship between them be equally as revelatory for me? Maybe, maybe not…only one way to find out, Pete Nowalk!)

11. Ackley Bridge (Channel 4/ACORN)

Muslim representation on television remains paltry…and, far too often, what little representation Hollywood offers seems to conflate being Muslim with terrorists or extremists. Progress is being made but — in the wake of Muslim bans and increasing anti-Muslim sentiment — we need more. Ackley Bridge offers that representation but, perhaps more importantly, takes it a step further: it gives Muslim youth space to be about more than their religion. Of one Muslim kid to be Ackley Bridge’s star rugby player. Of another, to be a star pupil on her way to Oxford. Of another, to be gay an accepted. It’s revolutionary TV.

10. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (CW)

Sometimes, shows drag you into shipping wars (ahem, Jane the Virgin) and you find yourself torn between which suitor your protagonist should choose. Surprisingly, though finding love was always so central to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s story arc, I never found myself aligning with any suitor. I wasn’t Team Josh or Team Greg or Team Nathaniel. Ultimately, I was just Team Rebecca, wanting desperately for her to get better and love herself…and getting that, at the end of the show’s run, made for the most satisfying endings to a series I’ve watched.

And because no CEG post is complete without it, a few of my season 4 favorite songs: “No One Else Is Singing My Song”, “Don’t Be a Lawyer” and “Anti-Depressants Are So Not a Big Deal”.

9. Boomerang (BET)

We’ve talked a bit about how improbable Tia Reed’s character on Boomerang is…how she exists, loudly and unapologetically, in a network that historically would much rather erase black queer people from the narrative. That character’s existence and her storyline is noteworthy on its own. But “Us Too” stands out to me as Boomerang‘s finest hour: grappling with the #MeToo era through the eyes of the accused’s daughter.

8. Jane the Virgin (CW)

I miss this show so much already. I miss stepping into the warm embrace of the Villanuevas. I miss being gifted all these lessons from three generations of Latina women. I miss Jane…and the chance to see a character loved with her whole heart and moved through the world who genuinely believed in the goodness of people. I miss the narrator who, somehow, found the right words no matter how bizarre the situation. But mostly, I miss Petra — which, by the way, is not a thing I thought I’d say when Jane the Virgin debuted — and watching her grow into a devoted mother with the capacity for true love.

7. The Good Fight (CBS All Access)

It’s hard to watch or read the news and not feel like each and every second is devoted to gaslighting you, in their misguided attempts at fairness. Somehow, despite being a fictional show, The Good Fight manages to be as grounded in reality as anything you’ll see on television. The show will be a great time capsule for life during the Trump years.

6. The Good Place (NBC)

A lot of television tries to meet you where you are and, through telling powerful stories, elevate your thinking. But The Good Place is the rare, incredibly ambitious show, that starts on that elevated plane — its references to philosophical theories feel more apt for a college lecture hall than Thursday night TV — and asks you to meet the show there. It challenges its audience in a way that I don’t know that any other television show does…and, to be honest, it’s astounding that survived for four seasons.

5. Pose (FX)

I’m still not over the death of Candy Ferocity, if I’m being honest, but the highs of the Pose‘s second season — culminating with Blanca performing Whitney Houston’s rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” — were so immense that feeling that denying the show a spot in my Top 5 felt like a slight. Mj Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore and Hailie Sahar injected such joy into Season 2 (namely in Life’s a Beach” and “In My Heels”) that it’s harder to dwell on the sadness.

4. One Day at a Time (Netflix/Pop)

I remain astounded by One Day at a Time‘s ability to outdo itself. I thought Elena’s coming out story — from her mother and grandmother’s embrace to her father’s abandonment — would be the pinnacle but then came “What Happened” and it just got better. Then came “The First Time” and it got even better still. I am so grateful that young queer kids have this show and Elena to aspire to…and that we’ll all have the opportunity to see how ODAAT outdoes itself in Season 4.

3. A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)

Can I be honest? I didn’t expect ABLSS to rank so highly on this list but as I found myself down a Youtube wormhole of the show’s sketches — from Gang Orientation to Purgatory Soul Food — I realized that it was one of the best, most consistent shows of the year. The other realization from my trip down the Youtube wormhole? No matter how many times I’ve seen the sketches, they’re all still side-splittingly funny.

2. VIDA (Starz)

One day, there may be a show that captures the palpable grief of losing a mother or wife, better than Vida. One day, there may be a show that reflects the evolving definition of home — both in terms of how the neighborhood changes and its former residents change — better than Vida. And, perhaps, one day, there will be a show that grapples with queerness and its different presentations better than Vida. It’s possible. But what seems unfathomable is imagining another show that addresses all those complexities at once and does it with aplomb.

Vida is the bar and every other show on television is just trying to match it.

1. When They See Us (Netflix)

Years from now, when we look back at 2019, When They See Us will be regarded as a seminal work, impacting not just the way television is made, but changing our perception of what justice looks like. Isis King’s scene stealing role as Marci Wise, the trans sister of one of the Central Park Five, honors Marci’s memory and grounds the series in a truth that, I think, in anyone else’s hands (read: not Ava DuVearney’s) would’ve been ignored.

---

Heather Hogan, Senior Editor

11. Batwoman (The CW)

As I crafted my list of best TV shows of 2019, I kept hearing John Hodgman’s voice in the back of my head: “People like what they like. Some people think that culture is a cudgel they should use to swat down other people’s tastes and likes and loves, in order to make themselves feel smarter and better. What they don’t know, but will know eventually, when they’re alone and dying, is that culture is a comfort. Culture is a needed distraction. In prehistory we gathered around fires to tell stories, not only to enjoy the warmth, but also, for a moment, to forget about the horrible, terrifying darkness at our backs.” I’m never going to make a best-of list like most critics, because I can’t watch shows with lots of blood or guts or sexual assault or stories centered on white men who blow up their lives and the lives of the people around them, bit by bit, and are iconicized for it.

Batwoman came out of the gate deftly balancing all the elements of really fun superhero TV. It dug quickly and deeply into the pathos of Kate Kane; it gave us reasons to connect with and root for every woman on the show; it set up an excellent season-long hero/villain dynamic; it laid the groundwork for an epic romance; it rolled out exciting action sequences; and it flipped a whole bunch of superhero tropes on their head, queering them up and making manifest all the metaphors that have drawn queer people into comics for decades. It played with all the different tones of all the different incarnations of Batman over the years. It was gritty and it was ridiculous. And mostly, just like Batman did when I stumbled upon him at age eight and started my lifelong obsession with the Bat-family, it helped me forget the darkness at my own back, an hour at a time.

10. Pose (FX)

I always worry about shows that time-jump and I always worry about sophomore seasons of shows I love and I always worry about what in the world Ryan Murphy’s going to do to my favorite characters during the hiatus — but Pose actually came back with even more focus on what makes it exceptional the second time around, breaking and mending viewers hearts by weaving humor and heart (and heartbreak) in with pageantry like fictional TV has never seen before.

9. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix)

She-Ra showrunner Noelle Stevenson reiterated exactly what Steven Universe showrunner Rebecca Sugar already proved: in the right (queer) hands, animated series can explore “grown-up” themes as well (and often better) any other visual storytelling medium. She-Ra is bright and alive and sweet and fun, but it also goes full force at trauma, loss, grief, mental illness, power, chosen family, and the dangers of never questioning authority. It’s all very “friendship is magic!” but it’s also all very “and here is the path out of facism.” It’s also gay as all heck and we got a non-binary character who uses they/them pronouns in season four!

8. Legends of Tomorrow (The CW)

This is a bold claim but I stand by it: There is no show on TV that knows exactly what it’s doing more than Legends of Tomorrow. In the beginning, this series played out like it was conceived in a focus group incubator, but over time — and with Sara Lance at the helm — it has embraced its own weirdness, leaned into what’s wacky with all its might, and used the entire space-time continuum to explore the fullness of humanity for all its characters. Oh, it’s plot plot plot but it’s also really realized heroes, most of whom are women, and a romantic relationship in which both characters grow on their own, and together.

7. Derry Girls (Netflix)

Derry Girls is exactly the show for this moment in time. It’s almost too funny to bear, but beath the madcap wit is social commentary from the ’90s that’s as relevant today as it ever was. A group of teenage girls surrounded by armored tanks and soldiers with machine guns, pipe bombs and exploding bridges, just trying to figure out who they are, who they can be, all about right now, dreaming of something better.

6. Grace and Frankie (Netflix)

What makes season five especially wonderful is how Grace and Frankie’s relationship storyline mirrors Robert and Sol’s. Where Sol decides he’s going to stop being Mr. Nice Guy and start doing things that make him happy, leaving Robert to wonder nightly where his dinner is, Frankie decides to return to her roots of veganism and living in a yurt. Can a relationship survive when one person inside it makes big changes? Can two people grow as individuals and as a couple? How do respect your person’s autonomy and empower their growth toward their best self and deal with the fear that your person is going to change so much they won’t want to be with you anymore? Sol and Robert don’t find out the answers to those questions, and at the end of the season, their relationship is up in the air. Grace and Frankie, however, do figure it out by realizing they wouldn’t be who they are as individuals without the life they built together.

5. Jane the Virgin (The CW)

Okay, actually, what I said about Legends of Tomorrow is also true about Jane the Virgin: it always knew exactly what it was doing and what it wanted to say, and it did so in a way that made something nearly impossible look easy. Jane never shied away from its telenova roots, pushing the boundaries of reality as far as they could go without breaking! But Jane was also anchored in our very Trumpian reality and determined to explore all the ways love could take shape and grow. That Petra’s character became more fully realized as she accepted her sexuality is a rare and wonderful thing. She was a caricature who became a character everyone rooted for, even Jane herself. Such hilarity! Such swooning!

4. The Good Place (NBC)

Like Janet, The Good Place has been rebooted a zillion times, sometimes multiple times in a season. But here in the last one, there’s a confident, singular focus that’s pulling on all the best threads of the series over the years and weaving them into something bright and optimistic, without ignoring the often debilitating existential questions humans often ask themselves. Yes, of course, I would have loved to see Eleanor’s bisexuality explored more fully. And it wasn’t until the midseason finale that I actually really bought into her and Chidi. But there’s a depth to this comedy I’ve scarcely experienced on TV. It makes me feel hopeful, and that is no small gift in 2019.

3. One Day at a Time (Netflix)

Often times when we talk about shows being “important” for various representation reasons, what we mean is that we’ll also be grading that show on a curve. Which is fine! And has always been a neccessary way to engage with queer storytelling! But One Day at a Time is both essential in 2019 and also one of the absolute best comedies to ever grace a screen. I almost feel like I can’t even do this show justice with my words. It’s what I turn to, over and over, when I need to laugh and also when I need to cry myself out of tears. When we were hosting our silly little Los Angeles Mayoral race in the lead up to Gen Q, Carmen asked me after round four what we’d do if Bette lost. I said, “To Elena Alvarez? Well, I think we high five that the kids are all right!” Elena did win. Not just the final round. Elena won every round.

2. A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)

I don’t know exactly what I expected this series to be, but it was certainly not a series of sketches — many of them so so queer — that made me laugh until my guts hurt, set against the backdrop of THE LITERAL APOCOPYSE. A Black Lady Sketch Show was the smartest, funniest, most bananas thing on TV in 2019 and I had to stop watching it in bed at night because I kept waking up my partner with my out loud bark-laughing, multiple times, every single episode. An all-star cast, an all-star writers room, easily the thing I am most looking forward to in 2020.

1. Gentleman Jack (HBO)

I don’t know what to say about Gentleman Jack that I haven’t already wailed. Forgive me for quoting my own review; fittinly, to quote Jane Austen, if I loved it less, I might be able to talk about it more:

It’s a heady thing seeing yourself, really seeing yourself, on TV for the first time in your life at the age of 40. And oh sure, I’ve seen bits and pieces of myself in stories before. At some point, though I can’t remember when, I started thinking of myself less as an Elizabeth Bennet and more as a Mr. Darcy. Except there’s not a lot of women characters out here in the wide world of fiction allowed to move through the world like Mr. Darcy — displaying judgment that’s both keen and flawed; acting in ways that are both heroic and weak; confidence teetering on smugness, and humble too and afraid; buttoned-up and messy; mistakes born of insecurity and mistakes born of prejudice and mistakes born of over-caring or not caring at all, mistakes mistakes mistakes; learning and growing and holding failure up to the light and distilling strength from it — and, in the end, finding oneself worthy of the love and devotion of Elizabeth Bennet. Women, in general, aren’t given the latitude to contain multitudes in stories; and queer women even less so. (And butch women, where are we?) Yet, here is Anne Lister! Here is Gentleman Jack!

I’ve been writing about LGBTQ television professionally for eleven years and Anne Lister gave me something brand new: shorthand for how I see myself, a way to relate to other butchy, dykey women my age who know who they are; and who, one way or another, are always all right. Because what other choice do we have?

The Top 100 Queer and Trans Women of Color Television Characters in TV History

Just a decade ago it was rare to have more than one queer woman of color on television at all. Now, not only have an abundance of such characters turned up on our screens in the last few years, we also have celebrated queer and trans women of color creators behind the scenes like Janet Mock and Tanya Saracho crafting our stories from the inside-out.

We’re standing at the crossroads of a new era. As the TV Team noted earlier in this week in our Annual List of Favorite Lesbian, Bisexual, and Trans Characters: “Politics and pop culture have always had a symbiotic relationship, which is why representation — legitimately good representation that explores the fullness of humanity of all LGBTQ+ people at the intersections of the myriad of oppressions we face — is more important than it ever has been.”

That begged the question: What does legitimately good representation for lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans women of color look like? How does that fundamentally differ (or potentially, overlap) with lesbian or queer women’s representation on television overall? The television landscape is changing rapidly. Where does that leave lesbian, bisexual, and trans women of color on TV? Where have been, and more importantly — where are we going?

Those are the questions that we’ve been obsessed with over the last month. We wanted to create a rubric that — while not definitive (we look forward to arguing with you in the comments) — would at least be an opening to the broader conversation. From that rubric came this list, a first of its kind exploration into the 100 Top Queer and Trans Women of Color Characters in Television History.

Some Notes on Ranking Methodology:

Considering what makes the best representation for any television character, but especially for queer people of color, whose identities fall across a variety of intersections, is necessarily qualitative and cannot be solved by a simple set of numbers. That said, it was important to us that we have a system of checks and balances to counter any of our own biases… otherwise, Annalise Keating would just win everything.

We began this project by scouring Autostraddle’s television database of queer and trans women characters of television. This database has been researched for years and, to the best of our knowledge, has the basic information covered of every lesbian, bisexual, queer or trans woman character ever on television (It’s the same database we use as a baseline for our yearly TV reports). We narrowed the database to women of color and came up with 400 names.

We quelled that list down to 300 by limiting it to regular or reoccurring cast members. Then we brought together our particularly obsessive knowledge of pop culture, along with LezWatchTV, LGBT Fans Deserve Better, YouTube, and Wikipedia. We narrowed the list from 300 to 110 names, and then we applied the following system for ranking the Top 100.

+ How well-developed the character’s story arc was on their television show, along with two separate overall collaborative scores from Autostraddle’s TV Team and Autostraddle’s Speakeasy, the collective of our writers of color. (These three were the heaviest weighted categories and worth 5 points each, for a grand total of 15 points.) Natalie and Carmen debated story arc together. The other two categories were selected for consideration to both the craft of creating television, along with the equal importance of the ability for the characters to connect to audiences of color.

+ The following categories were each weighted at one point each (3 points total) — if the show in question was critically acclaimed; if the character was written by a queer person (or if the show had a queer person in the writers’ room that we could find via research); and if the character existed on a POC dominant cast (because in real life most people of color don’t spend all of their time surrounded by white people with no family or friends that look like them).

+ We also gave one bonus point for each of the following (4 potential bonus points total) — if the performance won or was nominated for an Emmy Award (importantly, the spread of queer women characters that have been Emmy nominated in recent years includes quite a few QWOC characters compared to their white counterparts); if the character had a woman love interest (this is designed to measure the ways that women of color’s queer sex and sexualities are erased on screen. It is not our interest in contributing to bisexual erasure. Our list includes bisexual and queer women who sleep with men, straight trans women, along with lesbians who where never once given a woman love interest); and if that woman love interest was also another woman of color. And finally, we gave a bonus point if the character was portrayed by an out queer or trans actor of color.

+ We subtracted one point if the character in question died. No rewards for bury your gays on our watch.

What surprised both of us was that our original presumptive winners ended up — well, not being the winners at all. We think that has a lot to do with beloved characters who came earlier in our queer television lives not being allowed by Hollywood the same room for growth as those who came after. It’s similar to the old adage that each new generation goes further than the one before.

Interestingly, no character on this list reached a “perfect score”. The #1 ranked character came up short by about 2 points! Furthermore, the top 25 ranked characters all shared a spread of only four points total! The difference between #25 and the Top 10 almost came down to decimals.

Enough talking! Lets get to the list!

---

100. Sam Black Crow, American Gods

Starting off our list at #100 is Sam Black Crow from American Gods. Sam actually made this list by the skin of their teeth because the character is much more prominently featured in the book than the actual television series. In both, Sam is a two-spirit college student who’s cynical about a lot of the “warring Gods” happening around them. Actress Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs is queer, and said that was part of why she wanted to play Sam on American Gods in to begin with. You love to see it. — Carmen

99. Natalia Rivera, Guiding Light

When Natalia Rivera’s husband, Gus, died, she was forced to make a life or death decision: to give Gus’ heart to the woman who nearly stole him from her, Olivia Spencer, or to let her die from heart failure. Natalia opted to save Olivia’s life — much to the chagrin of a grieving Olivia — and became her assistant at home and at work so Olivia wouldn’t squander the gift she was given. The more time the pair spent together, the closer they grew… and their love affair continued until Guiding Light‘s cancellation in 2009. — Natalie

98. Rana Habeeb, Coronation Street

When Rana’s husband, Zeedan, discovers that his wife’s been carrying on an affair with one of their best friends, Kate Connor, he lashes out: outing her to her conservative Muslim parents and emotionally blackmailing her into continuing their marriage. But even then, Rana’s connection to Kate is undeniable and the pair reconnect, much to the dismay of her parents. From there, Corrie delves into a story that few shows have tried to tackle: religious homophobia and the lengths which some people will go to save face. — Natalie

97. Louise Taggart, Clique

Clique, the British series from Skins writer Jess Brittain, feels a bit like Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl had a baby. Only now that baby’s brought up in an ultra-competitive world that forces you to define yourself in the real world and online. The pressure and the desire to fit in are next level. Enter Louise, the self-assured, pragmatic, gay mathematics genius who creates her own luck. But even though she’s always the smartest girl in the room, the social game isn’t something she excels at and she’s too honest to fake it. — Natalie

96. Luna Spence, Burden of Truth

There’s a moment in Burden of Truth‘s second season where, just before she goes to the police to face questioning for her father’s murder, Luna Spence, who is Cree from Long Grass First Nation, goes out in her mother’s backyard and makes an offering of tobacco to the spirits as she prays. It’s a quick moment punctuated by a beautiful score that both reaffirms the show’s commitment to tell the stories of Indigenous people — a queer Indigenous woman, no less! — and reminds the audience of the power of representation on television to give you a glimpse into cultures that you might not have seen otherwise. — Natalie

95. Sophie Moore, Batwoman

Years ago, just as Sophie and Kate Kane are about to graduate from Point Rock Academy, their relationship is discovered. Facing expulsion under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Kate opts to tell the truth and gets expelled, while Sophie, fearing the consequences both personal and professional, lies. But years later when she hears that Sophie’s been kidnapped and her life is in danger, Kate comes rushing back to Gotham. We’re just over a quarter of the way into Batwoman‘s first season and it seems like we’re just scratching the surface with Sophie. Since the show’s version of Sophie is so different from the comic books, I’m anxious to see what more there is to “Sophie Freaking Moore.” — Natalie

94. Jacqueline “Jax” Zhou, Pandora

Pandora was pretty universally panned when it came out earlier this year. But do you know what’s cool about it, anyway? The queer woman of color lead? She IS Pandora. Any queer woman of color who’s also the title character of her own show was definitely going to earn a spot on this list. I’m sure you understand. After the loss of her home, the New Portland Colony, Jax leaves for the Earth Space Training Academy. There she and her friends learn to defend the galaxy from threats – both alien and human. Also? Gay stuff. — Carmen

93. Rosetta Reide/ Danny Gates, Courthouse

Years before Gina Price-Blythewood would hire an unknown Lena Waithe as her production assistant on The Secret Life of Bees, she penned and co-produced shortlived series for CBS called Courthouse. From descriptions — since the show isn’t yet available for viewing anywhere, I cannot personally confirm — the show feels like a precursor to those Shondaland series we’ve come to love: Beautiful, highly talented people working in the pressure-filled crucible of a Clark County courthouse. And just like in Shondaland, the gays were represented. Judge Rosetta Reide and her housekeeper, Danny Gates, became the first-ever black lesbian couple on television. — Natalie

92. Kay Sedia, Marry Me

Sometimes, while doing this job, you stumble upon a record of a show or character you’ve never heard of and, as you dig more into it, you find yourself wondering, “Why did no one tell me about this?” That’s how I felt when I discovered Kay Sedia, the black lesbian character on NBC’s shortlived sitcom, Marry Me. The “soft butch lipstick flannel queen” comes out on the show by announcing that she’s got a match on Boobr, “a dating app for lesbians, like Grindr is for gay men or Tindr is for straight men and whores.” Hilarious. And, she was dating Ana Ortiz?! How did no one tell me about this? — Natalie

91. Nasreen “Nas” Paracha, Ackley Bridge

Depictions of everyday Muslim characters of television remain elusive; depictions of everyday queer Muslim characters, even moreso. But of the handful of queer Muslim women we’ve seen on English language television, none has been more robustly portrayed, in my estimation, as Nasreen “Nas” Paracha. Born to Pakistani immigrants, Nas grows up a working class town West Yorkshire and attends to Ackley Bridge College, a new academy forged by the merger of two previously segregated schools. Ackley Bridge does as good a job as any show on television of grappling with our intersectional identities…and for Nas, that means learning how to exist as a lesbian, as a Muslimah and as an ordinary teenager in Ackley Bridge. — Natalie

90. Tea Marvelli, Skins US

When MTV debuted the trailer for the American version of the British series, Skins, they made one crucial change to the first series roster: Instead of Maxxie, the white gay character featured in the British version, or Teo, the Latino gay character mentioned in the original Skins USA sides, there was Tea, a young, beautiful Latina lesbian. Sofia Black-D’Elia — who’d go onto play queer again in The Mick — is magnetic in the role, capturing the attention of critics early in the shows run, but the show, much to my consternation, never really lived up to its potential… or the high bar set by Skins UK. (Carmen also wishes she had been played by a Latinx actor.) — Natalie

89. Amanda Weston, Stichers

In Stichers there’s a mysterious government agency who has the ability to “stick” people into the memories of the recently dead in order to solve murders and crimes. Which is totally normal and not at all creepy! Amanda, a medical examiner, calls it like she sees it. She don’t like have their emotions toyed with and is just has happy alone as she is a part of a relationship. Which is why she ultimately calls it quits with Camille, who wasn’t ready for the kind of commitment Amanda was ultimately looking for. — Carmen

88. Christina ‘Chris’ Alonso, S.W.A.T.

One feature of police procedurals — and, honestly, most of the reason I hate them so much — is that they center men to an annoying degree. Sure, there are women involved in the operation but when it comes to the takedown, the sometimes aggressive moment where the cops finally subdue the suspect, it’s left to the central male characters. But that’s not the case on S.W.A.T. where Chris Alonso is allowed to be every bit the badass as her male counterparts. And while Chris’ polyamory story ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth, it doesn’t take away from how groundbreaking it was to see the story told on a CBS procedural. — Natalie

87. Shana Bring, Pretty Little Liars

Oh Shana Costumeshop. That’s not her name, of course, but I think that she’s become more famous for her nickname inside the Pretty Little Liars fandom than her actual name itself (I literally didn’t know her last name was even “Fring” until we made this list) says a lot about both how loved and a little iconic Shana is for a specific niche of queer television watchers, and how badly developed or thought out her character was overall. Saying that Pretty Little Liars was badly thought out is sort of a given at this point in our television lives, but for while it really was a delightful rollercoaster of crazy. Shana joined at the peak and was a big part of that ride. Part costume shop worker/ part ex-girlfriend/ part Psycho-style stalker and potential murder suspect, who says that we can’t have it all? — Carmen

86. Bill Potts, Doctor Who

Optimism overflowed when it was announced that Bill Potts would join the Twelfth Doctor on his journeys. It was miraculous: A show that premiered back when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain now had a black lesbian woman as the Doctor’s companion. Unfortunately, though, that enthusiasm was short-lived as, despite some companions lasting multiple seasons, Bill was shot through the heart in her season’s pentultimate episode. Eventually, though, she reunites — as a sentient oil — with the Doctor and convinces him to regenerate, producing the Thirteenth Doctor, as portrayed by Jodie Whittaker. — Natalie

85. Mazikeen “Maze” Lucifer

Before Lucifer had even debuted in January 2016, the American Family Association/One Million Moms had launched a campaign against it. The show, they said was glorifying Satan and demons by making them caring and likable… and having them look like Lesley-Ann Brandt. Thankfully that campaign failed and we got to meet Mazikeen, Lucifer’s former right-hand — “the most skilled torturer Hell’s ever known,” he calls her. When Lucifer ascends to Earth, Maze sticks by his side…helping him solve cases and operate his nightclub. Eventually, though, Maze strikes out on her own, becoming a bounty hunter… a job that allows her to use her hunting skills and get paid. — Natalie

84. Keelin, The Originals

A werewolf ER doctor, Keelin’s the last of the Malraux bloodline after the rest of her family was hunted to extinction. At first she’s held captive by Freya, but later they combine their powers to destroy Marcel’s venom. Of course that leads to them dating. And then they have the most beautiful, fair tale gone witches, picturesque wedding! Oh and after the series ended, we learned they had a son together. Extra cute! — Carmen

83. LaVerne “Jukebox” Thomas, Power

I really can’t explain why I loved Jukebox so much. She was a dirty cop, she pimped her girlfriend out to see if her cousin (a man) would have sex with her — for reasons that are now very hazy to me — and she kidnapped a kid. To be fair, that kid was very annoying. But all the rest of it is real bad. Jukebox was every single “lesbians are evil” trope, wrapped up in a bow. And then they killed her! Shot dead. OK there’s really no reason you should watch Jukebox, except, hear me out: Anika Noni Rose playing gay. ALSO, Power is one of the few shows that has built a near religious following in black households and white people almost never have even heard of. That means that Anika Noni Rose, real life Disney Princess, having sex with women was seen all across black America. I guess that’s enough of a reason for her to be on this list. — Carmen

82. Sandy Lopez, ER

Before we met Hen Wilson on 9-1-1 or Maya Bishop on Station 18, Sandy Lopez was television’s most prominent queer firefighter. She meets Dr. Kerry Weaver on a call to help a pregnant woman out of a crashed ambulance in the middle of a thunderstorm. They develop a rapport and when Sandy returns to County General for treatment with her hand, Kerry asks Sandy out on a date. It’s the start of a beautiful relationship for a groundbreaking character on a show that, at the time, was still the third most watched show in the country (22.1M viewers!). — Natalie

81. Angela Montenegro, Bones

When Angela Montenegro broke the heart of her art school girlfriend, Roxie, lost her muse and went eight years without publicly displaying her work. Meanwhile, Angela put her classical art training to work at the Jeffersonian Institute in forensic facial reconstruction. But then the exes cross paths after Roxie’s implicated a crime, Montenegro is reminded that the only thing between them that’s changed is time…and once Roxie’s vindicated, the pair share a kiss. — Natalie

80. Kith Lyonne, Jessica Jones

Becoming a go-to actress for queer South Asian representation, Sarita Choudhury — who also previously played queer on Blindspot — stepped into the role of Kith Lyonne in Jessica Jones‘ final season. Lyonne dated Jeri Hogarth in college but the pair broke up after Kith found out that her girlfriend had been cheating on her (with Wendy, who Jeri would go on to marry and also cheat on). By the time they reconnect, Lyonne is married but still carrying around the pain of having lost her daughter and Jeri was dying of ALS… but, for a little while at least, they make beautiful music together. — Natalie

79. Allison Wong,The Real O’Neals

When compiling this list, it was very important to us that we represented a variety of television mediums. I’m explaining that because when we first winnowed this list from 400 to 100, somehow Allison Wong wasn’t on it! She almost slipped through the cracks, which would have been our loss. As Kenny O’Neal’s best friend, one of the only Asian people and the only lesbian in her Catholic high school, Allison complicated the The Real O’Neal’s sitcom set up in delightful ways. The original premise was that Kenny was the only gay teen in his straight, Midwestern existence. But it actually turned out that he only thought that because he was blinded by his own whiteness and male-centric point of view. Lucky for us, Allison was there to force his self-awareness and turn his world upside down. If you love your gay teens crafted in the existence of Daria Morgendorffer’s pitch-perfect deadpan, then Allison is definitely the girl for you. — Carmen

78. Kat Sandoval, Madam Secretary

CBS regularly ranks last among the five broadcast networks when it comes to the inclusion of LGBTQ characters. Last year, the network had just three queer female characters in its entire primetime lineup, only two of who got regular storylines and screentime: Chris Alonso from S.W.A.T. and Kat Sandoval on Madam Secretary. And while it’s necessary to take CBS to task for falling behind when it comes to diversity, it makes moments like Kat’s coming out to her colleague, Jay, on Madam Secretary feel even more groundbreaking. It’s as if the “good guys” snuck one past the gatekeepers and, in Kat’s case, gave an unsuspecting audience a real education on what it means to be queer in this country. — Natalie

77. Prudence Blackwood (Also Known as Prudence Night), Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

In a piece about the lack of respect afforded to black witches, Angelica Jade Bastién wrote, “The lack of powerful black witches in film and TV is a symptom of a larger problem that has existed in America since its very beginning: the fear of black women’s autonomy and prowess.” Prudence Blackwood may be the exception to the rule. On CAOS, the teen witch, whose style pays homage to the great Eartha Kitt, is afforded more depth than prior black witches have been afforded. Write her off as a mean girl at your peril, Prudence has a tendency to surprise. — Natalie

72. Captain Philippa Georgiou, Star Trek: Discovery

Technically, Captain Philippa Georgiou is dead. BUT — and this is important! — not this Captain Philippa Georgiou. Michael Burnham brought this version of Philippa home from the Mirror Universe to the regular Star Trek one to save her life, because Michael felt guilty for her own Capt. Georgiou’s death. Are you keeping up with me? Good. Somehow everyone on board was shocked to learn the evil Mirror Universe version of her commander was … well, you know … evil. But she’s really been turning around lately. And she’s a complete badass (who’s getting her own spin off show soon). In her universe, apparently everyone is Pansexual, but she’s the only one who’s made it clear so far, having sex with a pair of male and female Orions during the show’s first season. — Carmen

73. Toni Topaz, Riverdale

Do I personally wish we got to see more of Toni Topaz on Riverdale? Of course I do. No offense to Cheryl Blossom, but Toni’s always been my favorite Vixen (or Pretty Poison? Whatever those crazy kids are calling themselves today). I still believe Toni and Cheryl could’ve been Riverdale’s most iconic couple — and Toni their best Sea Serpent — if they ever would just let her off the bench sometimes and get deeper into the Scooby mystery of the week. — Carmen

74. Sameen Shaw, Person of Interest

Dr. Sameen Shaw, otherwise known as Indigo Five Alpha, or simply Shaw, is a physician and a former operative for the U.S. Army Intelligence Support Activity. Shaw describes herself as having Axis II Personality Disorder, and which basically means lacks empathy with most people. She has feelings, they’re just tuned on low. The exception that is of course her beloved Root. Together Root & Shaw performed the impossible — they went from being a fan relationship to a real canon one, on CBS no less! If that’s not magic, I truly don’t what is. — Carmen

73. Rasha Zuabi, Degrassi:Next Class

Degrassi‘s always been a show invested in queer representation and telling stories that dovetail with current events. Rarely have they been as relevant as when, at the height of the refugee crisis and the debate over accepting refugees, Rasha Zuabi ends up in as part of Degrassi High’s senior class. The Syrian transplant finds freedom at Degrassi, shedding her hijab and, eventually, being able to come out to her closest friends and family. — Natalie

72. Valencia Perez, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

From the moment that audiences first meet Valencia Perez — flirting with Josh Chan in the grocery store freezer section — she’s really, really wants to get married. She and Josh have been together, on and off, for 15 years and she’s ready for him to put a ring on it. But when no amount of prodding works, Valencia breaks things off. Fast-forward four seasons of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Valencia’s found the woman of her dreams and, again, she really, really wants to get married…. and, again, the person who she’s expecting a proposal from doesn’t take the hint. But then she’s reminded by her girlfriend that gender roles are tired and if and when she wants to, she can propose. — Natalie

71. Maggie Sawyer, Supergirl

This is my list, that Natalie and I spent the better part of a month pouring over in obsessive detail, so I will stand in my truth: I don’t like Maggie Sawyer. If I had my pick, she wouldn’t be here at all. This is probably going to send droves of angry shippers after me, but that’s fine. I know how to work a mute button. Clearly there 30 other people on this list who ranked even lower than Maggie, so not everyone shares my opinion. And yes, she was brave and strong and a good girlfriend to Alex Danvers. I love the part she played in Alex’s coming out (I could watch the “kiss the girls you want to kiss” scene forever). But people of color shouldn’t be played by white actors, and Maggie Sawyer was. That’s my line in the sand. It’s 2019 and I don’t have to pretend its ok for white people to “act” or “play” people of color. Our culture is not a costume. — Carmen

70. Abby, Abby’s

With its bar setting, multi-cam format and live studio audience, Abby’s has all the hallmarks of a television sitcom classic. But the show’s diverse cast, led by the immitable Natalie Morales in the titular role, injected new life into a stale old premise and broke a lot of ground along the way. With Abby’s, Morales became the first openly queer woman and the first woman of color to play an openly bisexual main character on a network sitcom. And if that weren’t enough, Morales was also the first Cuban since Desi Arnaz to lead a comedy. — Natalie

69. Cotton Brown, Star

As Cotton Brown in Star,  Amiyah Scott made history as the first out trans person to star as a series regular on network television. Particularly in the early seasons, Cotton was given more plot to chew through than any black trans woman role we’d seen before Pose. Those are two groundbreaking reasons that mean Cotton earned her spot on this list. Unfortunately, as years progressed Star — and Cotton’s role specifically — ran off the rails quickly from being a delightfully fun hot mess to being… just an awful hot mess.— Carmen

68. Aneela Kin Fit, Killjoys

When Delle Seyah Kendry started to relentlessly flirt with Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen) and set shipper hearts ablaze, the writers of Killjoys gifted us with Aneela. Also played by Hannah John-Kamen, Aneela is physically identical  to Dutch, but in reality she’s different in just about every other way. With Aneela and Delle, we get to see the former villains of an epic tale begin to fight side by side with the heroes — without ever losing the murderous edge that made fans fall in love with them in the first place. It’s redemption story that actually isn’t about redemption at all: It’s about doing good, learning to really love, and also learning to be yourself instead of what others expect from you in the first place. — Carmen

67. Daysi Cantu, East Los High

Before we ever got to know Ser Anzoátegui as Eddy on Vida, they were Daysi Cantu on East Los High. Whereas other queer characters on the show — namely Camila and Jocelyn — hid their identities from their families fearing a backlash, Daysi was out and proud as a queer woman from a supportive family. After presenting to Jocelyn’s life skills class, she and Daysi begin flirting heavily with each other, much to the consternation of Camila, Jocelyn’s former best friend and first love. — Natalie

66. Alex Nuñez, Degrassi TNG

In hindsight, when Alex Nuñez first shows up in Degrassi, with her penchant for tank tops and starting fights with other girls, we should have seen the gay coming. And, of course, her threats to out Marco Del Rossi during their campaigns for class president were just a reflection of her internalized homophobia, spawned by her new complicated feelings for Paige. But everything finally becomes clear, after the premiere of Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh!, when Paige and Alex share their first kiss. — Natalie

65. Kennedy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Few things provoke as much fervor among Buffy fans as a discussion about Kennedy, who joined the cast in the show’s seventh season. Tara’s body had barely cooled from the assassin’s bullet when Kennedy showed up in Sunnydale — a Potential Slayer seeking Buffy’s protection — to cozy up to Willow. She was such a contrast from Tara, personality wise: Kennedy was a self-proclaimed brat who was unapologetically aggressive in… well, everything… including her pursuit of Willow. But, perhaps, that’s what Willow needed at that moment: someone completely different from Tara to help her work through her grief and anger and, of course, to reaffirm her sexuality. — Natalie

64. Heather Novak, The Sinner

Of all the shows we hadn’t personally watched and had to deep dive research over the course of this project, I’m most mad about Heather Novak. I didn’t watch the first season of The Sinner, so I’m sure I missed it as it aired that they switched protagonists between the first and second years. But there’s a black lesbian LEAD in a True Dectetive style moody whodunit and no one told me? And the central mystery involves her first love/ ex-girlfriend? And she has to deal with the racial politics of being a legal authority figure in a small town where there are very few black people? And she’s the quiet, brooding type, with lots of emotions just beneath the surface? Sign me up. — Carmen

63. Ximena SinFuego, The Fosters

 Ximena Sinfuego immigrated to the United States when she was barely old enough to remember it. Originally, she had DACA, but she  let her DACA status lapse because she was afraid that with the increased ICE raids happening in immigrant communities under the Trump Administration, she would be tipping agents off to her family’s new address. That leads to Ximena being on the run from ICE, and here’s the thing: No one is better at humanizing political issues than The Fosters. In the middle of all our recent debates about how to best protect immigrants, the show put forth this character. A face that you can name and see and love and learn from. When they rise to the occasion, nothing tops The Fosters and when it came to Ximena’s immigration case, they were at their best. — Carmen

62. Maya St. Germain, Pretty Little Liars

At first, I was very surprised at Maya’s relative low ranking on this list, I mean who doesn’t love Emily Fields’ dearly departed girlfriend? But Natalie reminded me of a lot that I forgot about how little of Maya’s life made sense. She was raised by supposedly hippie parents, but then they freak out and sent her to rehab over smoking a little bit of pot? She’s barely given a life outside of Emily or any plots to call her own. Overall, she is broadly (and pretty badly) developed. OK. All that said, damn she was really cute with Emily! — Carmen

61. Carmen de la Pica Morales, The L Word 

Carmen de la Pica Morales is so beloved despite how much she had working against her: she was a late addition “diversity” member of a show that was pretty famously white; she played into a lot of stereotypes about Latinas being “good” and “family oriented” while also being “spicy bombshell sexpots;” oh and she wasn’t even played by a Latina! Still, regardless, our love for Carmen pushes on. Sarah Shahi brought warmth and familiarity to the role and we all wanted to be Carmen’s friend (or girlfriend), how could we not? — Carmen

60. Nola Darling, She’s Gotta Have It

In terms of raw camera time, you’ll be hard pressed to find another character on this list who beats out Nola Darling. After all, the pansexual Brooklyn artist is the protagonist, narrator, and titular character of her own show. This also makes her a perfect case study as to why quality, and not just quantity, matters. Nola’s one of the most famous queer black women in popular culture (stemming from the original She’s Gotta Have It film in the ’80s), but her characterization remains tied up in the imagination of filmmaker Spike Lee. His vice grip on Nola, and unwillingness to allow a black woman (specifically a black queer woman) leave their mark on her writing ultimately hampers Nola before she even reaches the screen. It prevents her from becoming the iconic character she really could be. — Carmen

59. Shani Abboud, Orange is the New Black

Though it’s very important to note that not all Muslim women, and not all women from Africa, are required to go through genital mutilation — it’s nonetheless significant that Orange is the New Black decided to tell that experience with such tender care through Shani. It’s also vitally important that we experienced ICE custody through the eyes of a Muslim woman, and that we also got to know Shani’s life in Egypt – that she lived in a city, that she had an Instagram account, and a girlfriend. It’s breaks down the one-dimensional stereotypes that we often receive about Muslim women from television.— Carmen

58. Yolanda Rivas, G.L.O.W.

The way Yolanda Rivas comes out to her fellow wrestler, Ruth, is cavalier, even by today’s standards. She offers to spice up their matches by wearing a string bikini but Ruth balks at the idea: Yolanda’s left her stripping days behind, Ruth points out, there’s no need to go back. She’s not, Yolanda says, except once a week when her ex bartends; she likes to torture her by taking off her clothes.
“You like girls?” Ruth asks.
“I love girls,” Yolanda answers.
That audacity would be refreshing today… but in the 1980’s, where real-life wrestler Tiffany Melon was forced out of GLOW for being suspected of being a lesbian? Yolanda’s brashness would be unheard of. — Natalie

57. Felicia  “Snoop” Pearson, The Wire

There’s this thing we say sometimes on the TV Team: “I love a queer villain, but I hate when queerness is villainized.” I’m not sure that Snoop is a villain, though she is very violent, but what I most loved about her is how much she was woven into the fabric of her neighborhood. Snoop is never singled out for her masc gender presentation or her sexuality. It’s never brought up as an issue, not even once, in all six seasons of The Wire. She just gets to be who she is. If that person happens to be a gangster with an affinity for hiding bodies. Well, that’s a potential problem for a different day. — Carmen

56. Violet Cross, Harlots

Against the backdrop of two competing brothels, you don’t expect to witness a genuine love story emerge, but that’s what Harlots offers with Amelia Scanwell, the daughter of a religious zealot who preaches outside the brothels, and Violet Cross, the audacious, unapologetic street girl that catches her eye. Surprisingly, Cross’ role in the British period piece is loosely based on the true story of Ann Duck, the biracial woman who followed her father into gang life and built a lengthy criminal resume. — Natalie

55. Tess Pearson, This Is Us 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Tess Pearson is the coolest gay tween in America. It’s not every day — well actually, it’s literally never — that we get to see a black tween come out to her parents and they respond with nothing but loving her and supporting her. It’s one of a kind, and over a year later I still can’t stop thinking about it. On top of that, Tess also struggles with high anxiety and panic attacks, centering yet another important conversation in black communities that often gets overlooked. And her celebrity crush is Zendaya? My girl has taste. — Carmen

54. Deniz, The Bisexual

 The Bisexual  is billed as a half hour comedy, but I didn’t really laugh that much while watching it. The exception, of course, is when Deniz takes the screen. She’s brilliant and dry and sarcastic. Her bullshit detector is on a hundred at all times. She’s hard on Leila (the titular bisexual), but she’s also loyal. To her friends, and also her parents.  When Leila pushes that Deniz should leave her her family liquor store to pursue her dreams of becoming a chef, Denis retorts “stop being so fucking middle class” — please give me more queer Muslims telling hard truths with a punchline like this, thank you very much. — Carmen

53. Cruz, Vida

Ah Cruz and her beautiful shoulder tattoo. Yes, I realize that sounds incredibly superficial of me, but honestly? What a great, queer, costuming choice on behalf of Vida. Anyway, in Vida’s first season Cruz stands out because she’s a lesbian who didn’t move away from her home neighborhood in order to come out. She made home gay all around her, and she’s fiercely protective of it. She’s tough, but patient, and at first seems like everything Emma needs as she works through her own internalized homophobia. Unfortunately that character development falls greatly in Vida’s second season, where Cruz becomes a zombie of her former self as she purposefully pushes Emma away. It’s that abrupt shift in characterization that finds her on the bottom half of this list. — Carmen

52. Nico Minoru, Marvel’s Runaways

One of the themes we see repeated with Asian characters on film and television — queer or not — is the concept of “saving face.” The idea, explicitly named in the iconic lesbian romantic comedy and implicitly evoked in last year’s Crazy Rich Asians, is about the ways in which people modulate themselves to avoid bringing undue attention to themselves, their parents or their communities. Part of what makes Nico Minoru’s Runaways character so noteworthy is that she’s turning that trope on its head. She goes beyond just being the disobedient high school student or being candid about her sexuality…she’s literally battling her parents and her community who are the embodiment of evil. — Natalie

51. Alice Kwan, Good Trouble

When Freeform announced Good Trouble, a spin-off of The Fosters that would take Callie and Mariana, post-graduation, to downtown Los Angeles, I expected a world centered around those characters. That is not what I got. Instead the Adams-Foster girls are just a gateway to introduce the audience to a compelling set of new characters, including Alice Kwan, the house manager of the intentional community where Callie and Mariana live. In the show’s second season, Alice is learning to define herself, both as a newly out lesbian and as a new comedienne. — Natalie

Autostraddle’s Favorite and Least Favorite Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans TV Characters of 2019

When GLAAD released their annual Where We Are on TV report this year, they announced that LGBTQ+ TV characters are at an all-time high. The headlines all over the internet were ecstatic. Gays win! Best year ever! But the reality is a lot more complicated than that. “Our community,” as GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis noted, “finds itself in 2019 facing unprecedented attacks on our progress.”

Every year, our TV Team compiles a list of our favorite and least favorite characters. (For example: 2018, 2017, 2016). It’s fun. Nothing excites us like loving our favorite stories out loud. But there was also a sense, as we approached this list this year, that it was so much more than just good-time reminiscence, especially when so much of the quantitative and qualitative growth we continue to see on-screen is for thin, cis, white, non-disabled queer characters. Our stories matter politically and they matter personally. When they’re good, it makes us so happy. When they’re bad, there’s so much more at stake than our annoyance or discontent. Politics and pop culture have always had a symbiotic relationship, which is why representation — legitimately good representation that explores the fullness of humanity of all LGBTQ+ people at the intersections of the myriad oppressions we face — is more important than it ever has been.

Here’s what we loved this year and what we didn’t like very much at all. We’d love to hear about your favorite and least favorite characters in the comments!

---

FAVORITE CHARACTERS

Heather Hogan

Anne Lister, Gentleman Jack

I think most LGBTQ people have those a-ha! fictional characters who finally allow them to look closely at and accept their sexuality and their gender, and I also think most LGBTQ people have those if-only fictional characters they wish had been around when they were whatever age or going through such-and-such thing, to show them the way. I’m going to do that second thing to Elena Alvarez in just a second, in fact! It’s much rarer for a real-life queer adult to stumble upon a fictional queer adult who reminds them of who they are right now, who reflects their grown-up gay reality back at them. Anne Lister is the first — and maybe she’ll be the only — character to ever do that for me. There are so many of her soft butch ways that just resonate. The masculine way she dresses, her stride and gait, the firmness of her gesticulations, going toe-to-toe with every man in her way; but the tenderness too, and the overwhelming need to hold it all together and make everything okay. It was a new thing, to me, to see that on TV. And also, for someone who, on a cellular level, is comprised as much of Jane Austen stories as I am of water, well — finally.

Sophie Moore, Batwoman

There were so many ways Batwoman could have gone wrong that actually went so, so right — and my favorite one of them is Sophie Moore. The source danger is that she’s a kind of one-dimensional flashback in the comics. The current danger is that she’s Kate Kane’s ex-girlfriend who is presently married to a man, so there’s a real tightrope there between some really longstanding and harmful bisexual tropes. Yet, Batwoman‘s writers are walking it deftly, and have, on top of that, made Sophie more than Kate’s love interest. Sophie is drawn to rules, structure, order, regulated heroism. She’s also a queer woman in love with a winged vigilante who got kicked out of a prestigious military academy for breaking their Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and refusing to deny it or apologize for it. We’ve barely scratched the surface of Sophie and I can’t wait to see what we find as the writers keep digging.

Annalise Keating, How to Get Away With Murder 

“I still believe, and I will say this until I go to my grave, that Annalise Keating and Olivia Pope are the greatest characters on TV,” is a thing Viola Davis told Variety this year, because the writers on HTGAWM aren’t “writing tentatively” for people of color. They’re writing bold. And they’re writing messy. Six seasons in, the fact that Annalise Keating exists and is played by Viola Davis still blows my mind. Viola Davis! That she’s bisexual on top of it it all and also now has a best friend who also is a queer Black woman? It’s honestly unbelievable and I feel fucking blessed to be living on this timeline to witness it.

Elena Alvarez, One Day at a Time

This brilliant, driven, dorky, heroic queer teen was always going to make the list for me. One Day at a Time is one of my all-time favorite shows and she is just so wonderful and refreshing. Exploring Elena’s anxiety disorder this season just made me love her even more, and also made me wish I could have known her so much earlier in my life. I only understood mental illness to be one very specific thing that manifested itself in one very specific way (violence against me) when I was growing up. I never saw someone like me — a compassionate, silly overachiever — dealing with panic attacks. Never! And to have a mother who didn’t tell her to snap out of it or that she was being emotional or over-reacting, but to sit beside her and gently, lovingly teach her to breathe through it? I’m crying right now just thinking about it. Also, Syd-nificant other? COME ON! THAT’S PERFECT.

Petra Solano, Jane the Virgin

Petra is the opposite of every terrible bisexual TV character’s trajectory. Instead of being boldly proclaimed as A GAY CHARACTER and then reduced to one-dimensional writing and stereotypes before getting shuffled off to The Parking Lot of No Return, she was a just a caricature of a human being who evolved into a fully realized and deeply vulnerable and loyal friend/family member to Jane — and then she went and fell in love with another woman and got even more raw and real and wonderful. But don’t get it wrong. She never lost her edge. Love made her tender, but she absolutely still blackmailed her bleeding ex-husband who was trapped inside a teddy bear suit while lecturing him about bisexuality as the cops came to cart him off to jail.

Dex Parios, Stumptown

Stumptown itself has not lived up to my expectations. It’s RIDICULOUS that Dex hasn’t formed any relationships with any other female characters, and that her limited interactions with women are also limited to single-episode story arcs. RIDICULOUS. But gosh, I do love Dex. She’s a mess and she makes so many mistakes but she always wants to do the right thing and keep her friends and family safe. She’s also dealing with persistent trauma that’s never going to end. She’s self-destructive, but in a controlled way. She self-medicates, but not like before. She’ll never really “have it together” and she knows that and she’s not sorry for it. She’s doing the best she can with what she has, including a shocking variety of very cool ’80s jackets.

---

Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Cheryl Blossom, Riverdale

Unsurprisingly, I am still very obsessed with Cheryl Blossom, and the fact that the show has turned her into an Addams Family-meets-V.C. Andrews character makes me just love her more. Cheryl Blossom does not belong to our world. She does not speak like a human teen but rather like the town witch in a gothic horror story. I wish the Riverdale writers were more thoughtful in the writing of Toni Topaz this year, but I’ll always be thankful for the bizarreness of Cheryl and Toni’s most recent storylines — including burying and unburying bodies all the time????

Tegan Price, How To Get Away With Murder

How To Get Away With Murder has been all over the place as it spirals to its series finale next spring, but the introduction of Tegan to the show’s arsenal of morally questionable lawyers and lawyers-to-be has been a blessing. She’s funny, smart, and occasionally vulnerable, one of Annalise’s few real friends and an angry gay divorcee. We love to see it!

Bette Porter, The L Word: Generation Q

She’s back, she’s the mom of a teenager now, and she’s still ruining lives. Missed you, mommi.

Jules Vaughn, Euphoria

I didn’t love Euphoria as a whole (and I actively hated parts of it), but there are some little magical bits of it, especially when it comes to Jules and Hunter Schafer’s nuanced, visceral, specific performance. The show does messy friendship very, very well, and the love between Jules and Zendaya’s Rue is the most compelling part of the show.

Arthie Premkumar, GLOW

I went back and forth on whether to include Arthie here, because yes, she does continually hold a very special place in my heart, because I am a queer South Asian woman starved for representation on television, and season three not only lets her be hella gay but also includes LESBIAN SEX SCENES for the first time for the character and for the show. But that ends up being kind of… all we really get for Arthie this season. She doesn’t really exist outside of her relationship with Yolanda, who spends much of this season being pretty manipulative and yet it ends on a forced romantic note? In any case, I do love Arthie so much. And I can’t wait for the day when there are enough queer desi characters on TV for me to be able to pick and choose from.

Eve Fletcher, Mrs. Fletcher

I think Mrs. Fletcher ended up being one of the most underrated television shows of 2019. It’s sexy, real, and every episode unfolds like a colorful short story contemplating desire, personal evolution, and vulnerability. Eve is a fantastically complex bisexual character, and the show is thoughtful in how it explores her fantasies and emotions.

---

Carmen

Kat Edison, The Bold Type

As the year winds down, I keep returning back to Kat Edison. I don’t think I saw another queer character this year whose characterization and storytelling choices around their queerness was so fully developed without having to depend on a romantic partner to bring it to screen. That’s very hard to pull off. I loved Kat more on her own (and later with Tia, and later again with Adeena once more) than I ever loved her in pervious years. I finally related to her. I related to the questions of how do you redefine your queerness after suffering your first break up? When previously your sexuality had been tied up in you having a girlfriend? I related to her drive and ambition and desire to do good in the world. And yes, I’m sure we are all going to look back at the year when Kat “ran for city council” and laugh at the ridiculousness of it — but what is The Bold Type if not a wee bit ridiculous and running on glitter and girl power? Kat Edison lost a girlfriend, but she gained herself. And that was journey damn well worth watching.

Tia Reed, Boomerang

If you didn’t watch BET’s Boomerang, you missed one of the sleeper-hit best developed lesbian characters last year. It’s rare that we get to see a lesbian character in a half-hour comedy. Usually queer women’s stories are regulated to the high stakes tensions of “prestige dramas,” sci-fi epics, and soaps. In real life, lesbians and bisexuals are extremely funny and quirky, but television doesn’t seem ready to catch up. When I watched Boomerang last winter, I marveled at having such gay content front-and-center on the historically homophobic BET network that I didn’t give the craft of Lala Milan’s work enough credit. Sure, I laughed at Tia’s one liners and antics as they aired, but what’s stunning is that ten months later — I am still laughing. I can recall jokes in crystal memory. That’s talent. Yes, it’s important that Tia is one of the few queer characters on television who’s allowed to fully exist within a black space, and isn’t asked to check her queerness at the door. It’s important the she has black friends, and a black masc girlfriend. Sometimes, though, I worry that we get lost in the “representation conversation.”

Not that representation isn’t important! But also, everyone we are watching on screen — these are dedicated performers. Lala Milan has infectious energy and exquisite comedic timing; she can find the warmth in any conversational pause and twist it to her liking. And that is what makes Tia so memorable.

Candy Ferocity, Pose

This is controversial, I realize. I want to be clear right away: I do NOT agree with Pose’s decision to kill Candy Ferocity. I don’t think there was anything to be learned from (re)traumatizing it’s largely black and brown, trans and queer audience by showing her death, particularly in the gruesome way it was showcased. I was livid when that episode aired. One of my biggest editorial regrets this year is that I didn’t make space on our website for those grievances to be aired. They needed to be. Pose should be held accountable for those decisions, especially by the QTPOC folks that their show represents and serves.

OK, that all said and true: As the season progressed, I loved getting to know Candy through her afterlife. Angelica Ross found such life in Candy’s death and it was absolutely, hands down my favorite performance this year. It’s December and when I close my eyes it’s still July, and Candy is singing to me in a red shimmering dress. I close my eyes and it’s August, and she’s on a girl’s trip with her sisters peering down and smirking at me from her sunglasses. I close my eyes and her spirit is still there — with me. Not many actors could have pulled that off, but Angelia Ross is an impeccably unparalleled talent.

Emma Hernandez, Vida

Vida found itself in a difficult and unenviable predicament. It had one of the strongest first seasons of television I’ve ever seen. A true masterclass of the art form. How do you top coming out of the gates so strongly? The second season of the show is a bit more uneven, but I found it nonetheless mesmerizing, if only because it was so damn messy. And if we’re being real with ourselves, queerness is messy. I’ve never seen a protagonist like Emma Hernandez, who is so full of pain but trying to find these small spaces of reconciliation with her past and her hurt — whether that’s through some pretty complicated sex across the gender spectrum or quiet attempts at understanding with her sister and stepmother. Emma’s carrying her entire family’s future on the small frame of her ice cold shoulders. She definitely doesn’t always get it right, but my goodness — watching her is magnetic. You quite simply cannot stop rooting for her and for her utter complete mess, you know?

There’s a fine dance that can be struck between performer and writer, and Michel Prada and Tanya Saracho have found it in each other. They’re creating pure magic. I hope they never let go.

Batwoman, Batwoman

The other day I was joking that I didn’t necessarily mean that Ruby Rose’s take on Kate Kane was one of my my favorite performances this year, as much as I was fully prepared to hate their version of Batwoman, and instead — I really don’t. Batwoman is easily one of my favorite queer television shows of the fall, and certainly my favorite superhero story of the moment. Given how trepidatious I felt last spring about this entire shebang, that’s no small feat. I remember the first time I saw the trailer — and then the press screener — for Batwoman, I was stunned with a single thought: Ruby Rose might actually just pull this off. And you know what? They really have. I felt like that deserves some acknowledgement, so here I am: Way to go, Ruby Rose. Despite all of our collective fears and the entire queer world’s eyes thrusted upon you, you are somehow really pulling it off.

---

Riese

Sarah Finley, The L Word: Generation Q

Finley, Generation Q’s charming grifter with a complicated relationship to church and (her home) state, is a character. Like literally she’s a character, but she’s also a person that if she existed in real life, you’d be like “she’s a character.” She’s that one-of-a-kind person in your friend group whose presence is never forgotten and when she’s not around, it feels like something is missing, the same way you might feel when your adorable dog is at the groomers. She offers comic relief, is a winningly extroverted foil to Shane’s withdrawn intensity and steals every scene she’s in.

Abbi and Ilana, Broad City

Broad City did so much for queer representation by the time it ended its five-season run on Comedy Central — including its acknowledgment of bisexuality as an identity that transcends romantic relationships and its centering of a goofy, self-indulgent, transformational, hilarious and undeniably epic romantic friendship unlike anything we’ve seen on television before.

Kay Manz, Mindhunter

Okay so Wendy was gay in Mindhunter’s first season, but her girlfriend was one of those blink-and-you-missed-her types that always seem to be attached to the complicated female detective/investigator who is gay but not TOO gay in so many shows of this nature. But in Season Two she got to have a real relationship with a woman who usually wore sleeveless shirts, thus revealing her very attractive arm situations. She challenged and changed Wendy in difficult and important ways that also opened Wendy up to us.

Abby, Work in Progress

It’s hard enough to find a butch dyke side character on television, let alone a show about a butch dyke. Middle-aged men wondering what the fuck the point is are a standard of half-hour prestige television, but a self-described “fat dyke” eating one almond every day on a nihilistic march towards death and alienating most of her peers falling for a (much younger) trans guy? That’s a new fucking story! And so far I’m very intrigued by it.

Hen, 9-1-1

9-1-1 isn’t a typical procedural — the personal lives of the main characters aren’t sidelined and often take center stage. (It helps that everybody in the ensemble has decided to date… each other.) But even under those circumstances it felt unlikely we’d ever get to see a real fleshed out storyline for lesbian EMT Hen (played by Aisha Hinds, who also played gay in Under the Dome). This season we saw her and her wife, Karen (played by Tracie Thoms, who also played gay in Rent, UnREAL and The First) struggle with their attempts to get pregnant and then deal with Hen’s PTSD after a deadly vehicle crash. It’s a rare opportunity on television to see a black lesbian couple living out their complex adult lives within work and out of it, telling a story that never felt less important than the others. Through it we’re seeing so much more of who Hen is and what marriage looks like, brought to you by two women who are VERY GOOD at playing gay.

---

Drew

Rue Bennett and Jules Vaughn, Euphoria

As you might know, I have, um, complicated feelings about Euphoria. But God I love Rue and Jules. Because of Zendaya and Hunter Schafer’s astonishing performances, they don’t feel like mere characters to judge by Sam Levinson’s writing, but real people separate from the frustrations of the show. Since the first season ended I’ve found myself missing Rue’s wise for her age world-weariness and Jules’ determined joie de vivre. The way they intersect with one another and explode. Their specific teenage brand of messy, emotional fuck-up-ery. They are cooler than I ever was and cooler than I’ll ever be and I just want to watch them fall in love and friendship forever and ever.

Villanelle, Killing Eve

While the first season was a glorious introduction to my favorite lovesick assassin, the second season elevated Jodie Comer’s Villanelle in all the best ways. Her murders were more creative and brutal, her outfits more gorgeous and sharp, her accents even sillier, and her emotions even greater. More doesn’t always equal better, but with Villanelle, for me, it did. Bitmoji sucks if you have curly hair, so I’ve found when I need a cartoonish reaction in the group chat I always turn to Villanelle. There’s something about the way she’s a sociopath who cares too much, mixing viciousness and innocence and sexiness and terror, that makes her the perfect reaction GIF for everything. The first season I watched as Eve became obsessed with Villanelle. But this season the obsession was mine.

Emma Hernandez, Vida

What else can I say about Emma that I didn’t already say when Mishel Prada won a Gay Emmy for playing her? Prada’s performance is Emma. And yet, I can’t very well not include my very favorite character on my very favorite show. I love characters who are highly competent and totally in control. I love watching them crack. I love watching them put themselves back together – or be put back together. It’s comforting, as someone who tries to be highly competent and always in control. Despite our differences, I feel myself in Emma’s attempts to be a good sister, a good lover, a good citizen, and it’s a painful relief to watch her try. Also – and I cannot stress the importance of this enough – Emma is the hottest. Mean with a good heart? Distant but occasionally tender? A power femme more chaotic than Bette Porter? Emma Hernandez was created to ruin my life. Thank God she’s fictional.

---

Natalie

Nasreen “Nas” Paracha, Ackley Bridge

Early in the third series of Ackley Bridge, Nasreen Paracha is out for venegance after the death of her best friend, Missy Booth. She seeks out her girlfriend’s unsavory mates for help — she wants the culprit, Anwar, to pay for what he’s done — and they gleefully oblige. Despite never having known her, they shout, “this one’s for Missy, murdering scum” as they pummel him, recording the entire attack for prosperity.

The video makes its way across Ackley Bridge, stoking resentment between the whites, who think Anwar got what he deserved, and Pakistanis, who think he was targeted because of his race. Nas confesses to her mother that she was behind the attack and Kaneez is livid. Nas knows the stories about racist, anti-Muslim violence and should know better to incite it for her own ends. Nas offers a meek defense: for her, it was never about race.

“It is always, ALWAYS about race!” Kaneez shouts. “You should know that. You should bloody know that!”

Nasreen Paracha is a queer Muslim teenager growing up in a fictional British township. Her reality (however imagined) is so far away from my own. And yet, as I watched her mother chastise her for not remembering the realities of the world in which she lives, the words thump against my chest… and I’m reminded of the first time I’d had a similar confrontation with my father. I’d forgotten the world in which I lived and my father chastised me for my capriciousness. It is always, ALWAYS about race! Hearing Kaneez echo my father reminded me of the power of representation, not just to reflect our identities back to ourselves, but to shine a light on our shared experiences.

That said, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the improbability of Nasreen Paracha’s existence on television. The depiction of Muslims on television remains exceedingly rare and queer Muslim characters are even rarer still. To have a young queer Muslim woman as, essentially, the lead character in an ensemble show… that’s groundbreaking… and with the third series of Ackley Bridge ending with Nas leaving for Oxford, who knows when we’ll ever have it again.

Tegan Price, How to Get Away with Murder

One day, after the final chapter of How to Get Away with Murder is written, I hope someone asks Amirah Vann or Pete Nowalk how long they intended Tegan Price to be a character on the show. When Tegan Price first emerged at Caplan & Gold as Michaela’s mentor in Season Four, I only expected that she’d last a season. I expected that she, like so many recurring characters before her, would push the story forward and then exit, so I tried not to get too attached. But Amirah Vann has this way about her — if you’ve seen her performance as Ernestine in WGN’s Underground, you know — of imbuing her characters, however slight their role, with so much heart that not getting attached becomes an impossibility.

It’s been remarkable to watch HTGAWM give Tegan’s character so much more depth this season and to watch how they juxtapose her story with Annalise’s. Women, and women of color in particular, rarely get the opportunity to be celebrated for their ambition but Tegan has owned hers from the day that we met her. She wants to change the world and saw rising at C&G as an opportunity to amass the power to make that change happen. Even as Tegan’s actions give us cause to doubt her sincerity — I need April to hurry up and get here so I can find out how she’s connected to Laurel and Christopher’s disappearance — her heartbreak over losing Cora and her genuine affection for Annalise ground her character and make her someone we want to cheer for.

Petra Solano, Jane the Virgin

When we met Jane Gloriana Villanueva the first time, her passions included her family, God, grilled cheese sandwiches and writing…. and then, 99 episodes later, when we say goodbye to Jane Gloriana Villanueva for the last time, her passions included her family, God, grilled cheese sandwiches, writing and Rafael Solano. Things have happened, lives have shifted, but, essentially, the Jane that we meet at the beginning of Jane the Virgin and the Jane that we meet at the end aren’t that different from each other. Petra Solano though? The Petra Solano that ends JTV, with her girlfriend clinging to her side and her twin daughters smiling brightly nearby? She couldn’t be any more different that the Petra Solano we first met.

As I mentioned back in August, Petra is who she is in Season One because her mother made her that way. Magda taught her the way of the grift and that all relationships, including the one between mother and child, were transactional.

“I’ve had to lie my whole life and manipulate, and cheat, just to survive my crazy mother, and my psychotic sister, and my violent ex-husband. And, yes, those things made me who I am,” Petra admits to Jane “JR” Ramos early in Season Five. “But I can tell you this: I have changed a lot… and I’m going to change more.”

The impetus behind all that change? The other Jane. It wasn’t until she fell in with the Villanuevas that Petra has a model for what healthy relationships — between friends, between mother and child, between family — look like. Once she develops trust in those relationships, she’s able to believe in real love… and that’s when she finds JR.

Sorry, Rose, but the character development that turned an ice queen to a warm and loving mother and girlfriend might be the greatest love story Jane the Virgin ever told.

---

Valerie Anne

Nia Nal, Supergirl

Alex Danvers has long since been a go-to on my year-end list of favorites, but this year Nia eked out a win in my books. I will always love Alex, but Dreamer has been such a refreshing gift to the past two seasons of Supergirl. I love that being trans is an important part of her story, and I love that the show draws clear parallels between Nia and Season One Kara: a little green but not without life experience, excited about everything, endlessly hopeful. Nia is the hero we needed, and I hope they let her suit up again soon.

Jenna Faith Hope, Impulse

I’ve already written so much about why Jenna is so important to me and I could write so much more. The writing and direction and acting all handle Jenna’s queerness with such subtlety and care and I’ve never trusted a show to get a queer teenager right the way I trust this show. It was one of the most realistic coming out arcs I’ve ever seen, from the early clues to avoiding the truth to the inevitability. The acceptance and betrayal and fear and joy are all wrapped up in this adorable bundle of a girl, a reluctant but loyal sister, a recovering perfectionist, a girl who is in pain but trying her best. Jenna is another character I wish I had as a teenager, and one who is retroactively healing a lot of old wounds.

Elena Alvarez, One Day At A Time

Elena Alvarez will forever be one of my favorite characters because she is exactly who my teenage self needed to see on TV so I know she’s helping so many others just by being her gay, nerdy, joyful self.

Emily Dickinson, Dickinson

Dickinson was my favorite show this year. I watched it all in one weekend and wanted to lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling for a year when it was over. Emily represented all the most dramatic parts of me and I loved her for it. She is emotional and introspective in some of the same ways I am, wild and impulsive in a way I wish I were, defiant and radical in a way I’m learning to be. I don’t always love a period piece but the mix of modern and historical in this imagining of Emily Dickinson’s life was delicious and fun, it was funny and heavy and relevant. And it was so, so gay. Emily was exactly the best friend loving, poetry writing, death obsessed, patriarchy smashing character I needed to close out my 2019.

---

LEAST FAVORITE CHARACTERS

Heather Hogan

Karen Walker, Will & Grace 

When Will & Grace brought Samira Wiley on to be Karen Walker’s love interest, I was like, “Finally! It’s taken two decades but at last they’re going to stop playing Karen’s bisexuality as a joke that was already tired in the ’90s!” Actually, it was the opposite thing. Karen and Samira Wiley met, hit it off, dated, grew closer, planned to attend Jack’s destination wedding together — and then, in the airport, the show pulled a reverse “Puppy Episode” and had Karen announce her straightness over the airport loudspeaker. I hate throwing the word “erasure” around because it dilutes it beyond recognition, but this was some of the stupidest and most disrespectful bisexual erasure I’ve ever seen. And why? What was even the point of it?

Claire Duncan, Tales of the City 

Claire was the most confusing part of Tales of the City to me. On the one hand, I get that Netflix’s reboot was leaning into the wacky pulpy twisty weirdness of the original, but on the other hand, I still have no idea what Claire was supposed to be to viewers or to Ellen Page’s character. She was like a spoiled and bratty documentary filmmaker blackmailing a trans woman to expose San Francisco’s gentrification issues? And she had an actual connection with Shawna? Or… no? She was using Shawna to get to Anna to do the blackmail? And Shawna, who couldn’t trust due to being abandoned as a child, did take a chance and trust Claire — and the lesson she learned was: your instincts are correct, never trust anyone? It’s all very bizarre and incomprehensible, and not in the good way I was consistently confused by the zany hijinks of the first few season of Pretty Little Liars.

---

Natalie

Anissa Pierce and Grace Choi, Black Lightning

Writing these posts is always difficult, in part because as a community, we’re still grappling with what it means to be invested in qualitative representation instead of just quantitative representation. Also, because, given the nature of TV, it’s hard to disassociate these critiques from the actors themselves, despite the fact that the critique almost never about them. But just so there’s absolutely no confusion about my intention here: this post is not about Nafessa Williams or Chantal Thuy.

Williams and Thuy have sustained the #ThunderGrace fandom on the backs of their natural charisma and chemistry. I cannot imagine two other actresses having done so much when given so little. But Black Lightning is failing Anissa, it’s failing Grace, it’s failing its fans…and the responsibility for that falls squarely on the shoulders of its writing team.

I have given this show a pass for its shortcomings. I have watched as the female villains wither and die while the men — Gambi, Lala, Tobias, Khalil, O’Dell — come back, over and over and over again. I’ve watched as the show devoted episode after episode to telling the story of Jennifer clinging to her abusive boyfriend and as the show tried to convince me that abuse was romantic. I kept watching even as Grace and Anissa went weeks without scenes together. We’ll endure so much for the sake of representation…so even as the writers minimized and marginalized the show’s queer story, I kept watching. I kept watching because I wanted so much to see myself as super. I wanted so much to see us as celebrated heroes. I wanted to see us as bulletproof.

But this season, I finally reached my breaking point: In Chapter 4 (“Lynn’s Ouroboros”), Anissa’s dad, Jefferson, stops by her new loft and is surprised to discover Grace — who, apparently, he never even knew existed — there. Anissa slinks downstairs in her armor and we come to the realization at the same time as Jefferson: Anissa’s superpowers aren’t a secret from Grace. As with most of their relationship, the conversation where Anissa reveals her powers and that she moonlights as Thunder/Black Bird happens off-screen. We never got to see it.

It’s hard to overstate the significance of that conversation…how meaningful it would have been to Grace, who has had trouble harnessing her own powers, to know she had someone who understood her struggle or how meaningful it would have been for Anissa, who’s struggled with emotional vulnerability, to reveal this personal thing about herself. We missed the chance to see Grace’s face light up at the realization that she’s dating a superhero. We missed the chance to hear Anissa tell the only coming out story that’s ever been important on Black Lightning. No conversation between those two characters was more important than this one and we never got to see it. It is an inexcusable and infuriating omission…and it’s impossible to see its omission as anything other than homophobia manifested.

Anissa Pierce isn’t the lone lesbian superhero on the CW anymore. While I reject any effort to erase Anissa Pierce’s claim to the title of “first lesbian superhero,” as I take in Batwoman on Sunday nights and Black Lightning on Mondays, I wonder if we’re seeing, before our eyes, the difference between qualitative and quantitative representation…or, to put it more simply: the difference between acceptance and tolerance.

Cruz, Vida

Midway through Vida‘s first season, Emma happens upon her ex-girlfriend, Cruz, in a bar. There’s a playful flirtation between them…from the adorable way Emma trips over her words when they first reconnect to the sensual way their bodies meld together on the dance floor…but then the ground shifts beneath them. With one simple provocation — See? Things aren’t so bad around here — Emma’s truth spills out. The revelations are a defining moment of the series for Emma but they’re also a gamechanger for Cruz. For years, she’s lived with the belief that Emma was running — from her, from them, from this place — but none of it was true and from that moment on, everything changes.

Later, all Emma wants to do is fuck the pain away and, for a while at least, Cruz allows it. But, in that moment, all Cruz wants to do is show her that they’re more than just an aggressive fuck…that, through distance and time, their love survived Vidalia’s internalized homophobia. After being denied all night, their lips finally connect and Cruz pours every bit of love and comfort into their kiss. And while the story rightly focuses on Emma — who is so overwhelmed by the intimacy of the moment, she has a panic attack — one thing is undeniable: Cruz intends to be part of that story.

It is hard to reconcile that version of Cruz — that indelible impression — with the Cruz we meet in Season Two.

The Cruz that wanted to shelter and comfort is gone, replaced with a Cruz who doesn’t protect her now girlfriend from the withering onslaught of judgment from her friends. The Cruz that saw Emma break in front of her, as she recounted being sent away from home twice for the sin of being her mother’s child in ways her mother desperately wanted to ignore, wouldn’t weaponize that knowledge against Emma, but Season Two Cruz does. The Cruz we met in Season One provoked, intentionally, but never cruelly, and yet, in Season Two, Cruz says, “Emma, you are the classic cautionary tale of why moms need to hug their children.” When the words come out of Cruz’s mouth, I was convinced of two things: 1. Emma and Cruz are over…Cruz has crossed the one line that you absolutely cannot cross with Emma and there’s no going back now; and 2. Season One’s Cruz would never have said that.

Still, all these months later, I don’t know why she had to.

Eve Rothlo, How to Get Away With Murder

I said what I said.

---

Drew

Eleanor Shellstrop, The Good Place

Okay, okay, OKAY. Let me explain. I love Eleanor. I really do. But I do not like her as a queer character. Bisexual characters obviously do not have to be romantic or sexual with more than one gender on-screen. Like in life there isn’t a behavior requirement to be bisexual. But that doesn’t mean an occasional punchline makes for a well-rounded queer character. There’s a difference between having a person’s sexuality not define them and all but ignoring that sexuality. We’ve seen Eleanor go through a lot of life – and a lot of lives – and I find it frustrating as the show winds down (beautifully I must add) that throwaway jokes about Tahani being hot are still all we’ve received. I don’t mind if more and more TV characters are lowkey sexually fluid, but I’m tired of attempts to celebrate Eleanor as a queer character or celebrate The Good Place writers for being so progressive that they ignore Eleanor’s bisexuality almost completely. It’s the one thing they shouldn’t be celebrated for as far as I’m concerned.

Clare, Derry Girls

The first season of Derry Girls ended with a really wonderful coming out episode for Clare. It seemed to promise new depth to her character – and new queerness for the show. But the second season was pretty much devoid of both. Clare doesn’t need to share Michelle’s confident horniness or Erin’s awkward horniness, but when Clare’s lesbianism is treated as a mere label, it feels frustrating in contrast with her friends’ teenage love lives. The new season brought a hot new teacher and a hot new student and neither storyline even addressed Clare’s possible attraction.

It just feels like show creator Lisa McGee doesn’t really know what to do with an out character. Like with The Good Place, de-centering Clare’s queerness doesn’t feel radical – it feels safe. Placing these two characters side-by-side demonstrates that it’s not a matter of sex drive. Eleanor is consumed with horniness, whereas Clare doesn’t seem to think about sex at all. And yet in both shows the characters aren’t seen acting on their queerness. Which is fine! The writers can tell the stories they want to tell. But as more and more television includes queer people, I think it’s worth considering what we do and don’t define as queer television and what we deem worth watching specifically for its queer content. Having one out of five characters be queer should be the bare minimum. And if you don’t center that person’s queerness I’m going to lose interest.

---

Valerie Anne

Dex, Stumptown

The Stumptown pilot was one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen, but the show has been slowly losing me as each episode goes on. Dex barely ever interacts with other women, and sure the one she did talk to the most was her ex-girlfriend, but I still had hoped there would he more women on the show, and maybe even some men Dex HASN’T slept with. But somehow the show has turned into being about Dex’s dating history/present instead of her badassery and I am bummed about it.

Jade, Why Women Kill

I…I guess I just thought this show was going to be about why women kill men. Jade came on screen and I was like, “Jade and Taylor are gonna team up and kill their boyfriend.” But instead they went ahead and decided to score a hat trick of harmful tropes before the show’s end.

Nora West-Allen, The Flash

I was SO EXCITED when it was revealed that Nora was queer, especially since Jessica Parker Kennedy played one of my favorite queer characters of all time (Max on Black Sails) but alas, it was mentioned then forgotten. Not that I needed her to be in a relationship, because that’s obviously not what defines your queerness, but they could have at least worked it into the conversation one way or another. At least one other time. Anything. And then her last episode in 2019 had her entirely erased from the timeline. Which is a metaphor for what the show does to its queer women if I’ve ever seen one.

---

Carmen

Anissa Pierce and Grace Choi, Black Lightning

It’s ironic that I’ve written more about Anissa Piece and Grace Choi than any other couple I’ve covered for this website. Ironic because when Black Lightning first began, I had never been more excited for a black lesbian superhero and now I groan to complete my weekly requirements. Ironic because Black Lightning is actually, when it wants to be, a truly exceptional show, but it’s decided in the last year that writing cohesive storylines — especially for its queer characters — is apparently just too much work. There is no reason why Anissa’s love life shouldn’t have been given the same on-camera, seasons long, full treatment that’s been given to her straight little sister and her parents. I made excuses for far too long, I think we all did, really. We wanted to believe in the power of a bulletproof black lesbian superhero. We wanted to believe in a shapeshifting bisexual Asian tough-as-nails badass with a tough past. We were right to believe. They deserved our faith in their love. Even when the writers of Black Lightning showed over (and over!) again that they weren’t willing to do the same.

This year, Heather and I made the difficult decision to move Black Lightning from full recaps to our weekly Boobs on Your Tube television roundups on Friday. A lot of factors went into that decision that aren’t just about the romantic pairing on screen, but it’s also true that I no longer wanted to reward minimal effort and bad behavior. Nafessa Williams and Chantal Thuy are kinetic together; they’ve found such depth and caring in Anissa and Grace, despite being only given the scraps of the table to work with. My point is — they shouldn’t have been given only the scraps to begin with. We should demand more. And from now on, we will.

Eve Rothlo, How to Get Away With Murder

There’s a narrative structure to storytelling. Yes, writing is an art form, but there’s also basic building blocks that are mechanical. Stories have a beginning, they crescendo across an arc, and then they end. I know I sound incredibly basic, but please follow me for a moment — Even Rothlo came back into Annalise Keating’s life at the start of How To Get Away With Murder’s second season (the beginning); through both flashbacks and their “present time” relationship we learned that Eve and Annalise were lovers in law school and that Annalise had broken Eve’s heart, but they were never fully over each other (the story arc); and then Annalise let Eve go to follow her new life and love in San Francisco (the end). I always believed we might see Eve on last time before the show was over, that she might be Annalise’s final love — her “end game” of sorts. Still, this story had found a satisfying conclusion on its own. Basic building blocks.

So why did Pete Nowalk decide to undo all his own writing and bring Eve back for a “special episode” in which her only purpose was to be intimately cruel to Annalise (which was never Eve’s personality to begin with) and then have her disappear into the night once again — leaving Annalise with just tattered pieces of her soul to deal with? I have no earthly clue. For a while I thought Eve’s coming back was a stepping stone in allowing Annalise to find new love with Tegan Price, but that doesn’t seem to be happening either. As much as I’d love for a romantic flame to blossom between Tegan and Annalise, I’ve also come to respect them as platonic queer friends, which we rarely get to see on television. Still, the question remains, if Annalise and Tegan aren’t getting together, and if Eve isn’t coming back in some grand romantic gesture, why did Pete Nowalk re-open this wound at all? Why pour salt somewhere that was already stitched? It was a confusing and bad story choice, point blank.

Tamia “Coop” Cooper, All American

I don’t know what happened in All American’s writing room between Seasons One and Two, but the sidelining of Coop from being a central character of the series, rivaling on co-lead, to a nearly D List background player is absolutely egregious and appalling. I don’t have anything else to add — it’s wrong by any definition and the show should be working overtime to fix it.

Top 25 Most Egregious Acts of Queerbaiting on TV

Ah, queerbaiting! An age-old rite of passage of watching women share the same space — often right on top of each other or wrapped in each other’s arms! — on teevee. It’s ubiquitous! But it’s also very hard to define! In large part because as more and more LGBTQ characters have graced our screens these last several years, and as more and more real life people come out without really, well, coming out (or assigning themselves a label), it’s hard to know if you’re being a victim of queerbaiting or if you’re just shipping! But dammit, we know when it’s happening to us and so we decided to make a list about it.

Our TV Team defined queerbaiting like this:

The act of playing into the chemistry, often even with established romantic tropes, between two women characters (at least one of whom has not declared her sexuality in such a way that your dad watching at home would know for absolute sure she’s gay) with no intention of ever putting those characters together, romantically or sexually;

or:

Refusing to put two women characters together (at least one of whom, again, has an ambiguous sexuality that might escape your aunt Jan’s notice) when it’s very obvious the characters would have their relationship explored, romantically or sexually, if one of them was a dude.

And so here are the top 25 most egregious acts of queerbaiting of all time.

---

Tegan and Michaela, How to Get Away With Murder

Sure, Tegan is a mentor to Michaela, but why does the camera always zoom in on Michaela’s longing, devastated face when Tegan blows past her to hang out with Annalise? And that’s just for starters.

Emma and Regina, Once Upon a Time

Mortal enemies turned fierce companions who refuse to stand more than six inches apart at all times while raising their son together? Sure, that’s straight.

Jane and Maura, Rizzoli & Isles

🤨

Kara and Lena, Supergirl

If this show was called Superman and Kara Danvers was Clark Kent and these two actors had this kind of chemistry and were experiencing this kind of intimacy and soul-destroying — maybe even literally earth-shattering — fights about their relationship, there is NO WAY anyone would consider them just friends.

Myka and HG, Warehouse 13

Warehouse 13‘s fifth season was maybe the biggest roundhouse kick to a collective fandom’s teeth I have ever seen in my life. You could close out a blossoming, electric, series-long romantic arc that actually caused queer fans to successfully secure a final season, or you could send Myka off into the sunset with the guy who was basically her brother? And you did that second thing?

Rachel and Quinn, Glee

The thing that doesn’t make sense about Rachel and Quinn never exploring their feelings for each other was that by the time Glee was over Ryan Murphy could have made everyone on Fox gay and it would have been fine with the network. And Quinn even ultimately did quench her thirst (twice!) with Santana!

Watson and Moriarty, Elementary

I’m not just saying this because Natalie Dormer looks like she has a bisexual secret at all times always, like that’s the way her face was made. I’m not just saying it because of that. If I was saying it just because of that, Sansa and Margery would also be on this list.

Spencer and Aria, Pretty Little Liars

When you’re saying the name of your ship out loud on the show — #TeamSparia — put your mouths together and prove it.

Emily and JJ, Criminal Minds

If either one of these women was a man, this would have been a procedural love story as epic as Castle or Bones and you’ll never convince me otherwise.

Skye and Simmons, Agents of Shield

The beginning of an issue Marvel and Disney still haven’t had the guts to fix.

Peggy and Angie, Agent Carter

Phase two of that same issue.

Bonnie and Annalise, How to Get Away With Murder

Sometimes you’re just a woman standing in front of another woman, loving her enough to murder someone for her.

Janeway and Seven, Star Trek

You don’t get 700 fanfics written about you if you’re on a TV show from 1995 if you’re straight and that’s just a fact.

Buffy and Faith, Buffy

They wrote their enemies-to-gal pals kiss into the script and then chickened out and made it a forehead kiss which actually makes it more gay, if you think about it.

Jo and Blair, The Facts of Life

The Facts of Life writers better be glad Twitter didn’t exist when this show was on the air, or they would have never had a peaceful night’s sleep in their lives.

Alex and Olivia, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

Come on.

Laurel and Nyssa, Arrow

Your ex-dead, ex-girlfriend’s sister who is also the ex-girlfriend of the show’s main character? That’s such classic comic book and CW fodder it’s like catnip!

Cara and Kahlan, Legend of the Seeker

Xena HD tbh.

Betty and Gladys, Bomb Girls

I know it was all Betty and Kate for most people, but Betty and Gladys had sizzling chemistry, came from opposite sides of the tracks, were frenemies-to-gal pals, and also Gladys would have relished this particular fuck you to her family. It makes too much sense to be platonic.

Daenerys and Missandei, Game of Thrones

It would have turned out better for both of them if they’d just admitted what was going on here and flown off together on Drogon.

Betty and Veronica, Riverdale

“Check your sell-by date, ladies. Faux lesbian kissing hasn’t been taboo since 1994.” — Cheryl Blossom

Grace and Frankie, Grace and Frankie

They’re honestly almost out of rom-com tropes to explore with these two loves of each other’s lives and if they don’t end this show together, it’s a goddamn lie.

Xena and Gabrielle, Xena

The Originals.

Laverne and Shirley, Laverne and Shirley

Just a couple of bosom buddies sharing a job, a home, a life, a bowling league, and a secret choreographed dance.

Eve and Villanelle, Killing Eve

Drew Gregory: They murdered someone together which was sex
I don’t understand what’s confusing here
Carmen: Drew… you are describing….queer baiting
“they murdered someone together which is sex”
is the new “they did magic together which is sex”
Drew: Villanelle is so explicitly queer though
She called another woman Eve as role play
If anything it’s unrequited love, not baiting
Carmen: Right, no one’s arguing that Villanelle isn’t queer
Is it unrequited in canon or is it baiting the audience?
That’s the fine line we’re working with here.
Drew Gregory: Killing Eve is the epic story of a woman who falls in love with her straight best friend*
*the government agent hunting her

Fall 2019 Queer TV Preview: 36 Shows With LGBTQ Women All Up In Them

Autumn is once again upon us, and you know what that means: broadcast and cable TV are scrambling to not be gobbled up by Netflix and Amazon and Hulu by rolling out their very biggest and best shows with as much fanfare as possible. There are lots of returning favorites this fall, a few newcomers, and some shows lining up for their curtain calls. More shows will most certainly be added as the year marches on. Seems like every third show’s sneaking in a queer character these days and, as The New York Times noted, “there may never have been a fall television season as jam packed as the one we’re about to endure.”

---

August

Carnival Row (Amazon) // Season 1 // August 30

Dara Delevingne shares one smooch with another lady fairy in Amazon’s neo-noir fantasy series. It’s already been renewed for a second season, so maybe more lady smooches are to come. Fae folk, as you know, are notoriously gay.

---

September

Steven Universe: The Movie (Cartoon Network) // September 2

Steven Universe‘s 90-minute musical retells Steven’s story and introduces a new big bad who’s immune to his charms. It also shows how Ruby and Sapphire have chosen to display their fused marriage: one wedding ring on each hand! The movie sets up new seasons, and that’s such a relief!

The Deuce (HBO) // September 9th

Irene (Roberta Colindrez) returns to the final season of this critically acclaimed series as a camera person, set in 1984 as Times Square is gradually being taken over by big business and HIV/AIDS and cocaine are becoming a growing concern.

Mr. Mercedes (Audience Network) // September 10th

Lesbian Lou Linklatter (Breeda Wool) is in prison after deciding to just straight-up murder Brady in the Season Two finale, but she doesn’t feel safe behind bars, either. Plus: Kate Mulgrew joins the cast and lesbian actress Holland Taylor returns as Ida Silver.

American Horror Story: 1984 (FX) // September 18

Sarah Paulson will not be back for this season of American Horror Story, making it 100% less interesting to us, but probably Ryan Murphy’s 80s-themed slasher flick will be very gay. Ol’ Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) will guest star and so will gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy. Also: Angelica Ross!

The Good Place (NBC) // Season 4 // September 19

The final season of The Good Place is sure to induce much laughter and many tears, but will Eleanor finally get herself a girlfriend or confess her feelings to Tahani or make a move again on returning guest star Kirby Howell-Baptiste ? Probably not. It seems like all roads in paradise lead to Chidi.

9-1-1 (FOX) // Season 3 // September 23

Hen returns for another season of 9-1-1, which, according to the trailers and commercials will, once again, involve a lot of dramatic dying and dramatic near-dying and fires and car-flips and lesbian heroics.

NCIS: New Orleans (CBS) // Season 6 // September 23

Only Scott Bakula’s personal life ever gets any attention on NCIS: New Orleans, but queer FBI Special Agent Tammy Gregorio definitely exists on this show. (If you ever need to give a lesbian character a job, according to TV, they are all very good at being FBI Special Agents.)

Good Doctor (ABC) // Season 3 // September 23

Out queer actress, Jasika Nicole, who plays Dr. Carly Lever, makes her debut as a series regular.

This is Us (NBC) // Season 4 // September 24

First of all, don’t panic: This Is Us has been renewed through season six, so there’s plenty of tears in your future. There’s no word on what’s next for our beloved queer teen Tess, though. “Next season is a very past-heavy season,” show creator Dan Fogelman told THR: We’re going to play in time in a surprising way as we move forward into next seasons of the show.” (Like waaaay past.)

Chicago Fire (NBC) // Season 8 // September 25

Emily Foster is still bisexual on Chicago Fire, even though her personal life hasn’t been explored much past a casual coming out and one kiss with another woman. Still, though, she’s faring better than Leslie Shay.

Stumptown (ABC) // Season 1 // September 25

Greg Rucka (who you know best as the comic book writer who made both Rene Montoya and Kate Kane gay) wrote this series with Dax as a bisexual PI. Good news, Cobie Smulders says her sexuality will remain intact. Dax is a mess. A gambling addict and Army vet with a temper who can’t commit to anything. But she’s got a soft gooey center too.

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) // Season 16 // September 26

Carina DeLuca/Dr. Orgasm will be back for at least the season premiere, as she’s delivering Teddy’s baby. And so will Intern Taryn “Hellmouth” Helm, making Grey’s Anatomy the longest running show ever to not have gays characters in recurring slots.

Sunnyside (NBC) // Season 1 // September 26

Queer actress Poppy Liu plays one of seven immigrant characters who meet former NYC Councilman Garrett Shah and recruit him to help them live the American Dream in Sunnyside Queens. No word on whether or not Liu’s character is also queer, but it seems likely.

How to Get Away With Murder (ABC) // Season 6 // September 26

The final season of How to Get Away With Murder is upon us! There are so many questions left to be answered (and, I’m sure, so many new questions that will present themselves in the season opener. The main one Natalie and Heather want to know is: Will Eve and Annalise ever be able to forgive and trust and love each other again and also live happily ever after? Will they both ship Annalise and Eve until their own deaths? (Probably not and yes.) At the very least, we are owed a Tegan and Annalise situation.

Transparent (Amazon) // Musical Finale // September 27

The 100-minute musical finale will try to make the best of a really bad situation. The series was renewed through season five but the plug was pulled after new broke about Tambor’s sexual harassment on set. Vulture’s review is cautious, but it does say that the best part of the show, as it always has been, is the actual trans actors: “There are moments that also speak to the real-life subtext of this whole project, particularly ‘Let Her Be Okay,’ a heartbreaker that Davina and other LGBTQ friends of Maura’s sing during her funeral. The song is about letting go of a person who has passed, but when Billings croons, ‘We will be okay,’ it’s as though she’s talking about everyone who worked on Transparent, as well as the entire trans community. The reactions from the actors, especially a sobbing Hoffmann, speak to the transcendence of that moment.”

American Housewife (ABC) // Season 4 // September 27

Carly Hughes remains underused as Katie’s lesbian pal Angela, but the beloved Broadway actress did get to shine in last season’s musical episode. It was pretty well received by critics. Maybe they’ll do another!

The Politician (Netflix) // Season 1 // September 27

Ryan Murphy’s first original production for Netflix looks like a lot of fun — following a ridiculously wealthy Tracky Flick-esque high school student (Benn Platt) through (hopefully) five seasons of elections, beginning with student council and ending at the White House in what Murphy describes as “a class takedown with a modern, Trumpy twist.” Promos tease Peton’s bisexuality and queer black actress Rahne Jones is making her TV debut as Skye, who looks very gay! That being said, Murphy has subverted expectations in that department in the past (e.g., Sue Sylvester), but there is  0% chance that there’ll be zero queer women in this program over its entire run. Plus, Janet Mock is on deck to direct an episode.

God Friended Me (CBS) // Season 2 // September 29

Miles’ sister Ali didn’t get enough screentime, especially around her relationships, but season two promises a meatier storyline for her. We hope that, in addition Ali finding her “calling,” she gets a little time for love too.

---

October

Almost Family (FOX) // Season 1 // October 2

Victoria Cartegena (who you probably remember most from when she walked into the parking lot of no return during her time as Rene Montoya on the first season of Gotham) plays gay in this adaptation of the Aussie series about a fertility doctor who used his own sperm to impregnate 100 women during his career.

S.W.A.T. (CBS) // Season 3 // October 2

S.W.A.T. is moving to Wednesday nights but what will stay the same is the presence of bisexual badass Chris Alonso. In her personal life, she’s currently dating a couple that’s about to get married.

Batwoman (CW) // Season 1 // October 6

It’s finally happening! Ruby Rose as Kate Kane takes her natural place in The CW’s very queer Arrowverse line-up as the very first lesbian superhero to headline her own show! It’s going to be super and and also super gay!

Supergirl (CW) // Season 5 // October 6

With the exception of The L Word: Generation Q at the bottom of this post, Supergirl may be the queerest show on TV this fall. There’s our longstanding lesbian love, Alex Danvers; trans actress Nicole Maines who plays TV’s first trans superhero, Nia Nal; and Azie Tesfai, who has been upped to a series regular, as Kelly Olson/Alex’s lady love. Also, of note: Supergirl got bangs.

All-American (CW) // Season 2 // October 7

Thanks to a ratings boost from its time on Netflix, All American was mercifully renewed for a second season, meaning that Coop is back with one of the best lesbian stories on TV right now. When season one ended, Coop had rebuilt her relationship with Patience, reconciled with her parents and gotten justice for her fallen friend. With gang life behind her, look for Coop to spend season two looking for a new purpose.

Black Lightning (CW) // Season 3 // October 7

The story gets even bigger in Season Three, with the Pierce family more emotionally and physically distant from one another than ever before. As for Grace, Nafeesa Williams (who plays lesbian superhero Anissa Pierce) told Hypable her hope for Season Three is that “I hope we can come to some kind of resolution and give the fans what they want because I know how much fans appreciate that relationship.”

Riverdale (CW) // Season 4 // October 9

Toni and Cheryl remain criminally underused on Riverdale; here’s hoping they’ll get to do more than stand in the background holding hands, though this promo photo from the first episode of the season doesn’t seem promising.

Legacies (CW) // Season 2 // October 10

Supernatural boarding school? Exes who keep finding their way back into each other’s arms? Are you sold yet? Penelope and Josie will be back to tug on your heartstrings this season as they tug on each other in a surprisingly affecting will-they/won’t they at the The Salvatore School.

Charmed (CW) // Season 2 // October 11

Mel will be working through a broken heart this season as Ellen Tamaki (who played Niko) has been cast on Manifest. She’s not backing down from her feminist agenda, though, according to SpoilerTV, and that’s not nothing.

The Read (Fuse) // Season 1 // October 11

Based on Kid Fury and queer writer/comedian Crissle West’s wildly popular podcast, their new show on Fuse will be a variety show/talk show hybrid. It will feature “beloved segments like Hot Tops and The Read, while additionally featuring a special celebrity and/or musician guest.”

Letterkenny (Netflix) // Season 2 // October 14

There are no promises that queer character Katy will get more queer screentime in season two, but this is a very Canadian show with a very Canadian cast that splits its time on Letterkenny and a lot of other very queer shows, so the chances are pretty good it’s going to be even more gay.

Mrs. Fletcher (HBO) // Season 1 // October 27

Kathryn Hahn plays the titular character who experiences a sexual re-awakening after sending her older son off to college — including fantasizing about women at the grocery store and taking a writing class from Margo, a trans woman played by beloved trans actress Jen Richards. Every half-hour episode has a female director, including one helmed by Carrie Brownstein.

---

November

Dickinson (Apple TV Plus) // Season 1 // November 1

Hailee Steinfeld plays “young, horny” Emily Dickinson in this half-hour comedy that we are very much hoping will have some queer elements — the trailer is suggestive but doesn’t guarantee anything. Regardless — it looks like a lot of fun!

Shameless (Showtime) // Season 10 // November 10

Season Ten picks up six months after the Season Nine finale, with Fiona out of the house and newly queer Debbie taking charge as the new family matriarch. Constance ZImmer joins the cast as Claudia, “a wealthy, sophisticated woman whom Debbie encounters at a hotel bar.” Ian and Lip are returning to the series so we can see their relationship play out in prison! This show’s intentionally positioned back-to-back with Generation Q, so here’s hoping there’s more lesbian action in S10!

---

December

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon) // Season 3 // December 6

Will they let Susie be gay this season or what? Here’s all we know, from Alex Bornstein: “You get to see Susie dive in. You get to see her try to be a duck, you know? Ducks look like they’re calmly floating on the water, but underneath they’re frantic, they’re legs are paddling like crazy, which you can’t see… I think you kind of see her keeping her head above water.” Hm. Revelatory. Also, Sterling K Brown is joining the cast!

---

The L Word: Generation Q (Showtime) // Season 1 // December 8

I mean, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for? Shane’s returning to Los Angeles after a breakup, Bette’s running for mayor (and hooking up in her office), Alice is hosting a talkshow and dating a mother-of-two played by Stephanie Allyne. And those are just the returning characters! A whole new cast of twentysomething LGBTQ folks — including Bette’s now-queer daughter Ange, and two trans men of color played by trans men of color (Leo Sheng as Micah Lee and Brian Michael Smith as Bette’s assistant, Pierce Williams). Also rounding out the cast are Micah’s roommates Sophie Suarez (Rosanny Zayas) and Dani Nunez (Arienne Mandi) and new girl in town, Sarah Finley (Jacqueline Toboni), who works for Alice’s show with Sophie. You can see the full extent of our Generation Q updates here. If you’re re-watching the original series (or watching it for the first time) to prepare, we’ve got a great podcast for that!

Work In Progress (Showtime) // Season 1 // December 8

Comic Abby McEnany plays a “a 45-year-old self-identified, fat, queer dyke from Chicago (McEnany) whose misfortune and despair unexpectedly lead her to a vibrantly transformative relationship.” Julia Sweeney plays herself and Lilly Wachowski is co-writing and Executive Producing the series.

Marvel’s Runaways (Hulu) // Season 3 // December 16

We don’t know any details about the forthcoming season of Marvel’s Runaways, but we do know Nico and Karolina are still very much here and very much queer.

Top 10 “A Black Lady Sketch Show” Sketches to Send You Into the Weekend Laughing

Last week, BET aired their annual Black Girls Rock Awards and, as is too often the case, black queer girls — particularly black trans girls — were left out of the narrative. Pose star, Angelica Ross, tweeted her disappointment and the hoteps and herteps have been in her mentions ever since.

Thankfully, though, this summer gave us A Black Lady Sketch Show which distinguished itself as a model of inclusivity. The show’s creators, Robin Thede and Issa Rae, understand what BET, seemingly, does not: that the stories of “black ladies” are incomplete without black queer women included in them. As Carmen wrote last month, “ABLSS recognizes that ‘black ladies’ come across a variety of gender identities and sexualities. Black lesbians are funny. Black queer women are funny. Black trans women are funny. And we aren’t going anywhere, any time soon.”

The HBO series wrapped up its six episode first season last Friday and, while the sketch series will return for a second season, that debut seems so far away. Until we get some new episodes, we’ve got to make due with the best sketches from Season One.

Here are my Top 10:

---

1. Get the Belt // Episode 106:”Born at Night, But Not Last Night”

Black nostalgia is a precarious thing: on the one hand, there’s that sentimentality that comes with remembering our pasts, especially our childhoods, but, on the other, it’s almost inevitable that whatever time’s being reflected on was fraught. It’s why “Make America Great Again” never really had much resonance for our community. So doing a good comedic sketch evoking black nostalgia? A difficult needle to thread… and yet, ABLSS manages to do just that with “Get the Belt.” Can something be both slightly traumatic and absolutely hysterical at the same time? Apparently so.

“We set ‘Get the Belt’ in 1992, mainly because I wanted to wear this Salt-N-Pepa wig. But also because it was the last time you could whoop your kids without getting child services called. Ah, the good ol’ days!” Thede joked during her weekly livetweet of the show.

2. Bad Bitch Support Group // Episode 101: “Angela Bassett is the Baddest Bitch”

The “Bad Bitch Support Group” is the third sketch of ABLSS’s inaugural run and, right away, it lets you know about what kind of show this is about to be. Yes, that’s Angela Bassett — AKA, the reigning queen of Wakanda — leading the support group of bad bitches, an early sign that ABLSS will attract all of Black Hollywood’s Elite. But, more importantly, I think the “Bad Bitch Support Group” illustrates how ABLSS handles black lady politics. Masked in the hilarity of the debate between being a “Bad Bitch” or an “Okay Bitch” or — shutters — a “Basic Bitch” is an insightful commentary about modern beauty standards.

But perhaps my favorite moment from the sketch is when Kiana, played by the inimitable Laverne Cox, takes it upon herself to police the space. She says, “I just don’t know how I supposed to feel safe in the presence of an aspiring ‘okay bitch.’ Her attendance here undermines the whole notion of the Bad Bitch Support Group.” There’s something beautifully subversive about seeing a trans woman be the arbiter of safe spaces. Also? I need someone to greenlight Laverne Cox as a lead in a full-throated TV comedy right now.

3.The Basic Ball // Episode 102: “Your Boss Knows You Don’t Have Eyebrows”

There are about thousand ways that “The Basic Ball” could’ve gone horribly wrong. A sketch appropriating ballroom for the basic bitches among us could’ve easily veered off into lampooning the culture, but because there are empowered black queer women in the writers’ room — Lauren Ashley Smith, Ashley Nicole Black and Brittani Nichols — and queer people featured in the sketch, it never goes in that direction. The sketch itself is a celebration of ball culture and a hilarious affirmation that the fact that “you could never” rings true. Ms. Elektra Wintour would be proud.

4. Courtroom Kiki // Episode 106: “Born at Night, But Not Last Night”

On more occasions than I’d care to remember, I’ve walked into a room and been the only black woman in the room. I look around, I sigh, and proceed about my business, knowing that whatever happens in that room, I’ll be seen as the symbolic representative for all black women. It’s exhausting. But sometimes you’re lucky enough to find yourself in a room where everyone is a black woman and it feels like cause for celebration.

“I have done this in elevators, waiting rooms, stores, every time I end up in a spot with only Black women, I do this. We do this. This is real. It really happens and this sketch is my heart,” ABLSS writer Amber Ruffin shared.

5 + 6. Invisible Spy: Part One & Part Two // Episode 101: “Angela Bassett is the Baddest Bitch” // Episode 102: “Your Boss Knows You Don’t Have Eyebrows”

There are moments when, as a black woman and, particularly, as a big black woman, I am hyper-visible to the world — I feel like everyone’s eyes are on me — but there are other moments when, as a black woman and, particularly as a big black woman, I disappear.

I am, to quote Roxane Gay, “extraordinarily visible but invisible.” That experience made Ashley Nicole Black’s adventures at Trinity, the Invisible Spy, feel even more resonant. Despite being the CIA’s best agent, most of the time, her regular appearance allows her to slip through even the tightest of security undetected, but when an elusive target darts through a TJ Maxx-like store to make her escape, Trinity’s suddenly hyper-visible… and everyone suddenly thinks she works there.

I won’t embarrass myself by telling you how many times that’s happened to me but I will say, I’ve learned the hard way never to wear a red polo shirt when I’m making a Target run.

My favorite thing about the Invisible Spy sketch: Aja Naomi King’s guest starring role as the villain in Part Two. She and Trinity are in a standoff when the CIA agent falters. Trinity concedes, “I’m sorry, you are so hot, I’m honestly, having trouble focusing.” As someone who thirsts over Aja Naomi King every week on How to Get Away With Murder, this is the relateable content I’m after.

7+8. Church Open Mic: Part 2 and No-Fun Threesome // Episode 105: “Why Are Her Pies Wet, Lord?” // Episode 106: “Born at Night, But Not Last Night”

On its face, there’s nothing spectacular about these two sketches. The first starts with couple who use their microphone time before the church’s potluck dinner to solicit fellowship — in a biblical way — from the membership. In the second, they’ve found themselves a partner and prepare to have a threesome. Both sketches are funny, no doubt, but the thing that takes them over the top… the thing that makes these two of my favorite sketches of the entire series… is that the female half of the coupling is played by Amber Riley.

Amber Riley, of Glee fame. Mercedes “I’m Beyoncé, I ain’t no Kelly Rowland” Jones. Turns out, hearing Mercedes Jones say, “You know, I got so excited to eat that taco, I forgot to ask if you have any boundaries,” was a thing that I needed in my life. Who knew?

Personally, I feel like this opens up a whole new lane for Glee fanfiction that we haven’t explored.

9. Dance Biter // Episode 101: “Angela Bassett is the Baddest Bitch”

The best thing about a shows with genuine representation is you get to step into moments like these… ones that feel so lived in and comfortable, that you could easily see yourself (or, in my case, a younger version of myself) stepping into a scene an feeling right at home. “Dance Biter” is so steeped in black queer culture that everything feels familiar, even the characters’ dialogue echoes things you’ve heard from your friends. A few of my favorite lines:

“Oh my God, please don’t do this, I’ve got eight exes in this corner alone and you don’t see me causing a scene.”

“Is she really going to stand there like we not about to get back together 12 more times before we break up for good?! The audacity. The gall. The temerity.”

“You think I’m trying to leave the turnup because I passed out in the alleyway under mysterious circumstances?”

So real, so hilarious.

10. 227: The Reboot // Episode 103: “3rd & Bonaparte Is Always in the Shade”

Reboots are all the rage these days but reboots of classic black television shows of the ’80s and ’90s rarely enter that discussion. There was talk of a New York Undercover reboot but it wasn’t able to score a network pick-up. Every now and again, you’ll hear talk about a reboot of Living Single or Martin but nothing ever seems to come to fruition. We’re getting a Girlfriends reunion on an upcoming episode of black-ish but that’s far short of the full reboot we deserve. Thankfully, the women at ABLSS came through for us, delivering a pitch perfect reboot of the NBC sitcom, 227.

Everything about this sketch is great. I love how it captures Rose’s perpetually naïveté and Pearl’s habit of throwing non-stop shade from her window perch. And Robin Thede’s turn as Sandra Clark? Short of Jackée herself, I cannot imagine anyone doing it better. Only thing missing from the sketch? Oscar winner, Regina King, reprising her role as Brenda Jenkins.

---

Have you caught up on A Black Lady Sketch Show yet? If not, why are you robbing yourself of joy? You can still find it on demand and streaming across all HBO platforms. What were your favorite sketches?

A Record-Breaking 9 Women of Color TV Couples Fell in Love This Summer

As the TV Team closes out our summer coverage and starts preparing for the new fall television season, we realized a trend that we absolutely couldn’t wait to tell you about!

This summer, for the first time in television history (!!), there were a record breaking nine women of color couples on TV!!!  That’s just counting between May and August! It’s been a summer of love for women of color (if you include interracial relationships with white women, there have been 15 relationships total), which is already a rarity – but women of color are almost never allowed to love one another on television. This is groundbreaking. Women of color finally being given space to find beauty and strength and comfort in each other for once… well, those are the kind of love stories we can’t wait to hear more of.

😍 😍 😍

---

Kat Edison and Tia Clayton, The Bold Type

Where to Watch: Freeform

When The Bold Type returned for its third season, I was really worried about Kat Edison. She was going through a very rough break up with her first-ever girlfriend, Adena, and it was taking a toll on her. She was also having to figure out what it meant to be queer for the first time on her own two feet and without a partner beside her. In that process Kat discovered parts of herself that she never knew before (including political aspirations!), but most importantly she discovered new confidence in the parts of life that are messy and not Social Media perfect. That confidence became infectious for Tia, her campaign manager, who’d previously had a hard and isolating time dealing with her own queerness.

Tia looks at Kat like she is a ray of sun brought to earth. In Tia, Kat finds a grounding and patient presence instead of her go-to impulsiveness. They are in many ways opposites, but that makes them an even stronger team, together. Kat and Tia have conversations about negotiating the one-two punch of systematic racism and homophobia that I never would’ve believed The Bold Type could pull off – and they do it with relatability and grace. Also, excuse me but I just have to say this, when they have sex, it’s really hot.    – Carmen

---

Kat Edison and Adena El-Amin, The Bold Type

Where to Watch: Freeform

I have to tell the truth, when Kat and Adena broke up last summer – I was mad at Adena El-Amin. In fact, I was so mad that when Adena returned to New York at the end of The Bold Type’s third season, I was not ready to forgive her. I was happy for Kat’s new relationship with Tia, I enjoyed the woman Kat was growing up to become, and as far as I was concerned Adena had missed the boat. It was her loss. Oh man, how wrong I was.

One minute in the hallway at Scarlet in front of the elevators, and Kat knows it right away. She tries to hold it together. She wills herself not to cry. But the second she’s alone with her friends, she can’t hold it in any longer. She still loves Adena and it hasn’t gone away. Adena’s learned more about herself in their time apart as well. She realizes now that she was blaming Kat for her own insecurities. Ultimately they don’t quite stay together this time either, but The Bold Type has sold me on this: Kadena is in it for the long haul, and that is one slow burn I cannot wait to watch unfold.   – Carmen

---

Arlene Branch and Annalisa “Quiet Ann” Zayas, Claws

Where to Watch: TNT

During the first season of Claws, Arlene Branch steps out of her unmarked police cruiser and spots Ann Zayas setting up her perch outside the nail salon. She saunters over, in her leather jacket and aviators, and flirts by way of historic trivia. It’s a rarity for Ann to be seen — everyone around her is so ostentatious, it’s easy for them to eclipse her light — but Arlene really sees her and, I think, Ann starts to fall in love with her right at that moment.

Somewhere between having her baby snatched from her teenage arms and her time in prison, Ann had stopped believing that love was possible but when Arlene offers it, she holds on for dear life, even when she shouldn’t. Dating a cop when you and your friends are laundering money for a pill mill is probably not the best idea but the heart wants what the heart wants. They plan a life together, they plan a family together and then it all falls apart. They betray each other — Ann first, then Arlene — but their attraction is undeniable and they find their way back to each other.

This season on Claws, Arlene and Ann built the family that they always wanted. They marry quietly, in a small courthouse ceremony, they listen to the heartbeat of their unborn child and then, perhaps in the greatest display of love there is, Arlene sacrifices her career life to keep their family safe. – Natalie

---

Delle Seyah Kendry and Aneela, Killjoys

Where to Watch: SyFy

Delle Seyah Kendry, played by Mayko Nguyen, made her mark the moment she appeared on screen, with her snarky attitude and sultry glares, and of course our love for her was only helped by her tendency to relentlessly flirt with Dutch (Hannah John-Kamen). Of course, this set shipper hearts ablaze, even though Dutch had eyes for someone else. But, in a move not unlike Jane the Virgin’s, it seemed the Powers that Be heard the pleas for a Delle Seyah/Dutch team-up and gave Kendry the next best thing: Aneela. Also played by Hannah John-Kamen, Aneela is identical in looks to Dutch, though she’s different in just about every other way.

Race isn’t really discussed in this life-or-death space race of a universe (well, alien races are I guess…), so it doesn’t really matter to them, but it’s pretty cool for us that this dream team is comprised of two women of color. Both complex and ruthless, Aneela and Kendry were dubbed the Green Queens and could be seen as villains if you weren’t paying enough attention, but upon a closer look, you can tell their love for each other is true and their intentions are good, even when their methods leave something to be desired, or when their past comes back to haunt them. In this final season, Aneela and Delle Seyah have a child (a child that is a few weeks old but also a teenager, because sci-fi) and have a few more adventures to go on together before this final season comes to a close in a few weeks. – Valerie

---

Nova Bordelon and Chantal Williams, Queen Sugar

Where to Watch: OWN

When Queen Sugar announced that they were finally going to give Nova Bordelon another woman love interest, I was fully prepared for Octavia Laurent (more on her below). Not in a million years did I think we would see the return of Chantal, her girlfriend from the beginning of the series.

Anytime Chantal and Nova kiss, my heart lights on fire like clockwork. I will always love them. The thing about Chantal Williams is that she is one of the few people in Nova’s life who does not fall for her bullshit. She knows her worth, and whether it’s about community politics or matters of the heart – she is always willing to point out the ways Nova can grow to get on her level. I want Nova to be the best possible version of herself, and Chantal wants that too. She wants a relationship she can grow in, which I think is the whole point of relationships at all. But until Nova is ready to make those choices on her own, I fear they will continue to be ships passing in the night. As long as that means we still get to drop in on Chantal every once and a while… well, I’m learning to be OK with that.   – Carmen

---

Nova Bordelon and Octavia Laurent, Queen Sugar

Where to Watch: OWN

There’s everything wrong with Octavia Laurent’s past affair with her then-student, Nova Bordelon, or her current affair with the graduate student who looks like Nova’s doppelganger. Professors who sleep with students are unfairly taking advantage of uneven power dynamics. It’s wrong, it’s wrong, it’s wrong. But, still…there’s something tantalizing about how easily Nova and Octavia slide back into the romance that they once shared.

It begins, as I imagine it used to when Nova was a student, with an intellectual sparing match, but once they’re alone, emotions come to the fore. Like her family, Octavia’s hurt by her portrayal — or lack thereof — in Nova’s book, but unlike Nova’s family, Octavia offers her former student a way to make amends… on her lips, in her arms, between her sheets. This will end badly, we know it from the moment they debate who made the other scream louder, but for the moment, it gives Nova hope: someone who loved her once, hurt by her writing, could love her again. – Natalie

---

Yolanda (Yoli) Renna and Marisa, Grand Hotel

Where to Watch: ABC

I started Grand Hotel on a lark. I don’t know why, but I love cheesy soapy television in the summer. I think it’s all the rosé. Anyway, I fell for this show right away, but there was something about Yoli. The ugly duckling to her twin sister’s supposedly more “beautiful” swan, my heart broke for her. She was the afterthought in her own family! That’s no way to live!

Then came Marisa, who saw Yoli in a way no one else in her life could. To Marisa, Yoli was the most beautiful woman in the room every time, even when she was mopping the floors. When her family lets her down, it’s Marisa who is there to pick her up. It’s Marisa who strokes her thumb against her cheek and reminds her that she’s gorgeous, brave, and not deserving of life’s scraps. It’s Marisa who gives her the strength to come out to her family and finally forge a new relationship – as equals – with her sister.

And when Marisa needs Yoli most, because she’s terrified of what it means to be undocumented in our country right now, Yoli doesn’t think twice of being there for her, too. “We’re family now,” Yoli tells Marisa while she wipes away her tears. Sometimes there is romance (and trust me, this has a lot of romance), but sometimes there is an intimacy of shared community that can’t be found anywhere else. Yoli and Marisa have found both.   – Carmen

---

Arthie Premkumar and Yolanda Rivas, GLOW

Where to Watch: Netflix

In Season Three, Arthie and Yolanda on Netflix’s GLOW are in a full-on relationship, which has its ups and downs as the wrestling team settles into their new home in Vegas. Arthie is still figuring out her sexuality, and there are lots of adorable baby gay moments (some that will maybe make you cry a little bit!). But they also get some hot sex scenes, including one where they literally turn wrestling moves into foreplay!!!!!!! FINALLY this implicitly VERY gay show is explicitly gay. Sometimes these characters are a little too boxed-in, but their relationship and the drama within it is one of the season’s ongoing subplots, and things end on a promising note for the lovebirds. – Kayla

---

Kelsey Phillips and Brooke Morgan, Dear White People

Where to Watch: Netflix

Ahh, the joy of young awkward nerds in love. Brooke and Kelsey have one thing in common – they both annoy everyone else in their friend group. Brooke, a journalism major at Dear White People’s fictional Ivy League setting, chases career ambitions above everything else. It makes her kind of hard to get along with. Kelsey, also a student at the school, has been sheltered by her class privilege, so much so that people find it difficult to relate to her. Both of them are the kind of black girls you don’t often get to see on TV – outsiders who have friends in their black peer group, but more often than not feel alone. That is, until they find each other.

Kelsey’s slow courtship of Brooke is hands down the most swoon-worthy story I watched this summer. Wait! “Swoon-worthy” is wrong. These girls are far too awkward for that. What is the word for “made me shove my face into a pillow and scream out of delight and then draw little imaginary hearts around their cute little faces with my finger tips”? Dear White People may have a checkered past when it comes to black lesbian and queer representation, but finally in Season Three – they got something right.  – Carmen

25 Gay Hats, Ranked

Recently someone said to me that they’d know I was gay even if they didn’t know me because they’ve never seen my head without a hat on it. It’s true that I do wear a lot of hats! And, in general, that gays wear a lot of hats! In fact, recently, Valerie Anne and I casually started making a list of gay TV characters and real life humans looking even gayer in hats. And now I have ranked them, by gayness. I eagerly await your own contributions in the comments.

---

25. Shane McCutcheon’s Willy Wonka hat, The L Word

24. Beanie Feldman’s valedictorian graduation cap, Booksmart

23. Callie Torres’ surgeon cap, Grey’s Anatomy

22. Marceline the Vampire Queen’s goth sun hat, Adventure Time

21. Therese Belivet’s Santa hat, Carol

20. Blake Lively’s life-destroying rain fedora, A Simple Favor

19. Nicole Haught’s Christmas cracker hat (plus cat sweater), Wynonna Earp

18. Betty McRae’s Rosie the Riveter cap, Bomb Girls

17. Santana Lopez’s Daniel Boone cap, Glee

16. Paige McCullers’ cowboy hat, Pretty Little Liars

15. Kiersey Clemons’ bike helmet, Hearts Beat Loud

14. Willow Rosenberg’s complete and total commitment to hats, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

13. Arizona Robbins’ backwards baseball cap, Grey’s Anatomy

12. Janelle Monáe’s Met Gala hats on hats on hats

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxSa8NsA0kR/

11. Brittany’s unicorn horn, Glee

10. Villanelle’s girlfriend stalker cap, Killing Eve

9. Batwoman’s softball cap, DC’s Bombshells

8. Rachel Weisz’s tricorn hat, The Favourite

7. Amanita Caplan’s Dykes on Bikes hat, Sense 8

6. Stephanie Beatriz’s Don’t Tell Me to Smile hat

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgkKcmQHmTN/

5. Ellen Page’s ball cap stuck to her head like a Lego, Tales of the City

4. Megan Rapinoe’s beanie

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Megan Rapinoe 🏳️‍🌈 (@mrapinoe)

3. Root and Shaw’s motorcycle helmets, Person of Interest

2. Lena Waithe’s entire collection of snapbacks

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lena Waithe (@lenawaithe)

1. Anne Lister’s top hat, Gentleman Jack

27 Summer 2019 TV Shows For Queers To Watch Out For

Summer TV is upon us; here are 27 queer shows to watch out for!

---

Vida (Season Two)

May 23rd, Starz

The most important tenets of Vida‘s phenomenal first season remain the same — Tanya Saracho has no interest in answering questions easily. She doesn’t want queerness that can be explained away by Merriam-Webster or a college Gender Studies 101 class. She has no use for gentrification that can be reduced into a simple “us vs them” narrative. What would even be the point of sisters who love each other without baggage? Vida is messy, perhaps even more so than it was in Season One, if that’s possible. — Carmen

---

She’s Gotta Have It (Season Two)

May 24th, Netflix

What’s merciful about Season Two of She’s Gotta Have It is that, for once, Spike Lee loosens his grip just enough to let a black woman character speak for herself. She’s given wide space to selfishly explore her own desires and responsibilities on no one’s terms but her own. This iteration of Nola Darling is finally, and sublimely, allowed to step into the light of summer. — Carmen

---

State of Pride (Documentary)

May 29th, YouTube

The filmmakers behind this incredible documentary traveled to Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to interview a diverse group of LGBTQ people and obtain “an unflinching look at LGBTQ Pride, from the perspective of a younger generation for whom it still has personal urgency.”

---

When They See Us

May 31st, Netflix

https://youtu.be/u3F9n_smGWY

Ava DuVernay’s four part miniseries chronicles the harrowing story of the Central Park Five: five young men arrested, tried and convicted — first in the media, then in the court system — for a crime that they did not commit. Among the critically acclaimed cast is Isis King who plays Marci Wise, the trans sister of Korey Wise, the eldest of the Central Park Five. — Natalie

---

Burden of Truth (Season Two)

June 2nd, The CW

The Canadian import, Burden of Truth spent its first season focused on the poisoning of a group of girls by the local steel mill and the legal effort to win restitution. By the season’s end, the case had been won and the show’s adorable baby gays, Molly and Luna, were off to get their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean (with $2M in Molly’s pocket). It seemed like a tidy ending but, apparently the CBC/CW can’t get enough of Kristin Kreuk, so we’re in for an exciting second season. This time, Kreuk’s Joanna is up against a tech giant who’s using a former employee’s coding for weaponry…but later she gets roped into a case that could change Luna’s life forever. — Natalie

---

The Handmaid’s Tale (Season Three)

June 5th, Hulu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcTvQx1Wot0

Season Three of this dark masterpiece will see June become increasingly radicalized while grappling for potential allies — or enemies — in her immediate landscape. Serena Joy? Commander Lawrence? Who can say! Oh and FYI, Aunt Lydia survived the knife attack, Samira Wiley will be back, and I’d like to pre-emptively assume June and Serena Joy will again win the Series Sexual Tension Award. — Riese

---

grown-ish (Season 2B)

June 5th, Freeform

We were already all in on this pitch-perfect half-hour of socially conscious television that never takes itself too seriously before they brought back Shane as a Women’s Studies teacher, but now that Naomi’s not her student anymore, the back half of Season Two will be particularly enticing to a very specific subset of the queer community. — Riese

---

Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City (Season One)

June 7th, Netflix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R63GxIGAaZw

Forty years ago, Armistead Maupin began writing Tales of the City as serialized short stories in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. Ultimately, those stories became nine books, the first few of which PBS and Showtime adapted into a TV miniseries starring Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis in the ’90s. This year, Netflix is launching a sequel helmed by Orange Is the New Black‘s Lauren Morelli and starring Ellen Page as Linney’s character’s daughter. The entire thing is gayer than a Pride parade. There are lesbians and bisexuals and gay men and trans people and non-binary people and drag queens and queer poly couples and an entire flashback episode starring Jen Richards and Daniela Vega. The writers’ room was also 100% queer. Look for a full review, an interview with Lauren Morelli, and a big roundtable with intersecting queer identities discussing the series right here on Autostraddle dot com. — Heather

---

XY Chelsea (Documentary)

June 7th, Showtime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBHkiNRIp9M

Shot over two years and featuring exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes verité with Chelsea Manning, XY Chelsea tells the story of the whistle-blower starting from her release from prison in May 2017, exploring her position on national security and trans rights and visibility.

---

Claws (Season Three)

June 9th, TNT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gFpqT7cumM

Sometimes the silence just gets to be too much. Such was the case for Quiet Ann in Season 2 of Claws. After one setback after another, Quiet Ann finally spoke up: creating friction at first but, ultimately, forging a deeper connection with women she calls her crew. Now, with their issues resolved, Ann and the ladies of Nail Artisans of Manatee County are moving on up. Thanks to Desna’s short-lived marriage and the “untimely” death of their Russian mob boss, Ann and the girls are taking over: running the salon, the pill mill and a brand new casino. With a chance to “level up” finally within their grasp, can Ann finally find the happiness — and the girlfriend — that she’s dreamt of for so long? — Natalie

---

Big Little Lies (Season Two)

June 9th, HBO

Despite its frustrating inability to deliver even the subtle lesbian action we deserve from this ensemble, Mommi lovers are unable to resist the siren songs sung from these Monterrey shores. Season Two sees the return of the entire main cast for a deft exploration of the aftermath of trauma and will introduce Perry’s grieving mother, played by Meryl Streep, searching for answers to who killed her shitbag son. A woman is taking the helm this season — Andrea Arnold, whose prior work includes I Love Dick, Transparent, and Sasha Lane’s debut film American Honey — will direct all seven episodes. The season promises to explore “the malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage and of course, the vicious ferocity of sound parenting.”

---

Pose (Season Two)

June 11th, FX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=JPujB1Mi8yc

Season Two time-jumps to 1990, at the peak of the AIDS crisis, on the day Madonna’s single “vogue” was released, thus putting the ballroom scene in the spotlight. Bisexual comedian Sandra Bernhard returns as a nurse, and activist groups like ACT UP will show up. Pose radiates, breaking ground with every stylized walk on top of it, wrapping universal messages about chosen family and community into stories never before told on such a prominent platform.

---

Queen Sugar (Season Four)

June 12th, OWN

Because we remember that Nova Bordelon is supposed to be pansexual even if the show’s forgotten. #GiveNovaAGirlfriend2k19 — Natalie

---

Younger (Season Six)

June 12th, TV Land

Last year, Viacom Media announced that Younger would be moving from its original home on TV Land to its sibling Paramount Network but then — presumably after realizing that Heather’s definitely not the only person that watches this show — TV Land opted to keep the show for its sixth season. The show will have a new feel now that Hilary Duff’s in charge of everything and Charles and Liza are trying to make their relationship work. The important news, though? Maggie’s getting a girlfriend! Evie Roy Nicole Ari Parker is joining Younger to play Maggie’s love interest in a multi-episode arc. — Natalie

---

Trinkets (Season One)

June 14, Netflix

https://youtu.be/xz1IkeXs6yI

Based on the young adult novel by Kirsten Smith, Trinkets is the story of three teenage girls who’d probably never interact with each other but for the Shoplifter’s Anonymous meetings they’re all forced to attend. According to Netflix: “Elodie — the grieving misfit, Moe — the mysterious outsider, and Tabitha — the imperfect picture of perfection, will find strength in each other as they negotiate family issues, high school drama and the complicated dilemma of trying to fit in while longing to break out.”

Aside from the intriguing premise, there are two other things that might make it relevant to your interests: 1. queer characters (!!) and 2. queer characters played by actual queer actresses (Brianna Hildebrand and Kat Cunningham, respectively). — Natalie

---

Marvel’s Jessica Jones (Season Three)

June 14th, Netflix

The debut of the third season of Jessica Jones marks the end of the Marvel era with Netflix. Unlike the other MCU shows though, whose cancellations came abruptly after their new seasons debuted, Jessica Jones will get the send-off our raven-haired hero deserves. Before she can say good-bye, though, there’s still work to be done: she and her former BFF, Trish Walker, will have to put aside their grievances — recall, Trish killed Jessica’s mom last season — to work together and take down a “highly intelligent psychopath.”

After recklessly grappling with her ALS diagnosis last season (and getting burned in the process), Jeri Hogarth is trying to get her swagger back. She’s opened up her own law firm and put Pryce and Malcolm on her payroll. If history’s any guide, Jeri’s definitely going to be stirring some shit up. — Natalie

---

Euphoria (NEW)

June 16th, HBO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuAzkZIiGxI

Trans model Hunter Schafer plays a trans character in this Skins-esque remake of the Israeli original, starring Zendaya in a trippy sex-drugs-and-adolescence drama. In an interview with Dazed Digital, Hunter said that despite being skeptical of a white cis male showrunner considering the material, “a lot happened in those first four episodes that I, as a transfeminine person and a queer person, really identify with.” — Riese

---

The Good Fight (Season One on Broadcast)

June 16th, CBS

In a recent column, Michelle Goldberg called The Good Fight “the only TV show that reflects what life under Trump feels like for many of us who abhor him.” Unfortunately, because the show’s restricted to the network’s subscription service, “many of us who abhor him” haven’t been able to watch the show, but this summer, The Good Fight is coming to broadcast television. CBS will air the first season and everyone can enjoy the best show of the resistance. And as a bonus, we’ve got Dorothy Snarker recaps from season one to supplement your viewing. — Natalie

---

Good Trouble (Season Two)

June 18th, Freeform

We tuned into Good Trouble back in January to watch the Adams-Foster sisters start their professional lives but it didn’t take long before we got wrapped in all the drama of the “intentional living space” that they now call home. When the show returns for its second season, Mariana’s balancing a new relationship and a new dynamic at work, Davia’s balancing old desires with new interests, Callie and Malika are awaiting the outcome of the Jamal Thompson case and Alice is grappling with her new reality as an out gay woman. And maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll get another visit from the Mamas too. — Natalie

---

The Lavender Scare (Documentary)

June 18th, PBS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8RPs-xrjks

The little-known story of the unrelenting campaign by the general government to identify and fire people who seemed possibly gay, narrated by Glen Close and featuring the voices of noted homosexuals Cynthia Nixon, Zachary Quinto, T.R. Knight and David Hyde Pierce.

---

Harlots (Season Three)

July 10th, Hulu

Charlotte Wells is forced to take over the brothel in her mother’s absence while Lydia Quigley rots in jail and some new entrepreneurs in town angle to open up a “Molly House” in her prior evirons. Season Two got much gayer than Season One, and you can expect Season Three to do the same for racial diversity. Harlots reliably reveals the soft underbelly of what is often a very difficult life: the respite of chosen family and the intensity of those bonds, more genuinely rewarding and life-sustaining than those that unite sin-soaked, supremacist brotherhoods. — Riese

---

Siren (Season Two)

July 11th, Freeform

The second half of Siren‘s second season picks up where the first half left off: the mermaids have returned to the sea, while Ben and Maddie are left on land to face the consequences of the attack on the oil rig. On top of that, Ben and Maddie are melancholy without Ryn, the missing third of their throuple. Thankfully Ryn returns back to land to follow through on an agreement she made with the military so Valerie’s #hornyformermaids campaign can continue, unabated. — Natalie

---

Sweetbitter (Season Two)

July 14th, Starz

Adapted from the bestselling novel from Stephanie Danler, Sweetbitter is a look at the 2006 New York culinary scene through the eyes of an ingénue named Tess…who definitely gives off season one of The L Word Jenny Schetcher vibes, right down to the black trash bags she carries into her Willamsburg apartment. Working at Sweetbitter, Tess meets Ari who, if we’re keeping the L Word parallels going, is a mix of Shane, Carmen with a dash of Marina; in other words, she’s a no-nonsense server at Sweetbitter by day and an adventurous lesbian DJ by night. According to Ari’s portrayer, Eden Epstein, the second season will delve more into Ari’s sex life. The second season will also add a bit more queer to the cast: as the imitable Sandra Bernhard joins the cast this summer as Maddie Glover, the owner of Sweetbitter, who once ran things in the kitchen before stepping away to launch a global food empire. — Natalie

---

Light as a Feather (Season Two)

July 26th, Hulu

When it debuted, Light as a Feather seemed perfectly timed: the series, which Valerie described as Pretty Little Liars-esque, with a touch of The Craft and Final Destination, dropped right in the middle of October…the exact time of year, audiences are craving spooky fair. So I’m not sure what it says about Light as a Feather‘s second season that its debuting in July instead; have we traded in scary for heat?

Details are scant on season 2, thus far, particularly as it relates to the show’s lesbian character Alex Portnoy, but we do know that McKenna’s inherited the curse brought on by the titular game. The chrysalis on her back attempts to lure her back to the game but McKenna refuses until the situation becomes untenable. — Natalie

---

Orange is the New Black (Season Seven)

July 26th, Netflix

Orange takes its final bow this summer. So far all we’ve got is a lil clip of many beloved characters singing the theme song in their head voices — but from that alone, it seems Flaca and Maritza could be returning. At Season Six’s end, Taystee took the fall for a murder she didn’t commit and Piper found herself granted early release, directly after marrying Alex. It’ll be a doozy, but I know I’ll be glued to my television the whole damn weekend. — Riese

---

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Season Three)

August 2nd, Netflix

When season two of She-Ra landed on Netflix, Heather noted, “there’s less implicit queerness than season one. But also: There’s more explicit queerness than season one. Way more!” So if the trend holds, the show’s third season will be extra gay. Fingers crossed!

One thing we do know about She-Ra‘s third season: it’ll feature the debut of Huntara, the Salaxian bounty hunter from the original series. In the Netflix version of She-Ra, Huntara’s the leader of the Crimson Waste who’s reluctant to help Adora, Glimmer, and Bow on a quest. And, if that wasn’t cool enough: Huntara’s being voiced by Oscar winner, Geena Davis. — Natalie

---

G.L.O.W (Season Three)

August 9th, Netflix

https://youtu.be/xQaCxIJX0J0

The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling are back for their third season and now they’re headliners at the Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Everyone soon realizes that everything that glitters ain’t gold…and their residency in Sin City turns out to be more complicated than they anticipated. The Netflix logline also says that in season three “the cast find themselves struggling with their own identities both in and outside of the ring,” which sounds suspiciously like the tropes that Riese warned about in her season two conversation with Heather. Can’t Arthie and Yolanda be happy for a while? — Natalie

---

Other dates that might be relevant to your interests:

June 5: Black Mirror
June 7: FIFA Women’s World Cup (FOX)
June 8: The Tony Awards (CBS)
June 18: Ackley Bridge (Channel 4) – trailer
June 24: Years and Years (HBO) – trailer
July 4: Legion (FX)
July 17: Pearson (USA)
July 19: Killjoys (SyFy) – trailer
July 26: Veronica Mars (Hulu) – trailer

18 Kate McKinnon Sketches We All Deserve Today

I was going to write some long introduction justifying the existence of this article, but there’s no real reason at hand. Sometimes, I just want to spend the day laughing. I bet you do, too. So I got together with the young legend Kate McKinnon and we made you a gift.

(PS: I’m aware there’s no “Kate as Ellen” sketches on this list, even though Ellen DeGeneres is one of Kate McKinnon’s most famous impressions. For some reason Saturday Night Live, which otherwise has a Smithsonian-level catalog of their offerings available on YouTube, only has one single sketch available  of Kate as Ellen. And that sketch has a pretty offensive take on an African character, so I refuse to include it.)

---

1. “The Calvin Klein Ad” // Season 40 // 2015

If you’re gonna deep dive Kate McKinnon on YouTube, it’s required that you start here. Those are the rules of lesbian comedy. Kate had already been a regular cast member for a few seasons at this point, but this moment was her true breakout – and she brought the “Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber” joke to the mainstream in a single swoop!

Fun Fact: Kate once revealed the secret to her perfect  Justin Bieber impression while on Conan: “It’s looking like a puppy who just piddled and is sort of sorry about it.”

2. Weekend Update: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Not Retiring // Season 42 // 2017

Tina Fey has Sarah Palin. Amy Poehler has 2008’s version of Hillary Clinton. Will Ferrell has George W Bush. Chevy Chase has President Ford. The greats of SNL usually end their tenure with a political impression that’s theirs to claim. Kate McKinnon has Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and 2016’s Hillary Clinton and  Kellyanne Conway and approximately half of the Trump Administration. My girl don’t quit.

Kate’s take on Notorious RBG almost always goes viral. It was really hard to pick a single sketch to sum it up, but I went with this one because she mainlines a bunch of powdered Vitamin C to “stay healthy,” which went on to become an infamous GIF in its own right.

Looking for more laughs and interested in Ginsburg’s take on Judge Brett Kavanaugh? Got you covered.

3. First Got Horny 2 U // Season 41 // 2015

Few things give me happiness like an SNL girl group musical number, largely because it allows me to imagine the kind of weekly sketch show I wish already existed on TV – the kind without men. They have a few hits to their name (and if you haven’t seen their take on the small joys of coming home for the holidays – Back Home Ballers – I can’t recommend it enough) but this one is my favorite. Kate’s childhood crush on Taylor Hansen because of his long hair and soft lips NEVER fails to make me laugh out of gay recognition. If you want to laugh at the bluntness of your horny ass tween years, this is for you. (And they are dressed like the Backstreet Boys! C’mon!)

4. Close Encounter // Season 41 // 2015

Kate McKinnon’s chain-smoking Ms. Rafferty is the kind of stroke of genius comedy that’s guaranteed to make all the actors in the scene break character. She’s been abducted by aliens in her past and her stories are… well you have to see it for yourself. It’s a character she’s brought back many times, but I picked this one because really nothing is a good as your first.

And may none of us ever have to know the singular indignity of being left pants-less atop a Long John Silver’s. Amen.

5. Kristen Stewart Opening Monologue // Season 42 //2017

THE BIG DYKE ENERGY OVER THIS ENTIRE SKETCH.

6. RBG Rap // Season 44 // 2018

I tried very hard not to “repeat characters” over this list, but I made two exceptions. One for Hillary Clinton, who’s still coming up later, and one for Justice Ginsburg. The song alone is too good to pass up. WARNING: Only listen if you’re prepared to have “Cuz I Live For Ginsburg/ And I Ride For Ginsburg” stuck in your head on a loop for the rest of the week.

7. Whiskers R We with Kristen Wiig // Season 42 // 2016

Barbara DeDrew (Kate McKinnon) and Furonica (Host Kristen Wiig) show off the cats that are available for adoption during a Thanksgiving giveaway. Whiskers R We is yet another mainstay that’s worth it every time. Listen, lesbians love cats.

8. Bok Bok // Season 44 // 2019

I really don’t get the whole Momo internet meme that swept last year, but even without the sufficient background I know that Kate captured the goth queer icon perfectly. It’s the death in her hallowed eyes, the way her voice is sublimely creepy as she caresses little children’s faces with chicken tenders.The entire sketch is, pardon my pun, *chef’s kiss.*

9. Susan B. Anthony // Season 42 // 2017

Out here asking the hard hitting questions: What if the homie Susie B. really was that girl who just won’t shut up at the party?

10. Hillary Clinton Election Video Cold Open // Season 40 // 2015

When Kate McKinnon takes her final Saturday Night Live bow, we’re still going to be talking about this one. In her impression of Hillary Clinton, Kate not only found a way to parody the most famous woman in politics, she also never lost track of the grotesque sexist critique that surrounded her by those who wouldn’t trust a woman in power. She married the two and final product is legendary. Even more impressive, her take on Hillary Clinton appropriately shifts and matures over the course of the 2016 election cycle – Here we start at the beginning, with Clinton at her most robotic and absurd in her quest to be our Overlord.

“Buckle Up America, The Clintons Are BACK!” is such a terrifying 2015 Mood.

11. Dyke and Fats // Season 39 // 2014

A pitch-perfect tribute to historic lesbian icons Cagney & Lacey. We’ve seen Dyke & Fats on the show a few times, but few SNL sketches pay off as well as this one does in its final 15 seconds. So promise me you’ll watch all the way to the end, OK?

Fun Fact: Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant share an office in the SNL writers’ room! Roomies! Cuuute!

12. Kellywise // Season 43 // 2017

Fuck it. Kellyanne gives me nightmares anyway. Might as well lean all the way in to the crash.

13. Film Screening // Season 42 // 2017

Oh, Debette Goldry. Dear, sweet, always inappropriate and simultaneously horrifying Debate Goldry. The premise of this reoccurring bit is simple: SNL actresses pretend to be Hollywood actresses on a panel to discuss sexism in Hollywood. Then Kate plays Ms. Debette Goldry, there to remind everyone around her how absolutely tragic it was to be a leading lady during the Silver Screen era of cinema. “You think you had it bad, we had to swallow arsenic pills to lighten our skin!” Hardy-har-har.

It’s the #MeToo equivalent of “When I was your age I had to walk uphill both ways in a foot of snow” – which sounds like it should be tiresome, but somehow it works? I picked this version of the sketch because it features Jennifer Aniston playing herself.

14. This Is Not A Feminist Song // Season 41 // 2016

Feminism is complicated. Rather than risking they’d get it wrong, Kate McKinnon and the SNL girl group line up wrote this fake ass “feminist anthem” that you can play during SoulCycle instead. Look, it has soft light lens flairs and pictures of a boardwalk and close up shots of an old woman’s hands! They stand together in a line and hold hands for empowerment! Stop asking them for more! (Features Ariana Grande for maximum gay culture points)

15. Welcome to Hell // Season 43 // 2018

Sure, it’s all sugary and sweet until you have to stab a man with your hand full of keys just to make it home safe at night.

16. Weekend Update: Billie Jean King on the Sochi Olympics // Season 39 // 2013

Tennis legend Billie Jean King stops by to discuss being “the big gay middle finger” at the Sochi Winter Olympics. I had somehow never seen this sketch until doing research for this article, and it is perfect?? How have we never talked about it? How is it not going down in the lesbian hall of fame?  I think it might be because at the time of her 2013 appearance, Kate McKinnon had yet to become a gay household name. That is our mistake and we must remedy it.  THIS IS THE MOST LESBIAN SKETCH EVER AND IF YOU HAVE TO WATCH IT. IF YOU WATCH ONE THING, WATCH THIS.

17. Election Week Cold Open // Season 42 // 2016

This list isn’t ranked, but I saved the best two sketches for last.

Granted, this sketch isn’t quite funny per se, but damn it is superb. Here’s what I wrote about it in 2017:

In her political autobiography What Happened? Hillary Clinton specifically references this performance, which originally aired the Saturday following her election defeat, as an emotional release. I can personally attest that it reached into the most beaten parts of me at a time when the depths of my darkness felt insurmountable and instead lit a match. It’s a masterfully multi-layered sketch, simultaneously paying homage to Leonard Cohen during the week of his passing, giving deference to Clinton, and seeking to comfort those of us grieving in the audience. Ten months later, I still cannot hear the song without imaging McKinnon, at the piano, in Hillary’s signature pantsuit, telling me to never give up.

It’s now two years later, and that last part is still true. This is what it looks like to be a master of your craft.

18. Themyscira // Season 43 // 2017

Oh did you want to revisit Kate McKinnon making out with Gal Gadot while she’s dressed as Wonder Woman?

Of course you did. This is the gayest shit SNL has ever done. And you’re welcome.

All 91 Actors Who Were In Both “The L Word” and “Battlestar Galactica”

Last week on the hit podcast “To L and Back,” I noted the presence of what seemed to be the fourth Battlestar Galactica actor to appear on Season One of The L Word. “I’ll make a little list on Autostraddle of all the actors who were on both shows,” I promised podcast listeners, naively imagining a list comprising between 7 and 20 actors. How young I was then. How limber.

It turns out that whopping 91 actors appeared in both programs. It also seems like all the L Word actors that weren’t on Battlestar were on Stargate, Supernatural or Smallville. This seems crazier than it is — both shows filmed in Vancouver between the years of 2003 and 2009, and both shared Heike Brandstatter and Corren Mayrs as their Canadian casting directors (they also served as Canadian casting directors for Supernatural and Smallville). They share some shooting locations too — the Waterfall Building used to represent the California Arts Center is also Roslin’s Doctor’s Office in the 2003 mini-series and serves six other purposes throughout Battlestar’s run. The Orpheum Theater, where Shane fights with Veronica Bloom, is the Opera House in Battlestar.

But still, how did nearly the entire Quorum of the Zarek/Roslin Administration end up on The L Word?

If you’re watching The L Word along with the podcast for the first time, skip the explainers underneath each photo of who the character is on The L Word, although I have made them as vague as possible to avoid spoilers.

These are not in any particular order except that the more prominent roles (on either show) are near the front with pictures and the more obscure roles are near the end (mostly in alphabetical order because of how I copied them over from Airtable).

---

1. Michael Hogan

Irwin Fairbanks // Colonel Tigh

Irwin is Dana’s Dad.

2. Lucy Lawless

Sgt Marybeth Duffy // D’Anna Biers

Sgt Maybeth Duffy investigates an alleged murder in Season Six and the Confession Tapes.

3. Susan Hogan

Sharon Fairbanks // Captain Doyle Franks

That’s right, Dana’s parents were played by two actors who are married in real life!

4. Rekha Sharma

Lori // Tory Foster

Lori is a girl Shane almost hooks up with in a bar in Season One.

5. Simone Bailly

Grace // Shona

Grace dates Max and works with him on OurChart in Season Four of The L Word.

6. Colin Lawrence

David Waters // Lt. Hamish “Skulls” McCall

David is Kit Porter’s son.

7. Nicki Clyne

Delilah // Crewman Specialist Cally Tyrol

Delilah picks up Jenny hitchhiking after her quickie marriage to Tim.

8. Aaron Douglass

Citizen // Chief Galen Tyrol

“Citizen” appears for about 45 seconds outside the CAC in Season One.

9. Ryan Robbins

Bus Stop Man // Charlie Connor

Bette meets Bus Stop Man at the Bus Stop after her silent retreat in Season Four.

10. Judith Maxie

Dr. Wilson // Picon Delegate

Dr. Wilson is the doctor supervising Tina’s pregnancy.

11. Lorena Gale

Delores // Elosha

Delores is one of Dana’s doctors in Season Three.

12. Tahmoh Penikett

Sherriff // Helo

The Sherriff rejects Tim’s request to go look for Jenny in Season One.

13. Luciana Carro

Lisa // Louanne “Kat” Katraine

Lisa hooks up with Shane in Season One and again in Season Two.

14. Heather Doerksen

Karen + Waitress + Woman with Clipboard // Sgt. Brandy Harder

Karen is a friend of Jodi’s in Season Four and Clipboard Girl tells Alice she can’t be on Dana’s float at Pride in Season Two.

15. Donnelley Rhodes

Colonel Jon Smythe // Dr. Sherman Cottle

Jon Smythe works at Tasha’s base in Season Five.

16. Dominic Zamprogna

Greg/Jim // Jammer

Greg plays “Tim” in Jenny’s film, Lez Girls, in Season Five.

17. Tygh Runyan

Gene Feinberg // Private Sykes

Gene dates Jenny in Season One.

18. Veena Sood

Reporter // Quorum Delegate

Reporter interrogates Bette outside the CAC in Season One.

19. Erica Cerra

Prima Ballerina + Uta Refson // Maya

Prima Ballerina has a fling with Francesca in Season One, Uta has a fling with Alice in Season Three.

20. Christina Schild

Allison // Playa Palacios

Allison is a friend of Henry’s who comes over for a party in Season Four.

21. Alana Husband

Marcy // Nurse Sashon

Marcy is one of Shane’s three roommates in Season One.

22. Dana Delaney

Senator Barbara Grisham // Sesha Abinell

Senator Barbara Grisham meets Bette at a hearing in Season Three.

23. Chris Shields

Cop // Cpl. Venner

The Cop breaks up Lesbian Oil Wrestling in Season Five.

24. Brad Dryborough

Man on All Fours + Stephen Green // Lt. Louis Hoshi

Stephen Green is arrested in a flashback scene that opens an episode in Season One. The “Man on All Fours” is likely from the Dungeon scene at Pride in Season Two.

25. Don Thompson

Victor // Specialist 3rd Class Anthony Figurski

Victor works at the strip club where Jenny gets a job in Season Two.

26. Alisen Down

Priscilla // Jean Barolay

Priscilla is a woman with a life Veronica Bloom wants to buy the movie rights to in Season Two.

27. Brian Markinson

Aaron // Silas Nash (Battlestar: Blood & Chrome)

Aaron is one of the producers of Lez Girls in Season Five.

28. Jill Teed

Teri // Sgt. Hadrian

Teri appears in a historical flashback at the start of an episode in Season Three.

29. Andrew McIlroy

John James // Jacob Cantrell

John James is Shane’s boss at the hair salon in Season One.

30. Kwesi Ameyaw

Randy // Liner Captain (2003 TV Mini-Series)

Randy coaches the swim team with Tim in Season One.

31. Bruce Davison

Leonard Kroll // Dr. Michael Robert

Leonard is Phyllis’s husband in Seasons Four and Five.

32. Callum Keith Rennie

Danny Wilson // Leoben Conoy

Danny Wilson makes documentaries / a relationship with Dylan in Season Three.

33. Georgia Craig

Becky Haspel + Resident Nurse // Oracle Yolanda Brenn

We meet Becky in Season Three when she and her husband Tim meet up with Jenny and Max for lunch.

34. John Pyper-Ferguson

Michael Angelo // Captain Cole ‘Stinger’ Taylor

Michael Angelo is a friend of Jodi’s we meet at her lakehouse weekend in Season Four.

35. Marilyn Norry

Eve // Reza Chronides

Eve attends a consciousness-raising group at the start of an episode in Season Three.

36. Warren Christie

Leo Herrera // Tarn

Leo works at the CAC in Season Two.

37. Zak Santiago

Oscar // Captain Diaz (Blood & Chrome)

Tina volunteers for Oscar’s social justice organization in Season One.

38. Ty Olson

Jim // Captain Aaron Kelly

Jim is a friend of Henry’s in Season Four.

39. Mike Dopud

First AD // Crewman Specialist Gage

The First AD works for Veronica Bloom in Season Two.

40. Claudette Mink

Marlene // Shevon

Marlene is a friend of Henry’s in Season Three.

41. Biski Gugushe

Protestor // Reporter Sekou Hamilton

Biski was a protestor outside the CAC in Season One.

42. Alonso Oyarzun

Eduardo // Crewman Specialist Socinus

Eduardo works at the Grocery Store with Jenny in the Pilot.

43. Aaron Pearl

Lieutenant Finnerty // Ensign Abel Thornton

Lieutenant Finnerty worked at Tasha’s base in Season Five.

44. Aaron Brooks

Redneck Boy #1 // Mr. Buckminster

Aaron Brooks was in a pre-episode flashback montage in Season Two.

45. Adrian Holmes

Duane // Specialist Parr

Duane works for Slim Daddy in Season One.

46. Alain Chanoine

Hunky Guy // Marine Reb

“Hunky Guy” is at the club in Season Six.

47. Alison Matthews

Betty + Associate Producer // Karen Fallbrook

48. Barclay Hope

Bert Guber // Transport Pilot

49. Benjamin Ayres

Lorenzo // Lt. George ‘Catman’ Birch

Lorenzo is a “Senior VP” who Jenny and Tina meet with about “Lez Girls” in Season Four.

50. Brent Stait

Bob // Mason

Bob is the stepfather of the girl Tina and Bette want to adopt a baby from in Season Six.

51. Camille Atebe

T + Cute Girl // Sarah Ryan

52. Camille Sullivan

Valerie Goins + Helen // Pilot/Stepchild

Valerie is the girlfriend of Leigh, an artist friend of Bette’s.

53. Chelah Horsdal

Sally + Psychic // Didi Cassidy

Sally is at the consciousness-raising group flashback that opens Season Three .

54. Dan Payne

Policeman // Sean Ellison

Dan pulls Kit over in the Pilot.

55. David Richardson-Peck

Eric Sonnenberg // Naylin Stans

Eric runs the studio where Mark is pitching his documentary in Season Two.

56. Eliza Norbury

Technician // Civvie #2

57. Eric Breker

Doctor // Chu / Gemenon Captain

This character is one of Bette’s Dad’s doctors in Season Two.

58. Erin Karpluk

Susan/Alysse // Woman #1

Susan plays “Alysse” in Lez Girls in Season Five.

59. France Perras

Mrs. Greif // Sandra Roslin

Mrs. Greif is the homophobic parent of a child who Shane’s brother and Pagie’s son go to school with.

60. G. Patrick Currie

Miles // Enzo

61. Gabrielle Rose

Carol // Mrs. King

Carol is on the board of the art department at California University.

62. Georgia Mae Hacche

Luchi Santis // Petty Officer Sian

Luchi auditions for “Lez Girls” in Season Five but loses the part to Nikki.

63. Graeme Duffy

Counter Clerk // Adrien Bauer

64. Gustavo Febres

Drag Queen // Herbalist

Alice is looking for Papi at a club when she runs into the Drag Queen.

65. Holly Elissa

Chandra // Asha Janik

Chandra asks Alice out in Season Three, and Tina and Helena see her at Max’s prom fundraiser.

66. Iris Paluly

Orthodox Woman // Speaking Delegate Dahlia

67. Ivan Cermák

Heterosexual Man // Corporal D. Wallace

68. Jennifer Kitchen

Goombah Girl + Party Animal Lesbian #2 // Marine

69. Jim Shield

Simon Frunn – Bonham // Karma

Simon is approached by Bette and Tina in Season One as a potential sperm donor.

70. Kurt Max Runte

Mysterious Man // Ensign Charles Bellamy

71. Linnea Sharples

Gretchen/Nina // Lt. Emmitt ‘Sweetness’ Jones

Gretchen plays “Nina” in Lez Girls in Season Five.

72. Lori Triolo

Curator + Gallery Worker // Phoebe

73. Malcolm Stewart

Dr. Geld //Marshall Bagot

Dr. Geld is a doctor Max visits to talk about gender reassignment surgery in Season Three.

74. Marci T. House

Grand Marshall // Midwife/Herbalist

75. Mark Houghton

Robin Bookman // Vinson

Robin Bookman tells Bette and Tina he can’t give them sperm because his family has buck teeth in the pilot.

76. Michael Ryan

Senator Horsey //Ray Abinell

Senator Horsey is at a hearing Bette testifies at in Season Three.

77. Michael Tayles

Ewan // Flyboy

Ewan interviews to be Shane and Jenny’s roommate in Season Two.

78. Morris Chapdelaine

Judge // Reporter #2

The Judge is judging a dance contest fundraiser at the LA LGBT Center in Season Six.

79. Nicholas Treeshin

Tom // Sgt. Watkins

This is not the same Tom who dates Max, it’s Tom from a Season Two pre-episode flashback sequence.

80. P.J. Prinsloo

Cycling Dude #3 // Lt. Mei ‘Freaker’ Firelli

81. Patricia Idlette

Technician // Sarah Porter

82. Rachel Hayward

Ellie // Blonde Woman

Ellie is the society wife who Harry sets up with Shane to do her hair in Season One.

83. Ron Selmour

Security Guard // Seaborne

84. Samantha Ferris

Meryl Rothman // Pollux

Meryl hits on Bette at a show in Season Two.

85. Samantha Kaine

Vanessa // Off-Duty Crew Person

Vanessa is the Absolut Vodka representative working on Dana and Tanya’s wedding in Season Two.

86. Stefanie von Pfetten

Kelly // Cpt. Marcia ‘Showboat’ Case

Kelly brings flowers to Shane as part of a set-up to hook up in Season Two.

87. Steve Lawlor

Richard // Marine at Baltar’s + Guard

88. Tamara Lashley

Bisexual Girl // Sue-Shaun

89. Tammy Gillis

Tammy // Marine #2

Tammy attends bisexual speed dating in Season Three.

90. Tammy Hui

Assistant // ECO Lyla ‘Shark’ Ellway

Veronica Bloom’s assistant in Season Two who tries to rope Shane back into Veronica’s world.

91. Winston Rekert

Bon Sweeney // Priest

Max’s Dad in Season Four.

16 of the Best Lesbian and Bisexual Dance Scenes in TV History

Last week, we were treated to Derry Girls‘ prom episode and an AvaLance tango on Legends of Tomorrow, which set my mind twirling and whirling around some of my favorite lesbian and bisexual dance scenes. Women dancing together is actually a thing that’s still not too common on TV. Weirdly, we’re more likely to see actual sex. Maybe because dancing is so gendered it freaks people out even more than scissoring? Maybe it’s too intimate? Who’s to say! Either way, with the help of the TV Team, I’ve compiled 16 of the best queer dance scenes ever. Get ready to get some feelings, and, as always, we’d love to hear your faves in the comments.

---

Arthie and Yolanda, GLOW (208 “The Good Twin”)

A dream to build a life on.

Willow and Tara, Buffy (506 “Family”)

When love makes you literally levitate.

Stef and Lena, The Fosters (405 “Forty”)

There are so many great Stef and Lena swaying scenes to choose from, but their unapologetically sexy dancing at Lena’s major milestone birthday party is my personal favorite.

Paige and Emily, Pretty Little Liars (411 “Bring Down the Hoe”)

Emily didn’t want to end up with the mushy squash. 😭 (Runner up.)

Carmen and Shane, The L Word (302 “Lost Weekend”)

Raise your hand if this scene made you gay.

Brittany and Santana, Glee (313 “Heart”)

Cherish/Cherish

The Alvarez Family, One Day at a Time (113 “Quinces”)

In a show filled with moments that’ll make a person cry a bucketful of gay tears, Elena’s thwarted father/daughter dance that turned into a family celebration at her quinceañera stands alone.

Callie and Arizona, Grey’s Anatomy (720 “White Wedding”)

Callie and Arizona’s wedding wasn’t their happily ever after, but it sure was a watershed moment on television.

Maggie and Alex, Supergirl (213 “Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk”)

On Valentine’s Day we dance with the girls we wanna dance with.

Eve and Annalise, How to Get Away With Murder (304 “Don’t Tell Annalise”)

A rare moment of carefree happiness for Annalise Keating, in a bleak world, with the only woman who ever saw straight through her. (I still haven’t given up hope on them and you can’t make me!)

Sara and Ava, Legends of Tomorrow (409 “Legends of To-Meow-Meow”)

The level of love and physical fitness on display here!

She-Ra and Catra, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (108 “Princess Prom”)

“Prom Princess” is the episode it becomes very apparent that She-Ra‘s queerness isn’t accidental.

Tina and Bette, The L Word (607 “Last Couple Standing”)

The best part of this beloved Tibette dance scene…

Alice, Tasha and Jamie, The L Word (607 “Last Couple Standing”)

… is the clenched jaw scowl on Bette’s face out in the audience when she realizes they’ve been out-danced by Alice and Tasha and Jamie and Salt-n-Pepa.

Quinn and Santana, Glee (414 “I Do”)

Two ends of the same bitch-goddess spectrum, colliding at last.

Everyone, Pose (Season One)

If this scene from the Pose pilot doesn’t convince you to watch all the dancing on the show, don’t talk to me ever again.

Spring 2019 TV Preview: Shows That’ll Please Your Eyeballs With LGBTQ+ Women Characters

Ah, Springtime. A bountiful moment for everybody who enjoys sunshine, owns stock in Zyrtec, or appreciates the small sliver of time between Winter and Summer when some midseason replacement shows step up to the plate and other new programs begin a run that will last well into the sweaty months of summer, at which point I will return to give you a Summer TV Preview!

---

March

Abby’s (NBC) // March 28 // Season One

Read the Autostraddle review

Natalie Morales is the first queer woman to play a leading queer female character on a sitcom since Ellen! She’s also the first Cuban to play a main character on a sitcom since Desi Arnaz. Abby is a retired Marine who sets up an unauthorized bar in her rented backyard and refuses to shut it down where her new landlord shows up and discovers it. An early episode, “Free Alcohol Day,” introduces us to Abby’s ex and centers her bisexuality. One other novelty: The show is filmed in front of a live audience, outside. (- Heather Hogan)

Veep (HBO) // March 31 // Season Eight

Katherine’s got a bad haircut and post-partum depression and Marjorie is oversharing about their sex life and Selena has decided to run for President again! That’s what’s coming up on Veep’s eighth and sadly final season.

---

April

Legends of Tomorrow (The CW) // April 1st // Back Half of Season Four Premiere

In The Dark (The CW) // April 4th // NEW

“In The Dark” is a gritty dramedy about a woman who is learning to care about others (and herself) and learning how to let people care about her. Her name is Murphy, which is great, and she has a guide dog named Pretzel, which is even better. Murphy has a roommate named Jess, who is a woman of color and a lesbian and who can usually be seen with her girlfriend. Jess is really the only person Murphy lets help her, and they have a cute relationship in which Jess describes what the men Murphy takes home look like to her, and so on. (– Valerie Anne)

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix) // April 5th // Season Two

Read the Autostraddle Review

Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina is back for another nine episodes of casual cannibalism, demon-fucking, blood-spilling, and spell-casting. In Part Two of the Netflix series, Sabrina Spellman finds herself dealing with more patriarchal bullshit in the Church of Night and tries to dismantle Father Blackwood’s stronghold on the coven by pushing back on some of the more archaic traditions, like the appointment of a Top Boy to rule the school. Theo also comes out as trans to his friends, and they’re very supportive. Even when Sabrina messes up and calls him Susie, Sabrina apologizes, and they move on in a very casual way. Theo also becomes instrumental in the fight to stop the apocalypse, alongside Sabrina’s other mortal friends. Meanwhile, everyone in the coven is probably pansexual (and polyamorous), but the church and school still practice a lot of heteronormative traditions because the religion was born of Lucifer, who is an overt misogynist. The Spellman family is here to challenge and undo those traditions, and they’re forced to question everything they’ve ever known in the process. Anyway, this show is still completely chaotic, but it’s often thrilling and very pretty in its dark stylization. But Prudence Night deserves a lot more than the show gives her. (- Kayla Kumari)

Killing Eve (BBC) // April 7th // Season Two

Read the Autostraddle review

From Kayla’s review of the first two episodes of Season Two, which include Villanelle referring to Eve as her “girlfriend”: “Killing Eve will remain a seductive visual sensation, a stylish spy thriller in the streets and a twisted story about fixation, identity, and power in the sheets. While the premiere does do a lot of reacting to the finale, the second episode propels things forward. Both are tense and alive, sizzling with possibility. Because a caged Villanelle and a spiraling Eve are unpredictable forces. One way or another, they want each other, madly.”

The Chi (Showtime) // April 7th // Season Two

Ayanna Floyd has taken over as showrunner for Season Two of Lena Waithe’s The Chi, which will confront themes including fatherhood and the impact of trauma on young black boys. “I wanted to take a pause and really deal with, what is going on in his little brain?” Floyd told The Chicago Tribune.  “And what goes on with little boys who are living in a certain environment? What goes on in their head? What are their hopes? Do they have fears?”

You Me Her (Audience) // April 9th // Season Four

Season Three finds our freshly-poly-married triad getting ready for Emma to give birth to — surprise! — twins. Izzy’s (kinda) adjusting to suburban life, Emma’s (kinda) adjusting to not working and also trying to befriend the neighborhood parents and Jack continues, against all odds, to exist. How will they keep their sex life alive during Emma’s pregnancy? Are they doing poly “right”? All these questions and more will be pondered in Season Four of “You Me Her.”

The Bold Type (Freeform) // April 9th // Season Three

Season Three finds Kat reeling from her recent breakup with Adeena, feeling like a “hot mess” and not knowing who she is — but when she learns that a local lesbian bar is in danger of shutting down, she begins a journey that might land her getting involved in city politics. Meanwhile, Scarlett’s staff is adjusting to the board’s decision to hire a cis white straight man to run digital, which is… way too real.

Game of Thrones (HBO) // April 14th // Season Eight

It’s anyone’s guess what’s in store in the final season of Game of Thrones, but I’d say there’s about a six thousand percent better chance someone will have sex with their cousin or brother before two women will do lesbianism. Season six saw Daenerys Targaryen flirting with Yara Greyjoy; season seven saw Yara Greyjoy with a lady love interest — buuut it also saw her ship being captured, her and Ellaria being led through King’s Landing and pelted with rotten fruit, and her fate resting in Cersei’s hands. The chances that we even see her at all again are slim.(- Heather Hogan)

Arrow (The CW) // April 15th // The CW // Time Slot Premiere

Gentleman Jack (HBO) // April 22nd // Limited Series

In her life, Anne Lister, “the first modern lesbian,” wrote down four million words in her 27-volume journal (a third of which she transcribed in a cryptograph of her own devising). She detailed her sexual awakening, her plentiful lesbian sexual exploits, her true loves, her seduction techniques, her business dealings (she was a rare woman land owner in the 1800s and she bought her own coal mine), and her athletic pursuits (she was a record-breaking mountaineer). She only wore men’s clothes. Her most beloved called her Fred. And the people in her town called her Gentleman Jack. HBO’s miniseries, a partnership with BBC, promises to go where no show about Lister has gone before. One things for sure: Unlike Game of Thrones, there’s no way they’ll run out of source material. (- Heather Hogan)

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix) // April 26th // Season Two

We don’t know much about the second season of She-Ra. During the off-season showrunner Noelle Stevenson said she thinks of She-Ra and Catra as a modern day Buffy and Faith, we do know that. Plus she even knows what character each of her character’s would play in D&D: “Adora is a fighter while She-Ra is a paladin — specifically, one who would use fancy dice that roll badly. Additionally: Catra is a rogue, Scorpia is a fighter or barbarian, Frosta is also a barbarian, Bow is ‘half-ranger, half-bard … like a ranger that took classes in bard’ and Glimmer, of course, is a sorcerer.” So I guess what I’m saying is it’s going to keep being hella nerdy and hella gay. (- Heather Hogan)

The 100 (The CW) // April 30th // Season Six

Season Six will find the characters in this show trying to start a new world on a new planet. Neat!

---

May

Easy (Netflix) // May 10th // Season Three

Details are hard to track down for the third and final season of this anthology series, which has previously featured two stories about a lesbian couple, played by Kiersey Clemons and Jacqueline Toboni.

Fleabag (Amazon Prime) // May 17th // Season Two

Fleabag’s second and final season will see our hapless heroine — 371 days, 19 hours and 26 minutes after the devastating revelation that concluded  Season One  — pursuing ill-advised sexual situations like a wild crush on a priest she meets through her Godmother, played by Olivia Coleman, a painter whose “Sexhibition” show pays tribute to her gloriously promiscuous past. Kristin Scott Thomas shows up in Epsiode Three as Belinda, a lesbian businesswoman who Fleabag finds herself immediately attracted to because that’s right, Fleabag is bisexual!

Vida (Starz) // May 23rd // Season Two

According to Deadline, Season Two will find the sisters trying to save their mothers bar “while attempting to find respect and common ground.” Emma’s under a lot of pressure and will need Lyn to step up if their relationship has any hope of surviving. Most importantly, my imaginary girlfriend Roberta Colindrez (Fun Home on Broadway, I Love Dick, The Deuce, Girls) is joining the Season Two cast. All ten episodes will be dropped at once, so clear your weekend!

She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix) // May 24th // Season Two

In Season Two, “Nola must decide if she will reman true to her creative ideals or give in to the corporate world.” We can expect to see her “journey of self-discovery” transforming the lives around her, including our lesbian friend Opal!

---

June

We’ll have more info on these shows in our Summer 2019 TV Preview, but for now, some premiere dates:

The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) // June 5th // Season Three

Grown-Ish (Freeform) // June 5th // Season Two – Summer Premiere

Tales of the City (HBO) // June 7th // NEW

Pose (FX) // June 9th // Season Two

Claws (TNT) // June 9th // Season Three

Younger (TV Land) // June 12th // Season Six

Queen Sugar (OWN) // June 12th // Season Four

Good Trouble (Freeform) // June 18th // Season Two

Every Major Female “Star Trek” Character, Ranked By Lesbianism

Here’s the thing about the future: the way things are going currently, I think it’s safe to question why heterosexual women would still be the majority in 2334. And yet! As I learned in a Women in Literature course nearly two decades ago, fan-fic was invented by Trekkies longing to see Kirk and Spock boldly go where they only subtextually went onscreen, and until literally three years ago, the franchise has remained mostly content to keep its characters straight on their streets and queer in our sheets. Star Trek‘s persistent refusal to offer sufficient LGBTQ representation, despite encouragement from cast members, has been a point of contention for decades. Our 2010 piece about it — “Gay Me Up, Scotty: How Star Trek Failed To Boldly Go There” — is one of several Autostraddle pieces that frequently pop up on college syllabi.

Luckily, we all have very active imaginations and also, just for the record, as a child I attended a Star Trek Convention in the aptly named Romulus, Michigan. Thus, it eventually came time for us to turn our keen minds towards an important project: ranking every Star Trek character by lesbianism. (A practice we engage in frequently, for example this ranking of Law and Order characters.)

The lesbian rankings contained herein are based on highly subjective criteria you will undoubtedly disagree with. It includes opinions from esteemed sources like your pal and mine Sally, who has seen all the Star Treks, as well as Autostraddle writers Al(aina), Kayla, and Senior Editor Carmen, the only three Autostraddle team members who wanted to join my Star Trek Slack Channel.

Also by the way the Bajorans are the most lesbianish species overall (the earwear alone, I mean!) and everyone is queerer in the mirrorverse. Don’t @ me. But do comment!

---

55. Navigator Ilia (Persis Khambatta), “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”

Due to the Deltan pheromones that trigger “hormonal responses in most humanoid life forms of the opposite sex,” Ilia had to take a vow of celibacy in order to be permitted to work amongst human men. A more logical solution would be to avoid human men altogether, any lesbian could tell you that!!!

---

54. Helmsman Valeris (Kim Cattrall), “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”

No thank you.

---

53. Seska (Martha Hackett), Voyager

no

thank

you

---

52. Alynna Nechayev (Natalija Nogulich), The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine

Kayla: daddy vibes but not super gay vibes sorry 2 say. she’s so by-the-book.

---

51. Anjj (Donna Murphy), “Star Trek: Insurrection”

Overcomes everything she knows to be true about the world in order to fall in love with a man. Heterosexual bangs.

---

50. Kes (Jennifer Lien), Voyager

Sally: What little personality she did have was subsumed by her relationship with the incredibly annoying Neelix.

---

49. Dr Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur), The Next Generation

Refused to acknowledge Data’s preferred personhood and mispronounced his name intentionally to convey her disrespect. So, definitely straight.

---

48. Nurse Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett), The Original Series, Star Trek I – VI

Sally remembers that she “can’t remember what she did other than crush on Spock.” However, Kayla asks: “Is there something slightly gay about pining after Spock since he is quite literally emotionally unavailable? Like the way I pretended to have crushes on unavailable boys in high school?” Valid inquiry.

---

47. Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney), The Original Series, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”

Truly committed to the heterosexual bit for decades. Slight Mom energy, Zero Mommi Energy.

---

46. Tora Ziyal (Melanie Smith), Deep Space Nine

She’s like the straight sister of one of your lesbian friends who everybody is like, “is she gay yet?” and her lesbian sister is like “not yet!”

---

45. Winn Adami (Louise Fletcher), Deep Space Nine

Super evil but not the sexy low-key kind of evil your ex-girlfriend was. More like the kind of evil embodied by a librarian who won’t stock Heather Has Two Mommies.

---

44. Chief Engineer B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson), Voyager

It is true that she was, as Sally put it, “relentlessly and regretfully (to me) heterosexual with Lt. Paris, a human charm vacuum.” However, as Sally also put it, she “had a lot of angry feminist vibes going on.”

---

43. Nurse Alyssa Ogawa (Patti Yasutake), The Next Generation, “Star Trek Generations,” “Star Trek First Contact”

Is described as “a bit conservative in her personal life.” Haircut got less gay rather than more gay over time. When Crusher saw her boyfriend with another woman, Alyssa was concerned rather than relieved.

---

42. First Officer / Science Officer T’Pol (Jolene Blalock), Enterprise

Sally: Repeatedly stripped off in the decontamination chamber, which I sense was only tangentially for my benefit.

---

41. Starfleet Vice Admiral Katrina Cornwell (Jayne Brook), Discovery

Is a therapist.

Kayla: is a bisexual psychiatrist called a bichiatrist
she sleeps with her ex and then tries to psychoanalyze their trauma…….
BICHIATRIST

---

40. Kasidy Yates-Sisko (Penny Johnson Jerald), Deep Space Nine

“In my head she merged with her other role as the evil wife of the President in 24,” remarked Sally. “So I was always highly suspicious of her.”

---

39. Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), The Original Series, first six Star Trek films

Point / Counterpoint:

Al(aina): very heterosexual. her first lines in the series are like “spock why won’t you tell me i’m pretty!!!!”
Carmen: Ok so while I technically see Al’s point here, I am still going to offer a rebuttal: Lt. Uhura is fundamental to everything about my black nerd femme identity. EVERYTHING.
And I have a Lt. Uhura journal and action figure to highlight this point.
AND without Nichelle Nichols in this role, there wouldn’t have been women in central speaking parts in command. So in many ways she’s the foremother of a lot of the other women on this list, which I feel is important re: legacy of women we’re ranking by gay.

DISCUSS.

---

38. Ensign Demora Sulu (Jacqueline Kim), “Star Trek Generations”

Had minimal screen time/development. Daddy’s girl.

---

37. Lursa & Be’Etor, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and “Star Trek: Generations”

Tried to seduce Picard by offering him excessive amounts of hot tea. Also therefore:

Al(aina): ok, hear me out: i think these two are def gay sisters who sleep with men in the same way that aileen wuornos slept with men. like, to get money from them and also possibly to kill them.

---

36. Cadet Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Discovery

Tilly might be the straight girl who seemed gay as a kid just ’cause she had so many ideas for sleepover games but like… she actually meant it when she said she had a crush on that boy you were just pretending to have a crush on. And listen: nobody is more annoyed than she is about being straight. All her friends are gay!

Alternately, Sally has pointed out that she has allergies, which is gay. Furthermore, that infection/haunting via her former “friend” May in Season Two is wildly lesbian. When her ex/”friend,” in the form of a viral blob, is eating her arm, and she’s like, “I’m so tired,” I was like, GIRL, SAME.

---

35. Ishka (Cecily Adams), Deep Space Nine

Couldn’t live her truth until her husband died, which means she’s a late-in-life lesbian. Feminist renegade who attempted to circumvent the misogynist Ferengi economy for personal gain.

---

34. Leeta (Chase Masterson), Deep Space Nine

She is a Bajoran, the most lesbianish species of Star Trek, and also was basically a sex worker, one of the the most queerish professions of the modern era (right up there with “social worker” and “starfleet officer”) AND she ORGANIZED A G-DDAMN UNION. Despite all of that… does not attempt to seduce Arandis or any other women while celebrating her conscious uncoupling from Doctor Bashir on a pleasure planet?

---

33. Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard), “Star Trek: First Contact”

Began her story building a time machine in a rural Montana silo. Described as “outspoken and a little high-strung” (gay) and credited with being “the first to recognize Captain Picard’s emotional demons.” (Do note that although lesbians are very good at recognizing the emotional demons of others, we are also uniquely adept at disassociating from our own.)

---

32. Caithlin Dar (Cynthia Gouw), “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”

Hairstyle doubles as a dildo. Is always dressed for a tightly themed queer dance party. Was manipulated into joining a weird religious cult.

---

31. Female Changeling (Salome Jens), Deep Space Nine

Sally: Possibly the most bizarre thing in all Star Trek is that when they had the ultimate chance to have completely agender lifeforms who can shapeshift into anything, they either had them as a writhing pile of goo, or really bad play-dough people. The Female Changeling had it in really bad for the “solids” who she thought were stupid and inferior, which is kind of how I feel about men, so I’m charitably viewing her as a kind of non-binary man-hating lesbian separatist.

---

30. Counselor Ezri Dax (Nicole de Boer), Deep Space Nine

Joined Starfleet to get away from her family. According to @somekindoferika on twitter, has “big trans energy.”

---

29. Special Emissary K’Ehleyr (Susie Plakson), The Next Generation

Was fridged to motivate a male character. She once noted, regarding her half-human half-Klingon genetics, “my Klingon side can be terrifying, even to me,” which is clearly a symbolic nod to her bisexuality and her subsequent terror of either: a) Men, b) Women.

---

28. Martia (Ilman), “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”

Envisioned as a “swashbuckling female space pirate.” Was killed by a famous cis white man.

---

27. Botanist Keiko O’Brien (Rosalind Chao), The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine

Fanboys hate her. She loves plants.

---

26. Officer Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo), Discovery

When locked in a basement in New Eden with Michael and Pike, stripped of all their fancy technology, she employs her Luddite background expertly, managing to free them all by manipulating the door’s sliding bolt. Her haircut is gay enough to stand out on a bridge riddled with gay haircuts.

---

25. Biologist Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks), “Star Trek IV: The Journey Home”

Obsessed with whales. Says she’s down to time-hop with Kirk and Spock because “I’ve got nobody but those whales.” Has no interest in keeping in touch with Kirk because she would rather do science. In the fictional bibliography of “Star Trek: Federation – The First 150 Years,” she is cited as the author of “Whales Weep Not: My 300-Year Voyage Home with George and Gracie.” Ahem.

---

24. The Actual Whales from “Star Trek IV: The Journey Home”

Sally: Two whales involved in saving future earth from some pseudo-ecological disaster using whalesong definitely sounds like the kind of plot dreamt up by a teenage lesbian.

---

23. Commander-in-Training Saavik (Kristie Alley), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Kayla: A [half] vulcan who still CRIES? bitch, that’s a lesbian.

---

22. Molecular Biologist Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch), “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”

After having Kirk’s child, declared a lack of interest in spending any additional time with Kirk or having him involved in his son’s life, preferring instead to focus on her truest love: her work.

Kayla: WE STAN A GAY SINGLE MOM
Kayla: SCIENCE MOMMI

---

21. Season One Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), The Next Generation

For:

• Looks like a lesbian
• Precocious
• Thinks he can do everybody else’s job better than they can
• Wears a cute striped mock turtleneck and leggings all the time
• When he saves the day, fans were annoyed rather than impressed
• Teaches a group of small children how to do passive resistance as an activist technique in order to escape their captors
• As a child when TNG originally aired, I had a crush on him
• My crush blinded me to the fact that he was a nearly universally disliked character
• Dammit was I Wesley
• Ugh I hate myself

Against:

• Stopped looking/acting like a lesbian circa Season Two
• Was a teenage boy

---

20. Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Voyager

In 1997, GLAAD reported that ex-borg drone Seven of Nine would “experiment with her sexuality along the way to understanding her humanity, including looking into same-sex relations” but apparently unnamed “opposition” got in the way, as it has literally every single time this franchise ever promised queer representation until 2016. But what we got instead was a troubled hottie constantly haunted by trauma and suffering from near-constant severe PTSD involving raven-prominent flashbacks, which is peak lesbian.

---

19. Arandis (Vanessa Williams), one episode of Deep Space Nine

Was nobody else still watching DS9 when Dax went on a romantic vacation with Worf — she wore a RAINBOW BATHING SUIT, he kept his uniform on and was in a very bad mood the whole time — and her old friend Arandis (who’d hooked up with one of Jadzia’s former hosts) followed her around all week hoping Dax would escape the misapplied Worf storyline for some Sweet Sapphic Scissoring? THIS WOMAN IS BISEXUAL, it’s a fact.

---

18. Communications Officer Hoshi Sato (Linda Park), Enterprise

An ACTUAL linguist with poor social skills who spent most of her childhood alone, learning alien languages.

---

17 [TIE]. Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), The Next Generation

Tied with Troi because without Troi, is she truly lesbian? Are they girlfriends… or do they just make extended eye contact in skin-tight boobs-out get-ups while engaging in elaborate ritual stretching contests?

[excerpt from a private chat]

Kayla: “TNG is the gayest of them all. The G stands for gay.”
Me: “yeah TNG is like Mommis in space.”
Kayla: “Dr. Beverly Crusher MD has got to be my #1.
I want her to top me in space.
“DIAGNOSE ME, MOMMI”

[…one month later in our star trek slack channel…]

Kayla: crush ME, doctor beverly crusher md!!!!!!
Kayla: she is so gay and i do not just say that because i want her to spit in my mouth
Kayla: she essentially had sex with anaphasic energy that was contained in a CURSED CANDLE which is um, gay
Carmen: Doctor Beverly Crusher is everything!!! Mommi for dayyyyys. Bless.
Al(aina): i want to lay my life down for her. she could walk on me. i dont feel that way about straight women

17 [TIE]. Lieutenant Commander Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), The Next Generation

A tough call. As aforementioned, highly dependent on the woman tied for this spot, Dr. Beverly Crusher, who either is or is not Troi’s girlfriend. Troi did fall for Riker, the Galaxy’s Most Alpha Male. But; her empathy scores are off the charts and in Yar’s post-death hologram dirge, she said Troi made her realize she could “be feminine without losing anything,” which let’s be honest probably happened in her private quarters. Also, remember when Troi pointed out that “Tasha is very physically attractive”? I’ll never forget.

Kayla: i think she has maybe never been with a woman but is having confusing feelings about her best friend Dr. Beverly Crusher
Kayla: so maybe like a baby bi
Carmen: OH I SEE WE ARE BRINGING OUT ALL MY CHILDHOOD CRUSHES OK THEN
Al(aina): she also seems high as fuck all the time, gives me big bisexual vibes

---

16. Vulcan High Priestess T’Lar (Dame Judith Anderson), “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”

A spiritual leader who wears turtleneck hooded robes and can officiate weddings and deliver children? GAY.

---

15. Lieutenant Keyla Detmer (Emily Coutts), Discovery

---

14. Ishara Yar (Beth Toussaint), The Next Generation

This evaluation is based solely upon her physical appearance, which leaves about as much room to be straight as there is to fit another task onto my to-do list. Also, her sister is gay.

---

13. Jayla (Sofia Boutella), “Star Trek: Beyond”

Excuse me but: after traumatically losing her entire family, Jaylah lived alone on a hidden abandoned spaceship, listening to hip-hop, learning martial arts, making her own weapons and doing home repairs.

---

12. Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett), The Next Generation & Deep Space Nine

Lwaxana reads to me like an overbearing Jewish mother who, like my own overbearing Jewish mother, is probably gay. Al called her “the Phyllis Kroll of Star Trek” and Sally, also recalling a queer woman over 50 from The L Word, said Lwaxana is “clearly the Peggy Peabody/Guggenheim of the franchise who, despite constantly being on the hunt for a husband, you know had that one lesbian fling in the summer of Stardate 80363.79. Enough Mommi vibes to power a warp drive.”

---

11. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), Discovery

On the one hand, Michael pings like the original Enterprise’s duotronic sensor array. On the other hand, Michael pings like a sweeping infa-red laser scanning local space. Bring those two hands together and we have a lesbian. “I remember the first five minutes of Discovery when it was just Michael and Philippa trekking round a desert with a whole female mentor/mentee vibe, and I thought if they just did that for twenty-four episodes it would be the greatest sci-fi ever,” recalled Sally. “Sadly this did not happen, and we didn’t just have to see her un-repress her Vulcan feelings for Ash once, but millions of times in one episode!” Alternately:

Al(aina): Phillipa Georgiou’s bottom. So lost without her top she fell in love with a Kllingon.
Carmen: Yet another star trek gay asymmetrical haircut has made itself known.

---

10. Conn Officer Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes), The Next Generation

“I liked Ensign Ro because she was tough and challenged all the pansy moralistic men in TNG, whilst having engagingly pointy eyebrows,” wrote Sally. “I believe she was meant to be a main character on DS9, which fell through and Kira kind of filled that role, so I was really happy when she graduated to be the evil lesbian admiral in Battlestar Galactica.”

Kayla: TORTURED GAY
Kayla: ok she and Guinan definitely fucked in her titular episode from season 5
Kayla: i have visual aids:

Which brings me to….

---

9. Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), The Next Generation, “Star Trek: Generations,” “Star Trek: Nemesis”

When Wikipedia describes you as “an alien who is several hundred years old and is noted for her folk wisdom,” YOU GAY.  (Sidenote: during the taping of “The Offspring,” Whoopi refused to have Guinan teach her adopted child about love as a heterosexual concept, rejecting the script about a man and a woman falling in love in favor of “when two people are in love” because “this show is beyond that.”)

Kayla: gay empath alert
Carmen: guinan is that tarot card reading, astrology birth chart, “I can’t date you if you’re a libra” or whatever kind of gay.
we all know her, we’ve all dated her, we all have one of her in our friendship circle (maybe we even are her)
Al(aina): yes to all of this.

---

8. Borg Queen (Alice Krige), Voyager and “Star Trek: First Contact”

Sally: The original Cybermommi. Gay obsession with Seven of Nine. As the Borg were all one collective, that must mean that assimilating just one lesbian makes every Borg a lesbian, ergo they were just one giant lesbian commune floating in space.

---

7. Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Voyager

The first female Starfleet Commanding Officer in the Star Trek universe is a bit of a lesbian gimme. Plus she has lesbian voice and a lesbian gait and a hearty portion of lesbian tension with other women aboard her good ship. However, Sally didn’t get gay vibes until “Macrocosm,” “when she strips off and goes all Ripley against some alien bugs with a giant rifle. Which is pretty gay really.”

---

6. First Officer / Commanding Officer Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor), Deep Space Nine

“Remember when her boyfriend the Bajoran priest died in some horrific manner, and she was just like Can’t grieve now, got work to do?,” Sally wistfully recalled. “I feel like she lived out the fantasy of all gay women who are afraid of compulsory heterosexuality and dream of getting married to a dude who dies on their wedding night.” Furthermore, “Mirrorverse Kira checking out regular Kira is the gayest moment in all Star Trek.”

Riese: In Kira’s first scene in DS9 she yells at Sisko about (not in these words but) colonization and indigenous people’s right to self determination and hating the government after telling him that he probably won’t like her because she has strong opinions.
Kayla: wowowowowowow me in high school.
[…]
Riese: She just told Sisko that she’s the only one on the ship willing to do manual labor and ‘get her hands dirty.’
Now she’s interrupting a staff meeting to register complaints about their asylum policy
Kayla: 🧐

---

5. Chief Science Officer Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), Deep Space Nine

Dax is willing to break the most embedded and valued rules of her people, the Trills, to spend the rest of her life with the woman one of her previous hosts had been married to. Even though her character was basically gender-fluid and the whole situation seemed orchestrated to ensure we knew her attraction to her ex was not a lesbian situation but just a carryover from a heterosexual situation, she’s the closest thing we had to queer-lady cannon before (hopefully?!) Discovery — and when it happened, the kiss she shared with Lenara Kahn was the most intense girl-on-girl kiss ever aired on network television. YOU COULD SEE SALIVA.

Also, got killed, the gayest move of all.

---

4. Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), Discovery

“Probably I should be angry that the only bisexuals on Star Trek are always evil people from alternate universes?” Sally mused. “Sadly I don’t care, and Michelle Yeoh is hot.”

Al(aina): the toppiest femme top
Kayla: this
Carmen: She also had sex with a woman on screen (well they’re shown post-sex on screen?) in a threesome, so I think that makes her pretty heckin’ gay.
Kayla: a telescope as a prized possession is gay i don’t make the RULES

---

3. Jet Reno (Tig Notaro), Discovery

Al(aina): she gay
Kayla: lol i mean

---

2. The lesbian couple in the background of one scene in the Star Trek Discovery episode “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”

Ladies, gentlemen and J’naiis: WE WILL TAKE WHAT WE CAN GET.

---

1. Chief of Security Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) , The Next Generation

In addition to sporting THE LATE 80S/EARLY 90S LESBIAN HAIRCUT™, Yar only lasted one season ’cause Denise Crosby chose to leave the show ’cause the structural gender inequality imposed by the writing team meant her character was woefully underdeveloped and therefore insufficiently challenging to her as an actress. Instead, Crosby went on to produce a series of documentaries about Star Trek fandom. But, the most lesbian action of all:

Al(aina): so GAAAAAAAAAAAAY they even killed her

15 TV Shows We Loved and Lost and Were Actually Sad About

News breaking last week that queer fan favorites One Day at a Time and Wynonna Earp were facing an uphill battle getting another season made has caused our TV team to: a) wail and gnash our teeth, and b) reflect on some of the shows we’ve actually mourned losing. There’ve been a lot of beloved LGBTQ series these last several years, but when most of them go we’re either satisfied that they’ve run their course (sometimes more than run their course) or apathetic because the shows never reached their full queer potential. There are a handful of shows, however, that we’ve been legitimately crushed to see end.

This list, you’ll notice, is overwhelmingly white, which speaks to how few shows really centered QPOC characters — and how few shows with QPOC characters were given a chance to find their footing — until recently. All the more reason to hit play on One Day at a Time immediately (more info on that below).

---

Bomb Girls

Riese

It wasn’t until I saw Betty McRae — one of the few masculine-of-center queers we’ve gotten on television — that I knew I’d never seen anything like her. Bomb Girls got me interested in learning about lesbian history — I was interested in the kind of lesbian culture that was able to thrive in wartime due to the absence of men and the ease with which women were permitted to enter the workforce. All the herstory you’ve read from me on this website, including the Herstory Issue we did in 2012 — that wouldn’t have happened without Bomb Girls.

But it’s not just lesbian representation that made Bomb Girls so special; it was its exemplary feminist leanings, its faithfulness to history and its full, rich, dynamic female characters I would’ve followed for years to come. They barely cracked the surface of this time period and the stories it contained, still had a ways to go with respect to diversity — and I think they would’ve gone that distance, given the chance.

Valerie Anne

I miss Bomb GIrls so much, so often. Betty McRae had that something about her that really wiggled its way into your heart and stuck there. Her pain was my pain, her wins were my wins. And I agree with Riese, it wasn’t even just the lesbian storylines that made the women of that show so compelling. It was the way they existed, survived and thrived in that time, it was their friendships and unique bonds in this unique time in their lives. And, I mean, the outfits!!

Heather

Bomb Girls will always be one of my favorite shows. The amount of time I’ve spent reading and writing about women’s labor during World War II is… vast. To see that history come to life in a drama that featured a half dozen fully realized women characters — one of whom was Betty Fuckin’ McRae — remains a miracle to my mind. Has anyone on-screen had that lesbian swagger like she did? I really can’t think of anyone! Bomb Girls had enough story to tell for ten seasons. I was brokenhearted when it got canned.

---

One Mississippi & I Love Dick

Riese

I talked about these shows in their very own post and also I talked about I Love Dick even more in this post so that’s all! I won’t talk about it again but just so you know, I have strong feelings.

Heather

So many shows on TV, you lose them and you can replace them with something else that’s basically the same thing. (Especially for straight white cis people who like fire fighters or detectives or hospitals.) But there has never been a show like One Mississippi and I’m not sure there will be again for a long time, or maybe ever. A dark comedy/love story centering a 47-year-old masculine-of-center lesbian from the south? That really does feel once-in-a-lifetime. And it’s not just that the series ticked some underrepresented minority boxes; it was just really smart and really funny and really sweet and really real storytelling. Gah, and such a refreshing love story! Lisa Franklin of My Two Lesbian Ants said it better than me.

---

Faking It

Riese

Recapping a show when you recap a show like I recap a show is a pretty time-intensive process, which means when that show gets cancelled I often feel relief that the task has been removed from my plate and that relief overshadows my sadness about the show — which I liked enough to recap! — being cancelled. I can now say that I miss it and wish we’d had more time for Amy to blossom and do her summer discovery tour with that lesbian band you know?

---

Lip Service

Riese

I will watch lesbians do anything! That being said I am nothing if not entirely predictable so of course I wanted more Frankie in my life and I felt very sad that she was written off before the end of what’d turn out to be its final season.

Natalie

So I mourned Lip Service’s end too but not because of Frankie — I’d seen a better version of Frankie with Kate Moennig’s Shane and she never interested me much — but because the show had finally started to center itself around the characters I did find interesting: Tess, Sadie, Lexy and Sam. I wish we’d gotten to see more of Tess’ unending search for love, Sadie’s unrepentant grifting and Sam being a hot cop.

---

Dracula

Valerie Anne

For reasons I can’t quite put my finger on (okay fine it had a lot to do with Katie McGrath and Jessica De Gouw) I loved the first season of Dracula. Watching Lucy realize she was in love with her best friend, and that there were girls in the world who kissed other girls, was quite the sight to behold. It did such a great job of depicting the intensity of female friendship, and how sometimes when you’re queer it can be hard to suss out whether you love someone as a friend or you want more… and if they other person is feeling the same kind of confusion. (I’m also a sucker for a good, heart-wrenching, unrequited love story.) And then at the end of Season One, Lucy got turned into a vampire, so we could have had the lesbian vampire of our dreams! Alas, the show was gone too soon.

---

The Playboy Club

Valerie Anne

I know Riese talked about this show in her article about cancelled shows, but I wanted to give it another shout-out here because I was really excited to explore the underground world of the LGBTQ+ community in the ’60s. Plus, someone got stabbed with a stiletto!

---

All My Children

Natalie

It feels weird to count All My Children among these other shows, many of whom never got the opportunity to tell the stories that their creators wanted to tell…after all, AMC had been a part of daytime television for 41 years before it was cancelled in 2011. But it’s precisely because it had been on for so long that soap fans like myself mourned its loss so intensely. We’d welcomed All My Children into our homes for an hour everyday and we got to know those characters intimately. When my life was at its craziest, I knew that everyday, I could count on a short escape to Pine Valley. It was my television comfort food for years and, then, suddenly it was gone. I mourn its loss, still (which you can tell by the fact that we can never get through one of these roundtables without me mentioning it).

---

Still Star-Crossed

Natalie

Based on the book by Melinda Traub, Still Star-Crossed was the short-lived series that picked up just after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. It was everything you’d come to expect from a Shondaland product — an exquisitely cast group of diverse, beautiful, young actors — but it existed fully within the Shakespearean realm. It was an ambitious project, especially for network television; one that, admittedly, took me a little while to really get, but once I did, I loved it.

I loved Ebonee Noel’s Livia and Lashana Lynch’s Rosaline and, of course, Medalion Rahimi’s Princess Isabella most of all. A lesbian princess? Where else but in Shondaland?

But, of course, just as I started to get it and really love it, it was cancelled. It’s been almost two years since they cancelled it and I’m still mad about it. When Rahimi guest-starred on Scandal as a young Bashrani lesbian who — spoiler alert! — gets killed by Olivia Pope, I thought, “Why won’t the TV gods let her lesbian in peace?!”

---

Glee, Pretty Little Liars, The L Word

Carmen

I really struggled with coming up for a show for this roundtable! I’ve been lucky. I’ve never mourned the loss of a dearly departed gay show. In fact, most of the gay shows I’ve truly loved have been blessed with a long life. Perhaps, arguably, even too long of a life. I present to you: Glee, Pretty Little Liars, and the mothership closest to all of our hearts, The L Word. Each ran for six or seven years, when in all honesty four or five was probably closer to their sweet spot.

There’s a different kind of gut level pain that happens when you find yourself groaning at the DVR over a show that once made your life brighter and your heart flutter.You can’t quit it, no matter how hard you try. Because really, what is life without Santana Lopez? What is the sun if Bette Porter isn’t there to yell “fuck” at it? Do the days even really change if Emily Fields doesn’t have glass in her hair? So you stay, and you curse yourself for staying, but in your heart you know – there’s no other way. So, I can’t say that I’ve felt the agony of crying for a show that was cut down in its prime.

But reader, that does not mean that I haven’t felt pain.

---

Go On

Heather

In 2012, NBC aired a single season of a comedy called Go On about a support group for widowed spouses. The ensemble was a sitcom dream team: Laura Benanti, Matthew Perry, Suzy Nakamura, Brett Gelman, and Julie White, who played misanthropic lesbian Anne. It was a revolutionary show, not only because it landed well before the golden age of single-cam comedies rooted in trauma and depression and anxiety and grief, but also because it featured the first series regular lesbian on a broadcast TV sitcom since Ellen. There were no tired, cliched, tropey lesbian jokes; Go On wasn’t Friends. The writing for Anne refreshing and Julie White played her with such compassionate, deadpan hilarity I couldn’t get enough of it. Go On balanced laughs and pathos right out of the gate, something it took everyone’s favorite modern found family comedies — Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, etc. — at least a full season to figure out.

---

Caprica

Heather

I do understand that I was the only person on the face of the earth watching this Battlestar Galactica prequel, probably because it went hard hard hard on the religious stuff everyone hated about the original series, but I still think it was one of the most compelling sci-fi shows I’ve ever seen. It was asking questions ten years ago that we’re just beginning to grapple with today, about our online footprints and the data collected about us from social media networks and mobile phone companies and internet service providers and even those little frequent shopper cards you use to collect points for gas at Kroger. Specifically it was asking the question: After you die, could all the data you left behind be used to recreate you? Okay and if it could, what if someone plugged that data into — oh, say — a Cylon? Forcing this issue was prep school headmistresses and straight up cult leader Sister Clarice Willow, a psychotic bisexual Mommi played with cold precision by Polly Walker. It only lasted a truncated season and I think that’s a damn shame!

---

Adventure Time

Heather

It feels a little bit silly to say I mourn a show that lasted 300 episodes and ten seasons, and one that came to a natural and very satisfying(ly gay) conclusion — but I feel about this show the way Natalie feels about All My Children: I would have watched ten thousand episodes. It never faltered, in my opinion; it only got deeper and weirder and more gratifying to watch. Heck, I would have even settled for a spin-off doing a deep dive into all the supporting characters. I loved the feeling of opening up the DVR menu and realizing five new episodes of Adventure Time had appeared like magic. It was my one of my favorite Saturday morning surprises. I’ll miss that small thrill and Marceline and PB too, for a very long time.

---

Valerie Anne wants you to know Wynonna Earp is more than just a TV show to her; it’s found family. You can keep up with the most up-to-date information about saving the show at fightforwynonna.com and tweet your support with the hashtags #WynonnaEarp and #FightForWynonna.

Carmen wants you to know that if you are not doing literally everything you can to help save sweet, sweet Elena Alvarez from the cancelled TV lesbian graveyard, she will cry into a thousand damp pillowcases. She will never, NOT EVER, forgive you. Watch it right this second on Netflix and tweet it: #ODAAT and #RenewODAAT.

What gay shows do you actually mourn?

Cast Full of Lesbians: 15 TV Shows That Put Queer Women First

In interviews about The L Word reboot, Ilene Chaiken often mentions her assumption, at TLW’s conclusion in 2009, that the initiative she’d begun would be taken up by future showrunners and networks — that we’d enter a bold new era of lesbian-centric programming. Gay cable channels Logo and Here! had recently launched and we were full of hope. Chaiken was, as you probably have gathered, incorrect. But – there have been some shows that symbolically picked up the torch to varying degrees and that’s what we’re here to talk about today. The headline references the “Cast Full of Gays” trope, which is a much easier list to make (e.g., Queer as Folk, Looking, Noah’s Arc, Dante’s Cove, etc.) because of the patriarchy.

The criteria for this list were as follows: the program was produced and broadcast by an actual television or streaming network (rather than picked up later by one) and is not a “webseries,” it aims for realism, the lead(s) are queer and its focus is one or more lesbian, bisexual or queer women and her/their romantic, sexual and social lives. This does not include very queer shows that are primarily about supernatural situations (e.g., Lost Girl, Wynonna Earp, Sense8) or prison life (e.g., Orange is the New Black, Bad Girls, Wentworth) or the law (e.g., How to Get Away With Murder, Janet King), but shows that are about people and their relationships first and foremost. This usually means they fall into “prime-time soap” category. However, having a lesbian or bisexual lead and being realistic isn’t enough (e.g., Everything Sucks!, Gypsy, Broad City), the queer element has to be the show’s focus and the show’s essential hook without which the show would have no argument for its own existence. I didn’t include The Fosters because the kids’ stories are given equal importance / screen time to the lesbian Moms as opposed to the more clearly defined side-plot status of the straights on the other shows in this list. Even Ellen wouldn’t count because she was ostensibly straight for the first many seasons. These are shows that put lesbian and bisexual women and their social and romantic relationships with other queer women first.

Ratings System: Percentage based on score out of 30 

10 points: 1 point for every 10% of the show that is focused on queer stories
10 points: The presence of lesbian/bisexual friends, with the highest score going to shows that portray queer social groups / social life
10 points: % of lead characters who are lesbian/bisexual

---

The L Word, Showtime, 2004 – 2009 (95%)

Watch: On Netflix or Amazon

Leads: Jennifer Schecter (lesbian), Shane McCutcheon (lesbian), Tina Kennard (bisexual), Kit Porter (straight), Alice Pieszecki (bisexual), Bette Porter (lesbian)

As Shirley Bassey sings in a remix played during that scene in Season Two when Alice and Dana “debut” as a couple at The Planet, “where do I begin?” The answer is: right here, with The L Word. This is where we begin.

---

South of Nowhere, The N, 2005 – 2008 (53%)

Watch: Season One on DVD, Seasons 2 & 3 are streaming on Amazon Prime

Leads: Spencer Carlin (lesbian) & Ashley Davies (bisexual)
Secondary Leads: Spencer’s brother Glen and her parents (all heterosexual), Ashley and Spencer’s friend Aiden (heterosexual).

For a moment, when both South of Nowhere and The L Word existed at the same time on the same planet, it seemed a tide was turning and our stories had suddenly become viable television products. LOL. But so many owe their lesbian awakenings to this tender teen drama about Spencer, who moves to Los Angeles from the midwest with her family, gets a new best friend Ashley, and gradually discovers that she likes girls (including Ashley, who also likes girls). It was the first series on The N to address the topic with its primary characters, was reviewed favorably, and nominated for a GLAAD Media Award all three seasons. It started out so strong, giving us one of the first-ever femme teen couples on U.S. television, then created a very unpleasant Ashley/Aiden/Spencer love triangle and then spent entirely too much time trying to make us care about the straight characters before getting cancelled. NOBODY CARES ABOUT GLEN. Fans fought hard for a webseries following up the original program though, and got it, and the lead actresses remain regular fixtures at cons and in lesbian webseries.

---

Sugar Rush, Channel 4 (UK), 2005 – 2006 (60%)

Watch: On DVD or YouTube

Leads: Kim (lesbian) and Sugar (bisexual).
Secondary Leads: Kim’s parents, Nathan and Stella. (Heterosexual)

“It says something about the state of diversity in UK television that, currently, the best programme about lesbian relationships is a series from 2005,” wrote Radio Times in 2017, celebrating the release of Channel 4’s Pride Collection, further noting the “near-absence of lesbian shows in the Pride Collection” that indicated “a larger deficiency in the UK television industry.”

The series follows 15-year old Kim as she fights her burning crush on her new BFF, super bad girl Sugar, and struggles with her dysfunctional family — Mom’s shagging the carpenter while her Dad’s oblivious and heart-breakingly kind, and her brother literally believes he’s from another planet. But the focus is on Kim’s sexuality, her love for and friendship with Sugar and, later, her actual lesbian girlfriend Saint. It’s based on a YA novel you shouldn’t buy because the author is a terrible person. After two seasons the program was cancelled for mysterious reasons — a channel spokeswoman said the story of the girls had run its course, rumors suggested it was being removed to make room for Big Brother 8, and producers said the cancellation was “a last minute thing” and they were saddened to learn of it.

---

Curl Girls (Reality), Logo, 2007 (100%)

Watch: Online at Logo through local cable provider

Curl Girls was the first lesbian reality show on a major television channel, was part of Logo’s initial effort to actually provide lesbian representation as well as the same for gay men on their brand new cable channel. Logo described the cast like this: “Vanessa, who’ll go topless for her love of shock value; Melissa and Jessica, the on again-off again, steamy couple; Michele and Erin, the surfing pros of the group; and sexy new-girl Gingi.” They competed for a trip to Hawaii, which “strained their friendship” but apparently was not enough drama to earn the show a second season.

---

Exes and Ohs, Logo, 2007 – 2011 (100%)

Watch: On Amazon Prime

Leads: Jennifer (lesbian), Sam (lesbian), Kris (lesbian), Chris (lesbian).

This American/Canadian TV series, created by and starring lesbian comedian Michelle Paradise, focused on the dating life of Jennifer, a documentary filmmaker and her friends — Sam (Marnie Alton), the femme Shane of the group, animal-obsessed couple Chris (Megan Cavanagh) and Kris (Angela Featherstone) and musician Crutch (Heather Matarazzo). Based on Paradise’s short film The Ten Rules: A Lesbian Survival Guide, Exes and Ohs had the general vibe of a mediocre ’90s lesbian movie. Still, many found it charming and endearing in its own way. Plus, it’s basically the only sitcom about a group of lesbian friends to ever exist AND as far as I know, the cast was mostly or entirely queer women, too.

---

Gimme Sugar (Reality), Logo, 2008 – 2009 (100%)

Watch: On Logo’s website through your local cable provider

Gimme Sugar was Logo’s other reality offering for women, featuring a group of five lesbian and bisexual friends who put on Truck Stop, a hot party hosted at The Abbey in Los Angeles that I used to like a lot. Logo described it like this: “Five hot young friends on the L.A. lesbian club scene bite off more than they can chew when they try to launch and promote their own club night. If they succeed, they’ll be the youngest female promoters in LA. The girls will fight, fall in love, break apart, and come back together as they struggle to make their dream come true in this hot new reality series.” Season Two split the team between Miami and LA, a move that never really justified itself.  We made fun of this show and acted like it was ridiculous until we tried to throw our own party and all of us were petty in emails and then sloppy-drunk fighting with each other at the bar the night of and realized that we lived in a glass house and shouldn’t throw stones.

---

Lip Service, BBC Three (UK), 2010 – 2012 (90%)

Watch: On Hulu

Season One Leads: Cat Mackenzie (lesbian), Frankie Alan (lesbian), Tess Roberts (lesbian), Sam Murray (lesbian), Sadie Anderson (lesbian), Jay Adams (heterosexual male), Ed McKenzie (heterosexual male)
Season Two Leads: Tess Roberts (lesbian), Sam Murray (lesbian), Sadie Anderson (lesbian), Lexy Price (lesbian), Ed McKenzie (heterosexual male)

The closest think we ever got to The L Word was Lip Service, a Glasgow-set drama following a group of lesbian friends: neurotic architect Cat; her best friend Frankie, a brooding Shane-esque photographer; frazzled struggling actress Tess; hot cop Sam (this is how we all discovered Heather Peace!) and notorious bad girl Sadie. Season Two introduced Sexy Lexy Price, a doctor who moved in with Tess, Frankie and Sadie. It was fun and hot and compelling, but the show never really set up the sense of a larger queer social web or the city’s scene in the same way The L Word did, mainstream critics hated it and the community’s reaction was, according to Heather Davidson, “mixed.” She also noted that the show aired on BBC Three, its “youth-oriented” channel. I recapped a handful of episodes, watched it faithfully, truly enjoyed it and never felt bored or upset (besides when Cat was killed) — but still none of the involved characters come to mind when I think of my favorites. But 12 episodes isn’t a lot of time to shine, either. “What Lip Service was interested in showing you was sex, and lots of it – sex involving razors, sex involving funeral homes, sex involving condiments,” Heather wrote. “Honestly, it was a trip.”

---

The Real L Word (Reality), Showtime, 2010 – 2012 (100%)

Watch: On Showtime or Amazon Prime

It is not a secret that I hated every moment of this hellshow but y’all loved my petulant recaps and our parody videos and that was great for traffic! Each season was its own specific beast: Season One was a series of barely-intersecting mini-documentaries following four different stories including, most prominently, a group of young friends heavy into the WeHo party scene and Whitney Mixter. Whitney, along with her on-again-off-again girlfriend Sara and her ex Romi, were the series’ only consistent cast members. Aside from that, we got some fresh young Los Angeles faces who all interacted with each other in Season Two (including a butch/femme couple trying to get pregnant) and for Season Three, the show split itself between New York and Los Angeles, while still making a lot of room for crossover. The show definitely had its value, though. A year after its cancellation, the franchise produced the honestly touching and revelatory mini-documentary The Real L Word Mississippi: Hate The Sin.

---

Candy Bar Girls, Channel 5 (UK), 2011 (100%)

Watch: on YouTube

This reality program set in The Candy Bar, a former lesbian hotspot in the Soho neighborhood of London, aimed to “follow the lives and loves of a group of young lesbians who work hard and party even harder,” promising “raunchy drama and unique characters.” A salacious promotional campaign generated controversy before the show even hit the air, but the show itself surprised at least one Guardian reviewer: “The show’s trailers were tongue-in-cheek soft porn, but the wink-wink, nudge-nudge vibe isn’t present in the show itself. Instead, we’re treated to a glimpse into the lives of a diverse group of women, whose only common link is their sexuality.” A marketing campaign that aimed to arouse straight men was maybe part of why the show didn’t last past its first season, but who can say! The program’s oft-highlighted draw was its inclusion of former Big Brother contestant Shabby Katchadourian.

---

Faking It, MTV, 2014 – 2016 (43%)

Watch: Amazon Prime

Leads: Amy (lesbian) & Karma (unclear)
Secondary Leads: Shane (gay male), Liam (straight male)

The premise was as horrifying as they come but the result was often downright delightful: Amy and Karma, certifiably uncool best friends, pretend to be a lesbian couple to earn popularity points at their decidedly alternative high school in Austin. Then Amy realizes she might actually be a lesbian! Amy will always be near and dear to my heart, and recapping this program was usually a joy. By the series’ end there had been a PLETHORA of missteps but also some substantial steps towards inclusivity, eventually featuring an intersex woman, trans man and bisexual man in addition to the gay man and queer woman in the lead ensemble from the jump. Much like South of Nowhere, however, it seemed like Faking It was never fully invested to going all-in on its queer audience or its straight audience, and trying to please both rather than doubling down on one might be part of why it never found its groove and earned the ratings necessary to stay on the air. Unfortunately, Season Three had finished shooting before the team got word of its cancellation, so we never really got to close the door on Karmy.

---

Transparent, Amazon Prime, 2014 – 2019 (60%)

Watch: On Amazon Prime

Leads: Moira Pfefferman (bisexual trans woman), Ali Pfefferman (pansexual genderqueer), Sarah Pfefferman (bisexual), Josh Pfefferman (straight male), Shelly Pfefferman (mostly-straight female)

Transparent follows the very Jewish, very neurotic Los Angeles-based Pfeffermans headed up by Moira, a trans woman coming out and into herself in her sixties and her ex-wife, Shelly. Their daughter Sarah is a bisexual mother-of-two who leaves her husband for her ex-girlfriend before returning to her husband and joining a triad and their child Ali is a sexually fluid millennial who dates their bisexual BFF Syd (Carrie Brownstein) and their lesbian teacher (Cherry Jones) before eventually discovering their genderqueer identity. It’s also one of a handful of shows ever to portray a trans woman dating a cis woman. The show garnered massive critical acclaim and broke ground in so many ways — only to have the ship sunk by Jeffrey Tambour, who controversially was cast as the trans woman lead and eventually booted for sexual harassment. After a year off to pick up the pieces, the show’s final season, in the form of a musical special, will debut this year. Still, it’s the longest-running show on this list and although it lacks a consistent group of lesbian/bisexual friends, it dips in and out of multiple queer social groups and has the unique honor of being a show wherein the most consistent “group” of queer friends are all in the same family.

---

One Mississippi, Amazon Prime, 2016 – 2017 (57%)

Watch: On Amazon Prime

Lead: Tig (lesbian)
Secondary Leads: Remy (straight male), Bill (straight male), Stephanie (queer)

Tig Notaro’s little masterpiece was cancelled in what I can only perceive was a personal attack on me and my happiness. But before that dark day we got two small seasons of candor, wit, insight and biting social commentary, packaged alongside a sweet lesbian love story and an exploration of a family reeling from grief and trauma.

---

Take My Wife, Seeso/Starz, 2016 – 2018 (80%)

Watch: On Starz via Amazon Prime

Leads: Cameron (lesbian) and River (lesbian)

I didn’t believe Take My Wife was actually a real thing when I first heard about it — what was then perceived as a funny masculine-of-center lesbian couple, with episodes of traditional length, distributed by a legit channel with wide-audience-potential, exuding professional-level production value, filmed on a set that doesn’t look like a display copy of a condo? LOL!!! But wow, Take My Wife existed and was hilarious, full of heart and, especially in Season Two, chock-full of a diverse supporting cast of other queer folks, set in the bustling queer metropolis of Los Angeles. The show lost a Season Two platform after Seeso shuttered, but was mercifully picked up by iTunes and Starz.

---

Strangers, Facebook Watch, 2017 – (67%)

Watch: On Facebook Watch

Leads: Isobel (bisexual) and Cam (lesbian)

Heather Hogan boldly declared that Strangers was one of the best queer shows of 2017 when its first season debuted on Facebook’s new streaming network, and Vice declared “the best queer comedy on TV right now is on Facebook.” Heather found its second season to be EVEN BETTER than the first. “The second season premiere of Strangers debuted earlier this week and it’s already as gay as it was before,” Heather wrote. “Maybe gayer! 26 minutes, two queer BFFs, four women making out (in pairs), and a serious discussion about the fact that, look, everyone is gay now.”

---

Vida, Starz, 2018 – 2020 (67%)

Watch: On Starz or Amazon Prime

Leads: Emma (queer) & Lyn (straight)
Secondary Leads: Eddy (lesbian), Mari (straight), Cruz (lesbian), Johnny (straight man)

Vida is the only show on this list with a straight storyline given as much screentime as the queer ones, but I’m including it anyway because it’s one of the gayest shows ever and it gets everything right! Y’all, Vida has it all! A writer’s room dominated by POC and women, a diverse cast, a plethora of queer characters and the incredibly rare feature of showcasing a POC-centric queer social web. We spend a lot of time in a queer bar in Los Angeles’ rapidly gentrifying Boyle Heights neighborhood, surrounded by lesbians and other queer women of all shapes, sizes and gender presentations. Another advantage to staffing your writer’s room with QPOC is that you might end up with a writer who’s also primed to be part of one of the hottest lesbian sex scenes in television history.

---

The Bisexual, Channel 4 (UK), 2018

Watch: On Hulu

Lead: Leila (bisexual)
Secondary leads: Gabe (straight male), Deniz (lesbian), Sadie (lesbian)

Like Vida, The Bisexual sets itself apart by featuring a diverse group of lesbian friends in addition to focusing on the queer protagonist’s narrative and, like Vida, The Bisexual feels entirely authentic. “Akhavan has done something truly brilliant here,” wrote Heather Hogan in her review. “She’s created a show for an audience that understands the joke “Bette is a Shane trying to be a Dana” and then centers it on a character who’s meant to make everyone who gets that joke a little uncomfortable.” Will we ever get more of this show, which Akhavan struggled mightily to get on the air at all? I hope so, but if history is any indication… probably not. :-(

The 25 Best Lesbian and Bisexual Dates in TV History

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and whether you, like me, think of Valentine’s Day as a sweet little time to eat some chocolate and celebrate love even more than usual; or you, like basically everyone else I work with, think of Valentine’s Day as an exploitive and manipulative cash-grab orchestrated of the capitalist cisheterosexist patriarchy, I think there’s one thing we can all agree on: It’s fun watching women kiss each other on TV! And so I have mined the canon of queer women on television for some Valentine’s Day inspiration. Here are, in my opinion, the 25 best lesbian and bisexual dates on TV, and some advice about implementing their magic into your own dating game this Valentine’s Day.

---

Naomi and Emily’s Blowback Picnic, Skins

If a girl who’s very clearly in love with you keeps ducking and dodging your affection, why not entice her to follow you into the forest like a wood sprite and treat her to a relaxing good time?

Emily and Maya’s Under the Sea Bedroom Dance, Pretty Little Liars

Sometimes the girl you love can’t participate in her favorite hobby — say, swimming; or, sleuthing very badly — because she smashed her head into the pool wall under the influence of poison administered by a psychotic ninja ghost. In that case, simulate her favorite hobby.

Stef and Lena’s Stolen Swimming Pool, The Fosters

Children can interfere with your romantic plans. If that happens to you on Valentine’s Day, wait until they’re in bed and then abscond to your neighbors’ place and enjoy a skinny dip in their swimming pool.

Syd and Elena’s First School Dance, One Day at a Time

A school dance is a perfect place to make romantic memories.

Princess Bubblegum and Marceline’s Hambo Rescue, Adventure Time

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be stuffy restaurants and a dozen roses. How about journeying into the lair of a selfish little Sky Witch and wrestling back your beloved’s teddy bear from her evil grasp, and then flying home in each other’s arms?

Sara and Ava’s Summer Camp Shenanigans, Legends of Tomorrow

Relieve the magic of childhood by capturing a beloved memory one you experienced and reclaiming it as adults. (There’s a reason A-Camp sells out in just a few hours every year!)

Kat and Adena’s Before Sunrise, The Bold Type

Long-distance love? Don’t despair! You can make even an airport a romantic getaway. So many foods to choose from! So many places to buy books and headphones! Spring for the VIP lounge and you might even be able to sprawl out together! (But, um, be careful what you get up to under a very public blanket fort.)

Yolanda and Arthie’s Ballroom Dance, G.L.O.W.

There’s nothing like dancing with somebody who loves you, just one of the many lessons we learned as children from Queen Whitney.

Callie and Arizona’s First Kiss, Grey’s Anatomy

Maybe that girl you’re into isn’t ready to see you just yet. Or maybe she just thinks she’s not ready. Only one way to find out!

Annalise and Eve’s Misandry Pub, How to Get Away With Murder

Or just enjoy a night out with the one who knows you and loves you best. (Bonus points if any man who talks to you ends up buying your drinks when they sense how superior you are to them and how much you despise them.)

Alex and Maggie’s Pizza Night, Supergirl

Nothing says love like pizza and whiskey and kissing the girl you want to kiss.

Nicole and Waverly’s Reality-Defying Connection, Wynonna Earp

Just because you find yourself in an alternate reality, potentially even engaged to a man, doesn’t mean you have to stop your heart from beating its one true song. Get your girl, no matter what plane of the space-time continuum you find yourself on.

She-Ra and Catra attend Princess Prom, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Whether you go to the dance with your girlfriend (like Elena and Syd) or show up with your girl’s mortal enemies, twirl her up into your arms at least once that night, even if you both end up scowling and blushing the whole time.

Betty and Teresa’s Movie Night, Bomb Girls

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with some gentle hand-holding and a night out at the movies. Follow it up with fresh berries for brunch in bed, and you’ve won the holiday.

Brittney and Santana’s Valentine’s Day Kiss, Glee

Sometimes you just want to go out and do karaoke with your friends and open-mouth kiss your girlfriend right in front of them. Cherish it!

Cheryl and Toni’s Milkshake Confessions, Riverdale

Or perhaps a quiet night in a diner is just the thing. A burger, some fries, a milkshake: any or all of those snacks are the perfect food to accompany your confession that your family are all homicidal maniacs, who, in addition to killing each other all the time, once sent you to conversion therapy at a cult compound.

Willow and Tara’s Vending Machine Beginnings, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

You don’t always knows if you have magic with someone until you grasp their hand in yours and do an actual spell together to barricade a door and keep yourself safe from a monster attack.

Cosima and Delphine’s Crazy Science, Orphan Black

Is she straight? You won’t know until you ask her to make crazy science with you and then fetch her an ice cream after she’s exhausted and glowing, Frenchly, in your bed.

Denise and Michelle’s Thanksgiving, Master of None

One of luckiest dates a queer person can have is one that involves a family who loves them and their partner, and also homemade food. You’re even luckier if the whole thing is scored by New Edition.

Grace and Frankie’s Hot Air Balloon Ride, Grace & Frankie

Maybe you’re scared. Maybe she’s scared. Maybe you could conquer your fears together way up in the sky.

Ruby and Sapphire Find the Answer, Steven Universe

Nothing sets the mood for fusing your entire body and soul with another person like a little slow-dancing and perhaps a short duet, under the stars.

Yorkie and Kelly’s ’80s Vibes, Black Mirror: “San Junipero”

Heaven is a place on earth, and also a place inside a simulation meant to serve as an eternal playground for your soul. Either way: If you find a girl who makes your heart sing, do something about it!

M-Chuck Goes to Church, Survivor’s Remorse

After a night of celebrating another one of God’s beautiful creatures, why not hit up your local church with her for a little praise and worship? Unless your pastor reveals himself to be an unrepentant homophobe, in which case, feel free to follow M-Chuck’s lead and make them drag you the fuck out of there.

Madame Vastra and Jenny Celebrate the Holidays, Doctor Who

Going home for a holiday could be a fun time. Or you could go to someone else’s home and save them from violent, sentient snowman. Doing good deeds for others will make you feel good too.

Root and Shaw Find Hope in a Hopeless Simulation, Person of Interest

If you can’t be with your beloved on Valentine’s Day because you live in different places, or because one of you is kidnapped and your brain is being hijacked by a villainous shadow organization, there are plenty of ways to connect online!

---

What are some of your all-time favorite lesbian and bisexual dates on TV?