“Stumptown” Is Here to Fill The Root and Shaw-Shaped Hole in Your Heart
There are three storytelling tropes I love above all others: 1. When two women have to share their body heat to stay alive. 2. When two women have to pretend to be in relationship and then get into an actual relationship. 3. When two women kind of hate each other but then accidentally fall in love with each other. I can almost always only ever get those first two tropes in fan fiction, but there’s real promise in the third one. Helen and Nikki from Bad Girls. Bering and Wells from Warehouse 13. Root and Shaw from Person of Interest. Enemies to lover is delicious! I feast on the angst! And now Stumptown has entered that tempestuous gay fray!
My main problem with Stumptown, a show I actually like quite a lot, has always been its unwillingness to allow Dex to build any kind of lasting connections with other women. I was hopeful when the show came back from its holiday hiatus and pulled the plug on the Hoffman-Dex-Grey love triangle that it was opening the door for more ladies in Dex’s life, but never would I have dared to dream that she’d get a gay friend and an assassin girlfriend! But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Dex Parios is a bisexual dirtbag PI with a good heart, a drinking problem, and some serious PTSD from her time spent as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lately, people have been encouraging her to maybe try to unpack some of the pain around her past, maybe just hit up a meeting with some vets who’ve been through the same things she has. She’s reluctant, but when she shows up to such a meeting, she’s greeted by a puppy-like eagerness from fellow vet Julie Goldman, who charms her into not panicking and staying. In fact, Dex is so bamboozled by Julie Goldman’s honesty and ability to be… happy that she comes back for a second meet-up. That’s where she runs into Army vet Violet.
The whole thing is too gay to function. They waste absolutely no time on small talk, moving swiftly through introductions, clowning on each other’s drinks of choice (whiskey, neat for Dex; a Seabreeze for Violet), telling each other their deep trauma and secret fears, and then bouncing back to Violet’s place. En route, Dex’s haunted tape player gets stuck on “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” which Violet is both baffled and delighted by. She asks Dex if she wants to drink a bottle of Carignan and — Dex blurts out, “I WANNA.” They have a sexy night of sexy shenanigans, talk afterward about how they both feel like they’re floating, and even exchange phone numbers. It’s a pretty big step fo Dex, who has tried to sneak out of Hoffman’s house every time she’s hooked up with him.
Dex goes about her night, doing a PI bust with Grey on some carjackers who got in over their heads when they found some heroin that belongs to a big time crime boss. Just when it seems like they’ve got it wrapped up, the crime boss’ [presumable] assassin arrives AND THE ASSASSIN IS VIOLET! She and Dex glare at each other in shock and awe and lust and bewilderment, and dance around about how they don’t want to have to kill each other, and then they get into a full minute-long fist fight set to an a capella crooning of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” which Natalie aptly described as “the second time this week I’ve seen a fight scene substituted for gay sex and, I’ve gotta say, I enjoyed them both.”
Dex ends up tossing Violet over the side of the walkway and Violet escapes before Dex can catch her breath.
Later that night, Dex is sitting at the bar, drinking alone, when a cocktail arrives for her. A Seabreeze, made to Violet’s exact specifications. Grapefruit juice, cranberry juice, vodka, and a celery stalk. The bartender says, “Some woman ordered it for you. She was just here a second ago.” Grey narrows her eyes, looks around, sees no one, pulls the Seabreeze toward her, drinks the whole thing.
See you soon, Violet; when Dex leasts expects it!
Boobs on Your Tube: “Stumptown” Puts Dex on Stronger Bisexual Footing in the New Year!
Hello and welcome back to Boobs on Your Tube! We missed you! While on holigay break, the Autostraddle TV Team stayed busy keeping you up to date. If you’d like to catch up, we have you covered. Meanwhile, this is what happened this week:
First, Riese recapped the latest episode of The L Word: Generation Q in her supreme, trademarked, super detailed and incredibly snarky form! Her recaps are truly the TV event of every week and you don’t want to miss them! Speaking of one-of-a-kind television events and Generation Q, Drew and Annalyssa are back with another episode of To L and Back, so you can get your recap fix in a podcast – whatever your needs, we are here to provide. Kate McKinnon introduced Ellen Degeneres for her Golden Globe Lifetime Achievement Award and we cried buckets, but Heather’s here to remind us that we still have a long way to go. Maddy wrote an intensely personal essay about Catfish of all things. Carmen considered the role of nostalgia television from the Bush era that just might help us survive Trump. Valerie was disappointed to find out that the new lesbian storyline in Season Two of “Light as a Feather” was really stiff as a board. Heather got us the trailer for Cate Blanchett (!!) and Sarah Paulson’s (!!!) new limited series, Mrs. America about the right wing takedown of the feminist movement in the 1970s. Here was Carmen’s review: “I am not prepared for a world where I am physically attracted to Phyllis Schlafly.” So say we all.
BREAKING NEWS: The Autostraddle TV Team’s “Winter 2020 TV Preview: Where To Find All The LGBTQ Women and Trans People on Your Television” is OFFICIALLY HERE. Be sure to get in on that!
Here’s what else!
Notes from the TV Team:
+ This is technically not a part of our coverage, but I thought you’d want to know the sad news that Dr. Alex Karev is leaving Grey’s Anatomy after 16 seasons! Apparently there might be some drama behind it. — Carmen
+ Also I owe you an update on God Friended Me. I apologize because this week got away from me, but you’ll have it next week! — Carmen
Stumptown 110: “Reality Checks Don’t Bounce”
Written by Heather
Stumptown continues to surprise me. Well, actually that’s not true. The least surprising thing in the world is that this network TV show has made Dex’s life revolve around the men in it, and that she hardly ever interacts with other women in any signifiant way that lasts more than one episode. What surprises me is, despite that, I keep showing up for it! I love Dex and Cobie Smulders’ portrayal of her — including her nonchalant bisexuality — is pitch-perfect. Anyway, before the holiday break, Sue Lynn told Dex to get her shit together and it looks like she’s really going to do it, including putting a stop to the love triangle that has already grown tedious over ten episodes. Now that Ansel has moved out, and Grey and Hoffman are forming a tentative alliance, as opposed to doing turf wars over Dex, it seems like she’s going to get some storylines of her own!
One of the most interesting things to me about this week’s episode is how patient it was, in terms of character development, and it paid off with some legit emotional resonance. The camera lingeres on Dex’s face. The case of the week — a kidnapping and a squabble between brothers — reflects and helps her resolve her family struggles (it’s all very Grey’s Anatomy actually). She’s town, as usual, between doing what’s right and getting paid. And maybe she’s even going to seek treatment for her PTSD. It’s a good set up for the back half of the season; hopefully Grey and Hoffman will fall in love with each other and leave her alone.
Deputy 101-102: “Graduation Day” and “10-8 Outlaws”
Written by Natalie
They’re just so cute together!
There’s a moment, about midway through Deputy‘s first episode, where the newly appointed Sheriff of LA County, Bill Hollister, interrupts a previously scheduled joint operation with ICE and orders all his deputies to go home. He wants people to know, “regardless of how they got here,” to know that they can come to the Sheriff’s Office for help. To do anything else, he says, is like “gift-wrapping about a million victims for every bad guy in town to prey on with total impunity.”
It’s a progressive vision of policing — one that threatens to cost the county millions in federal grants — that I’d usually rush to celebrate. But my enthusiasm is tempered by knowing that, but for an ill-timed heart attack, the ICE-defying sheriff would have been one of the deputies pulled from the field for having too many instances of brutality in his file. This is the guy we’re supposed to cheer for; this is our hero?
Through the first two episodes of Deputy that kind of juxtaposition has become the show’s hallmark…at once, attempting to be a new kind of police procedural while also embracing the (worst) hallmarks of past procedurals. Even the show’s diversity feels both refreshing and regressive. In the past, Bex Taylor-Kaus’ Brianna Bishop would be a male character…in fact, on the shortlived and underappreciated Chicago Code (which starred Jennifer Beals as the newly appointed police superintendent), the ambitious, astute, talented driver/security guard was a male character. Instead, Deputy gives that role to nonbinary actor and the character comes out in the show’s first episode. Refreshing, right? But Bishop comes out by way of a U-Haul joke…a U-Haul joke she has to explain to her clueless boss who, apparently, has never known a lesbian before now. How is this a conversation we’ve having in 2020?
I hope that Deputy finds a way to reconcile its identity soon because Kaus is so endearing in their role. Plus? Last night’s episode introduced her girlfriend, Genevieve, played by Claws‘ Karrueche Tran…and Karrueche playing queer is everything I never knew I always wanted.
Almost Family 110: “Couragous AF”
Written by Valerie Anne!
Good outfits and bad ideas.
I want to start out by saying I’m really enjoying Almost Family. And it’s because I’ve been having such a great time that I want to talk about a huge issue it’s having. I want to call them out but with love. Calling in, if you will.
In the past few episodes, Amanda and Edie have super cute. Edie broke it off with her husband to commit to Edie, Edie introduced Amanda to her son’s other mother, etc. Things were moving along nicely. Until this week. It started with a flirty bartender. Amanda sees Edie with the bartender and says she should date other girls, since Amanda was the first girl she’d ever been with. Which is flawed logic, but we learn that Amanda’s ex got in her head about it, and also Amanda felt insecure because THEIR relationship started because Edie got curious. So I’ll forgive her.
What I cannot forgive, is the lesbian kickball team Edie meets on this strange quest. Things were off to a good start because the team is called the Dixie Kicks, but it was all downhill from there. Full of lesbians that apparently time traveled here from 2005, they complain about “heteroflexible” girls and “goldfish” – a term I think the writers made up that means a straight girl “fishing” for “gold star lesbians,” an outdated/biphobic/judgemental term in itself. So they’re using outdated, biphobic, and made up language, all at the same time; naturally Edie is confused. She tries to make out with the bartender, but her heart’s not in it; she just wants Amanda. I knew I was gay before I ever kissed ANYONE of any gender, so all of this seems misguided at best. If Edie realizes she’s a lesbian, that’s totally valid. Plenty of lesbians I know were in long-term relationships with men before they realized they were gay. But the fact that no one has even said the word bisexual yet is driving me absolutely batty.
I hope the show gets its act together on this front soon, or, at the VERY least, just stops talking about Edie’s sexuality at all and focuses instead on Edie and Amanda’s relationship. LET ME LOVE YOU, ALMOST FAMILY.
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
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.
Cobie Smulders Is a Revelation as Bisexual Dirtbag PI Dex Parios in “Stumptown”
When ABC announced it was adapting Greg Rucka’s cult-favorite detective series Stumptown for TV, our main question was: Will Cobie Smulders’ Dex Parios be bisexual, like she was the comic books? The first trailer was unclear, but at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, Smulders confirmed that her Dex is, in fact, queer. So I was a go on leaving the warm weighted blanket of binge-able streaming TV to, once again, and for the first time in a long time, attach myself to a network drama’s freshman season.
The weirdest thing happened to me when I was watching the first episode: I stopped caring about the commercials, and whether or not Dex was going to hook up with another woman. The pilot is compelling and hilarious and smart and action-packed, and while it certainly gets mired in basic network TV pilot exposition at times, Smulders is so charismatic as my all-time favorite dirtbag private investigator, I just genuinely enjoyed watching her story unfold on-screen.
Let’s get this out of the way: Dex Parios is not Jessica Jones, and anyone who suggests she is should treat themselves with a healthy dose of staying off Twitter immediately and forever. I know it’s hard for some people (men) to believe, but two whole entire women can be private investigators with traumatizing pasts and still be completely different characters.
Dex Parios did five tours in Afghanistan and she’s got major PTSD to show for it. She’s also got a gambling issue, an alcohol issue, an inability-to-commit-to-anything issue, and a car that only starts one time out of every ten tries. (There’s also a mixtape stuck in the cassette player that makes for a great gag and some Guardians of the Galaxy-worthy classic soundtrack moments.) Dex has enough baggage to crush a normal person and absolutely no self-preservation instinct. (Which: gay.) “Forget It Dex, It’s Stumptown” unfurls her whole deal: Sue Lynn Blackbird, the owner of the casino where Dex has racked up a hefty debt blowing her military disability checks, agrees to wipe her slate clean if she’ll track down Sue Lynn’s missing granddaughter. Sue Lynn seeks out Dex because she knows Dex because one time her son was in love with Dex and she wrecked their relationship because she didn’t think Dex was good enough for him.
While cracking open the case, and getting her head and ribs cracked in the process, Dex bumps up against the men in her life. There’s her younger brother, Ansel (Cole Sibus), who she tries very hard to take care of; her best pal, Grey (Jake Johnson), who helps her take care of her brother when she can’t and bails her out of jail; and her nemesis-turned-one-night-stand, Detective Miles Hoffman (Michael Ealy), who seems to understand she’s going to destroy him, emotionally, but can’t stay away. The people with the power, though, are women: The aforementioned casino owner Sue Lynn Blackbird (Tantoo Cardinal) and Lieutenant Cosgrove (Camryn Manheim) of the Portland PD. ABC only released one episode for review, but my guess is we’re looking at a case of the week-style procedural with an overarching season-long mystery that’ll keep Dex in Sue Lynn and Lieutenant Cosgrove’s orbit.
Those are just the pieces of the puzzle. What really makes Stumptown shine is Smulders. Certainly the Golden Age of Television has offered up some #ComplicatedWomen, but in the land of network TV, there are still very few women who are both complete assholes and characters you’re compelled to root for. Dex Parios is both of those things. She’s a woman who’s been beaten down — literally and a lot — by circumstances beyond her control, and a woman who’s made — and keeps making — some really shitty choices that result in a lot of heartache for her and the people closest to her. She’s kicking and clawing and smashing and bashing her way through the world and every man in her way.
“Yeah, fine,” she says, in the pilot. “I’m kind of a mess” — and it’s a joy to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwynrxEPSQk
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.