From Doctor Who and Star Trek to Buffy and Wynonna Earp, sci-fi has been one of the more consistent places we, as queer people, have been able to find ourselves on TV over the past few decades. People who write sci-fi and fantasy tend to connect with the “outsider” themes and therefore often include more minority groups (also I imagine it’s a little easier to pitch “also there are lesbians” when you’ve already been approved for “a woman sees herself jump in front of a train and then realizes she’s a human clone.”) And as the world outside looks more and more like the post-apocalyptic hellscape often found in shows like the ones on this list, seeing ourselves in the stories we look to for a bit of escapism is more important than ever.

While there have been countless popular sci-fi and fantasy shows over the years, I have found 184 shows that have featured LGBTQ+ characters and put them through a gauntlet of sorts to narrow them down to the Top 100, the best of the best, the shows where the quality of the show and quality of the representation were quantified to see who ended up on top. This is our third time updating this list, as it was created in 2020, and updated again in 2022.

This was no easy feat, and honestly some great shows didn’t make the cut. While most of the shows that landed below the line probably would come as no surprise (like The Exorcist), some hurt my feelings (Timeless would be in my own personal top 50, but it was all the way down in spot 118), and some were more surprising. Probably the biggest surprise is that while Warrior Nun was on the 2022 version of this list, it ended up getting bumped this year, simply not having the numbers to compete with all the new blood in the competition.

One thing I love about lists like this that we do at Autostraddle is that it is very uniquely ours. Any other Top 100 sci-fi list would have The Walking Dead much higher than it landed here, but on this list, you get points docked for buried gays, so #81 it is. The votes of my fellow members of the Autostraddle TV Team weigh heavily on the outcome, so if you couldn’t please enough queer TV critics, it is what it is.

I have an overly complicated ranking system, and a very intense, annotated spreadsheet (I’vebeen told that is the Capricorn in me) that helped me be sure I was putting as many FACTS into this list as I was heart. So while I used my own judgment for tiebreakers, to get a general idea of order, I awarded points as follows:

Every show got 0-3 points based on the quantity of LGBTQ+ characters, 0-3 points based on the quality of those characters’ stories, and 1 point for each of the following achievements:

• The show had a character on Carmen and Natalie‘s Top 100 Queer and Trans Women of Color Television Characters in TV History
• I could find an out queer and/or trans actor or writer with a reasonable amount of research
• The show being critically acclaimed by mainstream critics
• And the show being critically acclaimed by queerstream critics.

Also, despite the fact that sci-fi is the first type of show to claim “everyone dies” in equal amounts, I still removed one whole point for every single dead queer female or non-binary character. Because we’re not at a point yet where it doesn’t matter. The only time a dead queer person did not count against a show is if their death didn’t mean they were no longer on the show. Since it’s sci-fi/fantasy we’re talking about here, often a person would die but their ghost would hang around, or they’d die but be resurrected.

And finally, I had our TV Team here at Autostraddle give their faves a rating of 1-5, with the ability to give out fourteen 10s. Because it doesn’t matter how much representation there is on paper if actual queer people didn’t like or connect to it.

(Note: before you Ctrl + F for She-Ra or Carmilla: I didn’t include cartoons or webseries, because those would require a list of their own.)

I would like to thank Riese’s exhaustive TV database for giving me a foundation to start on, Carmen and Natalie for giving me an idea for point structure, Autostraddle TV Team members for helping me out with some of the blurbs, and sites like LezWatchTV, IMDb, and Wikipedia for being invaluable sources of information, plus any help/input from friends (and my dad) I got along the way. Also, shout out to the folks who keep fan wikis up to date, you’re the real MVPs.

One last thing: This is for fun! While based on a fuckton of reading and watching and learning, and a lifetime of experience consuming sci-fi, this is a rating system I made up! I feel like my hours of research and toiling makes for a fairly accurate list of 100, but when it comes down to it, the difference between the #15 show and the #10 show could have just been how many people on the TV Team saw it. I do HIGHLY encourage you to make your case for why your favorite show should be higher on the list in the comments; just remember that this list doesn’t actually have any bearing on anything besides our hearts, so please be kind to each other about it, okay? Sara Lance didn’t come back to life 86 times just so you can set each other on fire.

Okay, without further ado… the top 100 Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Shows featuring lesbian, bisexual, queer and/or trans characters OF ALL TIME!

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The 100 Best Lesbian+ Sci-Fi and Fantasy TV Shows of All Time

100. Torchwood (2006 – 2011)

Starring: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Naoko Mori, Indira Varma, Freema Agyeman”
Watch on Max

Torchwood managed to cling to this list by the coattails! This Doctor Who spinoff about Captain Jack Harkness takes the “everyone is queer” vibe and puts it in ink — creators of the show have confirmed that everyone of any gender on Team Torchwood is queer, and we see at least five women bring that to life on screen. And I know 2008-2011 doesn’t sound like that long ago, but in Queer TV years, it’s practically a lifetime, so this was truly a unique situation. Not all of the queer women survive, which is why it isn’t higher on this list, but whew did we enjoy the timey wimey, wibbly wobbly ride.

99. The Power (2023)

Starring: Toni Collette, Halle Bush, Auliʻi Cravalho, Daniela Vega, Adina Porter
Watch on Prime Video

The Power, starring bisexual icon Auli’i Cravalho, imagines a world where the scales are balanced and women are granted literal (electric) power in an attempt to put them on an equal playing field with the men in the world with physical and political power. All teen girls came into this power at the same time, and they can unlock the power in older generations. Suddenly women all over the world can stand up to their abusers, their tormentors, their competitors. It’s a powerful metaphor that admittedly gets a bit off the rails, but along the way we meet queer characters, like the lesbian daughter of a mob boss, queer kids in a school for runaways, and a trans nun.

98. American Horror Stories (2021 – Present)

Starring: Sierra McCormick, Aaron Tveit, Billie Lourd, Noah Cyrus, Lisa Rinna
Watch on Hulu

American Horror Stories, the AHS-themed anthology series, is hit or miss episode to episode, starting off with a bang in the form of a lesbian murderess and her ghost girlfriend. The second season features queer milkmaids in what stands out as one of the better episodes of the series.

97. Firefly (2002 – 2003)

Starring: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite
Watch on Hulu

A cult classic, this one-season Joss Whedon space cowboy show made waves long after it was over, leaving us to wonder if Inara, the spaceship’s resident sex worker and confidante, could have explored relationships with women further if the show had continued on. As it stands, she takes on female clients occasionally, seemingly by choice and not out of necessity. She also seems to have a bit of a history with Julie Cooper Nichol, but that might be me projecting.

96. Twisted Metal (2023 – present)

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz, Joe Seanoa, Will Arnett, Thomas Haden Church
Watch on Peacock

Loosely based on the 90s video game by the same name, this post-apocalyptic adventure follows Anthony Mackie’s charming-as-hell John Doe and bisexual goddess Stephanie Beatriz’s Quiet as they race across the country, facing many dangerous obstacles as they go. Along the way they meet characters that will be familiar to anyone who played the game but still a delight to anyone who didn’t, including queer-coded wild child Bloody Mary (played by the hilarious Chloe Fineman), and a caravan of what seems like an entire queer community, including lesbian couple Amber and Watts.

95. The Midnight Club (2022)

Starring: Iman Benson, Igby Rigney, Ruth Codd, Annarah Cymone, Adia
Watch on Netflix

The Midnight Club is arguably the least gay of the Mike Flanagan Netflix catalog, so it’s no surprise it sits in the lowest position of them all. That said, maybe it’s because his wife is bisexual icon Kate Siegel and he just carries that bi wife energy into everything he makes, maybe he’s just a stand-up guy, but so far we have yet to go unrepresented in a show he’s produced with Netflix. The Midnight Club is an amalgamation and reimagination of some classic Christopher Pike tales, centering around a group of teenagers in a facility for end-of-life care, as they all have terminal illnesses. To entertain themselves, they have a club not unlike Are You Afraid of the Dark‘s Midnight Society, where they take turns telling each other stories. Some of these stories have queer vibes, and one of the patients is the resident rich kid with a good heart that everyone suspects might be a pathological liar, Cheri, confides to the other gay resident, Spencer, that she’s gay, too, in a rare, earnest moment.

94. Dracula (2013 – 2014)

Starring: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jessica De Gouw, Katie McGrath, Victoria Smurfit, Oliver Jackson-Cohen
Buy on Prime Video

One way you can know I am not just arbitrarily making the order of this list up is because Dracula would be MUCH higher if I were. Katie McGrath is the picture of perfection as Lucy Westenra, harboring a soul-crushing love for her best friend Mina, knowing her feelings will probably never be returned. She learns to identify these feelings by way of Lady Jayne, who showed her what kissing girls is like, Cruel-Intentions-style. Technically Dracula killed Lucy, but SHE was totally down to be a vampire, and I will never, ever, ever forgive the TV gods for denying me at least one season of Vengeful Lesbian Vampire Lucy Westenra for as long as I live.

93. Vagrant Queen (2020)

Starring: Adriyan Rae, Tim Rozon, Alex McGregor, Bonnie Mbuli, Jennifer Steyn
Watch on Prime Video

This SYFY space adventure was short-lived but not lacking in queer content. The sweet and bubbly pansexual alien Amae is a foil for grumpy and serious bisexual Elida as they make their way through space with their unlikely group of friends, and luckily the slow burn paid off before the show got sucked into the black hole of cancellations.

92. Counterpart (2017 – 2019)

Starring: J. K. Simmons, Olivia Williams, Harry Lloyd, Nazanin Boniadi, Sara Serraiocco
Watch on Prime Video

This timeline-hopping thriller follows Baldwin, a soft butch assassin, who is having a time of it; she feels her life is not her own, she watches her alternative timeline self die, she struggles to connect to the women she encounters, which makes sense because the risk of betrayal is always just around the corner in a world like hers. This show blurs the line of the Bury Your Gays trope, by killing of a queer character in one dimension but not the other, but overall it is unique representation that should not go uncelebrated.

91. The Librarians (2014 – 2018)

Starring: Rebecca Romijn, Christian Kane, Lindy Booth, John Harlan Kim, John Larroquette
Buy on Prime Video

This campy, ridiculous show is like the bookish cousin of Warehouse 13 and Legends of Tomorrow. A spinoff of the movies starring Noah Wiley, the show follows a bunch of “chosen” nerds with special skills who have to save and protect magical objects. One of said nerds is Cassandra, a sweet, bubbly woman with an amazing brain, who once had a fairytale prince spell put on her, and another time had a tempting encounter with a vampire. It’s cheesy and magical fun all around.

90. Vampire Academy (2022)

Starring: Sisi Stringer, Daniela Nieves, Mia McKenna-Bruce, André Dae Kim, Anita-Joy Uwajeh
Watch on Peacock

In the latest remake of the popular book series, Vampire Academy follows vampire royalty Lissa Dragomir and her bodyguard-in-training, best friend and (supposedly platonic) soulmate Rose. While, at first glance, it might seem like Lissa and Rose are in love, it turns out they are strictly best friends. This television adaptation does give us some some queer vampires though, including Mia, who also has two vampire dads. Despite her desire for upward mobility in the social ranks, Mia ends up falling for a guard, Meredith, and learning illegal battle magic just to protect her. Very romantic.

89. I Am Not Okay With This (2020)

Starring: Sophia Lillis, Wyatt Oleff, Sofia Bryant, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Aidan Wojtak-Hissong
Watch on Netflix

A story about grief at its core, I Am Not Okay with This is about a teenage girl named Sydney who finds herself at the hardest time in her life suddenly with powers that she can’t control. And of course that’s not all, on top of having powers and experiencing grief and just the general trauma of being a teenager, she is also harboring a pretty massive crush on her best friend, Dina. Unfortunately, there is only one season of this show, despite it originally being renewed for two, which was attributed to delays due to the pandemic.

88. Roswell, New Mexico (2019 – 2022)

Starring: Jeanine Mason, Nathan Dean, Michael Vlamis, Lily Cowles, Heather Hemmens
Watch on Netflix

There was a long time where I couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on re: the queerness of this aliens-among-us reboot of the 90s show, but eventually they made it crystal clear that alien hottie Isobel is bisexual as heck, and the show proves that we don’t have to give some shows to the boys and some to the girls, but you can in fact have multiple main queer couples at the same time. A win for human AND alien-kind!

87. Silo (2023 – Present)

Starring: Rebecca Ferguson, Rashida Jones, Common, Harriet Walter, Clare Perkins
Watch on Apple TV+

Another post-apocalyptic entry to the canon, Silo takes place in an imagined future where everyone lives underground, the outside world deemed unsafe. The titular Silo is huge, many floors deep, everyone assigned to their roles, which keeps the community functioning like the well-oiled machine that is the silo itself. But as Rebecca Furgason’s Juliette starts to learn, there may be secrets yet to unfold. She starts to uncover some of them with the help of a lesbian electrical engineer who stopped leaving her workshop altogether when her wife left her 25 years ago.

86. The Sandman (2022 – Present)

Starring: Vivienne Acheampong, Jenna Coleman, Gwendoline Christie, Briby Howell-Baptiste, Mason Alexander Park
Watch on Netflix

The Sandman lives up to its name, having a dream-like and nightmarish quality depending on the episode. With a combination of throughlines and vignettes, it tells the story of Morpheus, one of seven entities called the Endless. The Endless all seem to live outside humans’ limited concept of gender and sexuality, plus there is a healthy sprinkling of queer human characters throughout, including but not limited to Doctor Who‘s Jenna Coleman. Not all of the sapphics survive, but they’re all incredibly interesting, in my humble opinion.

85. Defiance (2012 – 2015)

Starring: Julie Benz, Jaime Murray, Mia Kirshner, Jesse Rath, Anna Hopkins
Watch on Roku

Jaime Murray is someone who shows up in multiple shows on this list, but this is only one of two where she plays canon queer. (Though let’s be honest, Jaime Murray has chemistry with practically everyone like some kind of Katie McGrath.) In Defiance, she plays a quiet, obedient alien wife who has her eyes opened up to the world beyond her husband and starts to rebel in her own ways. One of which is by sleeping with Jenny Schecter the madame at the local brothel, Kenya Rosewater. This show also boasts queer alien Doc Yewll, and while Kenya goes the way of Jenny in this show, overall it’s still a fun supernatural romp.

84. Fantasy Island (2021 to 2023)

Starring: Roselyn Sánchez, Kiara Barnes, John Gabriel Rodriquez, Alexa Mansour, María Gabriela González
Watch on Tubi

Not only does Fantasy Island have a Very Special Queer Episode that is better than most lesbian romance movies I’ve ever seen, one of the main characters, Ruby, is a woman who was married to a man who was her best friend, but now that she got her fantasy of starting life over as a young woman, she is realizing she was hiding the truest part of herself; the part that loves women. So we get to see Rose explore this side of herself for the first time, occasionally with a mysterious stranger named Isla, and it truly is a magical thing to witness.

83. Caprica (2009 – 2011)

Starring: Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, Alessandra Torresani, Polly Walker
Watch on Prime Video

This Battlestar Galactica prequel did not last very long, despite having Buffy alum Jane Espenson at the helm for the first few episodes. And yet, in its one short season, it tackles topics like technology, religion, loss, and more. Clarice Willow — who Heather Hogan once described as “a psychotic bisexual Mommi” — has many husbands and wives, but despite living in a polytheistic community, is secretly a monotheistic terrorist. She even murders one of her own wives on suspicions that proved unfounded. It’s…a lot. But! Those who loved the show LOVED it, and those who love the Battlestar Galactica franchise but didn’t love it still accept it as the weird cousin they don’t really talk about at Thanksgiving.

82. The Big Door Prize (2023 – present)

Starring: Chris O’Dowd, Gabrielle Dennis, Djouliet Amara. Ally Maki, Crystal Fox
Watch on Apple TV+

One day, in a small town, a machine showed up that promised to tell people their true potential. On a little blue card, in plain ink, just a handful of words told them of their fate. Chaos ensues. The potentials are worn like titles, weaponized, lied about, you name it, and Dusty and his family are in the center of it all. In this funny, heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking show, Dusty’s mother-in-law, Izzy, is the mayor and has an ex-girlfriend in town.

81. The Walking Dead (2010 – 2022)

Starring: Lauren Cohen, Danai Gurira, Merritt Wever, Eleanor Matsuura, Nadia Hilker
Watch on Netflix

This zombie apocalypse drama is a critical darling that is lower on our list than it would be a mainstream site’s because they have killed three of its five lesbians. I won’t tell you which ones, but the lesbians in question are Tara, her consecutive girlfriends Alsiha and Denise, and girlfriends Magna and Yumiko, a leader/lawyer and a badass archer respectively.

80. The Shannara Chronicles (2015 – 2017)

Starring: Austin Butler, Poppy Drayton, Ivana Baquero, Manu Bennett, Vanessa Morgan
Watch on Prime Video

Shannara is a rare mix of post-apocalyptic and high fantasy, not too dissimilar from Into the Badlands in that regard, but with more elves and magic. The opening scene in this show features an elven girl named Amberle running a blindfolded race intended only for men and winning it, so I was in from the start. Then they added bisexual rover Eretria, and though they killed her ex-girlfriend, she eventually meets a literal princess played by Toni Topaz herself, Vanessa Morgan.

79. Midnight Mass (2021)

Starring: Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli, Annabeth Gish
Watch on Netflix

Mike Flannagan is back! The time with his wife, bisexual actress Kate Siegel, as the leading lady, Erin. This dark and twisty tale is a stunning take-down of Christianity, and a thoughtful inspection of life and death, all with a supernatural twist. It could be equal parts triggering and cathartic for someone raised Christian, and overall it’s a very compelling story. The canon queer in question here is Sarah Gunning, played by Annabeth Gish, who is the local doctor and Erin’s best friend.

78. Naomi (2022)

Starring: Kaci Walfall, Cranston Johnson, Alexander Wraith, Mary-Charles Jones, Camila Moreno
Watch on Max

Everything’s seemingly idyllic for Naomi McDuffie in Port Oswego until it isn’t. She’s got two loving and supportive, adoptive parents, a true “ride or die” best friend, and friends that are down for whatever. But then Superman appears and does battle with an enemy above the town square and it’s clear: everything Naomi thought she knew was in doubt. Naomi discovers that superheroes and aliens exist, beyond the pages of the comic books she covets, and — to her great dismay — she could be one of them. An adaptation of the comic book series of the same name, Naomi is brought to the small screen by Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship. The adaptation expands Naomi’s world to include Lourdes, the queer owner of the local comic book shop, who wants to be more than just friends with Naomi. But even the show’s A-list creator and lush visuals couldn’t save Naomi from the CW’s Red Wedding and it was canceled after just one season. —Natalie

77. Heroes (2006 – 2010)

Starring: Hayden Panettiere, Tawny Cypress, Ali Larter, Milo Ventimiglia, Masi Oka
Watch on The CW

Save the cheerleader. Save the world. Even if you never watched Heroes, you’ve probably heard this phrase, because this ominous tagline was so pervasive while this show about ordinary people with extraordinary abilities became popular. We find out in later seasons that the cheerleader in question, Claire, is bisexual, which we learn via a kiss from her roommate (during sweeps week, of course) and a hand-holding that implied things could have gone places if the show hadn’t ended.

76. Utopia Falls (2020)

Starring: Robyn Alomar, Akiel Julien, Humberly González, Devyn Nekoda, Kate Drummond
Watch on Hulu

Utopia Falls is like if Hunger Games and High School Musical had a strange, futuristic baby. Set in a world where different sectors send teenagers to compete in a high-stakes talent show, the show also uncovers long-kept secrets, including but not limited to a bunker full of archives of long-forgotten music. Hilariously, the AI voice of this archive is Snoop Dogg. Two of the contestants are Brooklyn 2 and Sage 5, despite being each other’s competition, the two girls also start to develop feelings for each other. Which is how I imagine all real competition shows go.

75. American Horror Story (2011 – Present)

Starring: Sarah Paulson, Emma Roberts, Cara Delevinge, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Patti Lupone
Watch on Hulu

I know that technically each season of American Horror Story is kind of like its own show, but they’re always at least a little bit queer, and I didn’t want 1/10 of this entire list to be filled up by Ryan Murphy, so I smooshed them together. The show ranges in quality season to season, both on a large scale and on a queer scale, but every time Lana Winters survives another decade of chaos, a lesbian reporter angel gets her wings. Because despite having upwards of 25 LGBTQ+ characters to date, they also come in at the highest kill rate with a whopping 15 buried gays at last count. And honestly I could have missed some, I just grew weary from counting. Everyone has their favorite season of AHS, but as far as queer people go, Murder House (a classic fave, the first), Hotel (hello, Gaga), and Coven (a Stevie Nicks music video, a lesbian witch’s fever dream, and a haunted walking tour had an orgy in New Orleans, what’s not to love?) tend to trend as favorites. Also a shout-out to Asylum, because even though it was far from kind to our gal Lana, she was the Final Girl in the end.

74. Arrow (2012 – 2020)

Starring: Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, Willa Holland, Emily Bett Rickards, Caity Lotz
Watch on Netflix

If we were judging shows only on their most recent seasons, Arrow would be much lower on this list, but we’re looking at the whole sum of these shows, and when it comes down to it, this DC-comics-based vigilante show gave us Sara Lance, so we are forever in its debt. Sara and her assassin girlfriend Nyssa al Ghul came to us by way of Arrow Season 2, and they were dark and tense and a bit star-crossed, and it was beautiful. Sara dies a few times but it never sticks, and she ends up being so compelling she got her own spinoff, while Nyssa stays back and hangs out with Sara’s sister Laurel for a while, eventually training the future Green Arrow. (And, most importantly, staying alive.)

73. Lucifer (2015 – 2021)

Starring: Lauren German, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Tricia Helfer, Aimee Garcia, Brianna Hildebrand
Watch on Netflix

For a show that could have very easily crossed the line from “a bisexual demon” to “demonizing bisexuality,” Lucifer earned its spot in the Top 100 by never treading those dangerous waters, and in fact compensating for any qualms about that by pairing up the demon Mazikeen (aka Maze) with Eve. Yes, THAT Eve. Their story was heartfelt and touching and not just a lusty corruption tale; there was real, deep love and a few tender moments that really sunk their cloven hooves into my heart.

72. Doom Patrol (2019 – 2023)

Starring: Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Alan Tudyk, Matt Bomer, Madeline Zima
Watch on Max

A mummy, a human blob, a talking robot, a cyborg, and a woman with multiple personalities all with unique superpowers all live in a mansion haunted by sex ghosts and sometimes they visit a hundred-year-old little girl who lives on a sentient genderqueer street inhabited by drag queens. Oh also there are zombie butts. That sing and dance. Listen, this show is absolutely bonkers in the best, comic-booky way imaginable, and there are also lovely little queer love stories sprinkled throughout.

71. Peacemaker (2022 – Present)

Starring: John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Elizabeth Ludlow, Chukwudi Iwuji, Jennifer Holland
Watch on Max

On paper, Peacemaker is not the kind of show that one might expect would appear on this list. John Cena as a beefy, dim-witted man who loves to smash in every sense of the word. A Suicide Squad-themed show with no Harley Quinn in sight. But as it turns out, there’s a character in the main cast of this show that makes it extremely up our alley. Danielle Brooks’ Leota Adebayo is a lesbian, and easily the best part of the show. Out of her element, and constantly either making hilarious missteps or saying out loud what the audience is thinking, she’s an amazing addition to this cast, and with important (spoilery) ties to the main plot. She has a wife, Keeya, played by Elizabeth Faith Ludlow and they are downright adorable.

70. Legacies (2018 – 2022)

Starring: Danielle Rose Russell, Kaylee Kaneshiro, Jenny Boyd, Piper Curda, Lulu Antariksa
Watch on Netflix

The Originals was a gayer spinoff of The Vampire Diaries, and Legacies is an even gayer spinoff of that spinoff. (It’s also, generally, lighter and funnier despite occasionally harking back to its emotional ancestors.) Set in a boarding school for supernatural teens, everyone is queer and everything hurts. Witches Josie and Penelope were the couple to watch out for in Season 1, then witch-werewolf-vampire tribrid Hope and Josie keep mentioning their past crushes on each other despite them both having current feelings for the same boy, and eventually Josie finds other girls to kiss, including the new werewolf in town. Not to mention Hope proves what we’ve always known: all vampires are queer, end of story.

69. American Gods (2017 – 2021)

Starring: Ricky Whittle, Emily Browning, Crispin Glover, Bruce Langley, Yetide Badaki
Watch on Prime Video

You know you want to watch a show where a goddess occasionally devours her lovers via her vagina, right? No? Well, that’s what this show has. American Gods’ Bilquis is a goddess who will seduce any gender she pleases to turn them into her worshipers, on this show where New Gods and Old Gods live in America to wreak their havoc (or the opposite of that.) This show also features a guest appearance by queer, Indigenous actress Devery Jacobs plays two-spirit, Indigenous Sam Black Crow.

68. Santa Clarita Diet (2017 – 2019)

Starring: Drew Barrymore, Timothy Olyphant, Liv Hewson, Skyler Gisondo, Natalie Morales
Watch on Netflix

In the second season of Santa Clarita Diet, out queer actress Natalie Morales plays Deputy Anne, who starts dating her dead police partner’s widow, Lisa. They are funny and important to the plot and, despite how many brains got nibbled on over the course of the series, still alive. Bonus: the main family’s teenager is played by Yellowjackets‘ own Liv Hewson!

67. Mr. Robot (2015 – 2019)

Starring: Rami Malek, Carly Chaikin, Christian Slater, Stephanie Corneliussen, Grace Gummer
Watch on Prime Video

If you have a thing for quintessential disaster lesbians, this show is for you. Amidst the hacktivism and corruption and conspiracies of the show at large, there is an FBI Agent named Dominique DiPierro who seems so smooth when she’s on the job but is immediately disarmed by Darlene when she asks her what her type is, and later, when she’s in her apartment and starting to make moves. It’s all very relatable. The show is dark and gritty and there is deception and trust issues but maybe these two crazy kids could make it work. Side note, trans actress Eve Lindley appears in four episodes in season four, and her character’s name is Hot Carla, which honestly is #goals.

66. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2014 – 2020)

Starring: Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Lucy Lawless
Watch on Disney+

I’ll be perfectly honest with you, most of the points that got AoS to this position came from TV Team points. Because it’s a compelling, action-packed show with found family feels, but they don’t have much to report on re: queer women. Victoria Hand and Isabelle Hartley are queer in the comics, but that is never mentioned in the show. And Sk’Daisy and Simmons should have kissed decades ago, it seems. We do have Briana Venskus’s Piper and Jolene Anderson’s Olga Pachinko however, so it’s not nothing. Plus, bisexual actress/singer Dove Cameron plays a big part of the shows’ fifth season.

65. Stitchers (2015 – 2017)

Starring: Emma Ishta, Kyle Harris, Ritesh Rajan, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Allison Scagliotti
Watch on Hulu

Stitchers imagines a world where a woman with a unique brain chemistry could be “stitched” into newly dead bodies and relive their last memories to help solve their murders. A fascinating concept, brought to life by the main character’s coworker and roommate Camille, a sarcastic, hilarious computer scientist who later reveals herself to be bisexual. She talks about her queerness in that frank, explicit way we don’t see on TV nearly often enough, and her eventual romance with Amanda, played by real life queer actress Anna Akana, was breathtaking (but not literally, which is something I feel has to be said on a list like this.)

64. Siren (2018 – 2020)

Starring: Alex Roe, Eline Powell, Ian Verdun, Rena Owen, Fola Evans-Akingbola
Watch on Hulu

If you, like me, are horny for mermaids, or thirsty for poly triad representation, this is the show for you. In a world where a town’s mermaid folklore proves to be based in reality, and the mermaids in question tend to be murdery, Siren somehow balances a mythical mystery, a PSA on the dangers of overfishing, and an endearing throuple between a man, a woman, and a mermaid who is learning how to live on land.

63. Into the Badlands (2015 – 2019)

Starring: Sarah Bolger, Emily Beecham, Madeleine Mantock, Ally Ioannides, Maddison Jaizani
Buy on Prime Video

In this post-apocalyptic world, society is split into factions, and only the strongest survive. With magical abilities as an undercurrent, this show is a combination of stunning visuals and battle scenes that could be mistaken for a ballet. One of the main characters, Tilda, a baby assassin who is ready to grow into her own person, falls for a sex-worker-turned-assassin named Odessa. Just two little Butterflies in love. (The assassins were called Butterflies.)

62. Andor (2022 – Present)

Starring: Diego Luna, Fiona Shaw, Genevieve O’Reilly, Varda Sethu, Faye Marsay
Watch on Disney+

I could hardly blame you for steering clear of yet another Star Wars spin-off series. The latest iterations have felt more like money grabs than true contributions to the lore. They satiate fanboys with weapons and wizardry and enticing the rest of us with nostalgia and cute merchandise (Baby Yoda!). They’ve been escapism — vacuous, spectacle-filled escapism — and hardly feel worth the investment. But Andor is different; it is so unlike every other Star Wars spin-off that it may be the only one worth seeing. Andor strips away all the hallmarks of those other shows and invests in character building and storytelling. The show goes back to the roots of Star Wars — as political allegory — and showcases the early days of resistance against a fascist Empire. And among those freedom fighters, our gay heroines, Cinta and Vel. Cinta is the fiercest of warriors, driven by the murder of her parents by Stormtroopers. For her, “the struggle always comes first” and what’s left belongs to them. Meanwhile, Vel struggles to balance the life of a revolutionary with the life of a regressive…trapped in a conservative cloister that will, one day, arrange her marriage to a man. It isn’t the most ostentatious display of queerness — and it’s understandable to want and demand more — but the story of rebellion can’t be told without queer people, both in real life and on the small screen. — <strong>Natalie</strong>

61. The Vampire Diaries (2009 – 2017)

Starring: Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Kat Graham, Candice King
Watch on Peacock

I will admit that the TV Team’s score on this really bumped it up higher than it would have been on its own, because despite having two of the most fun queer characters, and despite a threesome that made one of the series’ best characters officially bisexual, they did end up killing three of their four queer ladies by the end. The Vampire Diaries had strong women at its center, queer among them including Original Vampire Rebekah, Vampire/Traveler Nadia, and Heretics (Vampire/Witch hybrids) Nora and Mary Louise. Their stories were complex and delightful and oh how I wish I could stop here because I love this franchise so much. But Nadia met an unfortunate end, and while if it happened in 2024 I would have argued Nora and Mary Louise, and their love that lasted literal centuries, went out in a blaze of glory, they died during the Lesbian Massacre of 2016, and it was the last wlw relationship we ever saw on the show, so they’ll get no defense from me on that front.

60. The Way Home (2023 – present)

Starring: Chyler Leigh, Evan Williams, Sadie Laflamme-Snow, Andie MacDowell, Vaughan Murrae
Watch on Peacock

Chyler Leigh is all grown up and playing a mom to a teenager in this Hallmark show about family, love, and time travel. The Landry family has a secret: there is a pond on their property that can send them back in time. Shenanigans (and epic 90s needle drops) ensue. A character in season one has two moms, and the second season features a non-binary character named Casey played by non-binary actor Vaughan Murrae.

59. The Imperfects (2022)

Starring: Italia Ricci, Morgan Taylor Campbell, Rhianna Jagpal, Celina Martin, Kyra Zagorsky
Watch on Netflix

Another show that I’ll be forever salty that it only got one season. It has everything I love in a sci-fi romp: people discovering their powers and testing their limits, found family, a reluctant adultier adult who pretends to be annoyed by the youths but ends up feeling connected to them anyway. Plus, it gave us two queer characters of color: Abbi, who is asexual, and Hannah, who is cool with it. It would have been cool to get an entire season with those two as a couple, but what we do get is delightful and feels fresh and new. The cast also included non-binary Australian Rhys Nicholson, and Rekha Sharma who I don’t think is gay herself but she has played gay before, as recently as Roswell, New Mexico.

58. Game of Thrones (2011 – 2019)

Starring: Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Emilia Clarke, Natalie Dormer
Watch on Max

Game of Thrones isn’t known for its respect for women, and the show does a better job of it than the books, if you can believe it. For this reason, maybe it’s better that the show only gave us three canon queer women over the course of its eight seasons. Yara Greyjoy and Ellaria Sand unapologetically enjoyed the company of women (and each other), as well as a sex worker Ellaria entertained once called Marei. A lot of us were rooting for Yara to take her seat next to an Iron Throne with Daenerys upon it, but sadly that was not our fate.

57. For All Mankind (2019 – Present)

Starring: Shantel VanSanten, Jodi Balfour, Krys Marshall, Sonya Walger, Meghan Leathers
Watch on Apple TV+

For All Mankind is a what-if imagining of a future where the space race was more diverse and neverending. Set in the late 60s/early 70s, Ellen the astronaut (played by Jodi Balfour from Bomb Girls) can’t exactly reveal to NASA that she is a lesbian who used to date Pam the bartender. Instead she finds herself a beard (a gay man himself, because the best beards are mutual beards) and shoots for the stars. And the presidency.

56. The 100 (2014 – 2020)

Starring: Eliza Taylor, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Paige Turco, Marie Avgeropoulos, Lindsey Morgan
Watch on Netflix

I don’t think I really have to explain this one to you. I think if you’ve followed queer TV at all since 2014 (or hell, 2016), you’ve heard about The 100. About Clarke and Lexa, the bisexual leader of her peers who all grew up on a space station then were unceremoniously dropped on a potentially uninhabitable earth, and the woman who leads the people who were already there that fell in love with her. About Lexa and Clarke, the Commander of Trikru and the Commander of Death. Or, at the very least, about Lexa kom Trikru, whose death in 2016, amongst too many others, after a long line of dead queer characters before her, launched an industry-wide pledge to treat LGBTQ+ characters better. It makes sense to me that this show lands in the middle of a list of 100 shows. Because when it was good, it was very, very good. Clarke and Lexa were loved by many, and still are. But then it betrayed the fans’ trust by not only killing Lexa when they teased her survival, but having a lifelong trained warrior struck down by a bullet not even meant for her, in an all-too-familiar situation that Buffy fans were still healing from. I think The 100 is a good milestone in our history, a point we can look to as a beacon, to see how far we’ve come, to remember how far we have left to go.

55. The Originals (2013 – 2018)

Starring: Claire Holt, Phoebe Tonkin, Leah Pipes, Riley Voelkel, Danielle Rose Russell
Watch on Prime Video

The Originals looked at The Vampire Diaries‘ Thelma and Louise vampire couple, and said, “Oh yeah, watch this.” And thus was born Keelin and Freya, a werewolf/witch duo for the ages. Their relationship starts…strangely, to say the least, but it develops slowly and deeply until the two ultimately not only get the first wedding to go off without a hitch (read: murder) in the TVD universe.

54. Quantum Leap (2022 – 2024)

Starring: Raymond Lee, Caitlin Bassett, Mason Alexander Park, Nanrisa Lee, Eliza Taylor
Watch on Peacock

A remake of the late 80s/early 90s show of the same name, Quantum Leap follows Dr. Ben Song as he leaps from person to person through the past in an attempt to return to his correct timeline. Along the way, he meets queer and trans people and their very special episodes tell stories of trans inclusion in sports, coming out as non-binary to your siblings, and more. The show was unfortunately canceled after two seasons.

53. Gen V (2023 – present)

Starring: Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizze Broadway, Maddie Phillips, London Thor
Watch on Prime Video

The Boys‘ younger sibling, Gen V takes place in a school for powered people. It keeps with the general conceit of it’s big brother – “what if assholes had powers” – but instead of full grown assholes, it’s young adult assholes. Though of course, like in The Boys, power doesn’t go to EVERYONE’S head. But also like in The Boys, even the best intentions can end in bloodshed. The show’s core crew includes Marie, a blood-bender, and Jordan, a dual-gender shape shifter, who try to navigate starting a relationship amidst the chaos.

52. Doctor Who (1963 – 1985; 2005 – Present)

Starring: Jodie Whittaker, Jenna Coleman, Pearl Mackie, Yasmin Finney, Alex Kingston
Watch on Max

Before the Thirteenth Doctor graced us with her presence, along with her enamored companion Yaz, queering the scene indefinitely, Doctor Who has been making us feel seen across space and time for a long while. There was Twelve’s companion Bill and her girlfriend Heather, Clara Oswold who made out with Jane Austen (albeit off-screen), the legendary River song, and a Silurian and her wife: Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint. Here’s to decades more of saving the universe, the timeline, and the queers.

51. The Magicians (2015 – 2020)

Starring: Stella Maeve, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Hale Appleman, Summer Bishil, Jade Tailor, Brittany Curran
Watch on Netflix

Imagine a world where a bunch of messed up, self-absorbed college students had the capacity for magic and were deemed rulers of a fantastical world. That’s The Magicians. They bounce back and forth between the real world and Fillory, a land long thought to be fictional, while trying to save their friends, their worlds, their sanity, and sometimes even all of magic. This is another show where I ship every combination of the main ladies, and Margo is confirmed sexually fluid. Outside of the core cast, we also had a little visit from a (female) Pirate King (appropriately attracted to our own High King Margo), an unfortunate aside from a lesbian named Kira who asked to be killed, and, the lovely revelation that Marina has a girlfriend that she keeps jumping timelines for so she can get the relationship right. (Also I know this is not necessarily why we’re here but almost all the boys are bisexual too, which is awesome.)

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