50 TV Shows With Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer Characters Cancelled After One Season
There are 210 television programs in our database of TV shows featuring lesbian, bisexual, queer and trans characters that only lasted for one (1) mere season on this earth. Of those, around 45 are limited series — shows like Little Fires Everywhere, Mrs America, Tales of the City and The Bisexual — that never intended to exist past their first season, which leaves us with 170 TV shows with queer women and/or trans characters that were cancelled after one season — shows that got born, crawled into the world, won us over with their queer storylines, and then got cancelled. We have around 730 non-limited-series TV shows in our database, which means around 20% of the queer-inclusive shows we’ve tracked are cancelled after one season.
Statistically speaking, this doesn’t necessarily mean that queer-inclusive shows are cancelled after one season more often than shows that don’t have LGBTQ+ characters, although it’s difficult to determine what numbers to compare our numbers to (and our science is imprecise — “shows Autostraddle tracks” isn’t necessarily a quantitative body we can compare to others quantitative bodies). We have patches of information like that 58% of network shows are cancelled before a second season in, and that Netflix cancels 11% of the shows it releases in any given year. That 67%
But the queer-inclusive cancellations tend to hit our community hard, especially when their networks so consistently fail to promote their shows to queer audiences or advertise with queer media and often intentionally obscure their LGBTQ+ content from promotional materials. Not a single one of the shows on this list has advertised their show on Autostraddle.com — and in fact, Netflix and Prime Video have never directly purchased advertising from our website. We rarely see networks make obvious financial investments in promoting their queerest shows, in mainstream media or with queer media. We often see queer content obscured in marketing materials due to some kind of internalized network homophobia, leaving queer media and audiences in the dark until we simply watch the entire show ourselves and initiate the gay word-of-mouth ourselves.
This list focuses on shows cancelled after one season, but when it comes to shows with LGBTQ+ women and/or trans leads, we’re especially prone to getting an axe after season two or three, like One Mississippi, The L Word: Generation Q, Take My Wife, Vida, Lip Service, Work in Progress, Warrior Nun, Batwoman, Pose, Gentleman Jack, Faking It, Betty, Dickinson, Feel Good, Sense8, Trinkets and Hightown.
Meanwhile, the list of shows with a lot of queer women’s content with long runs is a pretty short one:The L Word, Orange is the New Black, Wentworth, The Fosters and Transparent.
Often the shows that get cancelled after one season are objectively bad, or didn’t exactly win over LGBTQ+ audiences to begin with, like Heathers, Skins (US), Katy Keene, Q-Force, The Purge or Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists. But sometimes a show gets ripped out of our hands and we’re a little bummed about it.
Here are just some of the many shows cancelled after one season.
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (2023) – Paramount+
This musical re-imagining of a more diverse Rydell High in the 1950s was not just cancelled, it was removed from the Paramount+ platform within weeks of its cancellation, thus denying its young cast and ambitious writers and directors any potential residuals.
Gotham Knights (2023) – The CW
You deserve a better show, bbs.
Harper Row was a “streetwise, acerbic and often underestimated blue-haired bisexual and a gifted engineer who can fix anything.” Now she is cancelled.
The Watchful Eye (2023) – Freeform
This weird little show about a nanny discovering the building where she’s now employed by an affluent Manhattan family is full of mysteries and deadly secrets had a few queer women in its ensemble. But now it’s over forever
Willow (2022-2023) – Disney+
I think I’m gonna like it here.
Willow was very beloved by our TV Team! Despite receiving very positive reviews from critics, including us — Heather said Willow gave us “the lesbian Disney Princess we’ve been waiting for” and Nic said it had “multiple queer characters to root for” — Disney+ cancelled this series inspired by a film that gave me nightmares for my entire childhood after a single season.
A League of Their Own (2022) – Prime Video
Anne Marie Fox/Prime Video
Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC
Truly one of the best queer shows in all of recorded history, we suffered twice over here: first, when we were told there’d be a season two, but it’d only have three episodes and that’d be the last season forever. And then, when during the writer’s strike
Monarch (2022) – Fox
This series that was like Empire for country music featured queer musician Beth Ditto as a queer musician and Heather described it as both “a flashy primetime soap that doesn’t make a lick of sense” and “deliciously watchable.” Although it opened with strong ratings, they gradually declined and Fox’s first wholly-owned scripted series — which had its premiere pushed a few times — got the axe.
Vampire Academy (2022) – Peacock
All vampires are queer, that I know for sure.
Peacock was “happy with [Vampire Academy and One of Us Is Lying] creatively but they just didn’t find the requisite audience to justify further seasons.” Also happy with Vampire Academy? Fans who’d tuned in for a queer forbidden romance that really sizzled in its season finale.
Reboot (2022) – Hulu
(Photo by: Michael Desmond/Hulu)
This little comedy about a dysfunctional writers room rebooting a classic sitcom, spearheaded by the unbeatable Rachel Bloom, was so funny and so surprisingly queer! Heather said it delivered “the most hilarious lesbian chaos [she’d] ever seen.” After getting the axe from Hulu, its producing studio tried to find a new home for the half-hour comedy, but did not.
Queer as Folk (2022) – Peacock
QUEER AS FOLK — Episode 104 — Pictured: (l-r) Jesse James Keitel as Ruthie, CG as Shar — (Photo by: Alyssa Moran/Peacock)
A cast of queer people led by queer creatives, telling the stories of queer and trans people of color — the Queer as Folk reboot was a revelation, especially for its central romance between a queer trans woman and her non-binary partner who just gave birth to twins. But now we will never see those twins grow old!
The Imperfects (2022) – Netflix
“If you like messy superpower origin stories, found family feels, comic-book-esque fight scenes, and slowly unraveling mysteries, with a bonus queer, asexual, South Asian woman? Netflix’s The Imperfects is the show for you,” wrote Valerie of this series. Unfortunately, it was only for you for one (1) season!
Paper Girls (2022) – Prime Video
This heart-tugging edge-of-your-seat adaptation of the comic book series about a group of misfit late ’80s paper girls who get caught in a time-hopping adventure had barely begun to touch the outer edges of the queer storyline promised by its source material in Season One. It also spent a great deal of its eight-episode first season building up its complicated premise and establishing characters, and now TO WHAT END? After clearly giving the show an incredibly small budget for a sci-fi franchise — and putting it on a schedule to compete with Stranger Things (which costs $40 million an episode) and The Sandman — Prime Video barely gave this show a month to breathe before axing it!
First Kill (2022) – Netflix
The cancellation of this “sweet (and sometimes bloody) story of firsts — first times, first kills, and first loves” from Netflix did not land well with its already passionate fandom who’d all witnessed its regular presence on Netflix’s weekly Top 10 (peaking at No.3 in its first full week of release). Its showrunner blamed Netflix’s lackluster marketing for the program, and a source told The Daily Beast that its few ads portraying it as “mostly a lesbian love story” may have hindered its reach. Maybe it would’ve been a more successful angle if they’d placed the lesbian love story advertising in lesbian media. But, First Kill was the rare show that had a PR team that actually told us ahead of time the show would be gay and made a concerted effort to secure coverage.
Resident Evil (2022) – Netflix
Panned by critics, this adaptation of the popular video game series apparently didn’t “appear to pull in the franchise’s existing fanbase in a way that earned a Season 2 renewal,” but it did have “a sociopathic lesbian CEO to die for.”
Naomi (2022) – The CW
The CW did a ton of axing this spring and Ava DuVernay’s Naomi, which Natalie described as “here and queer (and absolutely gorgeous),” joined fellow notably queer supernatural titles Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman in getting said axe, after being “in a constant battle to find an audience, especially online.” Unlike the comic upon which it was based, Naomi introduced the audience to all of Naomi’s friends, including her queer pal Lourdes, who had feelings for Naomi.
Pivoting (2022) – Fox
Pivoting is actually a great example of a show we simply missed and didn’t have the bandwidth to cover, but certainly would’ve addressed had its PR team or its marketing materials alerted us to its queerness ahead of time and/or they’d advertised with us! Like so many shows, its trailer intentionally obscures the presence of a gay character. Anyhow, this critically acclaimed comedy about three women re-evaluating their own lives after the sudden death of a friend from high school and starred Maggie Q as Sarah, a doctor who leaves her job and her cheating wife to forge new paths.
4400 (2021 – 2022) – The CW
Shelli wrote that this reboot of The 4400 is “queer, Black and incredibly dope” and boy was it, but it too was cancelled in The CW’s Summer 2022 Chop-a-Thon. In the new series, 440 people from all over the world — and all different time periods — literally fall out of the sky into Detroit, Michigan, and have to figure out who they are and what they’re doing here, including a Black trans man yanked out of his thriving queer Harlem Renaissance community. Queer actress Kausar Mohammed is a computer whiz stealing the heart of cop Keisha Taylor. It’s also a show we discovered on our own — The CW made no visible effort to market the show at all, let alone to LGBTQ+ audiences.
Queens (2021 – 2022) – ABC
QUEENS – ABC’s “Queens” stars Naturi Naughton as Jill aka Da Thrill, Eve as Brianna aka Professor Sex, Brandy as Naomi aka Xplicit Lyrics, and Nadine Velazquez as Valeria aka Butter Pecan. (ABC/Gavin Bond)
This show that Carmen says “was bad in the fun and enjoyable way” starred the one and only Brandy Norwood in a musical drama about the estranged 1990s music group “Nasty Bitches,” now in their 40s, getting a second shot at fame. Amongst them was queer character Jill Da Thrill (Naturi Naughton) and the show has a Black queer woman writer writing a Black queer woman charaacter!
Genera+ion (2021) – HBO Max
My lord this show was so very queer and weird and had such a specific style and fresh point of view. When announcing its cancellation, HBO Max said that it was “very proud to have partnered with Zelda and Daniel Barnz to faithfully and authentically represent LGBTQ youth with such a diverse group of characters and layered stories.” Luckily we had a chance to celebrate the show in the 2021 Autostraddle TV Awards, as it was so sparsely celebrated elsewhere.
The Republic of Sarah (2021) – The CW
Photo: Philippe Bosse/The CW — © 2021 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
In a small New Hampshire town, the citizens band together to declare its independence to dodge a mining company who wants to tear their town up to get to what’s underneath it. Once again the lesbian character is unfortunately a cop! Amy “AJ” Johnson (Nia Halloway) is sleeping with the mayor’s wife. Low ratings and bad reviews sealed its fate.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021) – Prime Video
The body count at the end of this show’s first season was pretty high so who knows what a Season Two would’ve entailed, but I really enjoyed this absolutely awful series that had lots of queer text and subtext, and a very fun queer villain, Margot (Brianne Tju). But mostly bad reviews ensured that absolutely nobody will know what they did this most recent summer.
High Fidelity (2020) – Hulu
“As Robyn “Rob” Brooks, Zoe Kravitz fully ascended into exactly the kind of actor I’d always hoped she would be,” wrote Carmen in her write-up of Rob as one of her favorite TV characters of 2020, “part ironic smart ass, part quiet rock star swag, and charismatic beyond description. More than that, she’s comfortable taking up space on screen in ways that we haven’t been able to enjoy from her before.” She notes that “over 10 episodes and five hours, Zoe Kravitz never loses her audience” — but Hulu took it right out of our hands and Carmen was NOT HAPPY.
I Am Not Okay With This (2020) – Netflix
A “coming-of-age Black comedy” didn’t market itself as queer, just as a new Stranger Things, so I was genuinely delighted to turn it on and see that this time, the boyish weirdo protagonist with a reluctant smile and hidden depths actually turned out to be queer! Based on a graphic novel, this show was quirky and fantastic and did strong work in portraying the pain of losing a parent as a teenager… and of course was swiftly cancelled after only seven brief episodes.
Teenage Bounty Hunters (2020) – Netflix
Sterling and April in their private Christian school in Teenage Bounty Hunters.
I do feel like this list is quickly becoming me simply complaining over and over again about how streaming networks absolutely refuse to give LGBTQ+ press a heads-up about queer-inclusive shows, let alone market to their readers, but once again we have another memorable scenario in which this happened! Valerie called Jenji Cohan’s tight female-fronted comedy “a Godsend of a Queer Romp” and we were all pretty pissed when it got axed the same day as G.L.O.W.
Party of Five (2020) – Freeform
This reboot of the ’90s classic re-positioned its story to be one of a family struggling to keep it together after their parents are deported to Mexico. Reviews were strong, but the numbers weren’t high enough to earn a second season because Freeform had to pay a licensing fee to an outside studio (Sony Pictures Television) to produce the show. “I’m remiss that Freeform didn’t give Party of Five and Lucia, in particular, more time to grow [a queer] community,” wrote Natalie in an End-of-Year list.
The Vagrant Queen (2020) – Netflix
The Vagrant Queen’s slow burn building between its queer characters finally caught fire in its penultimate episode… just in time for it to get summarily cancelled! The show had strong reviews and built a passionate fanbase, but apparently just didn’t hit its numbers. Elida, who played a queer lead, told Digital Spy, “”I’m proud of what we did. We created a sci-fi show with a Black lead, and it also included LGBTQ+ relationships and it was led by women writers and women directors. Of course I’m proud of that. It is unfortunate that it was cancelled after the first season, but I’m hoping that it’s just one little detour and it’s, in the grand scheme of things, a huge step towards inclusion and diversity and representation.”
Utopia Falls (2020) – Hulu
Hundreds of years in the future and New Babyl, the last living colony on earth, has divided into different sectors for specific industries, from which 24 candidates are chosen to compete in The Examplar performance competition. Six of these candidates are followed by the show’s narrative, including sexually fluid Brooklyn 2, played by queer queen Humberly Gonzalez, and dancer Sage 5. Utopia Falls was cancelled “following the critics’ half-hearted response to the first season.” We were not amongst those critics because again, nobody on their PR team reached out to LGBTQ+ press.
Away (2020) – Netflix
This show was actually very bad, mostly because it was centered on these milquetoast white people instead of the far more interesting characters of color who surround them! One of those characters, Dr. Lu Wang, had a big gay secret, and her storyline was unsurprisingly one of the show’s most fascinating and redeeming aspects. It was incredibly popular on Netflix and the creators intended it to run for three seasons, but Netflix still axed it due to poor critical response and its high cost of production.
The Baker and The Beauty (2020) – ABC
Adapted from Israel’s highest-rated scripted series ever with a mostly Latinx cast, The Baker and the Beauty follows a Cuban-American baker who enters a whirlwind romance with an Australian supermodel — his younger sister Natalie is queer and played by queer actor Belissa Escobedo — and was one of Netflix’s top-ranked shows when it was picked up by the streaming network in 2021. Unfortunately, Fox had already axed it in June 2020.
Pure (2020) – Channel 4 / HBO Max
This British dramedy gave a really nuanced, full-fledged look at OCD through its protagonist, 24-year-old Marnie, who lives with obsessive, unwanted sexual thoughts. and had a really fun lesbian character, Amber, who worked at a women’s magazine with Marnie. Channel 4 said the show “would not be returning” but they were “incredibly proud of the show and the immensely talented creative team who created it.”
Dare Me (2019- 2020) – USA
(Photo by: Rafy/USA Network)
‘Dare Me is one of the most underrated television shows from the past year, and I will seize every opportunity to shout that at people!!!!!” wrote Kayla of this dreamy, creepy thriller following a group of cutthroat cheerleaders in a small midwestern squad, all under the thrall of their new coach Colette. Based on a 2012 Megan Abbott novel, this show kicked the bucket the day USA decided to cancel literally all of its scripted content at once!
Stumptown (2019-2020) – ABC
Adapted from a comic book series, Cobie Smulders starred in Stumptown as “Bisexual Dirtbag PI Dex Parios,” a military vet struggling with PTSD struggling to support her brother and get herself out of debt, while turning to alcohol and sex as a coping mechanism. Stumptown was in fact renewed for a second season, but after suffering some COVID-19 production delays, it was axed from the fall 2020 ABC schedule and yadda yadda yadda, the network dropped it and the studio tried shopping it elsewhere but never did it.
Abby’s (2019) – NBC
“In the year 20BiTeen, fresh on the heels of the year 20GayTeen, in this, the Golden Age of Gay Television, there has never been a queer show like Natalie Morales’ Abby’s, which lands on NBC this Thursday,” Heather Hogan wrote of Abby’s in anticipation of its premiere. “Morales is the first openly queer woman and the first woman of color to play an openly bisexual main character on a network sitcom.” Unfortunately, this moment of glory didn’t last long.
BH90210 (2019) – Fox
BH90210 had an interesting approach to its reboot — the cast were playing fictional versions of themselves, the actors from Beverly Hills 90210 who’d reunited to shoot a reboot of Beverly Hills 90210. So it was very meta on a few levels? But also Gabrielle Carteris and Christine Elise having a thing was like my entire life coming full circle in a way that I apparently found more delightful than others and it was just ultimately a really great later-in-life bisexual storyline!
Everything Sucks! (2018) – Netflix
I’ll tell you what there is probably no cancelled-after-one-season show we have devoted more words to than Everything Sucks! This cute ’90s story was about a bunch of teenagers learning about themselves through the video arts, starring a passionate closeted lesbian Tori Amos fan who falls for that rebellious girl with the obnoxious boyfriend who eventually falls for her right back. Kate and Emaline, may you live on forever in our dreams of what might have been, walking down the lightly-crowded hallways with Angela Chase and Jordan Catalano. “Because we were seeing a much low completion rate of the whole season, we realized that it is very unlikely that we would be able to grow the audience,” said Netflix of the cancellation, “[or to] move a whole new audience through the show and have a large enough audience to justify a season two.” Still, this show was undeniably inexpensive to produce!
Champions (2018) – NBC
Mindy Kaling’s NBC sitcom (which also starred Josie Totah as a talented and ambitious gay theater-kid) boasted one of 2018’s few non-femme non-thin lesbian characters, but only got ten episodes in the sun. Although the show got middling reviews, it was praised for “tackling comedy about gender, race and sexuality with a confidence that is truly refreshing” and it’s also notably rare for a show to launch with both a gay boy and a lesbian character from the jump.
Danger & Eggs (2017)
Trans showrunner/animator Shadi Petosky’s series, co-created with Mike Owens, focused on the adventures of “a young masc lesbian on her topsy-turvy adventures with her anthropomorphic egg friend” and aimed to be overtly rather than subtextually LGBTQ+, with queer voice actors on board like Stephanie Beatriz, Jasika Nicole and Angelica Ross, plus a huge list of guest stars like Jazz Jennings, Tyler Ford and River Butcher. Petosky felt comfortable at Amazon, still in its Transparent prime, but still recalls “there were little arguments, and battles, and suspensions” throughout, and she had to enlist GLAAD to help advocate for what she knew the show needed.
I Love Dick (2017) – Prime Video
Devon, the butch Latinx artist and aspiring playwright living in the trailer behind the house where the protagonist and her husband are having their artists retreat, was a dreamy romantic who captured our hearts with every glance of her yearning eyes. She starts out lighting a joint with her shirt off, later delivers a twangy and romantic coming-of-age story unlike any seen on television before, and later still brings the town’s dedicated citizens and pretentious visiting artists together for some very inventive theater. Devon, Devon, Devon.
Gyspy (2017) – Netflix
Yes, Gypsy not only had a terrible name, it was a pretty terrible show. But… but we couldn’t tear ourselves away from it, just the same, and Season One’s finale opened the door for so many subsequent mysteries we’ll never get the chance to understand or solve. It was sexy and atmospheric and the lead character, Jean Holloway, was bisexual in addition to being the worst therapist in the history of modern medicine. Plus there’s a lot more to Sidney than meets the eye. How much more??? WE WILL NEVER KNOW.
Still Star-Crossed (2017) – ABC
As an astute YouTube commenter noted on a clip of Princess Isabella saying goodbye to her dear “friend” Helena from Venice, “THE SHOW WAS GONNA BE GAY BUT WE WERE ROBBED.” This Shondaland project addressed the Romeo and Juliet story with a racially diverse cast, including Isabella of Verona, played by Iranian-American actress Medalion Rahimi. This made her the fourth-ever regular Middle Eastern queer female character on American television. Alas, it was not to be, with only seven episodes before we experienced the sweet sorrow of parting.
Grandfathered (2016) – Fox
A selfish rich bachelor played by John Stamos owns a successful L.A. restaurant managed by Annelise, a gay lady who we all loved about ten times more than we loved the show itself. Annelise could have very easily become a trope, the super-capable and competent black woman who exists only to manage the lives and provide guidance to the white people around her, but Grandfathered managed to sidestep that and give her her own storylines and life outside the restaurant. Ironically, the audience felt the same way about John Stamos’s character that Annelise did: bewildered and annoyed at the inability of another rich white dude to grow the fuck up. And so the show ended after one season.
The Family (2016) – ABC
(ABC/Giovanni Rufino)
“Willa was always a churn of anxiety and calculation and Alison Pill played her brilliantly,” wrote Ali Davis in our Best/Worst LGBTQ Characters Round-up in 2016. “You could always see Willa thinking, holding back a storm of emotions, and wanting the exact woman she shouldn’t. And which of us hasn’t done that last one? I had huge problems with The Family, but I still hold out hope that one day Willa will get spun off into the series she deserves.”
Marry Me (2015) – NBC
“Kay is just the best,” wrote Heather. “She’s sweet, she’s smart, and she’s funny as hell. And Marry Me didn’t shy away from the sex part of her sexuality. She came out by simply announcing that she got a blast on Boobr and was going to “go get it, get it and forget it.” She identified as a “soft butch lipstick flannel queen,” y’all. She was perfect! Unfortunately, NBC pulled the plugs before it really had a chance to find its footing.
One Big Happy (2015) – NBC
Ellen DeGeneres’s stab at a palatable lesbian sitcom was a resounding flop that seemed to want to balance out the impact of a lesbian protagonist by watering down everything else about the show, like the plot, which involved the lesbian having her straight male best friend’s baby. But Heather found the finale to be “really, truly wonderful.” “For all the nagging I did about this show falling into ’90s sitcom tropes,” she wrote, “it really whacked me in the heart with a brand new thing in the finale.” Alas, six episodes was all she wrote.
The Returned (2015) – A&E
The Returned was an adaptation of a French series by the same name, produced by the same guy who did Lost. Sandrine Holt (The L Word) played Dr. Julie Han and Agnes Brucker (Breaking the Girls) played her on-and-off girlfriend Deputy Nikki Banks. Although the basic concept of this show is oddly common (the dead are back! why are they back!), I still loved it, and felt deeply that we deserved like three more seasons of creepy dark complicated episodes.
Super Fun Night (2015) – ABC
Super Fun Night had a lot of potential — three genuinely weird girls decide to get off the couch and live real lives, because fat girls and nerdy girls and lesbians deserve fun! But then every. single. joke. was at the expense of their identities (how many “omg I’m so fat my outfit broke” jokes does one need, really?) and eventually it all ended up playing into the exact mold it had promised to bust. Flavorwire eventually described it as “nothing more than a freshman attempt at sitcom writing that needed to go through a couple more drafts before being put on the air.” But! Lauren Ash’s Marika, and her cute coming out story, were a rare highlight of the show, and maybe if it had gotten those extra drafts, we could’ve seen even more of her journey.
Go On (2013) – NBC
“Anne gave us a story we don’t see too much — what happens when love ends, as Anne experienced following the death of her partner,” Lizz wrote. “But Anne did so with her signature quick wit and got a cute young girlfriend and was taking real steps towards reconciling the grief she felt towards her late wife with her attraction towards a new woman. Plus honestly I’d watch Julie White roll silverware for three hours, she’s that good.”
Underemployed (2012) – MTV
Unfortunately for the entire world, Sophia Swanson was a kickass character stuck on a lousy show with a bunch of self-interested assholes that obviously got cancelled. But fortunately, Sophia Swanson was an unexpected ray of light on an otherwise-heteronormative world — and, at least for the first few episodes, she was positioned as the story’s narrator. Plot devices bungled by other lesbian storylines were delightfully subverted in Underemployed and for the first few episodes, she was been granted ample screen time to grapple with her newfound sexuality, coming out to her friends and parents, and dating a woman for the first time.
The Playboy Club (2011) – NBC
Friends, I was so excited for this one! A show about a Playboy-branded nightclub in the ’60s had made one of its Bunnies, Alice, a closeted lesbian in a lavender marriage with a gay man. Together, they’d joined the Chicago chapter of The Mattachine Society, one of the earliest LGBT Rights groups in the world, and we were promised exploration of this subplot over the course of the season. Unfortunately, it was cancelled after just three (honestly not great) episodes and we never got to see any of this early history play out.
Cashmere Mafia (2007-2008) – ABC
Cashmere Mafia featured the one and only non-heterosexual lead on the 2007-2008 network television slate, but she burned very briefly — the show that aimed to “follow the lives of four ambitious women, longtime best friends since their days at business school, as they try to balance their glamorous and demanding careers with their complex personal lives by creating their own ‘boys’ club'” only aired seven little episodes before getting the chop.
Wonderfalls (2004) – Fox
A Republican immigration attorney and closeted lesbian who came out to her younger sister — the show’s protagonist — in the very first episode, Sharon also managed a minor romantic storyline in the show’s only season (only the first four episodes made it to air, but the entire first season was released on DVD and later aired on Logo). “While she clearly has flaws, Sharon is a realistic, well-rounded, and sympathetic character,” Sarah Warn wrote of her at the time, “no minor accomplishment considering the only other lesbian characters on primetime network TV this season have storylines that are either boringly and insultingly stereotypical (ER) or non-existent (Two and a Half Men).” The show, often compared to Pushing Daisies, had positive reviews and a passionate fanbase — in today’s TV climate it definitely would’ve been given a longer shot at success, or a different network pickup. The AV Club later declared the show “foreshadowed Bryan Fuller’s yearnings for Hannibal and American Gods,” two current shows to also feature queer women characters.
The Ellen Show (2001) – NBC
The final season of Ellen’s first sitcom pushed the lesbian conversation forward in ways we’d never see again for over a decade, and in some ways, her two subsequent projects seem to settle on a kind of overcompensation for that relative radicalism that prevented them from ever finding their own voice. After many years feeling locked out of the industry, her return to primetime comedy marked the first time a sitcom focused on a lesbian lead character from its inception. Ellen’s big return found her character returning home after her internet startup goes bust to make lots of small-pond jokes and revisit the Billie Jean King and Charlie’s Angels posters covering the wall of her childhood bedroom. Sarah Warn wrote that “the failure of The Ellen Show at that time probably had more to do with the fact that it just wasn’t as funny as it should have been with the creative talent it possessed,” while acknowledging,”looking at the series with 2006 eyes, it’s not as un-funny as the critics back in its day alleged.”
Courthouse (1995) – CBS
Co-produced and written by Gina Price-Blythewood (who also made Love & Basketball and The Secret Life of Bees), Courthouse featured the first-ever black lesbian couple on television. Unfortunately, it only lasted 11 episodes and left behind not a single episode for me to recreationally view with my own eyeballs and apparently their lesbianism was “toned down” before broadcast. Still, I bet it was really something!
Autostraddle March Madness: Canon vs. Fanon – Baby Gays
A few numbers from this year’s Autostraddle March Madness, through our first two sub-regions: 8, 23, 2 and 891.
Eight is the number of votes that separated Shane and Carmen from The L Word and Root and Shaw from Person of Interest in the Battle for Sarah Shahi Sapphic Supremacy.
23 is the number of votes that separated Callie and Addison from Grey’s Anatomy from OG Jane and Petra from Jane the Virgin. Callie Torres’ canon pairing, Callie and Arizona, had a smooth ride to the second round: easily dispatching another Jane the Virgin combo (Rose and Luisa).
2 is the number of brackets, out of the 891 that were submitted in Challonge competition, that are sitting at 100% accuracy through two rounds. Just two!
With only eight competitors in every sub-region, every match-up’s going to be tough so it feels like anyone can win at any point. The only real surprise for me, through two rounds of voting, is Debbie and Ruth’s upset of Emily and JJ in the Fanon region; I may have underestimated the G.L.O.W. fanbase. I worried about Brittana overcoming the allure of Bettina but the favorites from GLEE were able to advance with no problem. And, on behalf of the TV team, let me thank you for advancing Emma and Nico of Vida over Alice and Nat from The L Word: Generation Q…I think the team would have mutinied if you hadn’t.
So let’s take a look at that updated bracket, shall we?
Canon #1. Syd and Elena – One Day at a Time
Elena and her Syd-nificant Other got Heather’s vote for Best Queer Couple of 2020. Here’s what she wrote:
It’s funny that I’ve seen a hundred queer couples on TV at this point, and it was finally these two teenage dorks who really reflected my own reality back to me for maybe the first time. They’re sweet and they’re silly and they communicate and work to balance their own needs with each other’s needs and each have their own hopes and goals for the future, and personalities, but they make such a match together too. They make each other better and they make each other happier and they make each other feel safer and those are some of the greatest things anyone in your life can ever do for you.
Canon #8. Juliana and Valentina – Amar a Muerte
Juliana’s walking with her mother when she first spots Valentina and though not a word between them is spoken, her entire life is changed in that moment. When they meet later in the park, the chemistry between the two is palpable. They find refuge in each other: as Valentina copes with the loss of her father, Juliana stops her from giving into her worst impulses. When Juliana’s mother is kidnapped by the cartel, Valentina offers her sanctuary. Theirs is one of the greatest love stories ever told.
And, just in case Juliantina’s improbable love story wasn’t amazing enough already: the fan effort to have their story go on, even after Amar a Muerte‘s end, was successful. Production on the Juliantina spin-off has resumed after a prolonged COVID pause.
One of the consequences of Lisbeth being off-screen so often is that Bess has more time to build chemistry with other people on the canvas. That, of course, has its consequences. As our intrepid Nancy Drew recapper, Valerie Anne, wrote last year:“Someone please explain to me why I still ship Nancy and Bess even though Bess has a perfectly lovely girlfriend RIGHT HERE?”
Pondering it further, Valerie told me: “Nancy and Bess is just a fun ship because Nancy is so SERIOUS so often and Bess is a little more breezy and instead of being annoyed by it, Nancy is charmed by it. They’re an unlikely duo and it has the endearing feeling of those videos where like a panther and a puppy have become best friends.”
Canon #2. Cassie and Izzy – Atypical
There’s something beautiful about crushing on someone…it’s idyllic…you get to imagine the best version of you and the best version of them and the best version of yourselves, together, without thinking about the outside world. But the moment that it becomes real and suddenly, you’re at the mercy of all these forces that you’d never considered before and that can be scary, so you act weird. That’s what happens to Cassie and Izzy in Atypical‘s third season and, for a while, it looks like they won’t make it.
“I’ve been thinking, you’re right, I’ve been awful to you and you’re so good and solid and wonderful, but I get it if you don’t want do this,” Izzie concedes. “I know I’m not easy.”
But Casey, who’s not sure about a lot, is sure about this one thing, “I’m not looking for easy.”
Canon #7. Bess and Lisbeth – Nancy Drew
When Bess first meets Lisbeth, she’s acting as a distraction: keeping Lisbeth busy while Nancy Drew breaks into the morgue. They flirt as Lisbeth fixes Ace’s car and, at some point, Lisbeth slips Beth her number. Asked about it later, Bess claims she doesn’t date — boys or girls — because she’s been on her own for so long, she never lets herself get that close to anyone. But, after running into Lisbeth while out on a mission, Bess thinks maybe she ought to let herself get close to someone and invites Lisbeth to dinner.
Though Nancy Drew hasn’t given Bess and Lisbeth nearly enough screentime — Lisbeth is gone more than she’s around, according to resident Nancy Drew expert, Valerie Anne — the couple compliment each other nicely. Lisbeth sees through Bess…past the fancy clothes she wears to play socialite and into her thoughtful, anxious insides. In Lisbeth, Bess finally finds her anchor: someone who serves as constant in a way few other people in her life have.
Canon #3. Rue and Jules – Euphoria
From Drew’s magnum opus on Euphoria‘s first season:
Rue (Zendaya) is a 17-year-old bored with everything in life but drugs. She’s a regular teenager, trapped in the suburbs, annoyed with her family, alienated from endless high school drama, and struggling with mental illness. Drugs are her escape. Unfortunately, this escape led to an OD and a stint in rehab. The show opens with her returning home from this stay, less invested in staying clean than immediately finding her next fix. That is until she meets the new kid in school, an enigmatic trans girl named Jules (Hunter Schafer). They meet, they become best friends, and then, they become something more.
Canon #6. Emily and Sue- Dickinson
From Valerie’s review of Dickinson‘s second season:
In the season finale, Sue goes to see Emily and tries to explain why she tried to push her off on Sam Bowles. She was afraid of the way she felt about Emily, the way Emily and her poems made her feel. She was afraid because she didn’t feel it anywhere else, not at her parties, not with Austin, not with Sam. Just Emily.
And then Sue comes out and says it. It’s not poetic but it’s crystal clear: “I’m in love with you.”
Emily doesn’t believe it. She’s been hurt by Sue before. But Sue shouts it. Emily pushes back, pushes her, but Sue says it again and again. She’s not backing down, not anymore. And then Sue says the thing that could be a line from one of Emily’s poems, “The only true thing I’ll ever feel is my love for you.”
Canon #4. Cheryl and Toni- Riverdale
It’s hard to draw close to someone like Cheryl Blossom. Over the years, she has honed her ability to keep people at arm’s length. It becomes almost a natural instinct when even Cheryl’s mother doubts her capacity for love and dismisses her as “a jealous, spite-filled, starving, emotional anorexic.” So when Toni tries to get to the root of why Cheryl called Jughead to tell him about Archie and Betty’s kiss, Cheryl lashes out at the attempt to draw close: “Get your Sapphic, serpent hands off my body!”
But Toni persists…and, eventually, Cheryl starts to relent. Cheryl admits she used to be such a carefree kid but then her mother crushed her spirit by taking away her first love: her best friend, Heather.
“You’re not loveless. You’re not deviant. Okay?” Toni assures her. “You’re sensational.”
Canon #5. Kate and Emaline – Everything Sucks!
As confident and brash as Emaline appears, when her boyfriend, Oliver, absconds to New York to become a famous actor, she’s at a loss. She had been doing all of this — drama club and acting in the A/V Club’s movie — for him and now she doesn’t know who she is. Thankfully, Kate’s there to reassure her and offer Emaline a glimpse at herself through Kate’s eyes. Kate offers niceties, at first — Emaline’s funny, confident and talented — but when Emaline accuses her of being effortlessly cool and cute, Kate finds the confidence to make bolder admissions.
“I think you’re the most sexy and attractive person I’ve ever met,” Kate confesses.
“You really think so?” Emaline asks.
“I think you’re perfect.”
Fanon #1. Betty and Veronica – Riverdale
In Riverdale‘s pilot episode, Betty and Veronica kiss. They’re in the middle of cheerleading tryouts and Cheryl is looking for some sizzle and so Veronica gives it to her…and while their “faux lesbian kissing” doesn’t lead to anything in canon, it launched (or re-launched, if you follow the comic books) the Beronica ship. But perhaps Beronica’s biggest moment comes during Riverdale‘s musical episode, “A Night to Remember.”
Here’s how Kayla described it in her recap:
Veronica and Betty also sing it out after Archie convinces Betty that Veronica’s bad deeds are the result of pressure from her parents and reminds her how quickly Veronica forgave her after the Black Hood manipulated Betty into being mean to her. Archie and Betty start singing Tommy and Sue’s love ballad to each other rehearsal, and then the show just seamlessly shifts to BETTY AND VERONICA SINGING THE LOVE SONG TO EACH OTHER in what is definitely fuel for the Beronica ship. Somehow, this is the gayest scene to happen in the episode.
Fanon #8. Penelope and Eloise – Bridgerton
It was surprising to step into the world of Shondaland — Bridgerton is the first Netflix project from the great Shonda Rhimes — and not find out that one of the main characters was canonically queer. Sure, the entire show (and its source material) is about 19th Century London’s marriage market…which doesn’t lend itself to being anything besides a testament to (or indictment of?) heterosexual marriage…but this was Shondaland, right? But then we meet Eloise who so fervently resists the trappings of the patriarchy that you can’t not hope that she’s just not queer yet. A baby gay Anne Lister, perhaps?
The friendship between Penelope and Eloise is one of the highlights of Bridgerton‘s first season. There is no competition them, only the shared longing for a different life than they have been afforded. They are different — Penelope is far more amendable to society’s demands of women — but they are only truly seen by each other.
Fanon #2. Spencer and Aria – Pretty Little Liars
I’ve got to admit: even as I’ve revisit Pretty Little Liars patheon — watching old clips and reading episode recaps — I still don’t have the foggiest idea what would cause anyone to ‘ship Spencer and Aria. But people do: of the fanon femslash pairings for Pretty Little Liars, Sparia generates the most fanfic.
Obviously, they cute together: Spencer’s small frame fits perfectly beneath Spencer’s chin. I suppose, insomuch as any of the Liars were good at solving clues, I suppose Spencer and Aria were the best at it…and the show plainly encouraged the ‘shippers by referring them as Team Sparia on-screen (which feels like faux pas to me…like a band wearing their own t-shirts). But shipping? I don’t know about that.
Fanon #7. Bess and Nancy – Nancy Drew
One of the consequences of Lisbeth being off-screen so often is that Bess has more time to build chemistry with other people on the canvas. That, of course, has its consequences. As our intrepid Nancy Drew recapper, Valerie Anne, wrote last year:“Someone please explain to me why I still ship Nancy and Bess even though Bess has a perfectly lovely girlfriend RIGHT HERE?”
Pondering it further, Valerie told me:”Nancy and Bess is just a fun ship because Nancy is so SERIOUS so often and Bess is a little more breezy and instead of being annoyed by it, Nancy is charmed by it. They’re an unlikely duo and it has the endearing feeling of those videos where like a panther and a puppy have become best friends.”
Fanon #3. Josie and Hope – Legacies
In her reflection on the queer legacy of Legacies, Valerie Anne charted the series’ history: from Rebekah Mikaelson’s 2014 threesome to the current Salvatore School where everyone seems just a little bit gay. During this iteration’s first season, Josie reveals that she used to have a crush on Hope. And while it takes a while for Hope to admit it: she had a crush on Josie for like a week when they were 14.
Here’s how Valerie captured what followed that admission:
Hope opens up to Josie in a way she has a hard time opening up, and it’s beautiful and heartbreaking to watch. Josie considers her carefully as she talks; because the thing is, people don’t often let Josie make decisions like this. They don’t take HER feelings into consideration as much as they should, because she’s usually the one who is catering to someone else’s feelings. But Hope is willing to upend her ENTIRE LIFE if Josie says so, just to save her some pain. While Josie fights back tears and takes Hope in, the song croons about not wanting to forget. “How could I blackout you?” Appropriate, given Hope’s recent journey of being unknown. In the end, they hug, and it’s decided Hope will stay. Josie misses Hope, too. And Landon is leaving, so they are both sharing a specific pain; they need each other. They were two points of a love triangle, but when the third point disappears, they find themselves on a straight line toward each other.
Fanon #6. Hanna and Mona – Pretty Little Liars
In Pretty Little Liars‘ second season finale, Spencer figures out that Mona is “A.” Mona corrects her: she’s a part of the A-Team and invites Spencer to join. As Mona drives frantically to Lookout Point, Spencer asks if A’s torture has just been Mona’s payback for the Liars’ tacit acceptance of Alison’s bullying. But Mona swears that she’s been over all that.
“[Ali] was never my friend, but Hanna was and you bitches took her from me,” Mona explains. “It’s not about betrayal, Spencer, it’s about revenge! You deserved everything you got! You stole my only friend.”
Torturing, blackmailing, committing violence…totally something you do because someone stole your “friend.” Sure, Jan.
Fanon #4. Lydia and Allison – Teen Wolf
Soon after Allison arrives in Beacon Hills, Lydia spots Allison at her locker, expresses appreciation her fashion sense and dubs her her new best friend. Over the years, they grow closer and fiercely protect the the other from whatever supernatural force threatens them. But when Lydia’s captured by the Nogitsune in the show’s third season, she begs Allison not to come find her: according to her premonition, the battle could be prove fatal.
Of course, Allison won’t let anything stand in the way of getting her best friend back. In battle, Allison summons unimaginable strength — killing an Oni with her homemade silver arrowhead, a feat once thought impossible — but, in turn, gets stabbed in the abdomen. As she lays dying, she worries about Lydia — “Did you find her? Is she okay? Is Lydia safe?” — and Lydia, who senses Allison’s death from afar, lets out a Banshee scream in grief.
Fanon #5. Maya and Riley – Girl Meets World
When I’m writing these blurbs about shows I’ve never seen, like Girl Meets World, I’ll watch some scenes on Youtube and read a lot about the couple, just to get a sense of who they are so I can write about it sensibly. But as I watched Rilaya scenes, I kept checking my notes over and over again: “are we sure that this couple isn’t canon?”
In the series finale, as Riley’s parents consider a job offer that would take their family to London, Maya can’t stomach thinking that her best friend might leave. There’s no way Riley could leave, Maya rationalizes, because there’s no replacement for her and no cares about her like Riley does. Later, they make a pledge to each other: “Time and distance have no power over us. You and I are together for as long as we live.”
As always, the clock’s set: you’ve got 48 hours to cast your ballot in this round of March Madness. We’ll be back on Monday to unveil the updated bracket and vote in our final sub-region: SCI-FI/Fantasy.
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Autostraddle March Madness — Best Coming Out: Baby Gays
One of the interesting things about doing a Classics Region this year is seeing how LGBT stories have evolved over time. I think about Spencer Carlin from South of Nowhere and how her mom reacted to finding out about Spencer’s relationship with Ashley compared to how Randall and Beth handled their daughter Tess’ revelation on This is Us. I think about the limits placed on intimacy between Emily and her girlfriends on Pretty Little Liars and I compare it to what Nomi’s allowed to do now on grown-ish or how Sabrina introduces her half-dressed girlfriend to her family on The Mick. I think of Bianca’s one time girlfriend, Zoe, on All My Children and much the ground has shifted for trans stories to now have Nia Nal — a trans character played by a trans actress — come out to James Olson on Supergirl.
There are so many stories left to tell about LGBT people…in a very real way, the honest sharing of those stories remains in its infancy….but, as I hope this edition of March Madness makes clear, we’ve come far in a short amount of time.
As with yesterday, you have 48 hours to vote for your favorites in the Baby Gay region. If you’ve seen the episodes, vote accordingly. If not, check out my descriptions or links to video of those scenes (where available)…who knows, you might find a whole new show to love.
Remember: We’ll be revealing the Grown region and the International region on Wednesday and Thursday!
#1. Elena Alvarez – One Day at a Time
First and foremost: #SAVEODAAT, but also:
“Television has a habit of linking coming out with romance, as if your identity isn’t your own without someone else there to affirm it, and while that might make for great TV — who doesn’t love a love story, after all — the conflation of those two things has always struck me as a bit problematic. I didn’t expect One Day at a Time, the reboot of the 1970s Norman Lear multi-cam sitcom, to be the show challenged that convention, but it did.
When Elena comes out to her family, it’s about her. It’s not about some girl that’s waiting in the wings, equally smitten with her…it’s about Elena and this realization she’s come to about herself. Coming out is the moment we turn quiet revelations — borne, in Elena’s case, from countless hours of binge watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, staring longingly at Kristen Stewart and kissing the wrong people — into public pronouncements and One Day at a Time gives Elena the space to own that moment.
The show, guided in part by two queer writers, allows Elena’s coming out to be a season-long triumph; not a byproduct of feelings she has for someone else, but a product of her fully accepting and loving herself.
#16. Kelsey Philips – Dear White People
In season one of Dear White People, the show’s self-proclaimed lesbian character, Neika Hobbs, fell into one of our least favorite gay tropes: lesbian sleeps with a guy. On top of that, Hobbs was a professor so it became “lesbian sleeps with a guy in a gross abuse of power.” It was not good. It was so bad that I couldn’t even appreciate seeing Nia Long play a lesbian again (as she’d done in If These Walls Could Talk 2). But, thankfully, the show learned from its missteps and gifted us with Kelsey Philips in season two.
According to Carmen, “Kelsey had a tiny role in Dear White People‘s first season. She served as comic relief thanks to her Hillary Banks valley girl vocal inflection, all around ditzy personality, and her love for her dog, named Sorbet. Her waters get a bit deeper in the second season, where she plays a crucial supporting role in Coco’s stand alone episode.”
“I’m a lesbian, love. Gold star,” Kelsey announces (“Chapter IV”), affirming that this show won’t be repeating its past mistake. “I’ve been out ever since Queen Janet’s wardrobe malfunction.”
#2. Tess Pearson – This Is Us
The first person Tess Pearson comes out to is her Aunt Kate, who’s visiting from the West Coast for Thanksgiving…and because Kate can’t be there to support her niece, Kate asks her mother (Rebecca) to keep an eye on her eldest grandchild. Rebecca tries to achieve that delicate balance of being an outlet for Tess while also not forcing conversations Tess is just not ready to have. She respects Tess’ silence for the most part but advises her to not let secrets — a thing that Rebecca Pearson knows a lot about — fester.
I’ll let Carmen take it from here:
With her grandmother’s voice ringing in her ears, Tess decides to tell her parents. This Is Us is infamous for making its audience cry, and with Tess’ big coming out, they shot all the way to the stars. Her coming out is messy. She doesn’t know all the right words or how to explain her emotions eloquently. She comes downstairs in her bathrobe and blurts out all her worries at once, leaving them there like hot spilled soup on the tile floor. She doesn’t wait for the perfect moment or the perfect phrasing or for everything to be just right. There’s mucus obviously coating the back of her throat, snot’s running out of her nose, her eyes are shining red with tears, her young voice wavers and cracks. But that’s okay. It’s triumphant, because you know what? She doesn’t let the anxiety that had been eating her up for weeks win.
#15. Sabrina – The Mick
Sabrina Pemberton got a girlfriend. If I’m not mistaken, Sabrina has made brief mention of being not-straight before (or maybe I’m mixing her up with the actress’s role of Tea on the US Skins) but this week she kisses a girl named Alexis full on the mouth and calls her her girlfriend.
Mick calls her a lez, which Sabrina is offended by, not because of what it stands for, but because Mick assumed if she wasn’t straight she must be a lesbian just because she has a girlfriend. And when Mick asks for a better word to describe her niece, Sabrina says my new favorite line, “Stop trying to label me, you ancient bag of sand.”
And listen, I think labels can be very useful, and use lesbian and queer myself, but I laughed out loud at the indignation in her voice, the look on everyone’s face, and the phrase “ancient bag of sand.”
#3. Tamia “Coop” Cooper – All American
When we first meet Tamia “Coop” Cooper, it’s hard to believe that she’s hiding anything. As she walks the halls of South Crenshaw High or the streets of her neighborhood, she affirms who she is in her style, her swagger and the women who catch her eye. For Coop, that’s enough — she doesn’t have to say she’s gay because it’s obvious — and whoever can’t see her for who she is, is responsible for their own blindness. But what she doesn’t realize, until she meets a girl who makes her want more, is that by not saying it aloud…by living under a version of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in her own home…Coop’s been carrying everyone else’s shame.
“Mom, look at me, please,” Coop begs, when she comes out for the very first time. “I am gay and there is no amount of prayer that’s gonna change that. Trust me, I’ve tried.”
#14. Casey – Atypical
No one says a word when Casey comes out on Atypical…not really. She and Izzie have just returned from a trip four towns over to find a 7-Eleven that serves Cotton Candy slurpees which, actually, seems like a great use of time. After their near kiss during her birthday party — the culmination of feelings that have grown between the pair throughout the season — Casey runs straight to her boyfriend, Evan, to have sex again. But even as she admits that she loves Evan, Casey draws her hand closer to Izzie.
“It’s just, sometimes a thing feels, like so right. You know?” Casey says, clearly no longer talking about her boyfriend (whose call she ignores as they sit).
Their fingers touch and, in an intense and beautiful way that I can’t fully explain, their fingers move slowly until their holding hands. No one has to say anything. They both know.
#4. Kate Messner – Everything Sucks
The first time that Kate Messner comes out to Luke on Everything Sucks, it doesn’t stick. The A/V Club shows up at the auditorium to make amends with the Theater club…and do so with a six-pack of Zima — which, can I just say, I revisited recently and doesn’t taste nearly as good as my teenage self thought — and a movie pitch for an extraterrestrial version of Romeo and Juliet. It’s enough to assuage the anger of the Theater kids and eventually, despite Kate’s reluctance, they all settle in to play spin the bottle.
Kate spins first and it lands on Emaline but Jessica immediately discounts the spin because it’s two girls. Emaline resists but Kate is quick to accept the judgment and let the next person go. Luke spins next and, of course, it lands on Kate. They step into the prop closet and make awkward small talk before sharing their first kiss. Luke thinks it was awesome but Kate absolutely does not.
“I think I’m a lesbian,” she admits. She comes out at that moment because the emotional difference between what she wants — to kiss her crush, Emaline — and what she has — this kiss with her friend — could not be more apparent.
#13. Courtney Crimsen – 13 Reasons Why
Throughout season one of 13 Reasons Why, everything Courtney Crimsen does is steeped in her own internalized homophobia. So desperate to keep her sexuality a secret, she isolated and spread rumors about Hannah Baker…and, ultimately, Courtney became reason 5 of the 13 reasons that Hannah took her own life. But in Season 2 — did we really need a season 2 of 13 Reasons Why, no we did not, but I don’t make the rules — Courtney takes responsibility for her role in alienating Hannah.
“I liked her. I was the one with the crush,” Courtney admits during her testimony, revealing the truth as her dads watch from the gallery. “It was my first kiss, see? And I felt like it was ruined. Maybe ’cause her own first kiss had been ruined, maybe because she just felt bad, but that’s the real reason she kissed me back.That’s what’s in those photos Tyler took: proof that she was a good friend. And maybe that means I was bullying her the whole time.”
#5. Willow Rosenberg – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
There’s nothing quite as tender baby gay as coming out while clutching your teddy bear, which is exactly how Willow told Buffy that there was something special going on between her and Tara, something different, something powerful — and that it was really complicating her feelings about Oz’s return. Buffy paced around for a second, saying Willow’s name over and over like a weirdo, but when Willow straight-up asked her if she was freaked out, she sat right down on her best friend’s bed, looked her in the eye, and said, “No.” Willow didn’t want to hurt anyone, never wanted to hurt anyone — well, I mean, eventually she did but that was later — and Buffy told her that somebody was going to get hurt, no matter how hard she tried; the only thing Willow could do was be honest. And she was.
#12. Toni Topaz – Riverdale
Toni Topaz had one of the most casual coming outs on a network where people just come out left and right these days. During breakfast after an evening romp with Jughead, who was trying to let her down easy, she just said, “I like girls more anyway.” It turns out it’s not that casual in her real life, though; her family has basically disowned and ostracized her for being bisexual (which, weirdly, in Riverdale still doesn’t make you as bad as the other serial-killing, cult-leading, child-murdering, mob boss parents???). Toni’s relationship to coming out to her parents forced her to be hard in some ways, but made her even more empathetic in others, which is pretty damn gay.
#6. Nicole – Fresh Off The Boat
Nicole picks up Eddie in her Saturn on her way home from the movies. Her friends ditched her to hang out with their boyfriends, which she doesn’t understand on two levels: 1) Boys, blech. 2) They’d made plans to see Jodie Foster in Contact, okay? That means that Ellen’s “The Puppy Episode” happened just a few months ago in Nicole’s world and Ellen herself just became the most famous lesbian in the world and lesbian lesbian lesbian is in the air everywhere. Trust me, I was exactly Nicole’s age at exactly this moment in time.
Nicole invites Eddie to hang out some more, one-on-one, which makes him think she’s into him, which bamboozles him and he ends up blurting out over dinner (free chips and salsa) that he likes her but that he’s got already got a lady in his life. At the same time she blurts out that she’s into girls. It freaks him out a little and that freaks her out a lot; she’d never said it out loud before. By the end of their car ride home, he’s come around and starts pelting her with questions like best friends do.
#11. Genesis Pérez – Mi Familia Perfecta
After her brother tells Genesis that Megan, her new friend and teammate, is gay, Genesis can, seemingly, think of nothing else. She watches Megan get dressed after practice and when she’s caught, she covers asks Megan directly about her brother’s suspicions. Megan confirms her brother’s suspicions but assures Genesis that they can still be friends. Besides, Megan says, Genesis isn’t even her type and it’s that revelation that yields a flash of disappointment on Genesis’ face. In the weeks that follow, the affection that Genesis feels for Megan becomes even more apparent and, eventually, her best friend, Marisol volunteers to listen if she ever wants to talk about what’s going on with Megan…and it leads to Genesis finally coming out.
As I noted when I reviewed this show over the summer, Spanish-language television is woefully behind in terms of LGBT representation. GLAAD found that of the 698 characters on the networks’ scripted primetime series, only 19 were LGBT characters and, of those, just 6 were women. So while, at times, Genesis’ coming out story and her romance with Megan felt like , they were a definite step forward for inclusion.
#7. Cheryl Blossom – Riverdale
Later, Cheryl and Toni find themselves alone at the movies, and Cheryl lets her in a little more. They agree to watch Love, Simon together and get milkshakes after. For as in-your-face as the Love, Simon product placement is, it’s smart of the writers to actually have the movie play such a significant role in this narrative. Cheryl relates to the film’s protagonist and how repressing his sexuality has suffocated him. She entirely opens herself up to Toni and tells her that she used to love someone. Toni thinks she’s talking about Jason at first, but she isn’t. She’s talking about Heather, her best friend in middle school who she loved. When Cheryl’s mother thought they were getting too close, she called Cheryl a deviant and forced Cheryl and Heather apart.
Cheryl has always struggled with healthy relationship dynamics and boundaries. It’s easy to see where that stems from: Her parents straight up hate her, and her father killed her twin brother/best friend. Penelope Blossom’s hatred toward her daughter has always been a little confusing in how extreme it is. But Riverdale finally contextualizes that animosity as homophobia. Cheryl’s parents never saw her as the rightful heir to their maple kingdom because she’s queer. Penelope hated Cheryl long before Jason died, and by calling her a deviant, she planted the seed of internalized homophobia that has wrecked Cheryl’s perception of herself and ability to let herself really feel what she feels.
#10. Nia Nal – Supergirl
Nia Nal is looking for a caffeine fix when she walks into a local pizzeria and spots her friend, Brainy. When a hack exposures Brainy’s original form, the pizza guy recognizes Brainy for the alien that he is and threatens him. Nia steps in and deescalates the situation but her ire has been raised. She returns to work at CatCo and…well, I’ll let Valerie explain what happens next:
She seeks out James and instead of asking this time, she tells him that she thinks he needs to write a statement as the Editor in Chief. He says he has to wait for the right moment, that he can’t editorialize right out of the gate. Nia disagrees; she thinks this isn’t the time to be careful or PC, this is the time to stand up for what it’s right. This is James’s chance to fight for justice even though he can’t be Guardian anymore.
James asks why she’s so passionate about this, and Nia tells him that she’s a transgender woman and that she knows what these aliens are going through. She knows what it’s like to be attacked and denied because of who she is. She stood up to Brainy’s attacker and made a difference, but James has an opportunity to do the same on a much larger scale.
James explains that he has to time it so that he can “reach across the aisle” to ensure the other side will listen instead of pushing them away without them giving him a chance to explain. He wants to stay balanced, and Nia thinks the time for balance is long gone. James thanks her for sharing her truth with him, and it’s clear Nia gave him a lot to think about.
#8. Catherine Meyer – VEEP
From Heather’s meditation on Clea Duvall’s BGE recap:
Veep‘s First Daughter, Catherine Meyer, has been lurking in the background all season long — literally. Selina’s long-suffering only child is crafting a documentary, and every time the camera pans out or around, there she is: standing in the corner shooting video of her mom’s cabinet meetings, Oval Office interactions, narcissistic meltdowns, and swearing symphonies. Selina always seems to forget that Catherine exists, and then shoos her away when she realizes they’re standing right beside each other. She didn’t even remember to call Catherine into the hospital room before she pulled her grandma’s life support earlier this season!
So it’s no surprise that during last week’s “C**tgate,” Catherine announced that she’d fallen in love with someone else who lives in the shadows. What is surprising is that the someone is a White House staffer, and woman. But not just any woman: Catherine has fallen in love with Marjorie (played by Clea DuVall), Selina’s personal Secret Service detail who was chosen for the job because everyone thinks she looks like the president. It’s so deliciously bizarre and awkward; it’s so very Veep.
#9. Nomi Segal – grown-ish
Nomi’s dreaded coming out to her parents since the first episode of grown-ish. Initially, she resists telling them because she doesn’t want to be a disappointment to them. She doesn’t want her parents to look at her differently…she just wants to be their daughter…and she worries about how telling her parents she’s bisexual would change that. Plus, Nomi’s reliant on her parents for financial support — they pay her overpriced tuition and for the lavish apartment she shares with Ana and Zoey. No, she concludes, she can’t tell her parents about her sexuality. Not yet.
But then a strange thing happens on the way to her gender studies class: Nomi gets a mentor who points out the way her parents’ disappointment and, by extension, her unwillingness to come out, have left her with such a capricious view about relationships and women. No matter how much she tries to avoid it, she’s already carrying her parents’ disappointment.
The revelation plus a deep dive into queer culture and a impromptu make-out session with her aforementioned mentor, is enough to convince Nomi to finally comeout to her parents.
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The 25 Best TV Shows Of 2018 With LGBT Women Characters
‘Tis the season for various media outlets to reveal their list of the 10-40 Best TV Shows of the year, and this year we decided to get in on that. With a caveat, of course — to us, no matter how critically acclaimed any given show is, we cannot personally crown it “the best” unless our specific interests (read: queer women) are included within it. I’m sorry that’s just who and how we are!
To prepare for this undertaking, I looked at 18 Best TV of 2018 lists across mainstream media, both high-brow and middle-brow: The Decider, The New York Times, Paste, Vulture, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The New Yorker, TV Guide, AFI, Complex, The AV Club, Verge, The AP, Variety, Slate, The Daily Beast and The Atlantic. On the list below, you’ll see in parentheses a number: that number represents the number of other Best-Of lists the show appeared on.
Last year I documented what felt like — finally— a shift wherein regular and recurring queer women characters were just as likely to show up at the forefront of prestige television as they were in our previous homes of “soapy teen dramas,” sci-fi/supernatural epics and very small parts in aforementioned prestige television. This year that trend has continued mightily. Three shows that turned up on pretty much every Best-Of list — The Good Place, Killing Eve and Pose — had queer or trans leads. Frequent inclusions on those Best-Of Lists that did not include queer women were exactly what you’d expect: The Americans, Homecoming, Atlanta, Better Call Saul, Lodge 49, Barry, Bojack Horseman (which did have one lesbian-themed episode but that didn’t feel like enough to warrant inclusion on this list, I’m sure you will @ me re: this) and Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Most baffling to us all was that Lifetime’s You showed up on SEVEN Best-Of Lists, despite being insufferable and killing its only queer woman character. It’s not on this list.
This list is not, then, our favorite shows of the year, or the shows that brought us the most joy or the best representation. We’re doing a lot of lists this year about teevee, and most of them are our Favorites, not “The Best.” This list are the shows that have regular or recurring queer women characters and that I personally believe were, objectively, the best. The opinions of other critics weighed heavily into these rankings, and only in a few cases did I pick a show that wasn’t on any other Best-Of lists.
I look forward to witnessing your disagreements and agreements in the comments! Also I know there’s 27 shows here but 25 seemed like a better headline.
28. Marvel’s Runaways Seasons One & Two (0)
“Marvel’s Runaways” Hasn’t Achieved Its Full Gay Potential Yet, but It’s Already a Thrilling Ride
The timing couldn’t be better for this lovely comic book adaptation about a group of fierce, supernaturally talented teenagers challenging the abhorrent compromises their parents made, supposedly in their best interest, for a “better world,” at the expense of, you know — human lives, wealth inequality, and our planet. Plus, Virginia Gardner literally shines as Karolina Dean, a human-alien hybrid initially hiding her superpowers and her lesbianism ’til coming out near the end of Season One. Her revelation is refreshingly well received by her crush, cynical goth Nico Minoru, in what feels like a fairly honest depiction of Generation Y’s alleged tendency towards nonchalant sexual fluidity. Season Two sees the lesbian couple trying to make it work amid pretty challenging circumstances. Despite an enormous ensemble — six children and ten parents for each — Runaways has mostly succeeded in making each of them count. At times it fumbles, having bit off more than it can chew thematically and w/r/t sheer population, but it still manages to combine the easy joy of a teen drama with the satisfying anxiety of suspenseful sci-fi. — Riese Bernard
27. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season Two (7)
Undoubtedly the most cheerful show on the list and a bona-fide critical darling, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is hawkishly agreeable, floating through its second season on unmistakable charm, its trademark breakneck quip-laden dialogue, and a generous budget devoted to picturesque sets and locations that leave no affluent late-’50s stone unturned. Then there’s Mrs. Maisel herself, a plucky heroine who occasionally does wrong but when she does, it’s always very cute, and often laugh-out-loud funny. It’s frustrating that Susie’s lesbianism remains bafflingly unspoken, especially when Mrs. Maisel’s primary flaw continues to be its chronically low stakes, like a cake inside another cake inside another cake slathered in buttercream frosting. I do love cake, though! Regardless — Susie deserves a sexuality. I hope in Season Three she finally gets it. — Riese Bernard
26. Sally4Ever Season One (2)
HBO’s “Sally4Ever” Is Hilarious, Horrifying, Tries to Make Lesbian Toeing Happen
Earning points for sheer pugnacity, Sally4Ever, described by The Guardian as “a lurid lesbian sitcom,” is a disgusting, often offensive and downright bizarre comedy about an absurdly passive middle-aged woman, Sally, who leaves her droll underachieving partner for a wildly manipulative narcissistic lesbian musician / actress she first sees on the Underground. Julie Davis’s Emma is a madcap creation only Julie Davis’s mind could’ve created. Sally4Ever is one of four reminders on this list that you can always rely on British television to wallow in discomfort and failure in a way optimistic American TV is rarely willing to do. — Riese Bernard
25. Legends of Tomorrow Seasons Three & Four (2)
How “Legends of Tomorrow” Became One of the Best Queer Shows on TV
Legends of Tomorrow is one of the weirdest shows on television. With everything from Julius Caesar on the loose in Aruba to a stuffed animal worshipped as a god of war, you truly never know what’s going to happen next. On paper, it seems like the writers play mad libs with storylines, picking random nouns and locations out of hats and running with it. The most dramatic lines of dialogue are, simply put, absurd. But in 2018 this goofy-ass show has blossomed into something truly spectacular, as bisexual badass Sara Lance became, in the words of Zari, “not just the captain of the ship, but its soul.” It was still everything we love about the show – the misfit camaraderie, the wacky storylines, the outfits, the heart – but turned up to eleven. Sara also got her first post-Arrow longterm relationship with another woman. Their love story was fraught, sweet, sexy, complicated — and oh so rewarding. Best of all, it’s still going strong. — Valerie Anne
24. Everything Sucks! Season One (1)
Everything Sucks! is a Bangin’ TV Show With a Sweet Lesbian Lead
Sure, everything sucks, but something that specifically sucks is that this show only got one tiny season to breathe. Sweet and nostalgic, Everything Sucks! made the noteworthy choice of placing a lesbian character front and center of a tender coming-of-age dramedy set in Boring, Oregon. Amid pitch-perfect references to Frutopia, “Wonderwall” and the Columbia House Music Club, we have two girls on separate journeys towards queer revelations (and each other) and in this story, the pre-teen boys in their crew aren’t the main event. Considering all that, I suppose, perhaps it’s not so surprising it got cancelled.— Riese Bernard
23. Forever Season One (3)
Maya Rudolph’s Forever is Finally Here and Quietly Queer
Every critic on earth adored Forever, partly because of the show’s unique and brilliantly executed concept, but mostly because of Maya Rudolph’s stunning and triumphant return to TV. What made Forever even rarer than those two things was the central conflict for Rudolph’s character, June, who experienced a middle-aged queer awakening at the hands of an enigmatic, furious, and sometimes even unlikable(!!) Kase, played by Catherine Keener. It does seem like maybe some vital character development for Kase was left on the cutting room floor in an effort to make sure the audience didn’t root too hard for her relationship with June — but what remained was still breathtaking and frankly revolutionary. — Heather Hogan
22. Counterpart Season One (3)
After years of lurking in the Showtime/HBO shadows, Starz has emerged over the past few years to, intentionally or not, feature queer women characters in nearly all of their original programming. And what original programming it has been! A lot of the well-deserved praise for this taut, suspenseful, dystopian spy thriller has gone to J.K. Simmons for his riveting performance as two versions of the same man, one in each of the show’s two parallel worlds. But the reason I tuned in was for one of the year’s few masculine-of-center lesbian regulars: Baldwin, a trained assassin never given the chance to develop a true emotional life or any dreams of her own, a fact laid bare when she’s forced to watch her counterpart, an accomplished classical violinist, die in an alternate dimension. She struggles with her sexual and emotional connection to a sleeper agent and an unexpected romance with a waitress, as brooding butches are wont to do, but we never struggle with our affection for this unique point of connection in a really good story.— Riese Bernard
21. Adventure Time Season 10 (1)
Princess Bubblegum and Marceline Smooch On-Screen, Live Happily Ever After in the “Adventure Time” Series Finale
Adventure Time is easily the most influential show in Cartoon Network’s history; echoes of its style and themes reverberate far beyond kids TV. And really Adventure Time never was kids TV. Yeah, it was animated and as silly as bing bong ping pong. But as it evolved, it became as philosophical weighty and psychologically curious as Battlestar Galactica. Fans of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline enjoyed growing canonical support of their favorite couple over the seasons, both on-screen and in spin-off comic books — but they’d never actually confirmed their relationship physically until the series finale when Bonnie got womped in the dome piece and almost croaked and Marceline rushed to her and caressed her and professed her love and they smooched right on the mouths. — Heather Hogan
20. The Handmaid’s Tale Season Two (4)
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Season Two Gets Even Darker, Queerer, Curiouser and Curiouser
Season Two of Handmaid’s Tale was darker than Season One, which’s saying a lot. I mean we opened with a fake-out mass-hanging and before long Offred was basically slicing off a chunk of her own ear, then staring at the camera while we watched her bleed. And there would be so much more blood where that came from! But damn, the artistry of this brutal show and its magnificent cast, capable of communicating entire worlds without a single spoken line. The season’s most unspoken message, though, was this: pay attention. Look up. Don’t wait for them to come for you. Clea Duvall and Cherry Jones graced us with winning cameos and lesbian characters Moira (Samira Wiley) and Emily (Alexis Bledel) took greater prominence. So did Gilead’s persecution of lesbians in a specific dystopia designed by religious fundamentalists who are obsessed with traditional gender roles and able to rationalize their actions in the wake of a fertility crisis. It’s not a pleasant world to witness, yet it remains a seductive watch. Every moment of dark humor is hard-won, like, I suppose, freedom itself.— Riese Bernard
19. The End of the F*cking World Season One (5)
I Demand a Lesbian Cop-Show Spin-off of The End of the F*cking World
Sure, we could watch fresh-faced teen dreams fall in love in the lemon-scented hallways of suburban California high schools, or we could watch … whatever this was? A 17-year-old self-diagnosed psychopath who loves knives goes on a traveling caper with the only girl in town who’s sad, alienated and nihilistic enough to wanna run away with him. Hot on their tail are two lesbian detectives who had a thing once and definitely deserve their own show. — Riese Bernard
18. Dear White People Season Two (4)
In this current television landscape, binges come and go. A television show drops on streaming, you watch it, maybe even obsess for a spell, and then it fades to the recesses of your memory to make room for whatever trendy new show is coming next. In those dips and waves, sometimes something really special falls through the cracks. I say that because there’s a chance that you didn’t watch Dear White People last year and that’s a mistake.
The first season of Dear White People was regrettably uneven, particularly in regards to its lesbian representation, but the second season aired this year and came back stronger, more focused, and razor-sharp! It’s a stylized and poignant exploration of being a black student at a predominantly white university that is as smart (if not smarter) than almost any other comedy I watched last year. The weekend of its drop, I finished all 13 episodes in two days. The next weekend, I watched it again. I couldn’t shake how insightful it was, how bright, how one-of-a-kind. You can watch the second season with no knowledge of the first and follow along easily. As a bonus, it comes with the bittersweet gift of two smaller, but significantly better executed black lesbian plots. One of those plots stars Lena Waithe. It also features Tessa Thompson as a parodied take on a Stacey Dash’s “black republican television pundit” figure. Her character plays out over a series of cameos, but as far as I’m concerned her final scene is worth the entire season by itself. — Carmen Phillips
17. Steven Universe Season Five (2)
“Steven Universe” Makes History, Mends Hearts in a Perfect Lesbian Wedding Episode
Steven Universe continues to explore more adult themes more fully than nearly every non-animated show on TV: family, grief, depression, commitment, betrayal, duplicitousness, forgiveness, puberty, gender, gender presentation, sexuality — and it does so in a way that’s warm and engaging and funny and, most of all, hopeful. This season, Rebecca Sugar’s beloved non-binary lesbian gems, Ruby and Sapphire, broke more ground by becoming the first same-sex couple to get married on all-ages TV. Their wedding featured masc gems in dresses, femme gems in tuxes, kisses right on the mouth, and swoon-worthy proclamations of eternal love. Also, of course, ass-kicking. Steven Universe remains one of the best shows on television, full stop. — Heather Hogan
16. Black Lightning Seasons One & Two (0)
Recaps of Season One & Two of Black Lightning
The CW has delivered a very entertaining batch of fresh-faced white superheroes determined to battle off some wacky Big Bads, but Black Lightning really elevates the genre and takes notable risks. The story is rooted halfway in this world, too, spotlighting a family wrought together over love and a deep commitment to their community and social justice, while divided on how best to manifest that commitment. Annissa Pierce, aka Thunder, became network television’s first out lesbian superhero when she debuted in early 2018. “I’ve said before that bullet proof black people is my favorite superhero trope,” Carmen wrote in a Season One recap, “but there is also something so sweet about a television lesbian who can’t be shot.” We hope to see more in future episodes of her girlfriend Grace, played by Chantal Thuy. Don’t sleep on Black Lightning. Wherever it’s going, you’ll want to be on board.— Riese Bernard
15. The Bisexual Season One (2)
Hulu’s “The Bisexual” Is Here to Make Every Queer a Little Uncomfortable
This has been such a great year for queer weirdos with their fingers acutely upon their own pulses. In between impeccable L Word references and fetching fashion choices, The Bisexual is an uncompromising journey of sexual discovery, jump-started when Leila breaks up with her much older girlfriend (and business partner) Sadie. Akhvan’s world feels undeniably authentic — she points out that “it’s the only show on TV where you can watch two Middle Eastern women in a car, talking, taking up the screen with their different bodies and different ethnicities.” Fumbling and unafraid of its own potential, The Bisexual also portrays a multi-generational, diverse network of queer and often gender-non-conforming women in London’s East End in all its messy, self-reflexive glory. — Riese Bernard
13. The Good Fight Season Two (9)
The Good Fight lives in that very special sweet spot that I like to call organized chaos, almost ballet-like in its sweeping rhythm. It is very much a playground for Christine Baranski and Cush Jumbo to do their impeccable work. But it also, better than any other show, captures the collective meltdown that has become a ceaseless hum in Tr*mp’s America. It’s sharp, and it’s dark, and it’s still funny and fun, with a very women-driven, diverse cast. And one of its central lawyers, Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie), also happens to be a petite lesbian mired in staggering lesbian drama, and by lesbian drama I mean her girlfriend literally testifies against her in a massive court case that Maia’s parents have her swept up in! Also, in season two we learn that Maia was in love with her tennis instructor as a closeted baby gay, and I have never felt more Seen. — Kayla Kumari
12. Harlots Season Two (0)
Harlots Season Two Is Here, Queer and Transcendent
Harlots might be the year’s most underrated show (Seriously, how does this show earn a nearly perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes but not make it onto anybody’s Best Shows Of the Year list? I endeavor to suggest that the reason is Men). I declared Harlots the most accurate portrayal of indoor-market sex work ever represented onscreen in Season One — surprisingly more resonant to me as a former sex worker than any contemporary portrayals — and its extra queering in Season Two made it moreso and then some. If Season One was about sex work, Season Two is about the reality that what’s done to sex workers is inextricable from what’s done to all women — the lessons about power, violence, solidarity and struggle in stories about sex work are ones that the larger conversation about gender ignores at its peril. — Riese Bernard
11. High Maintenance Season Two (6)
In between High Maintenance‘s first and second season, a lot happened for husband-and-wife co-creators Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld — including Katja coming out as gay, thus ending their marriage. Although the split hadn’t been finalized at the time, Season One ended with the reveal that Sinclair’s “The Guy” marijuana-delivery character lived down the hallway from his ex-wife, who’d left him for another woman. Its Season Two, then, is a long time coming and imbued with a rapturous affection for contemporary queer culture. The characters calling upon “The Guy” negotiate languid lesbian sexual dynamics, LGBT-affirming churches, sexually fluid teens and anti-Trump feminist gatherings attended by well-intentioned, hysterical liberals. Particularly touching was a bittersweet episode that saw “The Guy” visited in the hospital by aforementioned now-lesbian ex-wife. But honestly, with few exceptions every story in this scene is like a nice hybrid edible that makes you giggle, relax, and occasionally feel profound.— Riese Bernard
10. Vida Season One (2)
“Vida” Review: Starz’s New Latinx Drama Is Sexy, Soulful and Super Queer
Tragically overlooked by mainstream critics, one of 2018’s most innovatory offerings sees emotionally estranged sisters, bisexual attorney Emma (Michel Prada) and Lyn (Melissa Barrera), reuniting in their home of Boyle Heights after the death of their mother who, it turns out, was in fact dating her butch lesbian “roommate,” Eddy. Showrunner Tanya Saracho’s writing team is entirely Latinx and mostly queer, and they deftly address the complications of “gente-fication” and the joys of living breathing loving community with all the nuance and authenticity it requires. But perhaps most notable for all of us here was the graphic butch/femme sex scene that opened Episode Three. “It isn’t just about the hot sex — though the sex is very hot — it’s about creating spaces where Latinx queer bodies can feel ownership,” wrote Carmen in her recap. “It’s tearing down shame. It’s about saying that our love, our sex, our sticky sweat is valid.”— Riese Bernard
9. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Seasons 4 & 5 (4)
“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” Is Singing Our Song: Valencia Has a Girlfriend!
Maybe we should’ve seen it coming — after all, soon after we meet Valencia for the first time, she’s kissing Rebecca on the dance floor and lamenting the fact that everyone wants to have sex with her — but it wasn’t until Valencia met Beth that we got to see her bisexuality as something other than comedic fodder. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has always been a queer-friendly show but with Valencia and Beth, it finally put lady-loving ladies on centerstage. Valencia’s bisexuality was the pitch perfect end to a show-long character arc: she’s evolved from the vain yoga instructor who couldn’t build meaning relationships with women to loving, working and living with one.
The Golden Globe-winning series is currently in its fourth and final season and Valencia and Beth are still together, happy and, in an unusual twist for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, relatively normal (unless you count the $8000 they pay in rent for their new closet size NYC apartment). We feared that the couple’s recent relocation meant that we wouldn’t get to see as much of them but the show’s found a way to bridge the distance between West Covina and New York. Hopefully, Valencia’s recent return for “the rest of the series of holidays” means we’ll finally get that lesbian loving musical number we’ve all been craving. — Natalie Duggins
8. Jane the Virgin Season Four (4)
While Jane the Virgin has been rightly critically acclaimed since day one and praised for its revolutionary diversity, it’s always had a complicated relationship with its queer characters. Luisa started off strong but was ultimately relegated to a one-dimensional punchline before essentially disappearing, and Rose was never really fully formed. This year, though, the writers picked up on the long-running fan theory that Petra is bisexual and agreed. Unlike Luisa, Petra actually started out as a caricature and became more layered and complicated as the show went on. Her coming out journey was essentially realizing she’s into women because her chemistry with Jane Ramos spawned a sex dream into her subconscious — and then just going for it. The self-revelation, the exploration, even the way she told Jane and Rafael about it was so sweet and sexy and prickly and Petra. Jane the Virgin has gotten better every year, and the surprise of Petra and JR’s storyline was one of the reasons season four was its best ever. — Heather Hogan
7. The Haunting of Hill House Season One (4)
Netflix’s New “Haunting of Hill House” Gave Us a Lesbian Who Lives, Took Our Whole Weekend
The Haunting of Hill House had a challenge ahead of it with adapting its queer storyline; the original text had one of pop culture’s first recognizably lesbian characters, but preserving her “authentically” would mean falling far short of today’s expectations for representation, as in 2018 we look for more to signify lesbianism than “wears pants” and “is unmarried.” So Haunting gave us Theo, a lesbian character whose sexuality isn’t her whole storyline, but does tie into it; who goes through some wild and traumatizing stuff, but on a level that’s comparable with the also very wild and traumatizing stuff that her straight siblings go through. And in a show where romantic relationships are rocky at best, Theo does manage to both survive and get the girl. —Rachel Kincaid
6. Brooklyn 99 Season Five (6)
As evidenced by our very own Gay Emmys, this year was a very good year for Stephanie Beatriz and her character Rosa Diaz, who came out as bisexual — like, actually said the word! — on this season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The show itself had a good year, too, almost annoying in how persistently it outdoes itself year after year with its annual, always excellent Halloween episode. The Backstreet Boys lineup might go down as one of the greatest comedy cold opens of all time (up there with The Office’s “Fire Drill”). And even though we’re now five seasons into the series, that doesn’t mean the writers are just coasting by on humor that relies on how well we know all of these characters. It still regularly serves up new, emotional character arcs that peel back the layers to this lovable squad, as with Rosa’s personal life developments. Above all else, the show celebrates earnestness and friendship in a really lovely way that proves you don’t have to be mean or cynical to be really fucking funny. — Kayla Kumari
5. One Day at a Time Season Two (6)
“One Day at a Time” Brings Even More Heart and Humor and Gayness to Season 2
There’s an easy reason that One Day at a Time shows up on so many critics’ “End of the Year” Best Lists. It’s quite simply that damn good. One Day at a Time is the most generous, compassionate, loving family sitcom on television. It’s also not afraid to have frank, sometimes dark discussions – PTSD, depression, the fragility of age, the perils of being a young queer teen, the financial struggles of being a working class family in the 21st century. It’s all on the table.
As I wrote in my Season Two review, some of the show’s brilliance comes from leaning into its multi-cam sitcom roots. One Day at a Time uses an old school format, and they are proud of it. They leverage the intimacy and familiarity of the genre to their advantage, luring their audience into cutting edge and weighty conversations from the comfort of the Alvarez’s living room. It’s a stand-out in a class of stand-outs and I would put it against any other comedy on television. In fact, I’ll go further. The fact that One Day at a Time has now gone two years without any acting or writing Emmy nominations is one of the most shaming indictments of the white, male majority of the Television Academy that we have right now. Yes, it’s just that damn good. — Carmen Phillips
4. Pose Season One (13)
“Pose” Is Full of Trans Joy, Resistance, and Love
This show just flatly rejected the idea that the best way to tell our stories is slowly, character-by-character, putting one white cisnormative queer in one show and then another show until we somehow achieve critical mass. The problem with that has often been that that’s not how we live — we’re not out here one by one, lone queers in schools/towns/families composed entirely by normals. Enter Pose: a show written by and for trans women of color, set in an era when the only thing louder than the daily trauma of oppression and omnipresent fear of HIV/AIDS were the LOOKS, and all the beautiful ways a body can move to express itself. Pose radiates with a glittery, gorgeous aesthetic and complicated characters. Trans bodies are so often portrayed as somehow tragic or compromised, and Pose — in addition to being a story about real human lives, love, friendship, and “chosen family” — is about the triumph of the body, its ability to mean as much to the world as it does to itself. — Riese Bernard
3. G.L.O.W. Season Two (11)
G.L.O.W. Season Two Doubles the lesbians, Doubles the Fun
After a first season that bafflingly pursued outlandish homoeroticism yet was seemingly void of homosexuals, Season Two introduced a Latina lesbian fighter and pulled Arthie off the bench for a romantic awakening. G.L.O.W., based on the real-life Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, was a delightful mid-summer ride that took a more decidedly feminist bent as the Gorgeous Ladies explored how to advocate for, instead of against, each other, in an industry hell-bent on exploiting women for male fortune. Still, with its electrifying outfits, ostentatious costume drama and carefully-calibrated balance of comedy and drama, it only failed at one thing: an ensemble this dynamic needs longer episodes or a longer season, or both. — Riese Bernard
2. The Good Place Season 3 (12)
The Good Place, like The Office and 30 Rock before it (although I’m, admittedly, not a 30 Rock fan), has accomplished nothing short of a complete re-imagination of what the half-hour network comedy can be. It’s got everything: prestige sci-fi level world-building, cartoonish aesthetics, highbrow esoteric wit, running gags and plenty of ‘ships. Its premise, writes Sam Anderson in The New York Times, “is absurdly high concept. It sounds less like the basis of a prime-time sitcom than an experimental puppet show conducted, without a permit, on the woodsy edge of a large public park.” And yet it works. And in Season Three, The Good Place amped up Eleanor’s bisexuality and Janet’s particular take on non-binary, and we are so pleased, because that means we can put what will undoubtedly be one of the most legendary television programs of all time on lists like this one. — Riese Bernard
1. Killing Eve Season One (17)
Killing Eve is Your New Queer Obsession
Crescendoing, relentless, all-consuming obsession fuels the narrative of Killing Eve, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s sexy, smart, distinctly feminine action thriller starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer as the toxic spy-assassin duo who can’t stop thinking about each other. Watching Killing Eve feels exactly like that: seering obsession. This category was stacked with great, complex dramas, but there’s something just purely intoxicating about Killing Eve that sets it apart. Though it’s the phrase most often used to describe Eve and Villanelle’s dynamic, “cat-and-mouse” hardly covers what Oh and Comer bring to these characters or what’s even on the page. It’s never quite clear whether they want to murder each other or make out. Hunting each other, longing for each other, Eve and Villanelle might be one of the most complex queer relationships on television. But beyond that dripping subtext, it’s just a very good thriller with compelling twists and turns and sharp edges that refuse to be dulled. — Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
The 16 Best Lesbian and Bisexual TV Couples of 2018
When Riese wrote about GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV report this year, she mentioned that she created and has been maintaining a comprehensive database of LGBTQ TV characters, so she wasn’t too surprised to read that GLAAD’s findings were mostly positive, and that they now have stats to back-up something we’ve been saying forever: “showrunners are listening to GLAAD, they’re listening to fans, and they’re increasingly aware of how specifically passionate queer women are about our stories.”
That’s more obvious on this list — and what’s not included in on this list — than maybe any of the other year-end lists we’re compiling this year. In the intro for the best lesbian and bisexual movies of 2018, I noted how weird it was to be able to create a queer women’s pop culture list and leave things off of it — because, finally, we had enough good content to set some parameters for inclusion. Well, here I am making a list of best lesbian and bisexual TV couples of 2018 and the same thing is true! There’ve definitely been enough queer women pairings to fill out lists like these the last few years, but it would have been unheard of until very recently to leave off any two women whose mouths had touched each others’. But here I am, doing just that! I counted 60 TV shows that featured women smooching this year. 16 shows made this list.
Even more interestingly/awesomely, there are at least a dozen fan favorite lesbian and bisexual TV characters this year who aren’t on this particular list because they had excellent queer storylines that didn’t include being in a relationship. (Don’t worry, our annual list of Best/Worst TV characters is coming next week!)
The couples on this list had to include: a non-guest queer character who had noticeable character development; sex/affection/screentime that was equivalent to the sex/affection/screentime given to straight characters of the same status (main character, recurring character, etc.); and the majority of our TV Team had to agree on their inclusion. And here they are!
Jane and Petra, Jane the Virgin
Jane the Virgin fans had been reading Petra as bisexual for a few seasons, and while the show didn’t match her up with Jane Villanueva, they sure did give her a whole other Jane to fall for! Petra’s coming out storyline was so real and so sweet and so funny and so sexy and — best of all — it ended with her getting the girl (at least for a minute!).
Nico and Karolina, Marvel’s Runaways
Nico and Karlina’s relationship is special because both characters have their own storylines, and their own relationships to their queerness, so they’re just as dynamic and fun to watch when they’re apart as they are together. Their relationship had been highly anticipated by fans of The Runaways comic books, so it was really rewarding to see the usually-gay-reluctant Marvel actually go there on-screen, and do it so well.
Stef and Lena, The Fosters
Stef and Lena will go down in history as one of the all-time great lesbian relationships on TV. It was sad to say goodbye to them in their final season, but easily worth the tears for the five years of laughter and love and late-night swims and pancake breakfasts they gave us. In the end, they renewed their commitment to be home with each other, always, right where they belong.
Syd and Elena, One Day at a Time
Elena’s season one coming out storyline was perfect and profound. And so was her first love storyline in season two. Syd, Elena’s nonbinary queer pal, went from being her activist buddy to her partner over the course of the season. They shared their first kiss together, their first school dance together, and their first Doctor/TARDIS cosplay together. A romance for the ages.
Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, Adventure Time
After the slowest slow burn in the history of slow burns, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum finally kissed on-screen in the Adventure Time series finale (fittingly, as Ooo was literally burning to the ground around them). Marceline stopped hinting that her affection for Bonnibel had never gone away and said it right out loud. Did they live happily ever after? Well, time is an illusion. But they did live, and together!
Sara and Ava, Legends of Tomorrow
We loved Sara with Nyssa. And it was always fun to watch Sara romp through time and make good girls go gay. But watching the strength and vulnerability it took for her to fall in love with Ava and fight for their relationship peeled back even more layers of her character. They make each other so happy, and that makes us happy. These two have suffered enough! Let them live and love!
Kate and Emaline, Everything Sucks
Riese and I were both kind of stunned by how much we loved Everything Sucks and how bummed we were that Netflix cancelled it. Kate’s storyline spoke to both of our gay-but-unaware ’90s teen lesbian souls, in large part because Kate’s relationship with Emaline just felt so real. Lots of people agreed with us. Lots and lots and lots of people. In a shocker, these two won our March Madness Best Kiss competition! You’ll always be our little Wonderwall, Kate Messner.
Emma and Cruz, Vida
When Autostraddle Associate Editor Carmen Phillips recapped the season finale of Vida, she wrote, “Over the course of Vida’s first season, there have been quite a few moments where I had to pause the television slack jawed in disbelief and mutter to myself, ‘I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to see this on TV.'” And about their beautiful, blossoming relationship: “Listen, Emma never falls asleep at a hook up’s house. But with Cruz everything is safe, you know? It’s warm and gentle and soft. Emma’s built her whole world into sharp edges. Cruz brings out parts that she long thought she buried. And despite herself, she craves it.” And so did we!
Mel and Niko, Charmed
The news that trickled in about the CW’s Charmed reboot over the course of this year surprised us in so many ways. That the main characters would all be Latinx, that one of them was going to be an out-and-proud lesbian, that she would have a girlfriend from the get-go. None of those facts prepared me for the biggest surprise of all: that I was going to fall in love with Mel and then Mel and Niko immediately, and that it was going to break my heart when Mel had to save her girlfriend by setting her free.
Ruby and Sapphire, Steven Universe
Ruby and Sapphire have not stopped breaking ground since they showed up, individually, on our teeves. This year, they just went right on ahead and got married and kissed right on their cartoon mouths on primetime TV on Cartoon Network. Plus: masc Gems in dresses, femme Gems in tuxes, throwbacks to Ruby and Sapphire’s other most romantic moments. There were an awful lot of awful things we could have be thinking of, but for just one day we only thought about love.
Waverly and Nicole, Wynonna Earp
We go now to our official WayHaught correspondent, Autostraddle Staff Writer Valerie Anne: In their third season together, Waverly and Nicole are a fully established couple with their own separate relationships with each of the other characters, their own roles in this wacky shitshow, the new Sheriff and a literal angel. We got to see a little more of a domestic side to them this year, having Big Gay Dinners and Nicole meeting Mama Earp, but they still had their fun (see: the Christmas episode) and there was never a moment of doubt that they’re head over heels in love. Plus, they may or may not have gotten engaged before Waverly got sucked into the Garden of Eden/Evil and Nicole went missing.
Kat and Adena, The Bold Type
Kat and Adena went all this season, and while it didn’t end happily ever after, it was an excellent growing experience for Kat’s character — as a person who’d never been in a serious relationship and as a newly out queer lady. Plus theirs continued to be the most resonant relationship on the whole show.
Grace and Anissa, Black Lightning
It’s wild to think that all of the first season of Black Lightning and half of the second season happened in 2018! And it’s a good thing, too, because if it’d just been season one, these two superheroes would never have made our list. Grace disappeared! Luckily, in season two, she returned to our screens and to Anissa’s loving arms. Their story is groundbreaking in so many ways, and so tender and so angsty and so sexy. We can’t get enough.
Toni and Cheryl, Riverdale
Cheryl is another character who got a girlfriend because fans were reading her as queer and the actress who plays her (Madelaine Petsch) pushed for it. I believed in Toni and Cheryl from the second their paths crossed before that inexplicable drag race in season two. And look at them now! Toni broke Cheryl out of conversion therapy! Cheryl joined the Serpents! Just two Slytherin babes from opposite sides of the tracks, constantly saving each other from getting axe-murdered.
Violet and Amelia, Harlots
Violet Cross and Amelia Scanwell’s love story is so star-crossed it makes my heart hurt just thinking about it — but it’s so wonderful, too. On paper, they have nothing in common, and their connection happened so slowly and subtly in season one it was hard to tell if it was really a thing or if I was just Seeing Gay People (again). But it did happen! And in season two, they got to explore their fraught connection further. If you haven’t read Riese’s review of season two, do that now, and I will quote it anyway: “Basically, what I’m telling you is that stories about sex workers are not niche, they are transcendent and universal, and often the truest and most enduring stories about Western Civilization ever told.”
Yolanda and Arthie, G.L.O.W.
We were all so annoyed that the first season of G.L.O.W. was so dang gay without being gay. In season two, though, we got the real deal with Yolanda and Arthie. Yolanda knew she was gay and said it right away, and over and over until everyone was forced to get comfortable with it. Arthie didn’t have any queer feelings at all, until she shocked herself when she started feeling things for Yolanda. They wrestled each other, danced around their feelings, and finally kissed (on national TV!).
The Top 30 Dykes on Bikes on TV and in Movies
Bicycles on TV mean independence, coming of age, letting go, transformation! Motorcycles on TV mean bad bois! So it’s no surprise that lesbian and bisexual TV characters are on bikes all the time. I was recently watching Kiersey Clemons and Sasha Lane’s glorious coming-of-age indie comedy, Hearts Beat Loud, tears raining down my face during their bicycle scene, and a whole reel of other dykes on bikes on TV and in movies started playing in my mind. And now I have made that imaginary slideshow into a list, just for you.
As always, this list was compiled by me and Riese Bernard and Carmen Phillips and Valerie Anne and Natalie and Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya.
Paige McCullers, Pretty Little Liars
Paige got up to all kinds of shenanigans on her bicycle, most notably riding it to Emily’s house in the middle of the night in the middle of a thunderstorm to apologize for taking out her internalized homophobia on Emily and also unexpectedly kissing her — and then she got back on it and pedaled off into the lightning, soaked in rain and shame and a little hope too, my precious chaotic baby gay lamb. Also notable: Paige lost a bike race to Emily on purpose near the end of the show, a sweeping gesture to show she wanted to stay and make things work with her first love. (They did not work.)
Naomi Campbell and Emily Fitch, Skins
Skins works really hard to make sure you don’t miss the symbolism of Naomi and Emily taking off on bikes together; for example, the song that’s playing when they’re on their way to the lake to skinny dip and scissor is called “Jump In.” They also ride a bike in the follow-up season, an upgraded moped, because their relationship is upgraded. There are zero bikes in Skins Fire, which is frankly just further proof that bollocky wankshite doesn’t exist.
Therese Belivet, Carol
Therese on or near a bicycle is a perfect thing because it’s when her misandry is at its all-time highest. In the first few minutes of Carol, she lets Richard pedal her to work while refusing to discuss his damn boat tickets, and then later when he’s pushing his bike beside her she just flat out asks him if he’s gay because she’s gay.
Team Dana, The L Word
“Lifecycle” is one of the best episodes of the fifth season of The L Word, which is the second best season of The L Word, and the only one besides season one that is not physically painful. (Most of the time.) In this episode, everyone wears Team Dana jerseys and rides a thousand miles for breast cancer and all their secrets and lies and cheating come out around the campfire. Also Bette tells Tina she likes her butt in her cycling shorts.
Kate Messner, Everything Sucks
Nothing says “lil’ ’90s lesbian” like a ten-speed Schwinn, so it makes perfect sense this was Kate’s choice of transportation for scooting around Boring, Oregon in her flannel shirts and Tori Amos tees.
Sam and Rose, Hearts Beat Loud
Kiersey Clemons is on this list not once, not twice, but three times. Most recently she was finding her way on a bike as Sam in Hearts Beat Loud. I don’t want to spoil this scene for you — it’s climactic! — but let’s just say she reclaims her trauma with the help of her girlfriend doing an activity usually written as father/daughter bonding in a very father/daughter movie. It queers the trope!
Chase, Easy
Oh hey again, Kiersey! In a season one episode of Netflix’s drama, Easy — titled “Vegan Cinderella” — Chase falls for a girl and gives herself a crash course in lesbian things like cycling in Chicago and not eating meat. The results are mixed. She doesn’t get killed by a car, which is lucky because she doesn’t know how to wear a helmet and swerves all over the place while texting in the dark. But she also can’t keep up the charade. My favorite part of the episode is when she scuffs up her new bike helmet on purpose, right outside the bike shop where she bought it, to make it looks like she’s owned a bike for more than 30 seconds.
Diggy, Dope
As Diggy in Dope, Kiersey pedals around Inglewood with her best friends Jib and Malcom between band practice and trying to get girls to like them back. They spend so much time on their BMXs in this movie, always moving, trying to figure out who they are and how far they can go.
Rosa Diaz, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Rosa loves her motorcycle more than most things, and it sure does love her back. Look at them together! She’s a hardass, but that doesn’t stop her from using her bike rush to the aid of her friends, including zipping Terry to the hospital when his wife is in labor. (Steph Beatriz really does ride a motorcycle; she started taking lessons in 2014.)
Quinn Fabray, Glee
And then she had sex with Santana Lopez. Twice.
Alex Danvers, Supergirl
When your sister can fly, you’ve gotta have an almost-as-cool way to get around!
Root and Shaw, Person of Interest
Sometimes you and your girlfriend are tracking the same bad guy and she shows up on her motorcycle outside the place you were having a shoot-out and just happens to have an extra helmet waiting for you so you can hop on the back of her bike and ride to safety. Sometimes.
Villanelle, Killing Eve
I cannot watch Killing Eve due to my aversion to blood and, um, killing. However, Killing Eve expert Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya tells me this is when Villanelle first shows up in Tuscany to kill Eve and she leans against her bike and eats an apple with a paring knife while a song called “When a Woman Is Around” by a band called Unloved plays in the background — and I guess that’s when everyone knew she was gay for Sandra Oh! (Villanelle, I mean. Everyone already knew Kayla was gay for Sandra Oh.)
Alice Pieszecki and Shane McCutcheon, The L Word
When Alice can’t join Dana on her corporate float at Pride in season two, she and Shane hop on the back of Harley-Davidsons with some legit Dykes on Bikes instead. Alice tells the corporate float gatekeeper to write that on her clipboard and then takes her rainbow romper to the front of the parade.
Laura and Aubrey, Casual
In the second season of Casual, Laura and Aubrey finally come to grips with their feelings for each other after — what else! — a bike ride. They kiss on right on the mouths after looking out over the city and contemplating the ephemeral nature of love and the fact that they stole those bicycles.
Tasha Williams, The L Word
Tasha rode her bike in the opening credits of The L Word and she also rode it around the military base before she quit the army to protest DADT. Alice didn’t deserve Tasha or her bike, but they sure do look good together on it.
Kat Edison, The Bold Type
Kat realizes she’s a grown-up queer person who wants to actually try to be in a grown-up queer relationship when she’s in a SoulCycle class and the instructor is yelling about upping the torque and downing the torque and mostly just letting go and not being afraid to chase what you want most in this cruel, hard world. Kat gets off her bike and runs (literally runs!) straight to Adena’s apartment to kiss her in the streetlight/moonlight and promise she wants to try.
Nomi and Amanita, Sense8
Amanita’s motorcycle gets a lot of play in Sense8. She rides it in the Pride parade with Nomi, but she also uses it to chase down an agent who resurfaces and goes after her girlfriend. It’s sexy and functional.
Ilana and Abbi, Broad City
Ilana has a lot of mishaps with her bike, but it has produced two fan favorite moments on the Broad City. 1) Her song “I Bike” and its follow-up hit “I Tweet.” 2) The image of her true love Abbi standing on the back of it as they ride through Manhattan after a day of madcap adventure that almost has Ilana ditching her boy pal on an important day (because she only wants to hang out with her true love Abbi).
Emily Fields, Pretty Little Liars
I think of Paige as Pretty Little Liars‘ main cyclist, but Emily Fields was always using bicycles to seduce women! She also very often pushed her bike beside her on the sidewalk in downtown Rosewood, especially when Spencer was around, which I assume was a power move to try to seem gayer than her best friend. (It didn’t work.)
Did we miss anyone? Hit is up with your favorite dykes on bikes in the comments!
The National Champion of Kissing: Kate and Emaline of “Everything Sucks”
We started with 64 couples and their first on-screen kisses, across four regions, and went through six rounds of voting, with nearly 50,000 votes cast, all to crown a National Champion of Kissing. And, now, we have our winner: Congratulations to Kate and Emaline of Netflix’s Everything Sucks on being selected as the best first kiss by Autostraddle readers.
The perennial underdogs from Boring High School advanced quietly through the early rounds — I kick myself for not seeing #KEmaline coming when they bested Karolina and Nico of Marvel’s Runaways with ease in the second round — but announced their formidableness when they bested Adena and Kat in the Elite 8. The fandom, led by the show’s stars, Peyton Kennedy and Sydney Sweeney, would not be denied. The underdogs became the favorites and managed the win the whole damn thing in overwhelming fashion.
The victory is bittersweet after news broke on Friday that Netflix decided not to renew Everything Sucks for a second season. Fans across social media are urging Netflix to reconsider and give the show a much deserved second season. Fans are hoping that, rather than begin consigned to the history books of coming-of-age shows who only got one shot at pulling in the ratings, Everything Sucks will be more like Timeless, the time-travelling show that was cancelled then revived by NBC. If you’re interested in joining the effort to #RenewEverythingSucks, you can share the hashtag on social media or add your name to the petition calling for renewal. After seeing the tenacity of the #KEmaline fans in this contest, you’d be a fool to doubt their capacity to change the show’s fate.
The funny thing about Kate and Emaline’s kiss in Everything Sucks, at least in my estimation, is that it’s the second most significant same-sex kiss on the show. The most important kiss happens between a couple whose identities we don’t know but who Kate notices holding hands and dancing to Tori Amos’ “Silent All These Years.” They don’t notice her — they’re in their own little world — but Kate sees them and she sees herself in them. The couple nuzzles lovingly against each other and happiness registers on Kate’s face — the future she’d barely dared to imagine was standing right there, right in front of her. It existed, they existed, she existed. But then she watches as the couple kisses gently and, it’s enough to take Kate’s breathe away. She swallows hard as the full range of what’s possible hits her and her eyes glisten with tears that never fall.
It’s the moment when everything changes for Kate… when pretending that this thing that she has with Luke is a viable substitute for a real relationship becomes unacceptable… when muffling her identity — lesbian — for fear that someone might overhear is no longer her chief concern.
“My whole life, I have been the freak. The girl who nobody picked for dodgeball. The girl who didn’t have a mom. The girl who dressed funny because it was her dad buying her clothes,” Kate admits. “And then, tonight I looked at these people, and I thought maybe there’s a future where I don’t have to be a freak. Maybe I can be who I am and that’s okay.”
But for that moment of voyuerism, Kate doesn’t confess all these thoughts and feelings she’s had about Emaline. Without seeing that kiss, Kate doesn’t confess to liking Emaline back in the stairwell or end up on that stage, swaying to the dulcet sounds of Duran Duran, kissing the girl that’s she’s wanted to kiss for so long. The perennial underdog — the closeted lesbian, member of the A/V Club — got the girl in the end, all because she saw a kiss. That’s the power of representation.
In the wake of the cancellation of Everything Sucks by Netflix, Kate Messner’s portrayer posted this:
Like you I’m heartbroken but I’m grateful I got to portray this complex & important character. Broken, closeted Kate blossomed into a teen icon. Love from fans & critics is testament to the power of her unique voice. I admire you for raising your unique voices. #iamkatemessner pic.twitter.com/Y5liRBZqCt
— Peyton Kennedy (@peyton_kennedy) April 7, 2018
The “I am Kate Messner” hashtag made its way around Twitter over the weekend, eliciting incredible stories from fans of the show that had seen themselves in the character.
Everything Sucks was the rare show that both gave you LGBT representation and showed you why that representation matters so much. Kate and Emaline’s first kiss is going to be to some young girl what that couple at the Tori Amos concert was to Kate. Not just a chance for her to see herself reflected on screen but where she can begin to imagine a future where she doesn’t have to be a freak… where she can be who she is and that’s okay.
Autostraddle March Madness — The National Championship of Kissing
On Selection Sunday — the day that the brackets get unveiled for the men’s NCAA tournament — our local newspaper would print a blank bracket in the day’s paper. Every year, without fail, my dad would spread that page of the newspaper out of the coffee table and fill-in the bracket by hand as they announced the teams on CBS. Even once the Internet became a thing, he refused my offers to just print off a pre-filled bracket and would just sit there, scrawling the names of all 64/68 teams into the bracket like the answers to a crossword. He’d etch the entire field in in pen and then switch to pencil to make his initial picks, which he’d update as he learned more about the mid-major teams that’d made their way into March Madness.
So, once the bracket was finalized for Autostraddle’s March Madness, I printed it off and, keeping with the family tradition, I made my picks by hand. I used pen, though, because after watching videos of the 64 kisses many times over, my picks had the certainty that the pens confers. As March Madness picks are wont to be, my picks are a mix of my own personal favorites (yes, I picked Annalise and Eve over Callie and Arizona in the first round, don’t @ me), my expectations about who our readers would like (I know little of Sci-Fi/Fantasy so most of my selections were based on Autostraddle posts and comments) and, when neither of those are conclusive, the kiss itself. Here are my picks (forgive the bad handwriting). Turns out, I’m as bad at predicting the outcome of brackets I made up myself as I am for regular March Madness. Go figure.
But, I digress; that’s not why you’re here. You want to know who our finalists are and how we got here.
I have to admit, I thought the semifinals would be more competitive, but they weren’t…like not at all. It seems like both the fandoms for Coronation Street and Wynonna Earp just ran out of steam, as both couples drew less support in the Final Four than they had in the Elite 8. I’m less surprised by Kate and Rana’s defeat — Coronation Street had the advantage of being both the most well-known and most accessible (read: English) in the International region so I thought they were a weak regional champion anyway — than I am about Nicole and Waverly. To have run through the gauntlet that was the Sci-Fi/Fantasy region and come out so far ahead, I thought the last few rounds would be a formality before we crowned #WayHaught the winners.
But, then along came #KEmaline. The Everything Sucks fandom, led by the show’s stars, Peyton Kennedy and Sydney Sweeney, came to win and toppled Wynonna Earp. The show that spent ten episodes chronicling the lives of teenage underdogs in Boring, Oregon somehow managed to become the favorites to win this whole damn thing.
That said, they’ve still got one major hurdle to climb, in the form of #Petramos, the newest ‘ship in the field, Petra and Jane “JR” Ramos from Jane the Virgin. Part of me wondered if the enthusiasm behind this relatively new couple would die out — like a kid playing with the shiny new toy who eventually loses interest — but, after watching last night’s episode of Jane the Virgin, I’m going to guess that the flame for Petramos will continue to burn.
The interesting thing about having these two finalists, I think, is that they represent two very different types of first kisses but, for the time they’re in, they’re both pretty perfect. It seems almost unfair to compare them but such is the nature of the game.
As usual, voting for this final round will be open for two days only! Voting for this round will close on Monday, April 9th and we’ll announce the winner shortly thereafter. Feel free to lobby for your side in the comments!
Kate and Emaline – Everything Sucks (Netflix)
Why They Shouldn’t Win: Seriously, though: Come on, Netflix!
VS.
Petra and Jane “JR” Ramos – Jane the Virgin (The CW)
Why They Shouldn’t Win: As great as this kiss was, JR kisses Petra not because she wants to, necessarily, but because Petra’s shown up unexpectedly and JR believes she’s being watched. Also? In one of the first exchanges that JR and Petra have JR says, “never trust tv writers,” and so your Bury Your Gays PTSD has kicked in and now you’re just waiting to see how the writers screw this one up. Her name is JR, for chrissakes!
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Autostraddle March Madness — Best First Kiss: Final Four
Every year, come Selection Sunday and Monday, I sit rapt in front of my television waiting to find out if/when/where my favorite college teams will compete in March Madness. The brackets are put together, in secret, by a selection committee — a collection of athletics officials nominated by their respective conferences — who spend countless hours during the regular season evaluating teams. It’s a thankless job, really, one that I didn’t fully appreciate until I sat down and tried to find, divide and rank the 64 couples for Autostraddle’s March Madness competition.
The premise of this contest — the best first on-screen kiss — made my job in seeding the field easier, comparatively. I haven’t watched all 62 shows featured in this bracket (The Fosters and Jane the Virgin appear twice); in fact, before I started this, I don’t think I’d watched half of them. But, as I searched for those first on-screen kisses and tried to glean enough information about each show to write 100+ words about it, I found a bunch of new shows to love. Aside from just voting for your favorite ‘ships in this contest, I hope that through this bracket competition, you’ve found some new shows and couples to love as well.
But, that bit of nostaglia aside…let’s see what havoc you guys wreaked in the Elite 8….
Going into this contest, I thought Florencia and Jazmin of Las Estrellas were a lock for the Final Four. The #Flozmin fandom is overwhelming in their devotion — you have to be to have painstakingly subtitled every episode of the recently concluded Argentine telenovela — and I imagined that their enthusiasm would carry them through the Elite 8. But then along came Kate and Rana of Coronation Street, the story of a straight married Muslim woman who discovers that she’s fallen for her best mate, and down went my favorite to win the region.
While we launched this contest as a search for the best first on-screen kiss, no one was surprised when voting turned out into a friendly competition between ‘ships; that’s how these internet contests tend to go, after all. In the regional final for the Drama region, we ended up with, perhaps, the best kiss in the region from Petra and Jane “JR” Ramos of Jane the Virgin against, perhaps, the biggest fandom in the region, Stef and Lena of The Fosters. Frankly, I thought the fandom would win out, but — surprise! — it didn’t and Petra and JR advanced to the Final 4.
No one’s had a harder road to the Final Four than the Sci-Fi/Fantasy representative, Nicole and Waverly of Wynonna Earp. First, they beat out Sara and Ava of Legends of Tomorrow, before besting Alice and Robin and Cosima and Delphine. I thought their luck might run out against Maggie and Alex of Supergirl but even the Sanvers ‘ship couldn’t dethrone Wayhaught on their way to the Final Four.
But have the girls of Wynonna Earp met their match in Kate and Emaline of Everything Sucks? The young duo from Boring High School pulled a tremendous upset in the Elite 8, eliminating Autostraddle favorites, Kat and Adena from The Bold Type. A contest that I thought would have a super-close finish, ended up as a blow-out, thanks to a well-timed Instagram story from one of the show’s stars. Don’t let Peyton Kennedy’s innocent appearance fool you, she’s in it to win it!
As usual, the voting period lasts for two days (48 hours from the time this post goes live)! We’ll announce the contestants in the national championship of kissing on Friday, April 6.
Kate and Emaline, Everything Sucks vs. Nicole and Waverly, Wynonna Earp
Kate and Rana, Coronation Street vs. Petra and Jane “JR” Ramos, Jane the Virgin
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Autostraddle March Madness — Best First Kiss: Elite 8
Did you watch the women’s Final Four games over the weekend? If you missed them and you’re even remotely interested in sports, you missed three truly classic games that really embodied everything that’s great about March Madness. We got dramatic comebacks — Notre Dame battled back from being down 15 to Mississippi State in the national championship game — after pulling an improbable upset of UCONN in the semifinals. And the buzzer beaters… OH MY GOD, the buzzer beaters!
Mississippi State’s Roshunda Johnson hit long three with seconds left against Louisville to push their semifinal game into overtime and then, in the next semifinal, Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale hit a stepback jumper with one second left to topple UCONN. Two nights later, Ogunbowale struck again, hitting a fall away three pointer just before the buzzer to give the Irish the championship. It was incredible.
Now, while Autostraddle’s version of March Madness probably won’t have me tweeting expletives or running around my living room yelling “can you believe that!” to no one in particular (especially since y’all had the good sense to finally eliminate Piper and Alex), we’ve still had our share of excitement. For the second round in a row, we’ve had a contest decided by ten votes or less.
I expect that trend to continue in the Elite 8 where y’all have set up some virtually impossible match-ups. After Kat and Adena narrowly beat out Elena and Syd in the Sweet 16, they go onto face Kate and Emaline from Everything Sucks. Despite the public lament about the match-up between Cosmina and Delphine and Nicole and Waverly, the ladies of Wynonna Earp defeated them pretty easily and set up another difficult match-up with Maggie and Alex of Supergirl.
In the International Region, fans excited about Kate and Rana’s impending return on Coronation Street advanced them into the Elite 8. They’ll meet Flor and Jazmin who overcame an unexpectedly tough challenge from Sara and Carlota of Cable Girls. I thought, for sure, that Las Estrellas would come out of this region but now this region really looks like a toss-up.
Over in the Drama Region, things went about as I expected hoped for, as Piper and Alex were finally sent packing by Petra and JR and Lena and Stef overcame a strong challenge from Izzy and Emma. Of course, that sets up another Sophie’s choice for you in the Elite 8: Jane the Virgin or The Fosters.
So now it’s time to make your picks! You’ve got 48 hours to summon all the fandom to Autostraddle to vote for whom should represent the Baby Gays, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, International and DRAMA regions in the Final Four. Voting in this round will close on Wednesday, April 4 at 2PM EST.
The Baby Gays
Kate and Emaline, Everything Sucks vs. Adena and Kat, The Bold Type
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Babes
Alex and Maggie, Supergirl vs. Nicole and Waverly, Wynonna Earp
International Faves
Florencia (“Flor”) and Jazmin, Las Estrellas vs. Kate and Rana, Coronation Street
DRAMA Faves
Petra and Jane “JR” Ramos, Jane the Virgin vs. Lena and Stef, The Fosters
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Everything Sucks! Is a Bangin’ TV Show With a Sweet Lesbian Lead
There’s no shortage of period TV these days, but what sets Netflix’s new comedy, Everything Sucks!, apart is the lesbian lead at the center of the ensemble. Set in Boring, Oregon (a real place!) in the mid-1990s (a real time!), Everything Sucks! follows Kate Messner from her first listen of “Wonderwall” to the Tori Amos concert where she sees two girls kissing for the first time and her world clicks into place. Along this route of self-discovery are plenty of other quintessential ’90s artists (Spin Doctors, Alanis Morisette, Blues Traveler, Gin Blossoms, Weezer, Deep Blue Something) and references (Zima, Fruitopia, Jim Carrey), and while they all work together to afflict a deep, steady sense of nostalgia on any ’90s kid, there’s something very now about this show.
Freaks and Geeks, That ’70s Show, The Wonder Years, Stranger Things: All of these coming-of-age period shows focus on a mostly white group of friends made up of mostly guys. In Everything Sucks!, burgeoning lesbian Kate shares the spotlight with Luke, the son of a black mom and a white dad. They’re also both being raised by single parents. The friends who fill in around them make up your standard Breakfast Club, but the fact that the group is tied together by two minority characters feels like a really big deal.
Luke (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) and Kate (Peyton Kennedy)
Also, Kate’s story is just great. For one thing, she’s played by 14-year-old Peyton Kennedy, and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a lesbian teen played by an actual teen on TV. For another thing, the writing is so informed and authentic. Series creators Ben York Jones and Michael Mohan don’t trip over any tired tropes. Kate doesn’t flip out and sleep with a guy to try to squash her feelings about girls. She doesn’t make out with girls for the male gaze. She’s not psychotic, she’s not invisible, she’s not chaste, and she’s not dead. And just when you think her triumph is going to be coming out, you find out there’s another queer girl in the mix and baby gay love peeks its head around the corner.
Riese and I both binged the show as soon as it came out on Friday and we decided to review it together. Well, we tried to review it. Mostly we just ended up having a giant feelings atrium about it.
WARNING: Major spoilers for season one of Everything Sucks! below — it’s more of a post-watch conversation than a pre-watch review.
Heather: We should probably start off by saying what our deals were in 1996. I was 16 and a junior in high school. In retrospect I’m like, “I knew I was gay.” But I didn’t know-know, you know? Obviously lesbian representation on TV was almost non-existent at that point — although Ellen was about to land with the gayest splash in history — and I lived in an oppressively religious southern town. I knew I didn’t like boys, but also I loved Jesus and gay people hated Jesus and therefore I couldn’t be gay.
Riese: I was 15 and a sophomore in high school and had absolutely no idea I was gay, although I was very aware that I did not, under any circumstance, WANT to be gay, because that would make me abnormal and a freak which I already felt like I was for real family-related reasons and abstract I-knew-I-was-different reasons! I wanted a boyfriend so people would think I was pretty and cool. I dressed like a boy but also rubbed glitter all over my face and saved up the money I made at Dana’s Deli to buy carpenter pants at Urban Outfitters. My character is probably, honestly, a mash-up of Luke and Kate, and I wanted to be / be near girls like Emaline. Desperately. Was drawn to them like water. I got that, too — I wanted to be near them and I was. That came easily to me somehow. Did you have girls like that who you thought were the coolest and wanted to be near them but didn’t know why?
Heather: Oh yeah, absolutely. My best friends were the coolest girls in school. I loved them. I loved being near them and watching them put on makeup (because I’ve never ever been interested in makeup) and I loved when they took me clothes shopping. The scene with Emaline and Kate in the thrift store changing room was such a delightfully nostalgic sucker punch for me. I remember feeling like that, not like raging with lust really, but feeling like a part of something so special when another girl was helping me get dressed or letting me behind the curtain to tell her what I thought about her clothes.
Riese: Yes! And it was always at these sort of upscale second-hand shops like Rag-o-Rama, or whatever. I felt so inadequate around girls like that who had boobs and makeup and I was like this scrawny A/V weirdo. But it didn’t stop me from best friending them and letting them give me makeovers.
For the life of me I cannot believe we’d ever die for these sins
Heather: I know from your reaction on Friday that this ’90s nostalgia got you good. What parts of the ’90s did this show make you feel in your guts?
Riese: I was worried the show would treat the ‘90s in a way that was super over-the-top, where the “LOOK IT’S THE 90S LOL SLAP BRACELETS” vibe would triumph realism, which was the preview’s vibe. But it felt really authentic! The music was spot-on — I listened to SO MUCH TORI AMOS in 1997, sitting on the floor of Lizzy’s kitchen, drinking Jolt and talking about art and running away to New York and boys. I was big into Oasis and made a movie called “High on Life” basically built around (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? I heard “Champagne Supernova” on the radio and the whole arc of the film just came to me in my head, because I was clearly a great artist.
Heather: Oh boi, that soundtrack. I had the (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? CD and I used to drive around listening to it on my Discman with the cassette tape adapter for hours and hours. “Wonderwall,” especially obviously. I spent so much time thinking about how my best friend’s boyfriends sucked and how I knew and loved my best friends more than their stupid boyfriends ever could. So I was a big fan of that whole “I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now” sentiment. But as much as I loved the Oasis bits in the first episode, I was not prepared for those Tori Amos feelings. I was actually the only person I knew who had full Tori Amos albums and I used to lie on my floor and stare at the ceiling and play them on repeat with headphones on while my friends were out doing god knows what handjob stuff with their boyfriends — feeling so completely misunderstood by everyone except Tori. Also “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” remains one of my favorite songs to this day. What other ’90s stuff besides the music felt real to you?
Riese: Those fucking CDs from the Columbia House Music Club, for one. I feel like I made collages with the exact same pictures Kate did, like I recognized the inside header font from Seventeen magazine and that pic of Claire Danes & Leonardo DiCaprio. I also was sort of the A/V Queen. So I’d edit videos using the same equipment Luke used, but we used way more stupid special effects than he did, because they were new and exciting. The fashions, for sure, and that sort of confusing moment for feminism where we were “EMPOWERED” but in a very contrived and specific commercialized “girl power” way. I was also just remembering, and this goes back to Tori Amos, how even “alternative” culture was only available in limited portions — the internet gives us access to fall for very specific types of music, film, TV, whatever these days — back then you sort of had to look at what mainstream or easy-to-access alt-media was offering you and pick what best fit, even if it wasn’t a really good fit, if that makes sense? Tower Records sold ‘zines and we listened to our friends bands, but mostly we had to find out about stuff from MTV or Sassy Magazine or whatever.
She’s been everybody else’s girl, maybe one day she’ll be her own
Heather: Yeah, absolutely! You and I were talking the other day about One Day at a Time‘s flashback scenes this season, and how jarring it is to realize we spent most of our lives, actually, without computers in our pockets hooked into a constant stream of news and the ability to communicate with everyone all the time on a dozen platforms. I loved that Luke took his phone off the hook to keep from getting harassed, and that Mr. Messner had a beeper. Also their foray into The World Wide Web for the first time. And I love period product packaging. Those Fruitopia bottles!
Riese: I LOVED FRUTOPIA. Nobody was as sad as I was when they stopped making it. They had Frutopia vending machines at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp which was the only part of camp I didn’t hate.
Heather: Let’s talk about Kate! Does she remind you of yourself and also does she remind you of any other TV characters?
Riese: While I was watching I kept saying, “THIS SHOW IS ABOUT ME,” like “Kate would be me if I’d known i was gay in high school,” but I’m not sure if that’s a literal truth or just an abstract emotional truth. Because it was mostly an aesthetic similarity. I’m probably more like Luke. Did Kate remind you / anyone?
Heather: I know I say this all the time but I really believe that we engage with stories as our present selves and our past selves at the same time. I’m pretty much a lesbian as a profession at this point, but watching Kate was like sitting on a couch with my teenage self. I was interacting with her as a 16-year-old too. I would like to say she reminded me of me, but she’s got about a zillion times more courage than I did when I was her age; but if she had existed when I was in high school, maybe I would have had more? I like that these actors are actually teenagers. I’m kind of hard on myself when I think about how long it took me to realize I’m a lesbian and come out, and when I’m watching 35-year-olds play high school sophomores it’s easy to ride that frustration — but when I look at Kate and I think about being in high school, I’m like, man, I was just a baby.
She reminds me of Emily Fitch a little bit.
Riese: I can totally see that Emily vibe yeah! I think one specific way I related was that her big crush was on the sort of sexually open, alterna-girl, who read to me as bisexual from the jump, rather than on the kind of classic, Quinn Fabray / Alison DiLaurentis type, popular and bitchy in a more mainstream way.
Heather: When we first got the tip that there’s a lesbian character on this show, I thought, at best, we’re talking a side character with a good story. But Kate and Luke are really the co-leads on this ensemble show. I was obviously very pleasantly surprised!
Riese: Yes, that wildly defied my expectations, as did the fact that the writers would see the opportunity for a Kate/Emiline romance, which felt very authentic. But it also made me nervous that mainstream viewers would reject it while pretending they were rejecting it for another reason. Or if that’s a legit way for them to ever feel?
Heather: I think that’s a completely valid worry. I will always stand by my theory that Carol didn’t get a Best Picture Oscar nod because it eschewed straight male pleasure at every turn.
Riese: Do you think you would’ve liked it as much if you hadn’t been a ‘90s kid?
Heather: Yes, absolutely. I never get tired of coming of age stories, especially when they’re gay. And this one had two separate revelations of gayness: Kate being a lesbian and Emaline being bisexual. Two completely different paths to each other but they both felt real. You mentioned Emaline putting off those bi vibes early, and I completely agree. The reason she noticed Kate noticing her in the locker room was because she’d noticed girls in that same way, right?
Riese: Yes! I also felt like she had noticed Kate — that they had something in common that Emaline recognized and felt ashamed of and wanted to push away.
Caught beneath the landslide
Heather: Right! Like she drags Kate out into the open and ridicules her to keep the attention off herself. But when she realizes what’s going on with her she just seems to accept it as just another moment of self-discovery at a time in life when every day is full of self-discovery. I like that story especially juxtaposed with Kate, who was troubled by the question of her sexuality in a way that felt like she was never going to be true to herself unless she figure out whether or not she was a lesbian. Kate tells Emaline she’s sexy and Emaline’s like “Oh, huh. I’m into girls too.” Meanwhile Kate’s hunkered down in the library taking an Are You a Lesbian quiz in a human sexuality book.
What did you like gay-specifically about the show?
Riese: WELL it had my fave storyline as you know — the (sometimes weirdo or otherwise outcast) lesbian gets with the cool girl who has a boyfriend at the start of the story. It’s very common in YA novels, like Deliver us From Evie and even, I think, Cameron Post?
Heather: Haha, I know. As soon as Emaline stormed up onto that lunchroom table dressed like Gwen Stefani, I was like, “For Riese, I hope she’s gay too. I hope they fall in love.”
Riese: Thank you for putting that intention into the universe for me. Was there anything that you didn’t like about Everything Sucks! Did anything suck?
Heather: I don’t think anything really sucked but I wasn’t super invested in the storylines that didn’t involve Kate, Luke, or their parents. I get it, and I always appreciate a good ragamuffin group growing together but I think the last half of the season stalled out a little bit by spending time bonding the other characters. I also confess that I get a little anxious generally when there’s a loner outsider white kid who gets rejected by a girl, because in real life that often leads to violence. I don’t like watching it. (It’s surreal to think this show takes place before Columbine, isn’t it? It really was a different world.)
Riese: I got anxious about Luke for a while, I was like “stop being so selfish there is so much else I like about you!” But I understand how that worked for the plot. But to be honest if I imagine this show without a lesbian storyline I’m not sure I would’ve loved it as much. Although I guess I could say that about a lot of shows. I think I’m just discouraged that it hasn’t gotten better reviews. Did watch Altered Carbon? I couldn’t get past ten minutes of it and it’s getting RAVES. The response to Everything Sucks! from mainstream press seems to be “ehhhh.”
Heather: I did try Altered Carbon because I’ll always try anything for Dichen Lachman but it was so boring. And I agree that’s discouraging! I have gotten to a place where I feel like I live in a different world than mainstream TV and film critics — which I guess is true. The fact that they’re judging TV like it happens in a vacuum is maddening to me; it’s ridiculous not to at least try to give stories cultural context. Of course they wouldn’t have to do that if they hired minorities to write for them. I think if Luke had had an extra story where he fell in love with a girl who loved him back people would have responded better to it.
Riese: I agree and I also don’t think that it would’ve taken away from the rest of the story. I loved that the queer romance was centered, but I kept hoping for a real love interest for Luke to show up (I was thinking it’d be Kate’s weird friend?) and was kinda sad that it didn’t happen.
Heather: So overall where does this fall for you on the scale of lesbian TV that’s happening in the world right now?
Riese: There’s a few boxes it checks off that we haven’t seen checked off until recently: written by two men, yet centers a lesbian storyline. One of the LEAD characters is a lesbian and the series’ primary romance is queer. I think those two things are both unusual and important.
Heather: I think Everything Sucks helped me fully realize how much my metric for measuring lesbian TV has shifted from when I first started doing this job ten years ago. For so long it was about the quantity of characters, whether or not they were good guys who got screentime and maybe a love interest, what network they were on and what that meant in terms of reach. It was all very mathematical with the idea behind those measurements being, of course, that straight people would like us more and treat us better if they saw us on television (which is absolutely true). Now I want to enjoy gay stories that make me feel stuff in my guts. I want it to be for our community and about our community in a way that resonates, and in a way we don’t have to beg and grovel for. Kate and Emaline in the dressing room, on the stairs, in the hotel room, on the stage: I felt all that and that’s why I fell in love with TV in the first place. I think maybe One Day at a Time‘s first season is what cemented that attitude shift in me, and Everything Sucks helped me understand it had happened. I really liked this show, and I don’t care if straight people did!
Riese: BUT IF STRAIGHT PEOPLE DON’T LIKE IT, IT WON’T GET RENEWED
Heather: Sigh. Yeah. I know. I guess maybe a more accurate thing to say would be: Everything Sucks! reminded me that I don’t want to have to care.
Riese: I think it’d pass based on the old metrics, too, actually, which is refreshing. It hasn’t been marketed to the queer community at all or promoted as that kind of story, which is interesting. I really appreciated the relationships Kate and Luke had with their single parents, too. That was really well done and so tender.
Heather: Yes! I didn’t expect that to warm my heart like it did.
I also had a vision of Kate growing up and starting her own lesbian website and writing an essay one day about how she realized that was her future when she was sitting on the floor of the library taking a sexuality quiz from a book written in the 1960s. She even kinda looks like you!
Riese: I know, she totally does. It’s funny you say that because somebody on Twitter said they felt like Haley in “Halt and Catch Fire” was young me and I was like, “YES.” And I think age-wise both of those comparisons function. I think I was more precocious and talkative than Kate, she’s very reserved, more of a reactor than an actor. So I’d probably lean into the Haley comparison more. Maybe Kate would grow up and get a job writing for a lesbian website she commented on while doing accounting in Georgia and then leave that job to go work for Haley’s website.
Heather: Thank you for talking about this show with me. Below you will find a playlist of every song from season one, in case you can’t find your Tori Amos tapes.
Riese: I definitely still have Little Earthquakes and… that weird cover album she did… and Under the Pink? Was that one of them? I have those all on CD, should you ever come across a CD player.