Ask Us Anything: What To Watch While Social Distancing, From Noted Queer Experts
So, you are inside (or at least, we really hope you are inside unless required for work, we really cannot overstate the importance of social distancing). At some point you’ll probably run out of things to watch on TV. Except you only think that you’ll run out of things to watch because, our friends, that’s when we step in!
We are Autostraddle’s TV Team, a rag-tag group of queer women tv/film watchers, lovers, and critics. Not to toot our own horns, but we think we’ve gotten pretty good at this whole sitting on a couch and watching your screen-go-by thing. We’d love smash our heads together for your benefit!
This idea actually came together from a couple of tweets. First, Autostraddle TV Team writer Drew Gregory offered her services to her many followers:
If you’re bored and don’t know what to watch tell me three movies you like and I’ll recommend something
— Drew Burnett Gregory (@draw_gregory) March 13, 2020
Then Autostraddle Managing Editor Rachel Kincaid provided this gem:
https://twitter.com/danascullyirl/status/1240039389310455808
Need some background noise while you work from home? A movie for a virtual hang with your queer fam? Something that lasts for 150 hours and you’ll get so obsessively immersed in that you can eat Cheez-Its and forget about the news for days on end? We’ve got a plan for that!
Here Are Some of the Things We’re Good At:
Carmen: family sitcoms that are almost too corny to bear, Shondaland and Shondaland-style dramas, that specific genre of television that I can only describe as “rich women wear chunky sweaters and plot murder while drinking a bottle of wine,” romantic comedies, girl gang comedies, SNL, and anything that starred a black or Latinx person in the last 30 years.
Valerie: Campy sci-fi with a female lead where everyone is a little bit gay, complicated sci-fi that surely has a gay in the mix somewhere, sci-fi that is coded gay but never quite committed to it, and also anything about murder.
Drew: Every lesbian movie ever with a special focus in coming-of-age stories where teen girls have a quiet emotional journey – also every Hollywood and arthouse classic that isn’t quite lesbian but does involve misandry or stubborn women or just Katharine Hepburn wearing pants.
Riese: The L Word, ’90s/early ’00s indie films about teenage girls / women in their early 20s often involving a badass best friend from the wrong side of the tracks, high-brow drama / dramedy, pretty much anything with a butch in it, high school melodrama, the first two seasons of popular dramas that eventually go off the rails, post-1980 mainstream movies with lesbian characters, shows that are mostly just smart people telling jokes to each other in a form that vaguely comes together to loosely resemble a plot.
Kayla: “Everything everyone else said, plus I got the Bravo dykes and reality TV fans covered.”
Heather: All gay TV that’s not bloody, scary, or procedural-y, especially fantasy and sci-fi and comedies. (Carmen: Heather you forgot Cartoons!) (Heather: OMG MY MAIN THING!!)
Natalie: Shondaland, daytime soaps, procedurals, The West Wing, shows that feature POC and underrepresented communities (or created by those same people), and can really research the hell out of anything you ask.
Tell us three of your favorites, and we will pick something new. Tell us a ~vibe and we’ll help you get there. Please share your favorite comfort movies with each other! Heck, if you just want someone to scream about a plot you love or you’ve always had a burning desire to ask TV Editor Heather Hogan which three cartoon characters she’d most want to invite over for an afternoon tea (or to survive the zombie apocalypse) now is your time.
If you have a question for a specific person, feel free to include our name in your comment since we will be ctlr+f-ing ourselves. But feel free to ask general questions for the group! Even if you have a question about something that isn’t mentioned here! We’re popping popcorn! Let’s go!
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