With COVID-19, and this heavy and seemingly never-ending election cycle, it’s more important than ever to take a break from the news and work and find ways to practice self care. In an effort to decompress from the stress of the world, we asked students to share their favorite LGBT+ friendly shows and movies via our Instagram page. Below are the top three shows submitted and a couple of honorary mentions, because we wouldn’t be doing our civic duty without mentioning a couple of iconic LGBT+ shows.
- The Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix, 2020)
From the creator of “The Haunting of Hill House,” Netflix brings you a “gothic romance” and major spooky vibes with this one season series about an au pair who “plunges into an abyss of chilling secrets.”
Former New School Free Press reporter and Screen Studies major at Eugene Lang, Brooke Quast, who uses she/her pronouns, enjoyed the women loving women content of the show.
“I personally really loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because of the relationship in it and the way it unfolds. I think that the love that Dani and Jamie have for each other is so pure and the way it’s portrayed just felt very honest. The fact that they are both women wasn’t a big deal. It was so domestic and felt so normal. LGBT+ relationships in shows always tend to be about one person’s journey of discovering their sexuality and coming out, and that tends to be the biggest part of the relationship. Shows and movies never seem to show the domestic parts of these relationships. They’re either angst-filled or sexualized. Bly Manor does a great job at just showing you two well-written characters and showing them falling in love, without there being any sexualization of the fact that it is two women,” Quast said.
The Haunting of Bly Manor is an eerie show. “It’s more plot driven and character driven horror show, rather than just random jump and scares. It’s more emotional rather than just plain scary,” Quast said.
Spooky season may have ended, but women-loving-women shows are year around.
You can watch season one on Netflix now.
- Schitt’s Creek (CBC Television, 2015-2020)
Schitt’s Creek is a show about a family who goes from riches to rags and is forced to move to this small town, Schitt’s Creek, that they purchased in the past as a joke. This Canadian sitcom recently made history sweeping this year’s Emmy Awards with nine wins for the comedy category. The wins also brought Canadian TV production into the spotlight.
Camila Pava, who uses she/her pronouns, and a recent graduate of the MS Strategic Design and Management at Parsons, appreciates the normalization of LGBT+ relationships in the show.
“The way in which the show Schitt’s Creek demonstrated representation struck me as special because I felt that through the story and the characters, they normalized LGBTQ relationships and portrayed them as healthy and normal relationships. I fell in love with the relationship between David (identified as pansexual) and Patrick (gay), because it was full of tenderness, love, passion,” Pava said.
After six seasons, Schitt’s Creek came to an end this past spring. You can catch up or re-watch this beloved show on Netflix and other streaming platforms.
- Pose (FX, 2018)
Pose comes from LGBT+ icon and co-creator Ryan Murphy who famously centers LGBT+ characters in his shows. Pose focuses on the ballroom culture of New York City in the 1980s and 1990s. It shares the lives and stories of trans women during these times and shines a light on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This show brings ballroom culture and LGBT+ history to the small screen and to audiences that may not have otherwise learned about them.
George Washington University student Cate Chisholm, who uses she/her pronouns, appreciated the representation of the Black LGBT+ community from the show.
“Pose has become a somewhat mainstream show representing the Black queer community, specifically including many trans people like I personally have never seen before. While we have been seeing more representation of queer people in film and television, in almost all cases, they don’t represent Black, low income, trans people,” Chisholm said.
Chisholm also enjoyed how the show depicts what ballroom culture meant for the LGBT+ community back in those days.
“This is a community I had heard about in the past, but knew little, so I love that I got an inside look into the community, even if the show is fictional. In my opinion, Pose is a groundbreaking show as it humanizes people and an entire community that many average Americans might feel is completely foreign to them,” Chisholm said.
You can now stream both seasons of this new cult classic on Netflix.
Honorary mentions:
The L Word (Showtime, 2004-2009)
The iconic lesbian show The L Word centers on the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women in early 2000s Los Angeles. This show is a cult favorite among many LGBT+ members, especially the lesbian community, in particular for its rare centering of lesbian women. Although shows have become more rich in LGBT+ content, shows regarding lesbian womxn are still among some of the least represented. Although it has been criticized in the past for its lack of diversity, it is still loved among many for its portrayal of lesbian lives. The famous theme song says it’s about lesbians, “Talking, laughing, loving, breathing, fighting, fucking, crying, drinking, riding, winning, losing, cheating, kissing, thinking, dreaming. This is the way it’s the way that we live and love.”
Eugene Lang student, Emma Donelly-Higgins, who uses she/her pronouns, enjoys the show because of the rare sight that is a show that centers lesbian characters and their everyday lives.
“The L Word is one of the only shows I know of that really centers lesbians and makes it all about them, and not men. Of course it has some problems, but it is still super important representation that I haven’t seen in many other places. The show balances talking about their experiences with discrimination a bit, but it is mostly about their lives and the joy and pain they go through like everyone else,” Donelly-Higgins said.
After 10 years off the air The L Word resurfaced on the small screen with a new and improved L word that added more diversity to the show. The L Word: Generation Q (2019) made its premiere last winter on Showtime and is expected to return with season two soon. You can watch both of the shows on Showtime and Hulu.
Gentleman Jack (HBO, 2019)
Based on a true events from Anne Lister’s personal diary entries, Gentleman Jack makes the honorary mention list for its depiction of lesbian culture in 19th century England. Anne Lister famously dressed in more masculine clothing and is the butch main character who continues to fall hopelessly in love with women who ultimelty cannot find the courage to commit to Lister openly. This show shares the true stories of Lister’s personal love life from her diary entries.
Emma Donelly-Higgins appreciated the show for its historical importance as well as the importance of butch representation
“It’s a really beautiful romance between two women. The main character is butch, which is also very rare and shows that the show wasn’t just made for the straight male gaze. It’s historical in that it tells one of those true stories that not many people would know about if it weren’t for the show,” Donelly-Higgins said.
Season two wardrobe fittings and rehearsals began last month according to Suranne Jones’s (who plays Anne Lister) Instagram. You can stream the show on HBO.
Full list of shows and movies submitted:
Dragula
The Umbrella Academy
Atypical
Trinkets
One Day at a Time
Wild Nights with Emily
Ratched
American Horror Story
Killing Eve
Wentworth
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Season of Love
Miseducation of Cameron Post
Booksmart
But I’m a Cheerleader
Carol
Make the Yuletide Gay
The Fosters
Sex Education
Pride Denied
Pinkwashing Exposed
Grey’s Anatomy
Feel Good
Dare Me
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Queer Eye