Up until recently, the LGBTQ+ community had to settle for the occasional supporting character in a television series to feel represented. Of course, with Hollywood slowly becoming more progressive, having queer characters at the heart of a series isn’t as rare now as you’d think. Parts of the industry have cautiously stepped away from having just one token gay character and are starting to explore the different ways in which queer life can be represented.
This year alone, Netflix’s teen series Heartstopper and Showtime’s Yellowjackets have championed audiences with their diverse and inclusive casts paired with exceptional storytelling. In fact, the two series recently lead the pack in wins from the Dorian TV Awards, a set of awards given to television programming that provides outstanding representation for the queer community selected by The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics.
However, there are dozens of other quality television series that highlight the lives of members of the LGBTQ+ community from all walks of life. While having queer characters may not be what these shows are specifically known for, it certainly doesn't lessen the stories that these programs tell. Television series that include remarkable stories of the queer community aren’t hard to find, you just have to know where to look. Here are five underrated LGBTQ+ television shows you can watch right now.
5 Paper Girls
Based on the critically-acclaimed comic book series written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang, the Amazon Prime series Paper Girls follows the adventures of four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls who accidentally get caught in a war between two sets of very different time travelers. A huge part of the story sees the girls traveling through various time periods and encountering future versions of themselves, while also coming to grips with their eventual fates.
Veteran actress Adina Porter (True Blood) and comedienne Ali Wong (Netflix's Always Be My Maybe) are joined by a talented group of young girls who play the main characters: Camryn Jones plays Tiff, the de facto leader of the group; Riley Lai Nelet is Erin, who's the newbie delivery girl; Sofia Rosinsky plays Mac, a hotheaded tomboy; and Fina Strazza is KJ, a young girl who comes from a family of privilege.
While each girl does a marvelous job depicting the struggles of their characters, Rosinsky and Strazza do particularly well as Mac and KJ. After seeing a future version of herself living happily with a girlfriend, KJ begins to question her own identity, but finds a kindred spirit in Mac. Although the first season of Paper Girls ends without anything becoming official, the two are clearly set up to be a romantic couple, much like in the comic books. The journey that the two girls go on together throughout the series gives provides plenty of emotional moments that the two actresses routinely knock out of the park.
4 P-Valley
Easily one of the most addictive and sexiest shows on television, Starz's P-Valley follows the lives of the staff and dancers at a strip club called The Pynk in the fictional city of Chucalissa, MS (think Bon Temps in True Blood, minus the supernatural element). While each character deals with their own struggles, the employees of The Pynk have a found family in each other, which can sometimes lead to more drama than salvation. Extremely well-cast and written, the show is based on a play created by Katori Hall and features an eclectic arsenal of fierce characters like The Pynk's colorful owner Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan), veteran star dancer Mercedes (Brandee Evans), and woman-on-the-run Hailey (Elarica Johnson).
In addition to paying homage to the lives of Black women in the South, P-Valley also features an impressive array of queer characters over the course of its show's two seasons. Uncle Clifford engages in an affair with Lil Murda (J. Alphonse Nicholson), an up-and-coming rapper who is on the DL. Their love story becomes a central arc to the series, with both working to figure out where they belong in each other's lives, if at all. In season two, John Clarence Stewart is introduced as Big Teak, a friend of Lil Murda's who gets released from prison and goes on tour with the rapper, acting as his security guard. Lil Murda and Big Teak also have a tryst, though it ends in tragedy. Season two also saw Mercedes experimenting with her sexuality and having several intimate encounters with a married woman.
3 Queer as Folk (2022 Reboot)
These days, reboots of iconic television series are hit or miss, but this re-imagining of the cult favorite British original and 2000 US remake Queer as Folk is absolutely binge-worthy. Peacock's take on the series quietly debuted during Pride month, and, like many shows on this list, has had a hard time gaining popularity. This Queer as Folk corrects many of the wrongs made by its predecessors by featuring a more inclusive and racially diverse cast of characters who are brought together following a Pulse-like nightclub shooting in New Orleans. While this could've easily been used as a cheap plot device, the series does an excellent job at examining the trauma and guilt that survivors of such an attack are left to deal with.
The ridiculously attractive yet messy friend group includes: Brodie (Devin Way), a self-involved med school dropout who returns to his hometown; Ruthie (Jesse James Keitel) a transwoman who is Brodie's best friend; Mingus (Fin Argus), a non-binary teenager and aspiring drag queen; Julian (Ryan O'Connell), Brodie's adoptive brother who was born with cerebral palsy; and Noah (Johnny Sibilly) as Brodie's ex-boyfriend. Veteran actresses Kim Cattrall and Juliette Lewis also do their fair share of heavy lifting in supporting roles. Queer as Folk has always been known for its drama and there's no shortage of it here, as secrets and lies threaten to tear the group even further apart. The entire cast does a great job of telling their character's story, but Keitel, Sibilly, and O'Connell really stand out amongst the crowd.
2 9-1-1: Lone Star
For viewers of 9-1-1: Lone Star, you tune in for the high-stakes rescue drama, but stay for the incredible character development. A spin-off of the successful Fox hit 9-1-1, the show tells the stories of the men and women of the fire, police, and ambulance departments of company 126 in Austin, Texas. Each of the characters struggle at different times with their own demons, such as a cancer diagnosis and substance abuse, but ultimately come together to save the lives of others while becoming a found family in the process. Following a tragic fire that nearly wiped out the entire previous fire company, Owen Strand (Rob Lowe) and his son TK (Ronen Rubinstein), arrive from New York City to help rebuild the department.
What's interesting about a series like 911: Lone Star is that, yes, it has the action and adventure element of being a procedural show, but it's the very human storylines of the characters that drive the show and keep viewers coming back for more. TK is a recovering opioid addict who falls for Carlos Reyes (Rafael L. Silva), an officer with the Austin Police Department, creating one of the most beautiful gay love stories currently on network television. The show also features trans actor Brian Michael Smith playing a trans character, Paul Strickland, who is both a firefighter and a paramedic. 911: Lone Star does a wonderful job of not shying away from the inner workings of the life of a person of trans experience, in particular how one navigates their love life.
1 Motherland: Fort Salem
Motherland: Fort Salem rewrites traditional history by having the Salem witches that were originally burned at the stake become a part of the U.S. Army, thus granting them immunity. The show picks up centuries later, and focuses on three young women who are conscripted into the Army to learn how to wield their powers in combat and fight a war against terrorist organizations. The show stars Jessica Sutton as Tally Craven, Ashley Nicole Williams as Abigail Bellweather, Taylor Hickson as Raelle Collar, Demetria McKinney as Anacostia Quartermaine, and Lyne Renee as Sarah Alder.
Clearly, sisterhood is a central theme to the series, both in witchcraft and friendship, as Tally, Abigail, and Raelle work together as a military unit, and then becoming a family. Though each one has a special talent, they all wrestle with the complications of their personal lives, including Raelle, who finds herself in love with a possible double agent in Scylla (Amalia Holm). The series takes the traditional "enemies to lovers" trope, flips it on it's head, and creates a remarkably endearing relationship between two women –thanks in large part to the undeniable chemistry between the actresses. Executive producer Eliot Laurence recently told TV Line that he wanted to do right by the couple: "Our fans, particularly our 'Raylla' fans, had really hung in there, and I don't want to be a queer-baiting queer creator. I want to deliver. It felt really good to do that."