TV doesn't get much better than these three queer shows, airing now.
One of life's most simple joys is the pleasure of watching a truly great queer TV show. Finding a new show you love is hard, and special enough, so when it's also a show with great queer actors and characters, it's like a miracle happened. Right now, we've got three wonderful miracles happening at the same time.
These three shows are not only some of the best airing on all of TV, but they're all delivering the goods when it comes to excellent queer content.
Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies
Pink is the word!
This Paramount+ prequel series to the iconic movie Grease follows four girls at Rydell High who decide to form the school’s first girl gang, the Pink Ladies. It’s fun, it’s funny, it celebrates girls and girlhood, and it rocks.
One of our favorite characters is Cynthia, a clearly queer tomboy played by trans actor Ari Notartomaso (he/they) who originally wanted to be a T-Bird, but instead became a founding Pink Lady. Queer women have always seen themselves in the Pink Ladies, and it’s terrific that the show has a butch character who’s not afraid to wear pink and call herself a lady. Of course if Cynthia ends up becoming trans, like her actor, that will also be a welcome and terrific storyline.
We are also loving the new music written by out songwriter Justin Tranter. Tranter has written songs for Hailee Steinfeld, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, and Justin Beiber, and brings his excellent pop sensibilities to Rise of the Pink Ladies. These aren’t your grandparent’s 50’s-style pop songs, these Pink Ladies sing about their desires to thoroughly modern pop, and we love it.
Schmigadoon
We absolutely adored Schmigadoon, the Apple TV+ series about a pair of lovers (Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key) who are out hiking when they stumble upon the magical musical town of Schmigadoon, where everything was like a classic Golden Age-style musical.
Now, the couple has tried to get back, only to end up in the grittier and sexier Schmicago, a town based on the musicals of the 60s and 70s. With homages to Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Pippin, and Chicago, this show will delight any fan of the theater.
Schmigadoon features a ton of Broadway greats, like Aaron Tveit, Jane Krakowski, Kristin Chenoweth, Ann Harada, and Patrick Page, all singing their hearts out in hilarious, pitch-perfect original songs that feature just the perfect amount of tribute to classic musicals.
Out actors Dove Cameron, Alan Cumming, Ariana DeBose, and Tituss Burgess all leap off the screen as parodied versions of Sally Bowles, Sweeney Todd, Cabaret’s Emcee, and Pippin’s Leading Player, respectively.
Created by Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon will delight you at every turn. It truly is a tribute to the musicals we love like no other. Pack your bags, and head to Schmicago today!
Yellowjackets
Are you hungry for more Yellowjackets? We certainly are!
The second season of Showtime’s acclaimed thriller series Yellowjackets is currently airing and it has ramped up the pressure in every way from the first season. Already in season 2, we’ve had cannibalism, cults, Melanie Lynskey monologues, and too many unhinged girls and women to count.
Yellowjackets centers around a high school girl’s soccer team whose plane crashes in the Canadian Rockies. The show flashes from the 1990s as the girls try to survive any way they can, to the present day when the adult survivors are still struggling to readjust to normal life after what they encountered in the forest.
It stars Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Sophie Thatcher, Samantha Hanratty, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Liv Hewson, Ella Purnell, and Marie-Sophie Nélisse in one of TV’s best ensemble casts.
If you’re tired of Goody-two-shoes characters and wholesome content, Yellowjackets will feed your starving, depraved heart.