Images: Netflix; Greg Endries/Max; MTV
It was a queer year for TV!
You used to have to search far and wide to find quality queer television, but now, that’s not true anymore. You can search most major networks and streamers and find something that you’ll like that has queer content.
Still, a lot of what’s out there isn’t the cream of the crop. That’s where we come in. Here are our 15 favorite queer shows of 2023.
Image: Showtime
With one of the best ensemble casts of the year, Fellow Travelers shines a light on queer American history while also having sex scenes hotter than the sun. Matt Bomer, Jonathan Bailey, Jelani Alladin, and Noah J. Ricketts soar as four gay men living through history and trying to find love and family.
Image: Eduardo Araquel/Paramount+
Sadly canceled after just one season, Rise of the Pink Ladies featured music by Justin Tranter and told the origin story of the Pink Ladies girl gang that we know and love from Grease. It diversified Rydell High and gave its characters real stories that kept us enraptured. It was a fun semester while it lasted.
Image: Disney+
In its final season, HSMTMTS went even gayer — something we never thought was possible! Thanks to creator Tim Federle, this series had more gay characters and storylines in its four seasons than the rest of Disney has in the rest of its entire streaming service. Sadly, we won’t be getting any more of this brilliant ensemble of young actors that included half-a-dozen queer actors that are all destined for big things.
Image: Nicola Dove/Max
We love gay pirates!!! Our Flag Means Death got even better, and gayer, in the second season, showing what happened after Blackbeard and Stede declared their love for each other. By adding in new queer stories and diving deep into what makes the central romance of the show tick, Our Flag sailed to new heights in season 2.
Image: Niko Tavernise/Prime Video
Dead Ringers gave Rachel Weisz an acting playground and she took full advantage of it as the codependent Mantle twins, two doctors who will do anything for each other and anything to advance the medicine of birth. It’s bloody, campy, problematic, and sexy — four things we can never get enough of!
Image: Greg Endries/Max
When The Other Two began its third season this year, we had no idea it would be the last we would ever see of the hilarious show-business satire. We’re going to miss the antics of these hilarious siblings and their friends.
Image: MTV
Another amazingly talented trans/nonbinary queen won a US Drag Race crown this year! Following Kylie Sonique Love (All Stars 6), Willow Pill (Season 14), and Jinkx Monsoon (All Stars 7), the iconic Sasha Colby took home the crown after a fierce finale featuring Anetra, Luxx Noir London, and Mistress Isabelle Brooks.
Image: Fabio Lovino/HBO
Mike White’s The White Lotus somehow got even better in its second season. Moving to Italy and bringing in a mostly new cast (thank god Jennifer Coolidge returned as Tanya), the show got even more twisted and terrific.
Image: Liane Hentscher/HBO
The Last of Us proved that as long as you write great characters and get great actors to play them, video games can become great television. Starring nonbinary actor Bella Ramsey as the queer teen Ellie, The Last of Us had some of the best queer episodes of TV this year. Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman shine in one episode “Long, Long Time” as two grizzled apocalypse survivors who fall in love.
Image: Brooke Palmer/Prime Video
If you love the over-the-top gore, sex, and superheroes of The Boys, Gen V is the perfect spin-off for you! It’s got everything you want from The Boys, plus queer lead characters like the genderfluid Jordan and queer students Marie and Emma. This look at the college lives of superheroes and is never afraid to push the envelope, or completely blow it up in a blood-filled orgy.
Image: CBS
The 44th season of Survivor featured 6 queer contestants – three gay men and three queer women – and we loved it! Two of them even made it to the finale, with Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho being named the winner.
Image: Netflix
We know that queer people make for the best reality TV, and this year, we were graced with the absolute trash fire that was The Ultimatum: Queer Love. Following five queer couples where one member made an ultimatum about the relationship, the show then shuffles the couples to see if they’d be more compatible with another person. As queer people do, several contestants immediately fell in love with their new person, causing the kind of drama we love to see on reality TV.
Image: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime
Yellowjackets continues to delight with its unhinged women, creepy twists, and ’90s nostalgia. Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Juliette Lewis, and Christina Ricci continue to lead a great ensemble cast that this year added Lauren Ambrose, Elijah Wood, Nicole Maines, and even John Cameron Mitchell.
Image: Netflix
Who thought that in 2023 a Scott Pilgrim anime would be one of the best queer shows on TV!?? The new animated series sees the entire cast of the movie return but expands on the stories of several queer characters, including Ramona Flowers, Kim Pine, Wallace Wells, and more.
Image: Showtime
The final season of the unfairly canceled The L Word: Generation Q was also the best season of either L Word show. Generation Qfinally figured out how to tell the soap opera stories of The L Word and also show what real-life queer women’s communities look like... and we’ll miss it dearly!
