2021 was an incredible year for queer TV!
With shows like Pose's final season, The L Word: Generation Q, Gossip Girl, Chucky, The Owl House, 9-1-1: Lone Star, The Other Two, and It's a Sin, we had great queer shows to wach all year long.
But there were more great queer shows this year than just those. Here are eight more that you might have missed, but that we couldn't recommend more!
1. Q-Force
Netflix's Q-Force was met with a lot of online hate when the first preview for the show came out, but those who actually watched it quickly found it was one of the funniest, and best queer shows in years. Q-Force is full of characters that every queer adult knows. It's got a great butch woman played by Wanda Sykes, one of the most accurate trans women characters ever in the hacker Stat, and Twink (played by Matt Rogers) might be one of the best gay characters ever to appear on TV. Plus, the rest of the cast, including people like Sean Hayes and Stephanie Beatriz are amazing, as is the writing, and the animation (you've never seen animated dicks look this good). If you haven't seen Q-Force yet, check it out today and enjoy the amazing ride.
2. Dickinson
If you don't have Apple TV+, you're probably missing out on one of the best shows about queer women ever. Hailee Steinfeld is amazing as Emily Dickinson, once again playing a queer character with aplomb. While the show is beloved by critics, it doesn't yet have the audience it deserves. The third, and final season is airing right now.
3. Genera+ion
Sadly cancelled after just one season, HBO Max's Genera+ion gave us one of our favorite depictions of queer Gen Z youth we've seen. With a great cast that included Justice Smith, Haley Sanchez, Uly Schlesinger, and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Genera+ion deserved a much longer life than it got.
4. Search Party
Another HBO Max show, Search Party is a terrifically dark satirical comedy with one of the best queer casts on TV. The show stars queer actors Alia Shawkat, John Early, Jeffery Self, and Cole Escola, along with John Reynolds, Meredith Hagner, and Brandon Michael Hall. Everyone on the show gives career-making performances, and the humor is some of the sharpest you'll see on TV. Season four came out this year, and a fifth, and final season is premiering on January 7, 2022.
5. Work in Progress
Abby McEnany is a powerhouse performer in this show based loosley on her real life as a fat, messy, old, and masculine dyke trying her best to become a better version of herself. The show doesn't shy away from the realities of how many mistakes people make before they finally get better. Season two aired on Showtime this year and did an incredibly great job at showing that even people who do terrible things still deserve community.
6. Sort Of
This new HBO Max series follows Sabi Mehboob (played by co-creator Bilal Baig), a nonbinary genderfluid millenial trying to balance their life as the child of Pakistani immigrants, a bartender at a queer bookstore and cafe, and as a caregiver to the children of a professional couple. The show gives nonbinary people a new face on TV. Originally a Canadian series, you can also watch the first season on HBO Max.
7. Feel Good
Mae Martin's semi-biographical romantic comedy got even better in it's second season, which aired this year on Netflix. After a great first season that saw Martin's fictional self struggling with drug addiction, dating a woman who hasn't come out yet, and trying to move up in the comedy world, the second season raised the stakes. Starting with Mae in rehab, the second season explores them coming out as nonbinary, dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and continuing to advance their comedy career.
8. The Lady and The Dale
This absolutely terrific HBO docuseries from the Duplass brothers, Nick Cammilleri, and trans director Zackary Drucker told the wilder-than-life true story of Elizabeth Carmichael, a 1970s entrepreneur who promised to change the automotive world with her fuel-efficient, three-wheeled car "The Dale." The series followed Carmichael as she was attacked for being both a trans woman and a con woman. It's a great series, and an important part of trans history.
