With queer characters appearing in everything from horror to superhero shows, LGBT+ representation on TV has never been better. Here are some of the best inclusive shows available on Netflix right now.
Black Lightning
Black Lightning follows its title character Jefferson Pierce, played by Cress Williams – a retired superhero with the ability to control electricity, who works as a high school headmaster.
He returns to fighting crime when local gang The One Hundred begins to threaten his community.
Much of the show’s appeal, though, comes from Nafessa Williams’ role as Pierce’s daughter Anissa, a lesbian medical student and part-time teacher with the power to manipulate her body’s density at will.
Grace and Frankie
If you haven’t yet seen Grace and Frankie, this bank holiday is your chance to start.
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin become unlikely friends when their husbands, both gay men, discover their sexuality and leave their wives to start a relationship with one another.
With so many queer-inclusive shows focusing on LGBT+ youth, Grace and Frankie offers a welcome change. It’s been lauded by critics, too, receiving a wealth of nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards.
The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House is genuinely terrifying. Based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, the show’s first season sees the Crain family – who witnessed horrifying paranormal events when they moved into Hill House – reunite 26 years later to confront the tragedy that befell them.
What sets the show apart from its source material is that its queer content is no longer subtextual – the first episode sees queer character Theodora Crain go home with a woman she met at a nightclub.
Sex Education
In this Netflix original dramedy, awkward teenager Otis struggles to grow up under the watchful eye of his sex therapist mother. After inadvertently helping the school bully to overcome his sexual performance anxiety, Otis finds a way to improve his status at school – by using his reluctantly-gained insider knowledge to set up an underground sex therapy clinic for his classmates.
Some of the best queer storylines follow Otis’ best friend Eric, a gay boy from a religious African family, but the show as a whole is comedy gold. Netflix has announced that it received over 40 million streams within its first month of release, making it one of the most successful shows in the streaming service’s history.
Special
Special is one of Netflix’s newest LGBT+ inclusive shows, and is shaping up to be one of its best. The eight-episode comedy, based on Ryan O’Connell’s part-memoir, part-manifesto I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves, stars O’Connell himself as a gay man with mild cerebral palsy.
The series follows lead character Ryan after he is hit by a car and realised he can now pass as an accident victim. It premiered on April 12th, and we can’t wait to see what comes next.
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