From Laughs to Love Stories: The Must-Watch LGBTQ+ Shows of 2023
So many TV shows with awesome queer characters & stories!
Prime Video / HBO / Showtime
There’s been a slow – but mostly steady – progress when it comes to LGBTQ+ inclusion on TV shows. Generally speaking, television today is looking more diverse than ever, featuring people of all different sexual orientations, gender identities, races, backgrounds, and walks of life.
Different TV shows highlight varying aspects of queer identity. Some of them are tense and scary, while others make us laugh our asses off. Some of them are sexier and raunchier, while others are just straight-up feel-good stories. It’s amazing to see the variety of queer shows that aired in 2023 – each of them with totally different target markets, storylines, casts, and cultural significance. As the year comes to a close, let’s look back at our favorite TV series from 2023.
Scroll through to check out our list of best LGBTQ+ TV shows in 2023.
10. ‘Gen V’ (Season 1)
Gen V – Official Redband Trailer | Prime Video
Prime Video’s Gen V was heavily marketed as a spinoff of The Boys. From the very beginning, though, this new series proved that it was going to be even queerer, pushing even more buttons within the Vought universe. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for us to fall in love with the lead characters of Gen V season one: Marie (Jaz Sinclair) and Jordan (London Thor and Derek Luh), who happen to be a very LGBTQ+ couple.
9. ‘Sex Education’ (Season 4)
Sex Education: Season 4 | Official Trailer | Netflix
Created by Laurie Nunn, Netflix’s Sex Education aired its fourth and final season. It was tough saying goodbye to Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Adam (Connor Swindells), and Rahim (Sami Outalbali). We’re also gonna miss our pansexual queen Ola (Patricia Allison) and Lily (Tanya Reynolds). Season four also introduced us to Mr. Molloy (Dan Levy), who was such a treat! But bittersweet feelings aside, season four was a great conclusion to the Sex Education saga.
8. ‘Loki’ (Season 2)
Marvel Studios’ Loki Season 2 | Official Trailer | Disney+
Our favorite pansexual shapeshifter once again shook up the concept of space and time on Loki season two. What’s more, it feels like showrunner Michael Waldron listened to the fans and leaned in even further on the bromance between Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson). We honestly didn’t know what to expect from a second season of Loki, but the Disney+ series delivered another great installment for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
7. ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story | Official Trailer | Netflix
From creator Chris Van Dusen, Bridgerton is one of the biggest TV shows in Netflix history. Besides its mainline saga, Netflix greenlit the Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story spinoff for 2023. A pleasant surprise from the new show was how much gayer it turned the Bridgerton universe into, with characters like the Queen’s secretary Brimsley (Sam Clemmett), and the King’s secretary Reynolds (Freddie Dennis) having a full-on sexual relationship throughout the spinoff series.
6. ‘Heartstopper’ (Season 2)
Heartstopper: Season 2 | Official Trailer | Netflix
Viewers from around the world have fallen in love with the characters and stories of Netflix’s Heartstopper, all based on the graphic novels by Alice Oseman. While we always worry that the second season of a show won’t live up to its first, that was not the case for Heartstopper season two, which gave us everything we need and then some. The relationship between Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke) keeps maturing, Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) are getting deeper than they’ve gone before, and our fan-favorites Elle (Yasmin Finney) and Tao (William Gao) are now officially dating!
5. ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ (Season 15)
Season 15 Trailer ft. Guest Judge Ariana Grande! 🏁✨ RuPaul’s Drag Race
In many ways, season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race felt like a “basic to basics” moment for the long-running drag competition series. Not only was reaching 15 seasons a huge milestone, but the show also moved from VH1 to MTV – the biggest network in herstory to air this reality TV show about the art form of drag and the overall LGBTQ+ experience. And then the season ended with a top-two consisting of Sasha Colby and Anetra, two unanimously beloved queens, and the crowning of Sasha Colby as America’s Next Drag Superstar. Can we get an AMEN!?
4. ‘Yellowjackets’ (Season 2)
Yellowjackets Season 2 Official Trailer | SHOWTIME
Showtime’s Yellowjackets doesn’t just have that one token queer character that we’ve now come to expect from TV shows. It has several LGBTQ+ women, such as Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown / Tawny Cypress), Vanessa (Lauren Ambrose / Liv Hewson), and Simone (Rukiya Bernard), to name a few. Besides all this queer representation, Yellowjackets is a commercial and critical hit, scoring a whopping 97% on Rotten Tomatoes after its two first seasons.
3. ‘The Other Two’ (Season 3)
The Other Two Season 3 Trailer
The wrapping of The Other Two on Max came as a little bit of a shock to fans. The show kept growing and growing during its first three seasons, so many people assumed that it would keep going at least for a few more seasons. Nonetheless, what ended up being the third and final season of The Other Two was freaking perfect. It was purely chaotic, it had jokes on jokes on jokes, and it gave everyone a satisfying ending. We’ll always love Cary (Drew Tarver) and his cuckoo family.
2. ‘The Last of Us’ (Season 1)
The Last of Us | Official Trailer | Max
There aren’t enough words in the dictionary to describe the cultural impact of HBO’s The Last of Us, a live-action adaptation of the hit videogame of the same name. This series buried, once and for all, the general Hollywood assumption that adapting video games into live-action projects didn’t work. It also provided a new universe and even scarier creatures for zombie lovers who were getting a little bored of The Walking Dead. For us, The Last of Us also hit differently due to its unapologetic queer inclusion. Season one episode three, “Long, Long Time,” gave us the full love story between Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett). Later in the season, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) also got her first kiss with Riley (Storm Reid). Needless to say, we CAN’T WAIT for season two!
1. ‘Fellow Travelers’
Fellow Travelers Official Trailer | SHOWTIME
There’s a case to be made that Showtime’s Fellow Travelers is probably the most well-made television show with LGBTQ+ protagonists in history. Adapted from Thomas Mallon’s novel of the same name, Fellow Travelers told the love story between Hawkins (Matt Bomer) and Tim (Jonathan Bailey), starting in the 1950s at the height of McCarthyism and going all the way to the 1980s with the start of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The series also included the experiences of queer Black people at those periods of time, with characters like Marcus (Jelani Alladin) and Frankie (Noah J. Ricketts) being just as important and as beloved as the leading roles.
