Where are the (happy) queer women in prestige TV?

the only wlw shows that aren't getting cancelled seem to all be about murder???

I really hate to be another disgruntled lesbian (no, I don’t), but the abysmal state of representation for sapphic folks in prestige television leaves me with no other choice.

At the risk of biting the ungodly streaming hands that (barely)feed us - with WLW (women loving women) tale after WLW tale filled with woe (and for some reason, a lot of murder?), there simply has got to be a wider berth for lesbian joy.

In mid-April, lesbian Twitter rightfully rejoiced at Oscar-nominee Lily Gladstone and Riley Keough starring in Hulu’s Under the Bridge, the limited series adaptation of the late Rebecca Godfrey’s eponymous true crime novel about the high-profile murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk in Canada in 1997.

Particularly, fans were ecstatic over a viral clip of the two actresses making out, driving droves of queer women to the streamer to devour the televisual romance. But while the project itself is a retelling of a real-life event, in which Keough plays Godfrey and Gladstone is police officer Cam Bentland, Under the Bridge is just the latest in a disturbing trend of WLW narratives present in prestige dramas that are couched in worlds filled with death and despair. 

At the same time, gay men have been able to see the needle move on their representation in the subset of television shows contending for the Emmys. Specifically, these projects have centered experiences of queerness and maleness against the backdrop of various time periods and circumstances, rather than the other way around for lesbian prestige media.

From Fellow Travelers to The Other Two, queer men have enjoyed shows where their identities are front and centre - as they absolutely should. Meanwhile, sapphic women have mostly had to content themselves with being afterthoughts in broad queer visibility, such as when they are added in the second seasons of series featuring queer men, as in HBO’s swashbuckling pirate show Our Flag Means Death. That is, when they are allowed to be happy on screen at all.