A Little Spooky and A Little Gay Watch List

Hey pals,

I’ve talked about a lot of these shows before so apologies to anyone who has seen these recommended and talked about in previous posts of mine, but I wanted to compile a list of shows with queer representation but also have a spooky theme, perfect to watch for Halloween. If you are looking for something to read, check out this video I made, a little spooky and a little gay reading list.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Riverdale filming and aesthetic vibes but witchier. One of the main crew is trans (Theo) with a cool bit of lore/family history. There are also a lot of sexually fluid characters, the main one being Ambrose, Sabrina’s cousin, who dates a selection of genders and multiple people at once (we love consensual polyamory). There are a lot of orgies in this show and very normalised within the witch world. Also, our icon Zelda is queerer than we originally thought but it will have to wait until the final season to really see more.

American Horror Story: Most people have seen this show by now, at least the first few seasons so I’ll try to be brief on representation. Every season of this show is spooky and horror-esk to varying degrees.

Murder House: Gay white male couple previous owners of house. It has been a while since I’ve seen this series so if I’ve missed any rep, sorry but I don’t want to re-watch it to figure it out.

Hotel: Bi-coded vampires, gay man buying the hotel, Elizabeth Johnson (Lady Gaga’s character) is in a poly relationship with married couple, a wlw relationship with Ramona Royale, and sexualised preying on humans is pretty bi.

Roanoke: Slave-owner and his lover (a slave, yikes), the old gay man who was a medium. Both minimal.

Cult: Married lesbian/wlw couple. I’ve not watched much of this but they seem like a main focus.

Being Human a show about a Ghost, a Vampire and a Werewolf being friends and living together. There was one cis white male couple in one episode early on, one of them dies and the other has to flea. The rest of the show is constantly queerbaiting, but if you can get past that, it’s pretty funny. Also the werewolf actor is gay.

October Faction: A witchy show featuring a mixed race family. The son of the main family is Black and gay, has a few love interests dotted around including other POC. I honestly don’t remember watching this… only some bits. It’s very aesthetically pleasing to look at but the writing was a bit meh.

Elite: a fantastic drama based in a high school in Spain where all the rich kids go, bit of a murder mystery. One of the rich kids is gay, another is bi and a selection of polyamorous relationships shown. One of the non-rich is a gay Muslim boy. There’s also suggestion a female character has multi-gender attraction but hasn’t had the chance to be shown in the show, I have my fingers crossed for the next season.

3%: a dystopian show with similar vibes to the Hunger games, everyone has to compete at age 20 to get into the luxurious life of the 3% but it’s a lot creepier than that. One of the main characters has multi-gender attraction to some extent, ends up with a character of the same gender. There is a trans character but she’s not in focus much at all. Not a lot of queer or trans rep otherwise but I liked this addition.

Black Lightning: A superhero show focused around a Black family. The father is the superhero with the power to control electricity but it’s becoming clear his daughters all also have his powers. One of the main characters (one of the sisters) is queer, I’ve not watched very far yet.

Cheer: this was a weird one, kinda thriller-y. About cheerleaders who hate their new coach and try to ruin her life. The main character is a Black queer woman, it’s relatively clear she is sapphic but is keeping it a secret. Unsure if she is attracted to multiple genders or performing straightness. Same for the best friend and the Coach, not sure if it’s multi-gender attraction or performative straightness/queerness depending on the situation. Content warning: abuse of power. There’s a football coach (i think) but definitely some adult man who sleeps with the high school girls and also the female coach of the cheerleaders engages in some inappropriate behaviour with her students.

Dead to Me: had a lot of sapphic undertones but turns out one of our main characters is queer and gets into a bit of a pickle. Dead to Me is about a woman’s husband suddenly dying and his murderer feeling so guilty she befriends the wife without her knowing she murdered her husband. Things spiral and get a bit crazy but it’s a great show with two amazing leading actresses. One of her love interests is also actually played by a queer actress, her and her ex-girlfriend are both WOC as well.

Shadowhunters: Alec is gay, mlm relationship with Magnus Bane who is bi spectrum immortal who has had relations with men and women. POC, magnus is Asian and I think Alec is Latinx. Stopped watching after a while as it was very cringe, badly written and acted but really liked the queer couple.

Russian Doll: One of those living the same day over and over again shows. The main female character has a couple of queer friends who have queer interactions. One of them has like… an orgy that you see her wake up from. One of the actresses is gay (Rebecca Henderson).

How To Get Away With Murder: a murder/crime show based in a Law school. One of the set main cast is a gay man who dates around a bit and then has a set main partner. I love the couple here and I’m a sucker for crime shows. The lead, Annalise Keating, is also shown as bi/on the bi spectrum as the series goes on. Season 5 features a case for a gay immigrant woman on trial at risk of being deported. Also HIV+ representation.

You: creepy thriller-esque show about a stalker. Spoiler alert, the best friend of the main girl is gay and kinda shows bad rep of having a closeted gay best friend but she is a WOC. She’s just as freaky and possessive as the MC. Season 2, Forty Quinn was thought to be gay and apparently was but it was never displayed on screen. Also some minor roles, Love Quinn’s friend Charlie Barnett is a queer Black man (played by the gay actor Gabe Miranda, I think he’s a fantastic actor and wish he had more star time in this show).

Once Upon a Time: A show about fairy tales trapped in the real world. Very lackluster with their first attempt at representation. Seems like someone said ‘hey we should put something gay in here’ so they put in a Dorothy and Red Riding Hood storyline. It was nice to have Red as a canon Bi woman and seeing a wlw relationship compared to most shows going straight for mlm. They did it better in their last series with Alice and Robin, more developed and actually relevant and weaved in with the rest of the plot compared to a one off episode where you never see them again. I did enjoy this show for the most part but felt very repetitive and very white which was a shame as it was a show about redoing classic fairy tales, I felt like they could and should have pushed it a bit more.

Pretty Little Liars: I have conflicted opinions about the rep in this show. Emily tends to go for very domineering women (Alison and Paige) and though I loved her and Paige together, particularly when they sorted her closeted ass out, she seems to just forgive and forget a lot when it comes to Alison who I think is genuinely an awful person who did crazy horrible things to many people. Alison and Mia are some nice bi women representation, showing completely different characteristics outwardly and in personality and showing the fluidity of a bi person’s sexuality. Over all, hate the rep a lot and Emily ended up with the wrong person IN MY OPINION!!! And I feel like it was nice to see not just white actors playing these roles as well. (it has been confirmed that Haleb, the actors anyway, are both bi which is nice to know)

The Umbrella Academy: I have many feelings about this show I love Klaus so much. I think the writers of the show heard us and in season 2 VANYA FINALLY gets to be the gay she was destined to be. Also has a disabled child in the second series. Series two can be quite upsetting as there are some very graphic moments of the civil rights movement in the ’60s so a content warning for that.

The Haunting of Hill House: A family with a history of being haunted and are followed by tragedy and spooky happenings. Something that even little wusses can watch (i.e. me) One of the main siblings is a Sapphic woman (Theo). The representation is pretty decent and the actress who plays Theo reminds me of a young Angelina Jolie. She also seems to have this power to read people by touching them, skin to skin, which is really interesting.

The Haunting of Bly Manor: The next part of the Haunting anthology series, the two are not connected. A young American woman is in England and hired to care for a couple of rich orphans in Bly Manor. She has her own ghost following her, but also starts seeing spooky things at Bly. Sapphic romance with the lead character, Dani, and the Gardener, Jamie.

Not yet out, but The Craft reboot is said to feature some transness and queerness which I am dying to see.