Streaming Queer: April 2024

"Mary & George" Season 1

This scandalous, stylish historical drama (brought to life by out director Oliver Hermanus) tells the outrageous true story of Mary Villiers (Julianne Moore) who used her "handsome-bodied" son, George Villiers (Nicholas Galitzine), to seduce King James I (Tony Curran) and ensure that their family rises up the ranks of power, wealth, and influence in the English court. Known for his love of beautiful men, the King cannot resist George (Galitzine), who is well-trained in seduction thanks to a very enlightening trip to France. The series follows George's incredible journey from shy young man to cocksure queer icon, as he persistently and obediently follows his mother's ruthless plan.The dynamics between mother and son, and their respective conquests, makes this show a perfect balance of political strategy, lush period piece, fucked-up family comedy, and horny escapades. Mary herself falls into a steamy sapphic affair with a bold Irish woman (Niamh Algar) who reveals herself to be the perfect partner, both in bed and in Mary's commitment to manipulating men.

"Mary & George" Season 1 premieres April 5 on Starz.

"Scoop"

"An hour of television can change everything." High-stakes, fast-paced, and perfectly timed in our collective moment of heightened royal awareness, this film follows the women who made the landscape-shifting BBC Newsnight interview happen with Prince Andrew (played by Rufus Sewell) in 2019. The interview, which is also recreated here, directly and immediately resulted in his stepping back from public duties. Gillian Anderson leads as journalist Emily Maitlis, who helped to secure the interview and fearlessly interrogated Andrew about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Netflix describes the film as our "backstage pass to the inner workings of high-stakes broadcast news, as two British institutions – Buckingham Palace and the BBC – clash over the story of a lifetime."

"Scoop" premieres April 5 on Netflix.

"Heartbreak High" Season 2

No one is doing messy, horny, sexed-up queer drama like these cheeky Australian teens! This season , taking place during their second school term, looks more upbeat than last season's scandals, but the mess may have escalated catastrophically: We've got dirty tactics in the race for school captain, outdoor adventure accidents, buildings set on fire, and friendships torn apart. Two new students join the cast: Rowan (Sam Rechner, "The Fabelmans") is an unassuming "country boy" with dry humor who falls into a chaotic love triangle; and Zoe (Kartanya Maynard, who you may recognise from lesbian murder-mystery show "Deadloch") is a celibacy advocate whose "gang of Puriteens" threatens to bring down the class from within.

"Heartbreak High" Season 2 premieres April 11 on Netflix.

"Strange Way of Life"

This queer Western short film (official running-time is 31 minutes) is written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and stars Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal star as gunslingers who find themselves together on a ranch again after 25 years. They celebrate their meeting, but the next morning it comes to light that this reunion was not for the purposes of honoring the love between them. Rolling Stone called the film "gloriously romantic;" Almodóvar described it as "a queer Western, in the sense that there are two men and they love each other...It has the gunslinger, it has the ranch, it has the sheriff, but what it has that most Westerns don't have is the kind of dialogue that I don't think a Western film has ever captured between two men." Manu Ríos features as a character called the Singer, while José Condessa ("Turn of the Tide") plays a young Silva and Jason Fernández ("Welcome to Eden") plays a young Jake.

"Strange Way of Life" premieres April 12 on Netflix.

"Under the Bridge" Season 1

"There's danger everywhere, but danger had never looked quite like this before." Queer actor Lily Gladstone leads this crime drama with Riley Keough. "Under the Bridge" is based on the book of the same name by Rebecca Godfrey (who Keough plays). Godfrey covered this "1997 true story of fourteen-year-old Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) who went to join friends at a party and never returned home." We follow this dark, shocking look into the hidden world of the young girls accused of Virk's murder, through the eyes of local police officer Cam Bentland (Gladstone) and Keough's character, who believes the young women will share secrets with her that they won't tell the police. Archie Panjabi, Matt Craven, and queer actor Aiyana Goodfellow ("The Outlaws", "I Used to Be Famous") are among this haunting show's cast. We're terrified to find out the truth of what happened under the bridge, but we will absolutely be tuning in to find out.

"Under the Bridge" Season 1 premieres April 17 on Hulu.

"Dead Boy Detectives" Season 1

This show has lived many lives before coming to us now on Netflix, with cast switch-ups and network reshuffling happening over many years. The series is based on beloved DC Comics characters who are canonically queer and revealed to have feelings for each other, but it's not entirely clear if that's confirmed for this iteration of their story. "Dead Boy Detectives" follows Edwin (George Rexstrew) and Charles (Jayden Revri), who didn't know each other in life but become best friends in death. They've decided to stay on Earth and run a detective agency that investigates supernatural-related crimes, which "take them on some spooky quests, from run-ins with evil witches to fights with bloody monsters." Their crew includes a living clairvoyant named Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura). As a fun queer bonus, Lukas Gage (look out for him in the trailer) is credited to appear in one episode of the show. We're crossing our fingers and trusting in Neil Gaiman ("Dead Boy Detectives" is part of "The Sandman" extended universe), who has not yet let us down in delivering charming, unforgettable queer rep.
"Dead Boy Detectives" Season 1 premieres April 25 on Netflix.

"We're Here" Season 4

"We're Here" Season 4 premieres April 26 on Max.