Streaming Queer: September 2024

"American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez" Season 1

This first installment of Ryan Murphy's "American Sports Story" is based on The Boston Globe's podcast "Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc." about how NFL star Aaron Hernandez "went from the bright lights of the Super Bowl to a convicted murderer in a few years." This ten-episode limited series "charts the rise and fall" of Aaron Hernandez (played by a bulked-up, tattooed Josh Andrés Rivera), "the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide and their legacy in sports and American culture." Murphy's series will undoubtedly explore the rumors of sexual relationships with men that followed and haunted Hernandez throughout his life. When we see him ask in the trailer, "What if God made me this way?" Hernandez could be referring to so many aspects of his personality and life story: "The drugs, the sex, the anger...," his remarkable talent, his unrelenting drive to get out onto the football field, his explosive reactions to the abuse he faced growing up. Patrick Schwarzenegger ("Gen V," "The Staircase") plays Tim Tebow, teammate and friend of Hernandez.

"American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez" Season 1 premieres September 17 on Hulu.

"High Potential" Season 1

"High Potential" is a fun, feminist take on the crime-solving shows we know and love. Based on a popular French series, it follows Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"), who cheerfully introduces herself to us as "a cleaning lady, a single mom with three kids and an IQ north of 160... So, helping the cops solve a murder? Literally the easiest part of my day." When Morgan knocks over evidence while cleaning at the police department, she pieces the clues together while trying to tidy her mess –casually solving the murder– so the Major Crimes Lieutenant (Judy Reyes, "Smile") brings her onto the team to work alongside by-the-book detectives. There's a murder to solve in every episode, but there's also childcare logistics, school pickups, and detectives who have to get used to working alongside this quirky, brilliant woman who is really good at both her job and their jobs.

We'll be tuning in for bisexual "Batwoman" actress Javicia Leslie, who plays a leading role as Daphne Forrester, an ambitious rising star junior detective who "is not afraid of anything or anyone."

"High Potential" Season 1 premieres September 18 on Hulu.

"Agatha All Along" Season 1

"That witch is gone, leaving you trapped in her distorted spell," Rio (Aubrey Plaza) tells Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) in the "Agatha All Along" teaser trailer. "Claw your way out." Set after the events of TV sensation "WandaVision," this series follows Harkness as she recruits a band of witchy misfits on her quest to regain her powers.

The ensemble cast playing the makeshift coven includes out actors Joe Locke as the "suspicious goth teen" and Aubrey Plaza as Rio Vidal; Sasheer Zamata, who played queer women in both "Woke" and "Home Economics," also stars as one of the witchy crew; and queer actor Miles Gutierrez-Riley ("The Wilds") is credited for a role in one episode. The coven's quest follows a literal path, The Witches Road, which will give you the thing you want most –if you make it to the end. Together, the coven must pass tests along The Road, proving their knowledge of witchcraft despite not having powers, and "survive, like witches have been doing for centuries."

"Agatha All Along" Season 1 premieres September 18 on Disney+.

"I Saw the TV Glow"

"I Saw the TV Glow" is a magical, mysterious, magnetic film about the bond between two queer kids in the suburbs, and the connection formed over a late-night supernatural TV show. Out actors Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine shine as leads (and there's brief cameo from queer musician Phoebe Bridgers). Written and directed by queer filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, "I Saw the TV Glow" is a love letter to a technological era that feels nostalgic and unsettling, and to the eternally queer idea of finding clues to new versions of yourself through encounters with art, music, and intriguing people.

In the AP's review for the film review of "I Saw The TV Glow," Jocelyn Noveck writes that "here, in '90s suburbia, the TV screen becomes a portal not only into an escapist world but also, on another level, to the opposite: a new reality that is not fake at all, a world in which [Justice Smith's character] Owen can be himself. The self he may not yet really know."

"I Saw the TV Glow" premieres September 20 on Max.

"La Maison" Season 1

This French series is "Succession" meets "The Fall of the House of Usher" meets the Parisian high-fashion world –unspeakable wealth, dysfunctional family drama, rivals fighting for dominance in a cutthroat industry, and a gripping plot that we are absolutely seated for. "La Maison" is about scandal and reinvention; It's about the ludicrous stakes when legendary, once-timeless, classic brands are forced to face modern problems like viral videos. This limited series is about the fallout after designer Vincent Ledu (out actor Lambert Wilson) leaves his family's iconic haute couture house, LEDU, hanging by a thread. A house led by a family whose "favorite dish is eating each other alive." Vincent's former muse takes advantage of his demise, teaming up with "visionary next-generation designer" Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot, star of sapphic strip-club romance "My Sole Desire") to save LEDU by refreshing the brand. Diane Rovel (Carole Bouquet, who played Monica Bellucci's lover in 2021 film "Fantasies") is CEO of the luxury group that desperately wants to acquire LEDU.

"To achieve her goal, anything is fair game, as this is more than acquiring just another brand – it's about revenge." All this and the passionate queer kisses in the trailer! We simply could not be more seated for this show.

"La Maison" Season 1 premieres September 20 on AppleTV+.

"Brilliant Minds" Season 1

Out actor Zachary Quinto ("Down Low," "The Boys in the Band," "Heroes") returns to our screens in this medical drama inspired by a true story. Quinto stars as Dr. Oliver Wolf, a character based on real-life neurologist and bestselling author, Dr Oliver Wolf Sacks. "Brilliant Minds" is about Wolf, a gifted doctor with a condition that means he can't recognise faces, who is dismissed from his position because of his eccentric methods of working with patients.

Per the official synopsis, he then "takes his unconventional approach to a new hospital: Bronx General, where he leads a team of bright young interns in tackling some of the world's most puzzling psychological cases." Wolf is also openly gay in this series, which the real-life doctor was not able to be until later in his life. "To play an openly gay character on a primetime network show is an incredibly significant honor for me," says Quinto.

"Brilliant Minds" Season 1 premieres September 24 on Peacock.

"Grotesquerie" Season 1

The official description for the series tells us that the eerie mystery surrounds "a series of heinous crimes" that have unsettled a small community. The trailer is all neon lights, empty streets, haunting religious imagery, and hints at gory dismemberment.

We follow Detective Lois Tryon (out actor Niecy Nash-Betts, serving solemn intrigue and almost always holding a shining flashlight), who "feels these crimes are eerily personal, as if someone–or something–is taunting her." Unsure of where to turn and without major leads to follow, the detective accepts the help of nun and journalist, Sister Megan (played by out actor Micaela Diamond.) "Sister Megan, with her own difficult past, has seen the worst of humanity, yet she still believes in its capacity for good. Lois, on the other hand, fears the world is succumbing to evil. As Lois and Sister Megan string together clues, they find themselves ensnared in a sinister web that only seems to raise more questions than answers."

"Grotesquerie" Season 1 premieres September 26 on Hulu.

"Babes"

"Babes" is an effervescent, emotional comedy following Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau), who grew up together and have been inseparably close friends since childhood, but suddenly find themselves at a difficult stage where they are forced to rethink everything about their lives and friendship dynamic.

Dawn (Buteau) is struggling with potty-training her kids, finding suitable daycare, and the exhaustion of postpartum life –while Eden (Glazer giving strong "Broad City" Ilana vibes), the carefree, not-quite-responsible of the two finds herself pregnant after a one-night-stand and is incomprehensibly (to Dawn, at least) enthusiastic and confident about the decision to have the baby and raise the child on her own. Glazer, who co-wrote this film, has recently come out as nonbinary, and shared in an interview that their pregnancy (in real life, which no doubt inspired parts of the film) helped them embrace their gender identity.

"Babes" premieres September 30 on Hulu.