What We're Watching: WLW on Screen

Sep 13

This edition of What We’re Watching is for the Ladies! We asked our TLL team to share their favorite portrayals of WLW (women-loving-women) on screen. Whether you’re a lesbian, bisexual, pan, queer, or questioning who you are- you are loved and your identity is so valid. While the TV and film industry still has strides to make toward equitable LGBTQ+ representation on screen, it’s important to celebrate the movies and TV shows that show the community front and center with pride. This watch list isn’t meant to be an exclusive or exhaustive list of WLW on screen, and it may not all be someone’s cup of tea!, but it’s the content that’s resonated most with us as WLW ourselves. From the daily lives of lesbians to teen love-meets-horror, this month we’re sharing our favorite women-loving-women shows and movies in hopes you’ll find something new to watch or just feel a little more understood in your experience.

Fear Street Trilogy (2021 Directed by Leigh Janiak) R

by Brynna Arens, TLL Editoral Lead

Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy tells the story of the fictional town Shadyside by jumping through 1666, 1978, and 1994. The humble and usually quaint, Shadyside, is stuck in a cycle of tragedy and death that the townspeople believe is caused by the wrath of Sarah Fier, a witch murdered during the town’s founding. Our WLW love story takes place in 1994 where Deena (Kiana Madeira),still emotionally raw from her breakup with her ex, Sam (Olivia Scott Welch), rushes to her side as she accidentally incurs the wrath of a malevolent force. You see, once Sam stumbles upon the unmarked grave of Sarah Fier, violent spirits from Shadyside’s past come back to kill her, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Is this Sarah Fier once again seeking vengeance from beyond the grave? Or is there something more sinister lurking in the town of Shadyside?

Deena and Sam’s love for each other is reignited as they spend the night trying to stay alive. The slasher and supernatural elements make this a great horror story, but their messy yet charming WLW romance also makes for a pretty great love story. Deena’s love for her ex is what ultimately drives her to uncover the secrets of Shadyside’s past that could save Sam and the town. I chose the Fear Street trilogy because I love that we live in a time where horror movies don’t have to imply queerness and can instead be blatantly and unapologetically gay. Deena and Sam are the emotional center of this story, even when we spend time in other eras. Even if you aren’t a big horror fan, these movies are worth the watch just to see their queer love blossom.

*Note for the squeamish: If you really want to watch this for the romance and aren’t super into gore, Fear Street: 1994 has a particularly nasty scene with a bread slicer toward the end in the grocery store. As soon as you hear it turn on, I suggest looking away for a few minutes. The rest of the kills aren’t as intense, I promise!

Go Fish (1994 Directed by Rose Troche) R

By Makena Duffy, TLL Social Media Editor

In contrast to today’s media landscape, abunduant with the stereotypical “Kill the Lesbian” trope on screen Go Fish offers the refreshing opposite: a slice of life story that centers a lesbian friend group in their 20s as they navigate relationships, family issues, and lesbian identity. The film first introduces us to Kia (T. Wendy McMillan), a women’s studies professor, who’s holding a class discussion on historical women who are speculated to be queer. When one student questions the point of the exercise, Kia responds that lesbian women often have their sexualities erased from history, so we can only speculate as to what their lives werelike. Go Fish serves as an antidote to that erasure by showing us a bunch of WLWs simply existing in time and space no murder necessary for excitment.

The film revolves around Kia’s roommate, spunky and fresh-faced Max (Guinevere Turner), who is tired of being single and wants to enter the dating scene again. Kia introduces her to Ely (V.S. Brodie) who is shy, hippie-ish, and not Max’s type at all. Oh – and she also has a long distance girlfriend that hasn’t broken up with yet. Despite that, Max develops feelings and has to decide if she wants to pursue her new crush. Meanwhile, Kia’s girlfriend Evy is having family issues – Evy gets outed to her mom, and Kia is there to support and comfort her. All the while, scenes are interspersed with fourth wall breaks that show the other characters giggling and talking about lesbian dating tropes (like never breaking up), playing matchmaker for their friends, and discussing issues within the lesbian community.

While the camera work and acting can be a little corny sometimes, Go Fish has an endearing quality: it feels more like you’re hanging out with a group of friends than watching a movie. While watching it, I felt like I was transported back to this thriving queer community in the ‘90s. In depicting lesbians as multifaceted people and showing us the nuances of their lives, Go Fish feels like a love letter to the lesbian community, and celebrates it in all of its complexities.

Vida (2018, Created by Tanya Saracho) TV MA

By Kim Hoyos, TLL founder

Years after its unfortunate cancellation, VIDA is getting a second life with its distribution on streaming. This is a huge win for WLW and drama-loving TV viewers. Created by queer Mexican writer, Tanya Saracho, VIDA is a series that weaves together the themes of grief, family, and sexuality against the context of gentrification and self-discovery. It broke history as TV’s first all Latinx writers room, which undoubtedly allowed for the dive into social issues and so many sides of storytelling I ached to see interpreted on any screen.

Free-spirited Lynn Hernandez (Melissa Barerra) and by-the-books Emma Hernandez (Mishel Prada) couldn’t differ more in how they’re living their lives, when they’re both suddenly drawn back to Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. When she was a tween, Emma was sent away from her family by her mother, Vidalia, for fooling around with a neighborhood girlfriend she had. As an adult, Emma is a bisexual who compartmentalizes all aspects of her life to not let her emotions seep through to the surface. She was estranged for years from both Lynn and their mother until Vidalia’s death brings them back together. These sisters now not only have to continue navigating life as twenty-somethings, but now they also have to finally confront their childhood trauma and redefine their relationship.

When they return to manage their mother’s building and bar, the sisters also come to find that Vidalia had a secret relationship and left behind a widow, a masc lesbian named Edy (Ser Anzoategui). It turns out that their mother led a secret life in her final chapter that neither daughter knew about. But now that the truth is out there, they both must bear the cost of it. Not only do Emma and Lynn inherit a bar and the maintenance of a low-rent apartment building, but they also now have a connection to a side of their mother they never knew. Between getting eyed by property vultures, and the difficult line they’re walking with their own community, the sisters are up against a wall and unsure what to do. Despite their individual struggles and the weird feelings they have about coming back home, they can't really heal until they start to work together.

But what resonated the most to me watching this series is that Vida embraces Latina queerness in all of its glory. Watching Vida was the first time I saw queer drama, steaminess, and joy all through the Latinxlens. This beloved show was on for three sweet seasons, and that was way too short. The landscape of WLW TV and film is unfortunately very white and also afraid of saying ‘bisexual’. I recently listened to a podcast about bi-visibility which said one of the most important things that we could do for visibility was actually SAY bisexual. Vida blatantly shares and celebrates Emma’s bisexual identity and proclaims it loudly. For both Emma and her sister Lynn, the female-directed POV really shines through with beautiful intimacy scenes. It’s been celebrated by critics for finally allowing self-sacrificing minority woman, brown woman, queer woman to not only have sex on screen, but also enjoy it. Vida is so dramatic and unexpectedly steamy from the start that you'll be gripped by their lives, loves, and losses. It’s a must-watch for any LGBTQ+ bbs but especially Latinx LGBTQ+ viewers.

Adventure Time Distant Lands: Obsidian (2021, Directed by Miki Brewster) TV-PG

By Brielle E. Wyka, TLL Content Creator

What time is it? Whimsical WLW time! Adventure Time Distant Lands: Obsidian is the second in a quartet of bonus episodes that aired on HBO Max three years after the beloved series finale on Cartoon Network. Each Distant Lands episode focuses on a single character and an adventure they face at an undetermined amount of time after the show’s finale. The episode Obsidian takes fans through a tale of Marceline the Vampire Queen experiencing a phase of life I’ve always wished for her but never thought I’d get to see in canon: settling down with Princess Bubblegum.

Marcy and PB have had a rocky history – their paths have converged and diverged several times over the centuries they’ve both lived. In Obsidian, a painful memory returns from their past and tests it against their present relationship, forcing Marceline to heal wounds she’s buried deep. Marceline ultimately matures through the experience and heals alongside PB. It’s a wholesome and profound episode that teaches the lessons: no matter the age, you’re always growing up and it's okay to be vulnerable.

Adventure Time has a track record of covering heavy and complex subjects in a very subversive and clever way, whether it has to do with getting older, processing grief, struggling with mental illness, or trying to find your place in the world. For a fan like me, the previous format of 10 minutes running time would completely change your life, but the magic of these hour-long Distant Lands stories is that they allow for a much more in-depth character study. It’s a real breath of fresh air to watch a WLW character heal from her past and find peace in her relationship, without the trauma having to come from the fact that she is queer. While LGBTQ+ stories are usually fraught with angst, this animated show is celebrating WLW and nonbinary representation with joy and fun.
Bubbline is one of my favorite TV couples and will be yours too! As a queer woman I am incredibly grateful for Obsidian, and it will always hold a special place in my heart just along with the rest of the world of Ooo. Adventure Time is an unexpectedly vast work with limitless potential, and the more the creators reveal parts of their story, the more I want the whole centuries-long tale.