10 underrated queer tv shows to binge during Pride Month
By Shaun Stacy
Underrated queer show: 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star
Platform: Fox
Cast: (9-1-1) Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Oliver Stark, Aisha Hinds, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kenneth Choi, Ryan Guzman, Rockmond Dunbar, Gavin McHugh; (9-1-1: Lone Star) Rob Lowe, Ronen Rubinstein, Sierra McClain, Jim Parrack, Natacha Karam, Brian Michael Smith, Rafael Silva, Julian Works, Gina Torres
Premise: Both shows focus on the professional and personal lives of a team of first responders, ranging from police officers and dispatchers to firefighters and paramedics. 9-1-1 was the first one out of the gate, premiering in 2018 as a mid-season series. A combination of stellar casting, combined with a more authentic behind-the-scenes look at how the network of first responders work together, breathed new life into the procedural television series genre. The show became so successful, it spawned its own equally impressive spin-off, 9-1-1: Lone Star in 2020.
While Fox hasn’t always been the best network when it comes to having diverse casts, that seemed to all change once they started working with Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear. Murphy, of course is the mastermind behind such hit shows as American Horror Story and Glee. Falchuk co-created Glee along with Murphy, with the two teaming up again to create Pose. Minear is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter and director whose work includes American Horror Story as well, and the docudrama series Feud.
9-1-1 boasts some of the most diverse casts currently on network television. Hinds portrays a lesbian who is married with a child from a previous relationship. Dunbar plays the ex-husband of Bassett’s Athena Grant and father of their children, who came out as gay late in life. And the jury is still out what exactly is going on between Buck (Stark) and Eddie (Guzman).
9-1-1: Lone Star doubled-down on the LGBT representation right from the start, casting Rubinstein, who recently came out as bisexual in real life, to play a chaotic gay firefighter who begins a romantic relationship with a straight-laced cop played by Silva. Smith plays a firefighter/paramedic who is also a trans man, however his is just treated like another member of the team, while also acknowledging the hurdles that come with being trans.
Both shows telling tremendously authentic stories of the LGBT community. Neither show shies away from the fact that queer people have love lives in reality, therefore the same should be depicted on television. These characters aren’t perfect, yet we find ourselves rooting for them every week. Come for the high-risk rescues, and stay for the intricate, intimate storytelling of both 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star.