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Where The Gays Are: 8 Queer Web Series You Should Be Watching

By T.J GRABOWY, VICTOR HOFF September 13, 2012 at 6:00am
  Tired of turning on the TV to the same old heteronormative programming? Not that we don’t love our straight shows, but sometimes you just want to watch two guys going through the old sitcom clichés—or even breaking new, gay ground. Thank goodness then for the Internet in all its fabulous glory: Whatever you’re not finding while flipping channels is just a URL away—from romantic drama in The Outs (above) and gay Sex and the City escapades in The Hunting Season to the wacky hijinks of Jenifer Lewis and Shangela. To make things easy, Queerty has rounded up eight of our favorite web series. Read on, tune in and be entertained! Got a fave web show we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments! FIRST: It’s murder most furry in Where the Bears Are!  
Where the Bears Are opened its first episode with “Also Sprach Zarathustra” as the camera pans over the sleeping form of one of the titular bears, engulfed in a sleep-apnea mask. It’s a great lead in to a fun series as three burly roommates attempt to find out whodunit after a party guest ends up dead in their tub the morning after. (Don’t you hate when that happens.) Accompanied by a hot cub bartender and their morning cocktail, the roomies scour L.A.—or at least Silver Lake—for answers. Where the Bears Are premiered August 1 and is a rip-roaring good time. NEXT: Gay’s Anatomy brings the humor back to colonoscopies  
Now in it’s second season Gay’s Anatomy follows three urologists with a somewhat recreational interest in their specialty, if you catch our drift. The show’s name is a bit deceiving, though, since it’s with its cut-away shots and mock interviews are more reminiscent of The Office than ABC’s long-running hospital drama. But it does have some familiar archetypes—the earnest young doctor, the cocky romeo everyone wants, the lesbian intern, and the coke-fiend slut with delusions of grandeur. (Well, maybe that last one is new.) NEXT: It’s boys behaving badly in Hunting Season
In case you missed premiere this week Hunting Season is fashioned after the popular blog “The Great Cock Hunt” and centers on young, handsome and frequently shirtless New Yorker Alex (Ben Baur), who writes for Gawker by day and chronicles his sexual exploits by night on his widely read blog. The plan was to livestream the first three 10-12 minute unedited episodes over on HuntingSeason.tv but the site succumbed to technical glitches. (The first three episodes are, however, still available on Logo’s website.) Moving forward, the producers plan to debut a new show each Wednesday for the next five weeks. And unlike the Logo version, all the naughty parts won’t be blurred out. By the way, Hunting Season has managed to line up some real creative powerhouses: The show is being produced by Jon Marcus (Party Monster, The Safety of Objects), co-written with Butt editor and short-film pro Adam Baran, and executive produced by The L Word’s Rose Troche. NEXT: Can a gay movie star and a newly out baseballer make it work in Hustbands?  
Executive produced by Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Torchwood), Husbands shines a spotlight on the first federally recognized gay marriage between Hollywoods’ gay sweetheart and a newly out pro baseball player, who tied the knot with a quickie wedding in Vegas. With no memory of why they have wedding bands, the guys have to do “the getting to know you” thing while dealing with the “non-troversy” their nuptials have sparked. Season 2 just began, so catch up now.   NEXT: Three friends vie for stage stardom in Drama Queenz  
Now in its third season, Drama Queenz follows Jeremiah, Davis and Preston—three young black men aspiring to Broadway stardom. But getting to the top of the marquee is an arduous journey: “Through madcap auditions, burgeoning romances, and heartbreaking realizations, the trio from Queens takes viewers on the zany roller coaster ride that is the actor’s life,” reads Queenz one-sheet. A hit at queer film festivals and Pride celebrations nationwide, this is the show you didn’t know you were missing. NEXT: The Outs redefined audience’s expectations for a web series  
  The toast of the indie world, The Outs is a prime example of the people getting what they want: The series was funded entirely on Kickstarter, filmed in Brooklyn and incorporates local musicians. While the majority of shows on our list are comedies and dramadies, The Outs is a more sober look at gay life in New York, exploring the disconnect between emotional and physical intimacy, the struggle to find someone who wants what you want, and what happens when things don’t work out. It’s the perfect show to watch while you brood over your morning coffee.   NEXT: Until RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars arrives, there’s Jenifer Lewis and Shangela!  
Directed by Emmy-winner Mary Lou Belli, Jenifer Lewis and Shangela follows the odd-couple misadventures of actress and former Harlette Jenifer Lewis and D.J. Pierce—better known as Shangela of Drag Race fame—as they conquer Hollywood one itchy weave at a time. Jenifer, you had us at “I know you ain’t no Helen Keller drag queen—don’t be acting like you can’t hear me!” New episodes air Wednesdays. NEXT: Cute gay nerd alert in The Variants  

Last, but not least, is The Variants, which, though scripted, is inspired by the everyday goings-on at Zeus Comics in Dallas, where the staff is uniformly nice… and mostly gay. As store employee Keli says, “These are the least threatening guys I know—other than their B.O.” It’s just your average not-so-average comic shop hijinks coupled with  gay musing and fanboy geek-outs.

 

 

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7 Comments*

  • magsmagenta

    Husbands is brilliant, Brad Bell especially is a brilliant comedian and a pretty good actor too, I also love his you-tube channel where he puts his comedy sketches and general thoughts. It’s really a shame all the sitcom makers aren’t beating a path to his door.
    Sometimes he reminds me of the UK comedian Kenny Everett who was a big part of my teenage years and sadly passed on from aids soon after Freddie Mercury.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYpRkARK8Io

  • stan22ky

    what is the link to watch The Outs

  • KARUADAM

    @stan22ky: You can see that on YouTube;

  • stan22ky

    @KARUADAM: what is the youtube channel

  • brian867

    I’m SO in love with the internet age of media…

    Not only were these shows better than I was expected, but they really bring to the forefront how starved we are for complex, varied, and realistic gay characters on tv.

    Even the cartoon-cutout characters featured here feel more fleshed-out than the upper-middle class, white, sanitized, theater queens and/or suit-and-tie professionals that we’re served again and again by the networks. Probably because these are mainly people representing their own lives. I would have loved to have grown up in an era of such democratic representation of queer images. Way to go guys!

    Would love to see an equivalent line up for queer ladies, or even *gasp* a complex bisexual character or two.

  • pcfreeloader1

    Hunting Season is fantastic…just watched the 1st 3 episodes…had to buy the downloads!

  • Boudicca

    What about Between Women? Awesome show about queer women in Atlanta!

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