Tops in Teevee

This being the last day of 2103, I thought we should reflect on what was most important last year. Namely, television. Yes, it was truly a spectacular year for the wires and lights in a box. Not only did some great returning favorites continue to impress, but some newcomers became instant classics. So in the spirit of end-of-the-year introspection and for the love of lists, here are my Top 10 favorite shows from 2013. These were, quite simply, the shows I enjoyed watching most this past year. And, as an added bonus, half of them featured prominent lesbian or bisexual female characters. Here’s to another spectacular 365 days of sitting on the couch and staring at the flickering lights on the screen. Thanks, 2013. Bring it, 2014.

1) Orange Is the New Black

If it took you more than three days to watch this entire series from start to finish you were clearly doing it wrong. This show defined binge watching and defied all stereotypes. On its surface it was a fish-out-of-water story of white privilege meeting prison bars. But underneath it was about women of color, survival and the ways we all interact. Also, it gave us Alex Vause. Best. Show. Ever.

2) Orphan Black

We’ve had to coin a whole new word to describe the crazy twisty turny adventure that is this show – clonespiracy. And, oooooh doggy, if this isn’t this a good one. Human cloning. Genetic engineering. Corporate maleficence. And Tatiana Maslany playing everyone all at once and twice on Sunday. We are all part of the sestra-hood now.

3) Sleepy Hollow

If you told me the story of a Revolutionary War-era, time-traveling Ichabod Crane trying to stop the end of the world as we know it in present day would be one of my favorite shows of the season, I would have thought you’d lost your head. (Rim shot.) But this supernatural story with apocalyptic overtones has the best mix of action, scares, drama and comedy than any other show on right now. It’s just damn good fun.

4) Lost Girl

Sorry, all non-resident and “virtual” (ahem) Canadians, but you’ve been missing out on a pretty a-maaaaaz-ing season thus far. But Syfy viewers will get their chance to get on the crazy train come Jan. 13. I can’t say exactly where it’s all going, but I do know I can’t wait to see how many ships, crackships and straight-up-huffing-glue-ships the writers can set sail this season. Grab some popcorn and a life vest. Oh, yeah, and there’s also Post-Pregnancy Boobs O’Clock.

5) The Fosters

Admit it, you get a little choked up just watching the credits of this show. So much heart is packed into this seemingly simple family drama. This two-mama drama felt so familiar from the start because it showed that family, in all its various shapes and forms, is always just that. They’re the people you come home to, always.

6) American Horror Story: Coven

Witches get stuff done. This season has added a much-needed sense of wicked, wicked fun the over-the-top franchise. And it has hands down the most impressive cast of female talent amassed on one show this season. Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Emma Roberts, Gabourey Sidibe…I could keep going. This season is all about women’s power, and damn it if I’m not bewitched.

7) The Fall

I don’t know how she does it, but Gillian Anderson keeps getting better with age. This methodical crime series is a slow-burn cat-and-mouse game that still manages to keep you on the edge of your seat. Also, have I mentioned how amazing Gillians is? I don’t think I can say it enough. Oh, and there’s a little Archie Panjabi thrown in there, too. Because you can never have enough smart, talented women on the screen together. Ever.

8) Girls

Yes, this show is controversial. Yes, some people hate it – with reason. But for all its many and admitted flaws, it’s still invigorating to see young women’s stories told by young women. Also, it reminds me that I definitely don’t want to be in my twenties again.

9) Game of Thrones

Khaleesi! The most epic of mic drops by the Mother of Dragons a.k.a. Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen was a much-needed jolt of female empowerment in a show that you need a freaking flow chart to keep track of all the men trying to take the throne from other men. But this season many women started to come into their own, finally. Yes, there was the Red Wedding. But there were also dracarys.

10) Parks & Recreation

Leslie Knope, yo. That is all.

Some honorable mentions: Elementary (I like it more than the British Sherlock, there I said it), Rizzoli & Isles (I’m just a sucker for gayzzoli), The Mindy Project (this show has improved so much, seriously, so much), and Top of the Lake (I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet, but so many smart people whose opinions I trust love it that I know I will – next Netflix marathon: set).

So, those are mine. Now you show me yours. What were your Top 10 shows of 2013. And, dear God, help the poor souls who still say “Glee.”

Best. Lesbian. TV. Summer. Ever.

Hey, how’s your summer going? Did you go camping? Plant an organic vegetable garden? Knit a sweater out of your cat’s shedded hair? Hopefully not the latter. Though, if we’re being honest, you probably did what ever other lesbian did. You sat in front of a screen and watched TV. Like, a lot of TV. Like, a lot of good TV. Like, seriously, is this the Best. Lesbian. TV. Summer. Ever. or what? The ass-shaped dent in my couch says yes.

Lesbians have been all over TV these long, hot months. Lesbians on “Pretty Little Liars.” Lesbians on “Orange Is the New Black.” Lesbians on “The Fosters.” Lesbians on “Mistresses.” Lesbians on “Under the Dome.” Lesbians on “The Killing.” Lesbians on “True Blood.” Lesbians on “The Bridge.” Lesbians on “Orphan Black” (fine, that was technically spring, but many folks didn’t catch up until the summer and also Tatiana Maslany). Granted, some of the lesbians and their same-sex relationships were more central to the story than other. Like, what the hell, “True Blood?” If I don’t see some Pam and Tara action before this completely ridiculous season is over I’ll spike your cocktails with Hep-V myself. And, yes, there has been a couple of unfortunately Dead Lesbians.

But, overall, as far as rich, diverse and quality content goes, this summer TV season is kicking all the other TV season’s ass when it comes to quantity and quality for us gay gals. We’re not just peripheral characters to fill a requisite quota. We’re integral to the plot, we’re the reason for the plot. We matter and better yet we’re making people care. And, dayum, some of us are hot. I mean, it’s summer – we should be hot. The days of summer TV being a wasteland are over. Step it up, Fall TV. You’re getting served this summer. I hope this Best. Lesbian. TV. Summer. never ends.

p.s. Further proof that this was truly the Best. Lesbian. TV. Summer. Ever., my dear friend Heather rightfully won the Zeebox $10,000 Get A Room Contest with her Heather Hogan's Summer TV Shenanigans Room.

Fostering our Future

The new fantastic, flashy, female-fronted shows of the season have received seemingly endless and endlessly deserving ink. We all love “Orphan Black” and “Orange Is the New Black,” like a lot a lot a lot a lot lot lot. But there’s a quieter, also deserving show of the summer that has been quietly revolutionary in its own way. And that show is “The Fosters.”

At its surface, it’s just another family drama. Big brood faces adversities large and small. Heartwarming familial love triumphs over everything. But there are also some obvious and and obviously important differences. This is a two-mama drama, a household led by two gay women who are in a committed (and now legally recognized) relationship. And this, this makes all the difference.

We humans are a visual bunch. We like to be shown, not told. We like to see what makes us different and makes us the same. In the absence of those visual and personal cues we have this terrible tendency to believe the worst in each other. Racial stereotypes. Gender stereotypes. LGBT stereotypes. Those stereotypes can breed bigotry, hatred and violence. Most of that – not all, clearly, but most – comes from ignorance. People naturally fear what they don’t know and don’t understand. So showing them, exposing them, to these things becomes even more important.

Television has always been a powerful medium for shedding light in dark places. Too often it gets used to feed us comfort and laugh tracks. But at its best it’s a mirror of our best selves. Of the world we should be seeing and need to see – a world reflecting our richness and diversity. A world where we’ve all got a place around that proverbial table. What we do once we get there, well, that’s on us. But we should all be allowed to sit together at least to start.

And that – taking the long road home – brings me back to “The Fosters.” TV has never shown us a more clear picture of lesbian parenting (sorry, Callie and Arizona – but that baby’s kind of a glorified prop) than this little ABC Family drama that could. A blended family, a multi-ethnic family, a LGBT family, a loving family – “The Fosters” is all these things, yet in the end just simply family. This is a show about a family, and while the individual components of this family may be different from yours, we all recognize its universal mission. Protect one another, support another, love one another. These are things we all understand.

So when we see two women doing these things for their family, even if on TV, it matters. It matters because it models – for those who have never seen or dreamed or realized it before – what an LGBT family looks like. That we’re no so scary, not so terrible, not so other. To quote little Scout Finch, “I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.”

Of course, all of this modeling wouldn’t mean much if the show itself wasn’t so very solid. If you didn’t tear up at least once – something in my eye, it was something in my eye, dammit – during its 10-episode summer run then I attribute it to severe dehydration and recommend you drink more fluids immediately. Some shows just try too hard (cough, “The New Normal,” cough) to show the new LGBT family. But “The Fosters” didn’t have to strain to make us believe, it just got down to the business of showing us.

Whether it was how a lesbian family handles parenting alongside one of the children’s birth father or deals with embarrassment from another child about being nontraditional, the situations – and how they handled them – felt organic. This show could have easily been like an After School Special of the Week. But instead it made the mundane extraordinary. Parents, families, deal with the silly to the life-threatening and for the most part all they have is humor, grit and that all-important glue of love to get through them.

Lena and Stef, along the way, became TV’s first legally married LGBT couple since the Supreme Court overturned Prop. 8 and DOMA in the summer season finale on Monday. And in doing so showed people on the most basic level how what happens in Washington D.C. matters in the living rooms of everyday Americans across this county. Elections have consequences. Legal rulings change lives. Lena and Stef can get married and the government will recognize them as such. And, better yet, we’re happy it does – we’re happy for them.

In the end, “The Fosters” worked because we could always feel the love. It never waivers, and shone through every possible obstacle. Seeing truly is believing. I sure can’t wait to see them again in January.