30 excellent LGBTQ+ shows to binge on Apple TV you've probably missed

The holiday season is here, which means it's time for a good binge-watch. Chances are you have a long list of TV shows and movies you've been “meaning to get to,” so what better time than now? We love queer holiday movies just as much as the next gay, but sometimes you want something a little different.

Despite having some of the most consistently excellent programming, Apple TV is currently the sixth most popular streaming service, according to public data. So there’s a good chance you’ve missed out on some of its relatively hidden gems. Seriously, folks, there is some great gay stuff here.

Not sure where to start? No worries — we’ve got you covered with our list of queer shows on Apple TV+ to binge. Pop that popcorn and get into it.

All film and series descriptions are courtesy of Apple TV.

Pluribus

Synopsis: The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.

Why you need to binge it: That synopsis is intentionally vague, and the reality is so much stranger and more compelling than you could imagine. The latest from Vince Gilligan, this incredible sci-fi series stars Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka, a romance novelist and big ol’ lez who finds herself in an unimaginable situation in a world unlike anything she has ever known. She’s angry, cantankerous, a little dangerous, and absolutely incredible.

Come See Me In the Good Light

Synopsis: Come See Me in the Good Light is a poignant and unexpectedly funny love story about poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley facing an incurable cancer diagnosis with joy, wit and an unshakable partnership. Through laughter and unwavering love, they transform pain into purpose, and mortality into a moving celebration of resilience.

Why you need to binge it: Get ready for your heart to ache and be full at the same time. This moving documentary is a testament to both Andrea Gibson’s life and legacy, as well as the incredible love they shared with their partner, Megan Falley. Fair warning: you will weep.

Foundation

Synopsis: Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire.

Why you need to binge it: This sci-fi series is epic — and epically queer. Not only does it feature an occasionally bare-chested Lee Pace (hello!), but it also includes several queer, poly, and gender-diverse characters throughout its sprawling cast.

Echo Valley

Synopsis: In the edge-of-your-seat thriller Echo Valley, Kate (Oscar winner Julianne Moore) is a mother struggling to make peace with her troubled daughter Claire (multi-Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney) — a situation that becomes even more perilous when Claire shows up on Kate’s doorstep, hysterical and covered in someone else’s blood. As Kate pieces together the shocking truth of what happened, she learns just how far a mother will go to try to save her child.

Why you need to binge it: Anytime Julianne Moore is playing a queer character, we are automatically seated. Add to that Fiona Shaw as a lesbian and their beautiful friendship in this show, and it feels, well, revelatory.

Murderbot

Synopsis: Murderbot is a sci-fi thriller/comedy about a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients. Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.

Why you need to binge it: Alexander Skarsgård stars as the titular Murderbot in this hilarious and very gory series. The character is seeking a sense of self and identity and presents the rare but welcome asexual and aromantic representation.

Stick

Synopsis: Wilson stars as Pryce Cahill, an over-the-hill, ex-pro golfer whose career was derailed prematurely 20 years ago. After the collapse of his marriage and while working at an Indiana sporting goods store, Pryce hedges his bets, and future, entirely on a troubled 17-year-old golf phenom named Santi (Peter Dager).

Why you need to binge it: Let’s be honest, golf is pretty gay—you know, balls, sticks, Dinah Shore Weekend, etc.—but more importantly, this show introduces the character Zero, a self-described “genderqueer anticapitalist post-colonial feminist,” played by nonbinary actor Lilli Kay.

Prime Target

Synopsis: Prime Target features a brilliant young math postgraduate, Edward Brooks (played by Leo Woodall), who is on the verge of a major breakthrough. If he succeeds in finding a pattern in prime numbers, he will hold the key to every computer in the world. Soon, he begins to realize an unseen enemy is trying to destroy his idea before it’s even born, which throws him into the orbit of Taylah Sanders, a female NSA agent (played by Quintessa Swindell) who’s been tasked with watching and reporting on mathematicians’ behavior. Together, they start to unravel the troubling conspiracy Edward is at the heart of.

Why you need to binge it: If you loved Leo Woodall in his gay role on White Lotus, get ready to adore him here. Woodall stars as the lead in this series, playing a gay man with a husband named Adam, portrayed by out actor Fra Fee. They both show off plenty of skin.

Land of Women

Synopsis: Land of Women is a dramedy starring Eva Longoria as Gala, a well-to-do New Yorker, who has her life turned upside down when her husband fails to repay a debt to the wrong people. With dangerous criminals searching for her family and now vanished husband, Gala is forced to leave the city with her aging mother Julia (Carmen Maura) and teenage daughter Kate (Victoria Bazúa) to her mother’s hometown in northern Spain — a place that Julia fled 50 years ago — to start life anew and hope their identities remain hidden. But gossip in the charming wine town quickly spreads, unraveling their deepest family secrets and truths.

Why you need to binge it: For sapphics of a certain age, Eva Longoria alone would be enough of a draw, but add to that her gay, trans, lesbian daughter (played by trans actress Victoria Bazua), and it becomes a must-see.

Monarch Legacy of Monsters

Synopsis: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters tracks two siblings looking to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch. Clues lead them into the world of monsters and ultimately down the rabbit hole to Army officer Lee Shaw (played by Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell), taking place in the 1950s and half a century later, where Monarch is threatened by what Shaw knows.

Why you need to binge it: Monsters and mayhem got me hooked. Imagine my surprise and delight when it turned out the main character, Cate (Anna Sawai), is a lesbian. Add to that out actress Kiersey Clemons in a starring role, and now I just need them to kiss

Invasion

Synopsis: Invasion is a sweeping, character-driven science fiction drama series that follows an alien invasion through different perspectives around the world.

Why you need to binge it: The first season of this sci-fi series is a bit of a slow burn, but honestly, we’re just here for queer scientist Mitsuki (Shiori Kutsuna).

Severance

Synopsis: In Severance, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure that surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in “work-life balance” is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work … and of himself. In season two, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.

Why you need to binge it: Not only is this series a compelling mystery told with incredible style it also features one of the sweetest late-in-life gay love stories ever.

Dickinson

Synopsis: Dickinson is a half-hour comedy series that audaciously explores the constraints of society, gender, and family from the perspective of the rebellious young poet Emily Dickinson. Set in the 19th century, the series is a coming-of-age story that finds Emily to be the unexpected hero for our millennial generation.

Why you need to binge it: Emily Dickinson gets the queer, angsty, comedy we never knew we needed for her. Just be prepared to be down bad for Hailee Stenfield afterwards, if you weren’t already.

Shrinking

Synopsis: Shrinking follows a grieving therapist who starts to break the rules and tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes to people’s lives … including his own.

Why you need to binge it: While this show is genuinely hilarious and achingly emotional, we’re really here for the Michael Urie of it all.

The Buccaneers

Synopsis: The Buccaneers are the daughters of America’s new rich — beautiful and untameable, despite the best efforts of England’s finest governesses, they are on their way to London to snare themselves an aristocrat, low in funds but high in class, to make a perfect match.

Why you need to binge it: Lesbian yearning. So much yearning.

The Morning Show

Synopsis: What happens when the people you trust to tell the truth prove themselves to be dishonest? The Morning Show follows the free fall of an early morning newscast in the wake of a scandal, and its struggle to survive in an era when news arrives in the palm of your hand.

Why you need to binge it: Well for one thing Holland Taylor. But also in season 2 Reese Witherspoon’s Bradly Jackson gets a sapphic paramour.

Fancy Dance

Synopsis: Since her sister’s disappearance, Jax (Lily Gladstone) has cared for her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) by scraping by on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma. Every spare minute goes into finding her missing sister while also helping Roki prepare for an upcoming powwow. At the risk of Jax losing custody to Roki’s grandfather, Frank (Shea Whigham), the pair hit the road and scour the backcountry to track down Roki’s mother in time for the powwow. What begins as a search gradually turns into a far deeper investigation into the complexities and contradictions of Indigenous women moving through a colonized world while at the mercy of a failed justice system. Gladstone stars alongside Deroy-Olson, Ryan Begay, and Crystle Lightning, with Audrey Wasilewski and Whigham.

Why you need to binge it: Lily Gladstone is not only queer in this role they are incredible in it. Get ready to feel all the feelings.

Loot

Synopsis: In Loot, billionaire Molly Novak (Rudolph) has a dream life, complete with private jets, a sprawling mansion, and a gigayacht — anything her heart desires. But when her husband of 20 years betrays her, she spirals publicly, becoming fuel for tabloid fodder. She's reaching rock bottom when she learns, to her surprise, that she has a charity foundation run by the no-nonsense Sofia Salinas (Rodriguez), who pleads with Molly to stop generating bad press. With her devoted assistant Nicholas (Kim Booster) by her side, and with the help of Sofia and team — including mild-mannered accountant Arthur (Faxon) and her optimistic, pop-culture-loving cousin Howard (Funches) — Molly embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Giving back to others might be what she needs to get back to herself.

Why you need to binge it: I mean, just look at the cast. You already know it's going to be camp, hilarious, and gay AF.

Schmigadoon!

Synopsis: A parody of iconic Golden Age musicals, Schmigadoon! stars Strong and Key as a couple on a backpacking trip designed to reinvigorate their relationship who discover a magical town living in a 1940s musical. They then learn that they can’t leave until they find “true love.” Synopsis: A parody of iconic Golden Age musicals, Schmigadoon! stars Strong and Key as a couple on a backpacking trip designed to reinvigorate their relationship who discover a magical town living in a 1940s musical. They then learn that they can’t leave until they find “true love.”

Why you need to binge it: I'm sorry but again, did you see this cast? Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, Aaron Tveit, Dove Cameron, Ariana DeBose, Fred Armisen, Jaime Camil, Jane Krakowski and Ann Harada, and Martin Short guest star – and that's just the FIRST season.

Bad Sisters

Synopsis: Bad Sisters season two returns to follow the lives of the Garvey sisters played by Sharon Horgan as Eva, Anne-Marie Duff as Grace, Eva Birthistle as Ursula, Sarah Greene as Bibi, and Eve Hewson as Becka. Two years after the “accidental death” of Grace’s abusive husband, the close-knit Garvey sisters may have moved on, but when past truths resurface, the ladies are thrust back into the spotlight, suspicions are at an all-time high, lies are told, secrets revealed and the sisters are forced to work out who they can trust.

Why you need to binge it: If you like your humor dark and hilarious this is the one for you, plus one of those “bad sisters” is, you guessed it, a big ol’ lezzie.

For All Mankind

Synopsis: Told through the lives of NASA astronauts, engineers, and their families, For All Mankind presents an aspirational world where NASA and the space program remained a priority and a focal point of our hopes and dreams.

Why you need to binge it: Because lesbians in space (and STEM).

Palm Royale

Synopsis: Palm Royale is a true underdog story that follows Maxine Simmons (Kristen Wiig) as she endeavors to break into Palm Beach high society. As Maxine attempts to cross that impermeable line between the haves and the have-nots, “Palm Royale” asks the same question that still baffles us today: “How much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to get what someone else has?” Set during the powder keg year of 1969, “Palm Royale” is a testament to every outsider fighting for their chance to truly belong.

Why you need to binge it: If the camp factor or ‘60s styling wasn’t enough to recommend it the inclusion of Ricky Martin and forever Sapphic fave Leslie Bibb is.

The New Look

Synopsis: This emotionally thrilling series reveals the shocking story of how fashion icon Christian Dior and his contemporaries, including Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, and Cristóbal Balenciaga, navigated the horrors of World War II and launched modern fashion.

Why you need to binge it: Ben Mendelsohn will make your heart break with his portrayal of queer fashion designer Christian Dior. And the looks. The LEWKS.

Physical

Synopsis: Set in the idyllic but fragile beach paradise of sunny 1980s San Diego, “Physical” is a half-hour dark comedy following Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne), a quietly tortured, seemingly dutiful housewife supporting her smart but controversial husband’s bid for state assembly. But behind closed doors, Sheila has her own darkly funny take on life she rarely lets the world see. She’s also battling a complex set of personal demons relating to her self-image… that is until she finds release through the unlikeliest source: the world of aerobics. Season two found Byrne having successfully launched her first fitness video only to encounter some new and bigger obstacles on her path. She is torn between loyalty to her husband (Rory Scovel) and the values he represents, and a dangerous attraction to someone else. And since she’s no longer the only game in town, she finds herself having to outrun some fierce new competitors on the road to building a full-fledged fitness empire.

Why you need to binge it: Four words: Murray. Bartlett. Short. Shorts.

Acapulco

Synopsis: Acapulco tells the story of 20-something Máximo Gallardo (Enrique Arrizon), whose dream comes true when he gets the job of a lifetime as a cabana boy at the hottest resort in Acapulco. He soon realizes the job is far more complicated than he ever imagined and in order to succeed, he must learn to navigate a demanding clientele, a mercurial mentor, and a complicated home life, without losing his way to shortcuts or temptations. The series, which is told in both Spanish and English, takes place in 1984, with Derbez narrating and playing the present-day version of the main character, Máximo Gallardo.

Why you need to binge it: Because there are never enough sweet coming-of-age lesbian love stories in the world. Never. Enough.

The Afterparty

Synopsis: From Academy Award winners Chris Miller and Phil Lord, each episode of The Afterparty explores a different character’s account of one fateful evening, all told through the lens of popular film genres and unique visuals to match the storyteller’s perspective. In season two, a wedding is ruined when the groom is murdered and every guest is a suspect. Detective Danner (Haddish) returns to help Aniq (Richardson) and Zoë (Chao) solve whodunnit by questioning family members, star-crossed lovers, and business partners, and hearing each suspect’s retelling of the weekend, each with their own unique perspective and visual style.

Why you need to binge it: While season one is a blast, season 2 is where it gets super gay with a queer romance at its center featuring the always delightful Poppy Liu.

Land of Women

Synopsis: Land of Women is a dramedy starring Eva Longoria as Gala, a well-to-do New Yorker, who has her life turned upside down when her husband fails to repay a debt to the wrong people. With dangerous criminals searching for her family and now vanished husband, Gala is forced to leave the city with her aging mother Julia (Carmen Maura) and teenage daughter Kate (Victoria Bazúa) to her mother’s hometown in northern Spain — a place that Julia fled 50 years ago — to start life anew and hope their identities remain hidden. But gossip in the charming wine town quickly spreads, unraveling their deepest family secrets and truths.

Why you need to binge it: The trans inclusion and storyline in this show are a breath of fresh air!

Mythic Quest

Synopsis: Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet follows a team of video game developers as they navigate the challenges of running a popular video game.

Why you need to binge it: Season two introduces a sapphic love story and honestly we just feel seen by these queer gamer—or make that gaymer — girls.

Pinecone & Pony

Synopsis: Based on the book The Princess and the Pony by New York Times bestselling author Kate Beaton and hailing from DreamWorks, “Pinecone & Pony” is an eight-episode animated comedy for kids and families about a young warrior-in-training and her best friend Pony, who, by helping each other, learn to challenge their expectations and break the mold. After all, when you keep an open mind and an open heart, you’ll discover that nothing is ever as it first appears, the world is full of possibilities, and life can be a fun-filled adventure if you let it.

Why you need to binge it: Looking for something to scratch that Steven Universe itch? This show has got you, not only is it scoring high on the queerness factor it also features the kind of body diversity we need to see more of.

Sunny

Synopsis: Sunny stars Rashida Jones as Suzie, an American woman living in Kyoto, Japan, whose life is upended when her husband and son disappear in a mysterious plane crash. As “consolation” she’s given Sunny, one of a new class of domestic robots made by her husband’s electronics company. Though at first, Suzie resents Sunny’s attempts to fill the void in her life, gradually they develop an unexpected friendship. Together they uncover the dark truth of what really happened to Suzie’s family and become dangerously enmeshed in a world Suzie never knew existed.

Why you need to binge it: So you can crush hard on Sunny’s lesbian bestie/sidekick Mixxy (Annie the Clumsy) right along with us.

Visible: Out on Television

Synopsis: Visible: Out on Television investigates the importance of TV as an intimate medium that has shaped the American conscience, and how the LGBTQ movement has shaped television. Combining archival footage with interviews with key players from the movement and the screen, the docuseries is narrated by Janet Mock, Margaret Cho, Asia Kate Dillon, Neil Patrick Harris, and Lena Waithe. Each hour-long episode will explore themes such as invisibility, homophobia, the evolution of the LGBTQ character, and coming out in the television industry.

Why you need to binge it: Because our history is powerful.