meme_of_bilitis | I have doubts that [a femslash meme] would be very long-lived

Are there any? This nonny needs stuff to watch, and I really don't know what shows have it as I don't watch much TV. Ideally,I'd like recs for shows on US Netflix or Amazon video, and I can do Hulu if I must.

I really strongly prefer canon F/F as opposed to subtext, and would rather the F/F couple be prominent but it's not required, with the caveat that there's not a lot of het if the F/F ship is a side ship.

quite a few canadian tv shows such as lost girl and wynonna earp have some canon bi/les female characters

there's also some cw shows but they're very unfortunately cw and they tend to be aimed at a teenaged demographic
it doesn't help that the 100 was a cw show and they started a big wave against bury your gays by killing off lexa

as for hulu, there's harlots which is pretty good for shipping and has so many yummy period piece costumes that are meant to be 18th century or thereabouts

there's also person of interest but i have to warn that there's some bury your gays here too

DA

To be clear, Harlots has two canon f/f pairings, one between two side characters, and one involving a main character (this one doesn't show up in season 2, and one might be able to argue that it's not canon, but they do kiss and have a lot of cute moments together and I personally think it's very clear that they're attracted to each other). There's some het pairings, but those are a lot less prominent than the friendships, rivalries, and familial relationships between the women on the show.

That being said, this is a period drama about sex workers in Georgian London and a lot of bad stuff happens to the characters, including the ones in f/f pairings. Lmk if you want more detailed content warnings.

(this one doesn't show up in season 2, and one might be able to argue that it's not canon, but they do kiss and have a lot of cute moments together and I personally think it's very clear that they're attracted to each other).

It's been a slow burn! The season isn't over yet.

AYRT

Yeah, like I said, I think it's canon! I love f/f slow burns like this (even though it's sometimes hard to enjoy them because part of me is worried about being baited), and I'm really into how the relationship has developed throughout the season.

(Also, meant to say "until season 2," whoops).

Picnic at Hanging Rock, on Amazon video! Australian wilderness/boarding school ... well it's billed as a romantic drama but I find it more interesting as a mystery/horror show. It's basically all F/F - one canon student/teacher pairing, a main ot3 that's not really canon but that's also not NOT canon - with a side M/M pairing. (Rec'd with the caveat that it's got a couple glaring 'yikes colonialism/c.1900 racism' moments, just like the novel it's adapted from.)

Oh... my. Did they GO THERE in the adaptation? Because the subtext is barely sub in the book or movie.

Could you tell me who the pairings are?

AYRT

Marion/Greta are canonically together, Sara is very obviously crushing on Miranda even though she's...idk, 12? 13? I'm terrible at kids' ages, Irma/Miranda have a kiss, Irma/Miranda/Marion is ... arguable and on that weird line where you're not even sure the girls themselves have a name for what they are (I love those kinds of relationships but I realise they're a ymmv thing sometimes). And then there's. The dude. And his manservant. Who did not make a big enough impression on me to remember their names.

(I've not read the book or seen the movie, so I can't actually speak to how they compare, sorry)

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Re: F/F TV shows?

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-15 01:22 (UTC) - Expand

Re: F/F TV shows?

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-15 01:25 (UTC) - Expand

Re: F/F TV shows?

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-21 21:22 (UTC) - Expand

Re: F/F TV shows?

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-15 01:24 (UTC) - Expand

The movie's also gorgeous, but a lot more subtexty.

Thanks meme, I just started watching this! I'm only an episode in so far and it's gorgeous. I haven't yet guessed which teacher and student it's going to be, but that little girl's crush sure is adorable, and I'm pretty much ready for Mrs Appleby to domme me.

thank the heavens for natalie dormer

the other actresses are cute too but damn natalie

Orange is the New Black has a lot of f/f! Unfortunately it gets to be pretty misery porn-heavy (it's set in a women's prison so terrible things are happening to all the characters all the time), but I got really into the first two seasons and would enjoy reading AU fic about the characters where they're not in prison being constantly menaced by abusive prison guards and/or one another.

These are more lighthearted recs:

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — a woman comedian trying to make her way in NYC. She has a husband and kids, but the husband left her, and most of her screen time is with Susie who presents as a butch woman. (It’s an amazon original.)

Grace and Frankie — two women of opposing beliefs start living together because after 50 years of marriage their husbands eloped together. There’s obligatory het love-interests but the most prominent relationship is between each other. (And in Season 2, they start a dildo company specifically for older women, together.) —on Hulu, I think? May also be on Netflix

Does anyone remember Bad Girls? The UK series set in a women's prison. It may not be on American streaming sources, OP, but if you can find it, this is a true classic of f/f media.

There was a lot of canon f/f on the show, but the main ship in the early seasons is between Helen, the prison governor, and Nikki, a lesbian imprisoned for killing a man who had raped her girlfriend. At the start of the show Helen is in a relationship with a dude and thinks she is straight, but then she meets Nikki and that all goes out the window lol. The way their relationship develops is excellent and their makeout scenes are hot as fuck.

Usual warnings for typical 'women in prison' content (institutional abuse, violence, gross guards, etc) but from what I remember, it was more soapy than seriously angsty.

GLOW (Netflix, drama about 1980s women's wrestling) gets a canon F/F couple (side pairing in S2), and has a couple very shippable but not canon pairings as well.

Sense8 on Netflix has an absolutely adorable canon f/f couple. One Day At A Time has a cute romance in it, too. Jane the Virgin has two f/f couples, and one of them gets a lot of focus in season 4, but for the most part the focus is on the many, many het relationships, so that might not be your thing.

On Hulu, Runaways has a cute f/f couple, Faking It has a bisexual main character and most of the story is about her figuring out her sexuality (I've only seen part of the show, she doesn't have a female love interest who reciprocates as of where I am in the show but I know she's going to get one). I've only seen a couple episodes of Black Sails and The Bold Type but there's definitely canon f/f couples, I can't give you any information about their prominence or the f/f to het ratio but I've heard good things about the ships in both shows.

My memory is apparently shit, I know JtV has JR/Petra but what's the other f/f couple??

Luisa/Rose?

AYRT

Yeah I was talking about Luisa/Rose

Re: F/F TV shows?

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-16 16:26 (UTC) - Expand

I'll second Wynonna Earp. The title character is straight, but the main romance of the show, between 2 of the other 3 principal characters, is f/f. 2 seasons on Netflix and a 3rd airing now on SyFy in the US.

Also seconding Orange is the New Black. Alex/Piper is my "doomed to be together" jam, not even ashamed. But there's also plenty of other canon ships in various shades of messed-up. Netflix show, 6 seasons are out.

Legends of Tomorrow is an ensemble cast with a bi woman lead. Her long-term relationship with a lesbian character starts in season 3 but she's canonically bi from the get-go, and there is f/f throughout. 3 seasons on Netflix and another starting in the fall on CW.

Orphan Black has among its main characters one bi woman (not a lot of f/f for her) and one lesbian who has a long-running on-off romance, but fair warning it can get a bit dark at times. It was on Amazon last I checked but not 100% sure.

DA Although I feel like I should mention about Legends of Tomorrow, just in case OP (like me) is a bit of a canon completist: Sara, the bi character, first shows up on s2 of Arrow, which is a fairly het show (Sara's ex-girlfriend shows up so it's not f/f free, but Sara does spend a good part of the season in a het relationship with the main protagonist). Legends of Tomorrow is pretty easy to follow without watching any of the other DC shows, though! But if you like to get all the backstory for your fave, you might need to wade through some het for it (and also might end up watching about four different shows if you want all the backstory for everyone /currently trying to resist getting drawn into the other Arrowverse shows because that is just too much TV to keep up with)

DA

My friend is trying to get me into LoT but first she’s doing so by creating a list of “must watch f/f episodes” of Arrow. I should get her to get that list finished so I can share them!

Re: F/F TV shows?

(Anonymous) - 2018-08-14 20:10 (UTC) - Expand

Black Sails is a historical drama about pirates and revolution. It's extremely well-acted and has fascinating characters with great character arcs. There are multiple canon F/F relationships as there are three major/main characters who are queer women. It's set before modern concepts of sexual orientation so it's a bit hard to pin down their sexual orientation in current terms, but there are multiple sexual/romantic relationships between women that are extremely prominent/important.

There is het also (along with a very important gay relationship) but IMO, it's a very good show to watch for F/F relationships that drive the plot. It's also excellent if you like dark/complicated F/F relationships and dark/complicated queer women. (Same goes for the men and straight women.)

It's a dark/serious show, so the relationships don't necessarily end well, and some characters die. I didn't feel that the queer characters were singled out but YMMV. I can give more details on this if you're curious.

Caveat: the first couple episodes are male-gazey in a way that goes away as the show progresses. There is also a rape/revenge storyline in them which I found pretty upsetting. The character who gets raped does not stay a victim and that's the last time someone getting raped is prominent on the show. In general, the show gets better and also more female-centric as it goes along.

It's on Amazon video and Hulu.

OP here!

Thanks for the recs, nonnies! I've put the ones I could find that were rtmi on my watch list.