9 Winter TV Shows LGBT Viewers Can't Miss

Agent Carter
Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC

With its heroine decked out in vintage suits and pin curls, ABC’s plucky Agent Carter is the kind of kick-ass female-led tie-in to the Marvel cinematic universe fans have been demanding since Scarlett Johansson first appeared as Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) in Iron Man 2. Set in the post-World War II 1940s — an era when women were second-class citizens — the seven-part miniseries picks up shortly after the events of Captain America: The First Avenger and follows the adventures of agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) as she dodges bullets and chauvinistic coworkers on a secret mission to clear the name of her friend — and Iron Man’s father — Howard Stark, who has been accused of treason. — Jase Peeples 

Girls, Season 4
Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO 

The awkward-yet-entertaining Elijah-Hanna dynamic continues in season 4 of Girls, even though all anyone is talking about now is Allison Williams and that jarring first scene of the season. (Here's a gif that you can't un-see.) Outspotted a deleted scene that would have been the perfect example the judgment-ridden repartee between Elijah (Andrew Rannells) and Hannah (Lena Dunham). It's exactly the sort of thing you just can't stop watching no matter how many people tell you they hate it. — Lucas Grindley

Glee, Final Season
Fridays at 9 p.m. on Fox

If you’re one of the fans who faithfully watched every episode of Glee’s past five seasons, we commend your patience and tolerance for schmaltz. We gave up halfway through last season, but, just like the original cast members, we’re pledging to return to the halls of McKinley High for one last hurrah (which thankfully only has 13 episodes). Last Friday’s season 6 premiere featured the campy drama we’ve come to love from Glee, including a positively meta rendition of “Let It Go” by Rachel Berry, as she finds herself back in Lima, Ohio, after a spectacularly failed attempt at sitcom stardom. And our inside sources tell us the final season will explore LGB — and especially T — themes in greater depths than previous seasons, hopefully ending the queerest show on television on a high note.  — Sunnivie Brydum

Pretty Little Liars, Season 5
Tuesdays 8 p.m. on ABC Family

The fictional town of Rosewood, Pa., is home to Spencer, Aria, Hanna, and Emily, the most fashion-forward, sassy teens ever take to five seasons to graduate high school. If you’re unfamiliar with those four characters, you’re obviously not one of the many adults obsessed with ABC Family’s soapy thriller Pretty Little Liars, about a clique of girls hounded by a tech-savvy, murderous blackmailer and extortionist known merely as “A.”

However, it’s never too late to discover the queer and campy wonders of Rosewood. The series boasts the sweetest, fiercest lesbian character Emily (Shay Mitchell), who’s had more beautiful love interests than any of the other Liars combined. For those with a sense of nostalgia for the ’80s and ’90s, the wonderful actresses Laura Leighton, Nia Peeples, and Holly Marie Combs play three of the Liars’ moms.

If that’s not enough to get you to binge the first several seasons on Netflix, then toss in the fact that the show’s several out gay and lesbian creators and writers are film history buffs who hide Easter eggs in nearly every episode. PLL has paid homage to any number of Hitchcock films, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Peter Jackson’s sapphic murder tale Heavenly Creatures, and Otto Preminger’s noir classic Laura, to name a few.

Oh, and one more thing … if you’re thinking PLL just stars a bunch of teen girls running from a killer, the series also employs some of the hottest young actors on TV. — Tracy E. Gilchrist

The Fosters, Season 2
Premieres January 19 on ABC Family

ABC Family’s little show with the big heart, The Fosters, heads into its winter premiere next week, and one thing’s for sure — the series, about a mixed-race family headed by lesbian moms, is already part of the cultural zeitgeist. It’s one of those shows at the forefront of a new kind of television in which LGBT representation is seamlessly folded into a larger narrative. Even among pioneering series like Grey’s Anatomy, Glee, Pretty Little Liars, and Orange Is the New Black, The Fosters stands out in terms of its realistic, grounded LGBT characters.

While much of the story revolves around various teen drama created by and for the Foster teens, moms Stef (Teri Polo) and Lena (Sherri Saum) remain at the heart and soul of the tearjerking dramedy from executive producer Jennifer Lopez. Each episode is an emotional roller coaster from the first strains of Kari Kimmel’s theme song “Where You Belong” to the closing credits. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry (trust me, you’ll cry if you’re not a cyborg), and you’ll be ultimately moved by the honest, thoughtful portrayal of LGBT people. — Tracy E. Gilchrist

Downton Abbey, Season 5
Sundays 9 p.m. on PBS

On Downton Abbey, the times they are a-changin’ — Lady Mary’s using birth control as she explores premarital sex with a suitor — but some old-fashioned attitudes remain: The devious underbutler Thomas Barrow feels he has to rid himself of his homosexuality, and he’s seeking out a “cure.” “He falls for the quackery that this can be cured,” creator Julian Fellowes said in an interview with ITV, which airs the show in the U.K. Robert James-Collier, who plays Thomas, added that the character “wants to be able to love, so he embarks on quite a dark and serious journey rooted in his sexuality to try and change how he is. … I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of men like Thomas did do this, because what was the alternative? There wasn’t one.”  — Trudy Ring

iZombie
Premieres March 17 on the CW 

My new favorite TV character is Liv (played perfectly by Rose McIver, who you may know as Vivian from Masters of Sex). She's a medical student turned zombie turned coroner’s assistant and overall one badass ZILF in CW’s awesome new show iZombie, from writer and executive producer Rob Thomas (of Veronica Mars fame). In fact, this show can aptly be called an evolution of Veronica Mars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, mixing a form of detective work with witty millennial bons mots, interesting mythic creatures, and, if true to the DC comic from which it’s derived, a truly fascinating gay character. — Diane Anderson-Minshall

Orphan Black, Season 3
Premieres April 15 on BBC America

If you’ve been paying attention during the most recent TV awards season, you may recall hearing shrieks of indignation over the omission of Tatiana Maslany in the Best Actress in a Drama categories, and with great reason! The 29-year-old native of Canada plays more than half a dozen clones in BBC America’s sci-fi thriller Orphan Black. She’s so deft at imbuing each of them with learned personality traits that it’s easy to forget it’s one person playing the tough British bad girl Sarah, the quirky Ukranian with questionable morals Helena, the uptight housewife Allison, or the adorable lesbian nerd scientist Cosima (who’s had an equally fetching, brilliant girlfriend for two seasons).

If Maslany’s tour de force is not enough to tune in to this twisty thriller with as much action as there are clones, then Jordan Gavaris’s Felix, Sarah’s sassy gay foster brother, should do the trick. He’s handsome, sardonically funny, sexually confident, and a total badass who’ll go to battle for Sarah at the drop of a condom wrapper. — Tracy E. Gilchrist