With all the drama running around with TV movies and holiday queerness, I thought it would be nice to have look at some web series you’ve probably never heard of … because they don’t exist yet.
Linear television (you know, those regular ‘channels’ we watch at home) is slowly making improvements with representation. Their work is incomplete, and the last decade has been filled with web series filling in that gap. Certainly The L Word: Generation Q is an improvement from the Death Valley of intersectionality that was The L Word, but that’s one show in a sea of ever-growing scripted television.
The size of the tv ocean makes it hard for newcomers to get in the door, and even to be seen. I decided I’d write about some series that were looking for funding and share them with you, but to my surprise I could only find two!
Why Are They So Hard to Find?
I went to my usual staples, SeedAndSpark, IndieGoGo, and Kickstarter, to try and find series. On both SeedAndSpark and Kickstarter, as soon as I set the filters for LGBT television series who were ‘live’ (i.e. looking for funding) I got big old goose eggs. I grabbed the two I found on IndieGoGo and started a deeper dive on Patreon but that turned out to be even harder to find anything.
I’ve done searches like this before, and I’ve never had such a hard time finding shows. I went and threw up a tweet:
But I sat there and wondered why was it so hard this time. Was it because it was year end? Was it because there are fewer series being made? I knew the latter wasn’t true, but as I went to look into the series I knew were coming out soon, I came to a distressing realization.
Most web series don’t have a web page. They have Twitter, sure, and Tumblr maybe, or a Facebook post, and then their YouTube or Vimeo link. But they don’t have a dedicated webpage that remains available amidst the ephemeral social media churn.
And all that means is that this post is incredibly incomplete! I know I’m missing your awesome, in progress, series, and I want to hear from you! Drop me an email about your series at mika@lezwatchtv.com and let’s chat. Because I do believe the future of intersectional and representational TV is in web series.
Series in Need of Funding
I did mention the two, right? Here they are!
Little Roar and His Big Family
Positive queer content for children is hugely important. So many of us have grown up without seeing ourselves on television, and without seeing our families. Elaine Wall wants to fix that. A married mother of a 3-year old and a 4-year old, she recognized that there were few series that reflected her family. Amidst the Baby Sharks, where were two moms. So she set about to solve this.
Little Roar and His Big Family will be a webseries for preschool and young school aged children that follows the adventures of Little Roar, a five-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex, his sister, Tiny Claw, and their two moms, Mommy and Mama Rex. Together, with a diverse cast of characters, the young dinosaurs will learn lessons about kindness and teamwork, as well as their ABC’s and 123’s.
You can fund them via IndiGoGo until early January 2020.
The Fae
Predominantly about a gay man, this series has a wild story. Originally it was going to be a variety show called Faemily Style. But then it pivoted and realized a high-concept fantasy/dramady would be even better.
Mixing trenchant realism with surrealist fantasy, The Fae celebrates queer flamboyance as a magical force to be reckoned with. Think The Outs meets Buffy and Harry Potter by way of Pink Narcissus. The series follows Mark (Shelton Lindsay), a gay millennial who possesses all the trappings coveted by mainstream gay culture, who suddenly learns of magically queer beings called faeries – and that he might be one of them!
The first season of The Fae explores Mark’s awkward first steps as he struggles to learn how to harness his faerie flamboyance in his everyday life. Just how much will Mark have to sacrifice to learn the true nature of his magical power?
You can fund them via IndieGoGo until the end of 2019.
