The Best LGBTQ Shows and Movies Now on Max, from ‘Our Flag Means Death’ to ‘Victor/Victoria’
It’s safe to say a lot of people have a lot of problems with the switch from HBO Max to Max, but there’s at least one upside to the streaming shakeup. Now, it’s easier than ever to find the excellent queer stories floating around Warner Bros. Discovery’s platform.
During its lifespan, HBO Max never had an LGBTQ tag to filter its offerings and help subscribers find stories about the queer community more easily: a surprising move for a streamer named after the channel that brought us boundary-breaking works like “Six Feet Under” and the miniseries adaptation of “Angels in America.” That’s been remedied on Max, which features an “LGBTQ+ Voices” collection. You do have to scroll quite far down the homepage to find it in the collections carousel, but when you do, it makes searching for the queer films and shows on the streamer considerably easier. And as it turns out, there are a ton of great ones in time for Pride 2023.
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No, Max hasn’t brought back some of the great queer works like “Generation” or “Legendary” that were among the casualties of the HBO Max content cuts from last year. But as much as those titles remain dearly missed, there’s a slew of stellar shows — and a decent chunk of fantastic films — starring queer characters waiting in the wings. It helps that content from HBO remains exclusively on Max, meaning a subscription to the streamer provides access to LGBTQ-centric works like “Looking,” “Somebody Somewhere,” “The White Lotus,” and “The Lady and the Dale.
But HBO Max has built up a strong library of LGBTQ-friendly originals itself, during its three years on the market, and most of them are still available to stream. Fizzy comedies like “Our Flag Means Death” and “Hacks” come to mind alongside more emotional dramas like “Veneno” and “It’s a Sin.” And Max has a strong library of queer films as well; so you can enjoy some great modern and old queer cinema classics, including “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “My Beautiful Laundrette,” “Victor/Victoria,” and “The Color Purple.”
Although the blue makeover might not be quite as fabulous as HBO Max’s iconic purple, Max still has a decent claim to being the gayest streamer around. To help you get your Pride Month programming in order, here’s a guide to the very best LGBTQ+ series and films currently available on Max. (Films are listed before TV, but otherwise titles are not in any particular order.)
With editorial contributions by Ryan Lattanzio and Alison Foreman.
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