Ghostly gay twinks, wholesome Canadian queers & more teen dramas to stream this weekend

Are you still sobbing over Heartstopper‘s amazing second season? Do you need more queer teen love in your life? These picks may not have Nick and Charlie, but there’s something for everyone in these LGBTQ+ teen dramas.

Read on for queer teen dramas to stream this weekend…

Degrassi

Whatever it takes! This Canadian high school drama, which launched in 2001, had a ton of queer characters over the years. We were particularly gagged by season three’s sweet romance between sensitive Marco (Adamo Ruggiero) and jock Dylan (John Bregar), which did eventually devolve into toxicity in later seasons. Other queer characters included the bisexual cheerleader-turned-badass Paige (Lauren Collins), confident cool kid Tristan (Lyle Lettau), trans Adam (Jordan Todosey) and many others over the years. Degrassi tended to be a little earnest at times, but it also gave us Drake, so we can’t really complain.

Now streaming on Max, Pluto TV, Amazon Freevee, Roku and Tubi.

South of Nowhere

This intense series, which ran on The N from 2005 to 2008, was notable for its focus on a romance between two teen girls. In South of Nowhere, Spencer (Gabrielle Christian) moves with her family from Ohio to Los Angeles and meets rebellious, bisexual Ashley (Mandy Musgrave). Over three seasons, the two have a very messy relationship. Groundbreaking for its time, South of Nowhere included a lot of social issue stories, and at one point even killed off a major character. The Heartstopper boys could never (and we wouldn’t want them to, honestly).

Available to own digitally on Amazon, Apple TV and Vudu.

Faking It

This 2014 MTV series involved two girls, Amy (Rita Volk) and Karma (Katie Stevens) who pretend to be a lesbian couple for popularity. The lie gets complicated when Amy realizes that — oops! — she actually has romantic feelings for her friend. Other characters include artistic hottie Liam (the sultry Gregg Sulkin), who likes Karma; the popular, openly gay Shane (Michael Willett) who has many romances including one with a sexy MMA fighter (Skyler Maxon); and Lauren (Bailey De Young), Amy’s step sister who is intersex. There are three seasons of this funny, poignant series to enjoy.

Now streaming on Amazon Freevee. Available to own digitally on Amazon, Vudu, Apple TV and Google Play.

Julie and the Phantoms

Probably the most wholesome series on this list, Netflix’s Julie and the Phantoms centers on Julie (Madison Reyes), a high school musician who inadvertently conjures the spirits of the Sunset Curve band, who died tragically (and sort of insanely) in 1995. Julie befriends the sweet, ghostly performers, including Alex (Owen Patrick Joyner), who falls for fellow spirit Willie (Booboo Stewart). Alex and Willie are two of the most beloved characters on this one-season wonder, and they don’t quite make it to full-fledged romance by series’ end, but the show’s central themes of love and acceptance make this a queer joy to watch.

Now streaming on Netflix.

Riverdale

Where do we even start with this one? An objectively insane, unhinged but also incredibly watchable teen soap based on Archie Comics characters, Riverdale starts off as a moody teen murder mystery but wildly veers off the rails into cults, witches, musical episodes that only occasionally further the plot, time travel and every bizarre plotline imaginable. It’s also super queer in both sensibility and content. Archie (KJ Apa) may be straight, but the show’s camera loves to linger on his shirtless body several times an episode. Openly gay Kevin (Casey Cott) has several romances throughout the show, while queer Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) casts her witchy spell on men and women. And let’s not forget all the hunky daddies that appear throughout, like Hiram Lodge (the oft-naked Mark Consuelos) and Sheriff Keller (the silver fox Martin Cummins). Riverdale is just about to end its final season, so now’s the perfect time to watch from beginning to end.

Now streaming on DirecTV, Netflix, Fubo and Spectrum.

The Kicker…

Everyone’s favorite HBO teen trauma — sorry, drama — Euphoria is parodied in this amazing trailer for Ferris, in which Ferris Bueler’s Day Off is given the gritty remake treatment.