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The 10 Biggest Disappointments in Lesbian/Bisexual Entertainment This Year

Normally we like to stay of the positive side of things, because there is a tremendous amount of queer entertainment to be happy about. 2014 was overall, a pretty great year for queer visibility and representation, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a few gripes.

10. Where the hell were the lesbian movies this year? With a few exceptions like Life Partners and Appropriate Behavior (which both spent a lot of time on the festival circuit), lesbian films really floated under the radar this year. Last year, Blue is the Warmest Color was an international hit, but 2014 didn’t yield much in the way of breakout films with lesbian/bi characters. One has to ask, if Blue was capable of drawing in a wide audience of straight and gay alike, why aren’t there more feature films with lesbian/bi leading ladies? I suppose it could have been the scissoring, too.

9. Fox’s Backstrom de-gays its lesbian detective. The decision to not only replace Mamie Gummer as Det. Nicole Gravely, but de-gay the character completely after the pilot, seemed strange. We love a good lady cop, and a queer one (and not just subtextually) would have been something to look forward to for the winter season.

8. Jessie J claims her bisexuality was a phase. Jessie, gurl, love your voice but that was not cool. Playing into the long held belief that lesbianism is just a transient, changeable thing, was irresponsible. Thankfully, Jessie did address her regrets over the comments this fall, so maybe now we don’t have to feel guilty about singing along to “Bang Bang.”

7. True Blood screws the pooch when it comes to queer characters. True Blood, you blew it. Not only did the HBO vampire dramedy kill off one of its major queer characters IN THE FIRST EPISODE of the final season, but it also sent Pam chasing after Eric for a chunk of the season as well. Pam barely blinked an eye when Tara met the true death, and it felt like not only were those characters massively shortchanged, but longtime fans were as well.

6. Not enough Alex Vause in OITNB Season 2. Fans of Orange is the New Black had a collective panic attack after rumors started flying that Laura Prepon would have a smaller role come Season 2. While the show made the most of the limited time Prepon had this season, the electricity between Piper and Alex could run a small country, and we wanted more.

5. The Emily/Alison/Paige love triangle that was all bark and no bite. In all my time as a fangirl and covering fandom, I’ve never seen a shipping war like that of Paily and Emison on Pretty Little Liars.While the drama was pretty heated on social media, what happened onscreen was actually kind of lackluster. Paige and Emily broke up with a whimper on Emily’s front porch, and Alison and Emily’s long awaited reunion resulted in a one night makeout session. With so many plots to close up, and relationships to focus on, Emily’s love life was put on the back burner. Even her reunion with Paige could possibly be short lived if Paige does move to California ASAP. With Alison and the Liars still playing cat and mouse, fans will have to wait and see if anything does comes of Emison.

4. The Bomb Girls movie offered little closure. Bomb Girls was one of those treasures that comes along once in a while, and completely steals your heart. Betty McRae was the heart and soul of the Canadian period drama, yet in Facing The Enemy, she doesn’t get the girl like we hoped. There was no McAndrews, or even any McBond at the end. Perhaps they were aiming for a more realistic portrayal of what life was like as a lesbian in the 1940’s but, c’mon! Throw Betty a bone! Also why, Vera, why?

3. Glee offstage drama forces fans to lose precious Santana screen time. Rumors started flying about some serious backstage drama happening on the Glee set, and while we never got confirmation, we couldn’t help but notice that Santana (Naya Rivera Dorsey) pretty much disappeared from the latter half of the last season. Season 5 was challenging enough, but Santana’s absence left a massive hole in the show, especially when Brittany showed up alone, looking for her lady.

2. Lost Girl calls it quits. Lost Girl is one of sexiest, most fun, inclusive shows to ever exist, and earlier this year it was announced that this season would be its last. While the show still seemed to have a lot of life left in it and many stories to tell, we are left to say goodbye to our beloved succubus Bo, her human lover Dr. Lauren, lovestruck Valkyrie Tamsin, precious Kenzie, and even Dyson. At least this final season is extended, giving fans 16 episodes of Lost Girl goodness.

1. Killing off of Leslie Shay on Chicago Fire. In one of the most unwise of plot decisions, Chicago Fire chose to kill off fan favorite and resident lesbian Leslie Shay (Lauren German). Instead of finding a great storyline for the funny and tenderhearted character, the show chose to use her death to further other characters like Severide and Dawson. They also probably lost a big ol’ chunk of queer fans in the meanwhile. Shay’s death was just one of many lesbian/bi character deaths this year. 2015, I’m counting on you to boot this trend.

What were your biggest disappointments in entertainment this year?

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