I've been feeling down lately and I started re-watching futurama for some good nostalgia, but it keeps making transphobic jokes which is kind of just making me feel worse. Anyone have any suggestions for comfort shows to watch?
Came here to say Bluey!! My partner and I (both grown ass adults) watch it together and cry tears of joy as we let it re-parent us!! Such a wonderful show!
To tack on "kids shows that are just fine thank you very much" I really enjoy "Tinga Tinga Tales" The animation is crazy, music beautiful, the stories interesting (folk tales) and the characters fun. Great way to wind down for 20 minutes, finding out Why Frog Croaks.
My ultimate comfort show is Star Trek: the Next Generation. If it's just me in the house and nothing good in my video queue that's what I'll turn on for noise.
My partner and I have been really enjoying Spy X Family. Its a nice little found family/comedy series with very wholesome content.
The premise is that the titular Spy has an assignment to make contact with a total shut-in who only appears in public for events at his son's school. So the Spy adopts a child from a shady orphanage and meets a woman who is willing to fake being his wife to get his child into the elite school. Of course, the child he adopted can read minds and the woman he fake married is secretly an assassin. No one but the child knows the truth about everyone and they're each so focused on hiding their own secrets they don't catch on to the others. The series isn't complete yet, but so far the major theme is them coming to genuinely value their little family as more than a convenient facade.
Its just such a cute show, and I go back and forth between cackling and tearing up at how cute they all are. The only thing I think is particularly off about the show is the assassins brother. He's a secret police officer and also incestuously obsessed with his sister. Its a weird inclusion, but he is made fun of by the narrative for his behavior and that is enough for me to still enjoy how good the rest of the show is
Just the opposite! There's an episode with a trans man, and it's (according to one trans person on youtube) a really good portrayal. It might be both the most progressive and least problematic sitcom out there
30 Rock is my comfort show - it's on Hulu rn. It's definitely a little dated, but is still very funny! Also Bob's Burgers is pro lgbtq+ and has over a dozen seasons, so plenty to keep on all the time! Also on Hulu
Bob's burgers is kinda nuts. The quality of the show has never dipped. I don't think they have a bad episode. In my mind it's still "the new show" but the Simpsons was already going down fast at season 10
My partner and I were going to rewatch Futurama soon, since we wanted to watch the old ones before getting into the reboot. I'm not going to enjoy that as much as I thought I would, am I?
As for recommendations, I don't know if I would call it a comfort show since it can get really disturbing at times, but Doom Patrol is a great show, lots of fun and super queer.
There are a few episodes where being trans is almost the entire premise.
There are two different "Gender Bender" episodes where Bender is either cross dressing to act as a heel in pro wrestling, or surgically altered to become a fembot and compete in sports.
There is another episode where an alien removes the gender differences for the crew, and then changes the gender of the crew. They shoot a saucy pin-up calendar.
And then there's the Dungeons and Dragons episodes where Hermes is a hermaphrodite centaur.
Oh, and the mind swapping episode where everybody changes brains, but that's more Freaky Friday than gender swapping.
Pardon me if it's rude to ask but do you mind explaining why those episodes are transphobic? Specifically the Bender gender swaps, I don't remember the other examples you mentioned.
Core egg memory unlocked, I was obsessed with the Freaky Friday remake with Lindsay Lohan And Jamie Lee Curtis and would watch it again and again wishing I could wake up and be a girl in about 7th grade.
I'm sure most guys spend this amount of time and energy on that thought hehehehe
Just make sure you pay your TV license at tvlicensing.co.uk, other wise the license officers might pay you a visit and charge you a fine of £400 with their “TV detector” vans. /s
Even Sillier than that is a British comedy called “Red Dwarf” and as far as I recall there is no transphobia. The closest I remember is an episode where the main character ends up in an alternate dimension with the female version of himself. They hit it off and the male main character of the series ends up pregnant, to his distress. At the time I remember it being a really interesting way to bring up gender dynamics without being too laboring, though it’s been a while, and I also haven’t seen the new seasons they apparently made after the show got cult status.
Edit to add: a Reddit thread has this to say about Red Dwarf and being trans
In series 8, Kryten is assigned to women's prison wing, just because he doesn't have a penis when he clearly resembles a male, sounds like a male and acts like a male. That's regardless of the fact that he has no chromosomes because he's an android (not even gynoid, so another good point). The show makes it out as ridiculous that the only reason why he's treated as female only because of his lack of penis.
Also, in the episode DNA, it's shown that when he's turned into human male, he's still an android on the inside because he clearly feels discomfort from certain dysphoria, where he finds appliances sexually attractive and inability to adjust to human biology lacking robotic features.
Edit to add to the edit, I forgot the ships on board computer actually does upgrade themselves to present female
I've heard good comments about Orange is the new black, although I've never watched it.
I just remembered The Last Of Us series came out, but I forgot to check it out.
I rewatched Sailor Moon not too long ago, and it's pretty LGBTQ+ friendly for something out of the 90s.
Whatever you do avoid the dic dub at all costs.
The VIZ dub is pretty good, but the DIC dub is garbage.
The originals can get repetitive at times.
The reboot has better pacing with a less helpless main protagonist, but some of the story bits made more sense to me in the originals.
Holy shit. Orange is the new black is great and I like the show, but the biggest trigger warning in the world for trans femmes. There is some incredibly disturbing, and accurate depictions of trans hate crimes. :/
If you're of OG Futurama age, King of the Hill is pretty good about not being transphobic. I will always love Hank refusing to speak to Peggy's friend Caroline when she answered the phone in boy mode. No, he's looking for his wife's friend Caroline. Please don't try to confuse him with stories about who she used to be. He used to sell jeans, and only people close to him know that.