Ophelia and Macbeth, sitting in a room, drinking whiskey.

Thirteenth Night: Malvolio’s Revenge

Much Ado 2: Kill Claudio

The Merchant of Menace

As You Don’t Like It 

The Scary Wives of Windsor: The Fall of Falstaff

The Tempest 2: Hurricane Miranda 

Richard III 2: Back from Bosworth (feat. zombie Richard)

By Boris Kachka, sidebar to “Is It Story That Makes Us Read?” by Christian Lorentzen.

Desire and Negation

GLAAD has released its annual Where We Are On TV study examining LGBTQ representation on broadcast, cable and streaming television. Here’s an overview:

LGBTQ characters make up 4.8% of regular characters on broadcast TV

Broadcast platforms showed 43 regular and 28 recurring LGBTQ characters; cable platforms showed 92 regular and 50 recurring LGBTQ characters; streaming platforms (Netflix, Hulu and Amazon) showed 45 regular and 20 recurring LGBTQ characters

Racial diversity of LGBTQ characters has improved slightly over time, but it’s still not great; about 71% of LGBTQ characters are white

16 transgender characters will appear in shows across the three TV platforms (broadcast, cable and streaming); 4 are trans men 

1.7% of regular broadcast characters have a disability; that’s the highest number since GLAAD started tracking disability portrayals

Each platform showed one LGBTQ character with HIV; only one of these characters is considered a series regular

Gay men represent the majority of LGBTQ characters on broadcast and cable networks; lesbians are the highest represented LGBTQ group on streaming networks

Since the beginning of 2016, 25 lesbian, bisexual and queer women characters were killed off across networks, a record high 

There are more black series regular characters on broadcast platforms than ever before; 20% of regular primetime characters are black