Why Every Lesbian Needs to Watch A League of Their Own (1992)

Why A League of Their Own (2022) Is the Best Lesbian Show We’ve Gotten in Years

Listen, I’m just going to say it: A League of Their Own (2022) on Prime Video is the lesbian series we’ve been starving for. Yeah, I know the 1992 movie with Tom Hanks and Geena Davis is a classic, but this reboot? This one actually lets the queer girls kiss, love, suffer, and win — on screen, in color, no subtext required.

If you’re a lesbian who grew up squinting at Xena reruns or crying over The L Word drama, this show feels like someone finally handed us the keys to the stadium and said, “Go play, babies. And make it gay as hell.”

The story still follows the Rockford Peaches in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during WWII, but creators Abbi Jacobson (who also stars as Carson Shaw) and Will Graham decided to tell the stories the original movie only hinted at. And thank God they did.

Carson Shaw is the repressed housewife who leaves Idaho, joins the league, and promptly falls head over cleats for Greta Gill (D’Arcy Carden being the hottest human alive). Their chemistry is instant, electric, and — the kind where you’re screaming at your TV “JUST KISS ALREADY” by episode 2, and when they finally do? Sweet Jesus. It’s soft, it’s hungry, it’s everything.

But it’s not just white lesbian drama (though Carson/Greta is delicious). Max Chapman (Chanté Adams killing it) is a Black queer woman trying to break into professional baseball at a time when she’s not even allowed to try out for the league because of her skin color. Her journey — finding love, chosen family, and her own damn team — is heartbreaking and triumphant in ways that made me ugly-cry multiple times.

And Clance? Max’s best friend? Ride-or-die queen who deserves her own spin-off yesterday.

What makes this show different from every other “queer” series is that the lesbian relationships aren’t tragic side plots. They’re the heart of the damn thing. Carson realizing she’s into women isn’t played for shock value — it’s tender, messy, real. Greta teaching her how to be brave in a world that wants them invisible? I felt that in my soul.

The show doesn’t shy away from how dangerous it was to be gay in the 1940s either — the secret signals, the coded language, the constant fear of getting caught. There’s a scene in a gay underground bar that actually made me gasp because it’s so beautiful and so terrifying at the same time.

Also, the sex scenes? Respectful, hot, and actually look like sex between women who like women. No weird male-gaze nonsense. Just two (or more) women absolutely going for it. IYKYK.

Honestly, the only crime is that Amazon canceled it after one season (they gave us four extra episodes in 2023 as a “limited conclusion,” but we all know we were robbed). Eight episodes wasn’t enough. I needed five seasons and a movie of Carson and Greta growing old together, dammit.