October means spooky season, International Lesbian Day (8 October, put it in the diary) and, this year, a surprisingly British month for queer telly. The castle is back with four queer celebs at the round table, Strictly has an all-female couple dancing a Wicked paso doble, Hayley Kiyoko’s Girls Like Girls finally lands in UK cinemas, and the BFI London Film Festival is bringing a stack of queer premieres to the South Bank. We’ve rounded up the best queer and sapphic releases hitting screens across the UK and US this month, plus what to clear your November for. Blanket on, heating up, here’s what to watch.
Vigil series 3 – BBC iPlayer (out now)
We skipped a September guide, so consider this us catching up, because you really shouldn’t miss it. TV’s favourite lesbian detective duo, DCI Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) and DI Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie), are back for a third series, and this time they’ve swapped submarines and drones for the Arctic. A member of a covert British special forces mission has been shot dead at a remote research station, and Amy and Kirsten have to work out why before it turns into an international incident.
It’s tense, glossy, very cold and anchored by two of the best women on British telly. If you held off while it went out weekly, lucky you: it’s now a ready-made autumn binge.
Watch on: BBC iPlayer now, all six episodes. Series 1 and 2 are on there too if you need a refresher.
Girls Like Girls – UK and Irish cinemas (2 October)
The wait is over. Hayley Kiyoko has spent a decade turning four minutes of sapphic longing into an entire universe, and after the US got it first in the summer, Girls Like Girls finally reaches UK and Irish cinemas this month.
Set over one sun-drenched summer in rural Oregon in 2006, it follows 17-year-old Coley (Maya da Costa), who moves in with her estranged dad (Zach Braff) after a loss and falls hard for Sonya (Myra Molloy), a local girl with a boyfriend and a lot of uncertainty. Kiyoko wrote and directed it with Stefanie Scott, and critics are on side: it sits at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, with plenty of praise for the way it refuses to treat Coley’s sexuality as a crisis. Bring tissues and whoever you were obsessed with at 17.
Watch in: UK and Irish cinemas from Friday 2 October 2026. Rated 15 (15A in Ireland), 95 minutes.
You may also like: 30+ of the best lesbian and sapphic films of all time
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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma – MUBI (2 October)
Missed it in cinemas in August? Jane Schoenbrun’s trans and sapphic slasher is now streaming, just in time for Halloween. Hannah Einbinder plays Kris, an up-and-coming queer director hired to resurrect a tired horror franchise, who tracks down the original film’s reclusive final girl, Billy (Gillian Anderson). What follows is a blood-soaked spiral of desire, fear and delirium, with the Einbinder and Anderson chemistry doing a lot of heavy lifting.
The supporting cast is queer to the bone, with Jasmin Savoy Brown, Quintessa Swindell, Eva Victor and Jack Haven all turning up. And if you want the full retro experience, MUBI has also put out a pan-and-scan VHS edition. Yes, really.
Watch on: MUBI from Friday 2 October 2026, including in the UK.
The Cuckoo Clock – US cinemas (2 October)
For our US crew, and anyone who likes their sapphic romance with a side of dread. Penny (Hana Hahn) falls for Megan (MaKenna DeCaro), the home-health nurse who moves in to care for her grandmother, who has dementia. Then Megan vanishes, and the only thing offering answers is Grandma’s cuckoo clock, which starts talking and suggesting Grandma might be responsible.
It’s the feature debut from writer-director Lisa Jay, shot in Seattle with a local cast and crew. Early reviews describe it as dreamlike and surreal rather than a by-the-numbers scare-fest, with real chemistry between Hahn and DeCaro holding it together. Small, strange and very October.
Watch in: Select US cinemas from Friday 2 October 2026. No UK date yet.
Helluva Boss series 3 – Prime Video (14 October)
For the adult animation girlies. VivziePop’s demon-assassin musical comedy (from the Hazbin Hotel mind) is back, and it’s stuffed with queer characters, including trans lesbian imp Sallie May and bisexual hellhound receptionist Loona, who takes on a bigger role at I.M.P. this season. Blitzo and Stolas are still working out where they stand, and Millie and Moxxie have a life-changing surprise on the way.
It’s crude, violent and weirdly sweet, often in the same scene. If you’ve binged Hazbin, you already know.
Watch on: Prime Video from Wednesday 14 October 2026 (Part One).
Grey’s Anatomy season 23 – Disney+ (from 15 October)
Yes, Grey’s is still going, and yes, the sapphic drama is still the best bit. Season 22 opened with Amelia’s ex, Dr Toni Wright (Jennifer Landon), turning up at Amelia’s house to find Dr Cass Beckman (Sophia Bush) in her bed, and both Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and Toni are back for more this season. Twenty-three seasons in and still managing a lesbian love triangle is honestly impressive.
This season is shorter than usual, at 13 episodes, and Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver have both left the main cast.
Watch on: ABC in the US from Thursday 15 October 2026. In the UK, new episodes stream on Disney+ (last season landed the day after the US broadcast, but Disney+ hasn’t confirmed the UK date yet).
Kate Berlant: Parmesan – HBO Max (17 October)
Your favourite comedian’s favourite comedian has a new hour. Queer comic Kate Berlant makes her HBO special debut with Parmesan, filmed at the Plaza Nightclub in Los Angeles. HBO’s own blurb promises riffs on the moon, her destructive relationship with technology and “the evolving nature of sexuality”, so draw your own conclusions.
If you’ve never seen Berlant live, her style is all about the pause that goes on slightly too long. It’s very funny, very strange and best watched with someone who’ll laugh at the same bits.
Watch on: HBO Max in the UK from Saturday 17 October 2026. In the US, it airs on HBO and HBO Max from Friday 16 October.
Other queer releases on our radar
A few more worth flagging. In cinemas, Verity (UK and US, 2 October) isn’t a sapphic story, but Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson in a twisty Colleen Hoover thriller has a certain section of the internet seated regardless (reviews are mixed). For our US readers, Big Girls Don’t Cry (US cinemas, 9 October), Paloma Schneideman’s Jane Campion-produced coming-of-age drama about a 14-year-old’s sexual awakening, finally gets a release after wowing BFI Flare in March. No UK date yet. On TV, All American wraps up with a final season on Netflix in the US (6 October) with plenty in store for our lesbian Coop, 9-1-1 returns for season 10 (ABC from 15 October, Disney+ in the UK) with a household shake-up for Hen, and The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula is back for season 7 on Shudder (27 October) with trans and non-binary performers of all genders. And Helen Mirren plays lesbian author Patricia Highsmith in A Talent for Murder, out in US cinemas on 23 October and here on 20 November.
Free and online, catch up on Fruity (YouTube, Instagram and TikTok), the Cork-made sapphic web series about two flatmates accidentally running a very gay juice business, which we fell for in August. Episodes are around two minutes each, so you’ll be done before the kettle boils. For the girls’ love fans, Thai anthology 4 Elements wrapped its final instalment, The Fire, at the end of August, so all four series are now complete and free with English subtitles on iQIYI, ready for a proper binge. And RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series 8 carries on every Thursday on BBC Three and iPlayer until the finale on 5 November. It’s the show’s last series on the BBC, which announced in September that it’s dropping it, so make the most of it.
Coming in November
If October feels a bit light, November is where it gets very gay. The Body (Netflix, 11 November) is Quinn Shephard’s raunchy Catholic-school psychodrama about a dance team whose initiation goes wrong, with two best friends who have feelings for each other at its centre and The Traitors US star Gabby Windey as their coach. Yellowjackets returns for its fourth and final season on Paramount+ on 20 November, and It Gets Worse should land on Channel 4 later in the year, though the broadcast date hasn’t been confirmed yet. We’ll be back with all of it next month.
See you on the sofa.
Nonchalant x
In case you missed it: Your queer TV guide for August 2026
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This article was written by one of our creative team writers here at Nonchalant Magazine.
