How about entertainment we *can*stomach?!

I hear your names and I give you......OZARK!
Mind is bloody blown by the incredibly well-written women leads. It’s a great piece of work, nay art.

Better Things by Pamela Adlon on bbc iplayer. Single mum, 3 kids and she's just brilliant. Funny and dry.

They are both cartoons, but I love Steven Universe and the reboot of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Loads of complex and flawed female characters in main and supporting roles.

YY to Mum. Superb.

If we're going retro, the original run of Upstairs Downstairs is fantastic. Originally an idea of Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins who were inspired by their grandmothers' time in service. Marsh also starred as housemaid Rose and wrote for the series too. The series dealt with so many serious issues really unflinchingly and the characters are all such real people.

One of my favorite movies is "The Group" which is about 8 women who were hallmates at Vassar and graduated in 1933 and what happened to them in the years before the start of World War II. It's most famous now because Candice Bergen made her acting debut in it.

Also, if you've seen the recent version of "The Women", you might want to check out the 1939 original starring Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford.

Ah. I didn't know that. Bad Lucy.

T'was still a fucking great series though...

That would be Lucy "my career is too important for me to waste time being pregnant so I'll use a surrogate" Liu?

No thanks. I'll pass.

Ooh ooh ooh! I just remembered that I just binged Why Women Kill on Alibi on Sky. Lucy Liu stars and directs. Amazing! 3 women all living in one house - one in the 1960's one in the 80's and one now. Brilliant on women and their lives and on what men do to them and the modern one had its tongue right in its cheek with a very woke couple, 'I saw her speak at a feminist rally and when she came out on stage I just thought 'Wow! That is one hot feminist!''

Lucy Liu is amazing in it too. And it has a hilarious title sequence.

Xena Warrior Princess

Oh, something else I enjoyed recently is Diggstown. It's not heavy, a lawyer show, but things tend to get wrapped up every episode. It's probably slightly too earnest, but it's very much a woman focused show. It's not really my sort of show under normal circumstances but it was filmed in my town/neighbourhood (the lawyers office is actually my husband's dentist's office) so I gave it a try, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Well, it might sound a bit odd being more at the daytime drama level, but I really really enjoyed watching The Royal, and particularly in terms of it's female characters. I think in part because there was no attempt to make them "strong" or to try and fulfils some agenda in terms of addressing issues - it was a straightforward attempt to tell the stories of people who lived at the time. The women represented a lot of different personalities and political views too, without judging them whatever they were like.

My favourite Canadian series is still, after many years, North of 60, which rather dates me. It has some interesting female roles as well - the lead female who is probably the lead character overall, by season three, is not always likeable but I think is interesting and has a lot of admirable qualities. (If anyone wants to look this up, bear in mind that season one is rather different than the subsequent seasons, they changed direction a bit making it more of a serious drama, and, I suspect, had more money.) In some ways it can seem dated, the acting style for example, and certain episodes like the one on AIDS, but it has a lot of integrity from a story-writing perspective.

ErrolTheDragon and Robin also gets to drive! How often does the woman get to drive?

they also do completely unrealistic things like run as fast or faster than the men

That makes me think, have we mentioned Cormoran Strike? In which the woman can definitely run faster than the man - but realistically.

I've been watching Chicago PD - so same stable as Law & Order and Chicago Med and Fire. There are some very strong female characters- not 50/50 but probably 30%. They are equal characters and not props.... but they also do completely unrealistic things like run as fast or faster than the men. They fight and punch and take down male criminals - I keep thinking hang on mate, no way, you're half his size! I can see it's a massive nod to equality but it doesn't feel realistic.

scrappydappydoooooo
agree with you 100pc on ruth and sam in GLOW. Was going to say in my earlier post this is the one downside with the show. I love it apart from that though

No Offence has awesome female lead characters.

Agree with Motherland, Mrs Maisel and Mrs America.

Stumptown is enjoyable bollocks with Cobie Smulders in the lead role. She is totally flawed and awesome.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Side note, but Keanu Reeves’ daughter in the new Bill and Ted is quite androgynous looking and clearly not buying into a “feminine” look but it’s never mentioned, I liked that.

South Korean dramas seem a weird mix of lots of women of different ages interacting with women, eg on work, study, career, ‘personal development’, friendship and family matters; melodrama; and super conservative on some stuff, eg sex and booze!

Also interesting for the locations, foods etc!

I do really, really enjoy GLOW but I absolutely hate the over-arcing plot about Ruth and Sam being attracted to each other. Sam was downright abusive in his treatment of Ruth at the start of the series. I'd be fine with a storyline showing them developing an admiration of each other as colleagues but any romance between them would be horrendous. Their history, the unequal power dynamic and the age difference (19 years between the actors) would make for a deeply unhealthy relationship.

And last season piled on the older man-younger woman angle by getting Debbie involved with JJ/Tex. I loved Toby Huss as Boz in Halt and Catch Fire (where is his love interest is 5 years younger and his close connection to the younger woman Cameron never once crosses the line into anything inappropriate) but I really, really didn't want to see him in a relationship with a 20 years younger Betty Gilpin. In season 1 we also had Rhonda and Sam in a relationship despite their 25 year age difference.

Glow is a great show in a lot of ways but constantly having these beautiful, athletic younger women in relationships with much older, more powerful men isn't great. Even when the relationships don't end well, I never get the impression that it's because the age difference/power dynamic was maybe a bit messed up. These are relatively powerful older men who are using their wealth/power to attract beautiful young women they would otherwise have no hope of attracting. And that doesn't seem to be a clear part of the story being told.

I only have Netflix so my range is quite limited but: I thought Jessica Jones was mostly well done, also Dead to Me is great, loved Grace and Frankie (last season not as good) and Canadian sitcom Workin Moms is hilarious as well as quite clever.

Same here, @EvenSupposing, it seems fun!

A bit niche, but there was a great Korean drama called WWW: Search last year which absolutely centred its 3 main female characters, who worked in senior roles at rival search engines. There were male characters and interesting nuanced relationships, but to the side. It is still available with subtitles on Viki (subscription streaming service) and on various pirate sites.

In general, many Korean dramas have strong, supportive female friendship and kinship groups, but more often secondary to the main plot.

Another vote for Enola Holmes and I also enjoyed the Michelle Obama & Ruth Bade Ginsberg biopics on Netflix.

I've just started Love Life on i-player. Anna Kendricks stars, female director and writer, very promising - seems to be about the search for love and kissing a fair few frogs en route - very woman centred so far.

Course it's 2020 so she'll probably be growing a beard and calling herself Billy by episode 6 but we travel in hope...