Can we have a "brilliant tv programmes that centre women and manage to be brilliant without using violence and rape"?☺

[CatNamedEaster]

I've never had a stomach for violence on tv but even less so now, so I thought I'd start a thread for people who want shit-hot drama/comedy/whatever that has women at its heart but isn't fluffy Sunday night filler (nothing wrong with that, I'm not a snob).
My recent highlights have been:

Impeachment. About the Monica Lewinsky affair. I find the actresses playing Monica and Linda mesmerising and they manage to convey so much with a look.

Cutting It. Watched the whole lot in lockdown. Really funny and poignant and unafraid to show women who are strong and vulnerable and sexual.

The Pact.

In The Club. Followed a group of pregnant women, with Hermione Norris and Jill Halfpenny. Haven't seen it since it was first on so not sure if it's aged well!

Dead to me on Netflix does have ome violence, but not much and it has 2 brilliant woman leads who are very funny.

Self made on Netflix is amazing.

Girlboss, Jane The Virgin, good girls, little women, Anne with an E, Enola Holmes. Self Made

@CatNamedEaster

Well I tried to download Scott & Bailey today and the bastard ITV hub only has series 2 from episode 2. Gggrrrrrrrrr.

So I will be looking up some of the suggestions above next week. Love all the responses and I'm so thankful that I'm not the only one who feels like this.

I really appreciate you starting this thread and I'm looking forward to finding some of these recommendations.

Yes me too. I'm so pleased it's had so many responses. I'm so bored of hearing colleagues talk about how brilliant a drama is but then at the end say to me "but you wouldn't like it" because they know I'll switch it off after half an episode!

The Letdown

Also wanted to mention the podcast The Bechdel Cast Where they analyse movies based on whether they pass the bechdel test (whether there are 2 named characters who have 2 lines of dialogue that do not talk about men) as well as discussing the movie from a feminist perspective generally. You might enjoy a listen OP.

It's old but Gilmore Girls, its such a comfort watch. Good Girls is also female centric but there is violence

Thanks for this thread OP. I’m all in favour of programmes like ‘I May Destroy You’ that are actually about sexual violence, but I hate how rape/incest/child abuse get sprinkled over common-or-garden telly to make it seem edgy. Sit down and write a decent plot.

Another for The Good Wife, strong intelligent women and loads of episodes to keep you going.

@CatNamedEaster

Was thinking about this last night and pp touched on. WHY is there so much violence and rape on tv? Bearing in mind the stats, a significant % of potential viewers of a drama will be women who have experienced violence and/or rape. Is it a case of couldn't care less because it generates headlines/controversy? Or is it more sinister and it means that women watching are constantly reminded of the sheer scale of male violence out there?

Anyway. Do agree about Dr Foster 're pp's point. Her reaction was extreme but I think it was very powerful and affecting because of the impact on their son. It came at a time where things at home weren't brilliant and immediately brought home the futility of being right and winning when the price of that can be so damaging.

I can't wait to try some of these. DH is very patient when I'm constantly getting to a point in a drama and saying "that's it, I don't want to watch anymore." So it will be nice for him to see something to the end.

Thanks for the helpful thread. I really get annoyed with this too. My husband understands the difference between his freedom to watch versus my experience of TV representing gendered violence as a female. He doesn't like or want the sexualised violence against women but it doesn't anger him or make him feel subjugated as a male. But isn't it ridiculous women have to navigate this issue when we're trying to relax and enjoy TV? A degree of VAW representations if treated well is fine, helpful even for some women, but the amount and it's sexualised nature is a problem. To hope our OHs will be supportive is a low bar. I thought streaming services would help maybe but it seems not, especially if we're watching on his accounts. Add to this that most online TV recommenders use online reviews in their algorithms but sites like IMDb are hugely male dominated...problems on both sides of old and new tv industries.

Coming back to this thread to say how much I'm enjoying these three programmes at the moment, which all centre female characters: Borgen (Danish politics), Hacks (US comedian and writer) and Starstruck (romcom). No murdered women & two leads over 50!

This in spades OP. I also feel like I’m out of synch with the majority of big tv shows. TV shouldn’t be an ordeal for a chunk of the population. We shouldn’t need to actively screen.

five bedrooms - some great female characters. Think it is on iplayer.

offspring (7 series)(Netflix)

another thumbs up for Mrs Maisel

I was coming back specifically to recommend Borgen and Five Bedrooms 😀. The latter I was really surprised by, expected it to be very fluffy but it really drew me in with such great characters and writing. I felt like I wanted to stay with them all to see what happens to them next!

I'll reread the thread to look at what to watch next🙂

Life Begins with Caroline Quentin, Last Tango in Halifax, The Durrells, Anne of Green Gables, The Golden Girls, Derry Girls, Bletchley Circle, CTM

Outlaws has s huge range of strong female characters, some (mainly comedy) violence

Bit older, and it has some violence but Leverage/Leverage Redemption is brilliant. Has a two fabulous female characters in the main team, and often features other good female characters.

OK, so this goes explicitly against your instructions because it is about a series of rapes against women.

But "Unbelievable" on Netflix is absolutely brilliant, the female actors are superb, and it focuses on the female survivors and the investigation (led by brilliant female detectives), not the rapes themselves or the rapist, who isn't a central or even developed character.

The rapes are shown briefly, but in the form of flashbacks, and I think they were very careful to limit it to what was necessary to show the seriousness of the crime and no more. Obviously not fun to watch, but definitely not gratuitous.

It's based on a true story (and is incredibly faithful to what actually happened) and I think it's just brilliantly done. I watched the whole 8 hour series in one sitting.

It’s not a women-specific programme but I’d recommend For All Mankind. It’s on Apple TV but you can find it elsewhere.

It’s basically about the space race from the perspective of if the Russians got there first. There’s obviously discrimination, but the way the female characters are integrated and have a much more prominent part in ‘history’ is really well done.

Oh yes I'd forgotten about Outlaws. There was such a good line that was along the lines of bloke disagreeing with middle aged woman about something going womens way and she says something like "I realise that after getting your own way for 10,000 years this must be smarting a bit". Did make me chuckle 😁.

Keeping faith - strong female characters, some mild violence in the odd episode but nothing that didn't fit (I am not a fan of violent TV at all).

Another vote for gentleman jack

Just watched Everything I know about love, bit naff in places but couldn't stop watching.

I love this thread! Need to second the Good Wife and Good Fight recommendations.