What are some decent feminist friendly tv shows?

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Like Parks and Recreation, that you'd recommend? You know, has more than one female character, the women are doing stuff, not just mooning over men, oh, or like Buffy!

That's what I'm after mumsnet feminists, hit me with it!

Battlestar Galactica. Lots of complex / flawed / strong female characters in that...

Starbuck
President Roslin
Number Six
Boomer
Athena
Admiral Cain

Boomer and Starbuck, interestingly, were both originally male characters, becoming female in the 2003 reboot.

I like Bones for this.

Astonished to see Steven Moffat recommended here too.

IMO there aren't really any wholly feminist shows but you could do worse than Veronica Mars, Battlestar Galactica and the X Files. I've heard good things about Borgen but haven't seen it.

I just rewatched Firefly recently and was a bit sad that the gender stuff in it is worse than I remembered it as. I would say that Angel is quite watchable even though the cast is male dominated because the women in it are fully formed characters.

Mad Men is fabulous. I'm not sure if every episode would pass the Bechdel (because we mainly see things through the lead character's eyes) but there is a strong feminist strand running through the whole series and comparison between the choices the three lead females make (or have forces upon them) and the consequences arising from those choices are clearly shown. I think because it's a historic show it allows the writers to be more explicit with the feminist thread, you could argue we can look back at the Mad Men generation and feel superior because we are more sophisticated than them. However there are still clear lessons to be learnt from the many well developed female characters in the series.

FairPhyllis, I would say Borgen is a wholly feminist show, although I suppose that depends how you define a feminist show. What I want is a show that shows several female characters that drive action that is not romantic. Borgen has a majority of female characters in a show that could easily have made every one of them male without causing any comment in the mainstream. But they do examine some 'female' issue like balancing family and work (but without every questioning the desire of women to work) as well, but not as much as Mad Men does.

I agree with ER. A fab show all round, but Weaver, Lewis, Corday, Rasgotra are all excellent characters, as are many others

Can't believe no-one has said Veep. Julia Louis Dreyfuss is perfection. Funny as hell.

Some very funny scenes in Veep where she (the Vice President) deals with her 21 year old daughter.

Agree Kiwiinkits , Veep is great! I always forget about it but it is!

Has anyone seen "Mom" or "mum" with Allison Janney yet? I really like her and think she has great comic timing but it's from the creator of Two &half men, Big Bang Theory which doesn't bode well for it.

I sort of don't want to see it if I it's terrible as It would tar Allison Janney for me.

Orange is the new Black

30 Rock

Xena

Prime Suspect

2 Broke Girls is kind of sexist and horrible but some how not.. if that makes sense?

I would say Law and Order SVU until they used Mike Tyson as a rape victim . Way to throw women under the bus to get ratings (which backfired and they had their worst episode ever!)

Can't bring myself to watch Mad Men. I don't want to watch sexism, even if it's making a good point as I'm just sick of watching it.
Have rediscovered the Golden Girls over xmas so have had a bit of a binge. I think it's quite feminist?
I'd just like to watch shows that have women just well... there. Taking up their fair share of space and time as though it's normal. Even though it's a film, I've always found Silent Hill to be interesting as it reverses the normal trend (although there is one horrible scene with barbed wire that I always turn away from) - most of the main characters are women, goodies and baddies and it's of the genre that I usually watch (crappy game films/horror don't judge me).
Sorry for the aimless waffle, am lurking here to avoid study.

oh love Golden Girls! and that reminds me Designing Women!

OH and Murphy Brown! The late 80s wern't that bad actually

The Good Wife - Diane is the most kickass feminist EVER. I also love Getting On. Have heard great things about Veep and Nashville.

Please you've reminded me that Designing Women was an AMAZING show! What a cast of characters.

The Big Bang Theory.

Amy - Neuroscientist. Even though she is moony over Sheldon, she is his itellectual equal.

Bernadette - microbiologist, earns megabucks. Has a Phd unlike her dh.

Penny - stereotypical 'blonde bimbo' (hate that expression), yet trumps the men due to her street savvy and common sense.

Casualty!

It has a good range of male and female consultants, nurses and other hcps.

Lost Girl is entertaining tosh with a strong female lead - there is lots of cheesy erotic nonsense as the lead is a succubus but she is bi-sexual so it is very equal ops - very Xena and Buffy inspired.

Pulling - had a great female heavy cast - it's theme was mainly relationships with men and how they could go disastrously wrong - the characters were grotesques designed for our amusement/ horror - it was refreshingly honest about relationships - sexual and platonic and it was very very funny.

The Mindy Project. Very much a story about a woman looking for love, but Mindy is a doctor, a hero, not typically beautiful, not white, very funny and holds her own.

She is an example of a feisty woman who likes celebrity gossip and clothes, but still is successful and intelligent too.

The Bridge.

Nurse Jackie.

The Sopranos - Carmela and Dr Melfi are both excellent.

Anything with Olivia Colman in it. The Thirteenth tale was superb.

This is great, I am out of episodes of The Good Wife. Making a list here.

I really enjoyed Marvel's Agents of Shield. Its a team of six main characters - 3 men and 3 women. The "hardest" member of the team is one of the women, as is the cleverest scientist. I did the bechdel test on a couple of the episodes and it passed but didn't do each one.

I really enjoyed Marvel's Agents of Shield. Its a team of six main characters - 3 men and 3 women. The "hardest" member of the team is one of the women, as is the cleverest scientist. I did the bechdel test on a couple of the episodes and it passed but didn't do each one.

Another vote for Battlestar Galactica. Also True Blood.