10 series about women who break stereotypes
'01.06.2019'
Source: Forbes
The new season of “Big Little Lie”, “Dead for me”, “Killing Eve”: we have chosen ten best new TV shows with very interesting heroines. They surprise and inspire.
The female character in the movies and TV shows has changed dramatically over the past few years. The main characters in HBO and Netflix bestsellers are women. And these women no longer consider marriage or “female happiness” (in its stereotypical sense) the meaning of their life, writes Forbes. They seek and find new meanings. Not surprisingly, television producers were ordering TV channels with very interesting TV shows with interesting female characters: in 2019, Netflix rose from 22 to the first place in the reputation rating of the American Reputation Institute for how the company responded to the situation around #MeToo . New series about strong women appear literally every month, and we have chosen our top ten.
"Big Little Lies"
A banal choice, but not to include this cult TV series in our list would be simply offensive. After all, it was after the first season of “Big Little Lie”, created on the basis of Liana Moriarty’s novel of the same name, that the whole world started talking about changing the female character in television culture. Eight Emmy Awards and four Golden Globes confirming the status of one of the best TV shows of the last decade. This project combines the superstars of world cinema (Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman) for the sake of one simple goal: to show how female power can, together, defeat all stereotypes. It is also very clear to show how conditional the cliches about “housewife”, “businesswoman”, “good mother” and other social roles imposed on women. And all these tectonic layers move within several families in a small American town where a murder occurs once in a local school.
The second season (of course, one of the most anticipated 2019 premieres of the year) starts in the world already on June 9, and already on June 10 will be available for viewing in Russia. Something we already know: the mother of the hero Alexander Skarsgard from the first season is played by Meryl Streep herself.
"Matryoshka" (Russian Doll)
The series, known in Russia due to the similarity of the image of Natasha Lyonne with Alla Pugacheva. It is unlikely that Lyonne, Amy Poehler and Leslie Hadland, who created the project for Netflix, thought about this. But for Lyonne, in whose filmography the most famous are films of the American Pie series and the series Orange Is the New Black (also, by the way, about tough women, but you already know about him), Matryoshka is a real treasure. Nadya Vulvokova leaves the bathroom to her friend's apartment, where the party is taking place. Over and over and over again. Nadia dies in order to be resurrected every time again in the same place, at the same hour and to relive all the same events. From the outside, it looks like Groundhog Day, but in fact, a very touching study of childhood trauma.
Concluding Nadya in a temporary loop, the authors made sure that the viewer was interesting to follow all the ups and downs. Heroine constantly throw up different hints on how to get out of the loop, but she definitely does not expect such a final. And do not let anyone tell you how it ended, - the last minutes of the series will shock you.
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Dead to Me
One of the new products of Netflix is the series, which was produced by Adam McKay (the director of the films “The Game of the slide” and “Power”, nominated for “Oscar”) and comedian Will Ferrell. The author was comedian and screenwriter Liz Feldman, who invented a very interesting story. Jen (Christina Applegate) sells real estate, and therefore her husband and her family were in charge of her home. Alas, he was hit by a car to death, and the driver fled the scene of the crime. Trying to cope with grief and rage, Jen goes to the group of psychological support, where he meets with ridiculous and kind Judy (Linda Cordellini). Judy also recently lost a loved one - and with Jen they are trying to start a new life.
Perhaps this is all you need to know about this series, otherwise you will not be interested. And he throws up every episode more and more new clues and hints. True, the friendship of widows, which will acquire a very entertaining dynamic, will become the leitmotif of the series, refuting the stereotype about the supposedly impossible friendship of women. Feldman's comedic past will not let the story fall into bestial seriousness, so that all 10 episodes will fly by.
"Glitter" (Glow)
The name of the original is the abbreviation GLOW, which hides "Luxury Women Wrestling." Nostalgia for 1980 and 1990 is experiencing its peak, and in this series it manifested itself in the form of an absolutely delightful mix of sports and entertainment attraction and female awareness. The heroines of the show runners Liz Flahive and Karli Mensch are absolutely alive and devoid of cloying gloss. Ruth (Alison Bree, from whom no one expected such dramatic heights) - a failed actress, sleeping with the husband of her best friend Debbie (Beddy Gilpin). By the will of fate, women converge on the ring - they find themselves in female wrestling, in which at first no one believes, even the director, who once shot low-level horror. By some miracle in Los Angeles mid 1980-x there is a new entertainment, leading all participants to a new understanding of themselves. But the most important thing is to have to believe in yourself. And “Glitter”, using the example of the story of Ruth and Debbie, shows how difficult it is.
"Brilliance" withstood the test of the second season (not all Netflix shows succeed) and will soon return with the third part.
White Raven (Insecure)
The HBO channel project is based on Issa Ray's awkward black girl web series and aims to show the American and world viewers that black people have exactly the same problems as everyone else. Issa (Ray does not give up his name) and Molly (Yvonne Orgy) are friends with Stanford. They are already under 30, but they continue to have problems with their personal lives and with the outside world. Some of the critics of “White Crow” are seen as “Sex in a big city” for blacks, but this is not so - in fact, it’s a benefit of Ray, who turned out to be not only an excellent scriptwriter, but also an excellent actress. The history of Issa and Molly’s relations reflects the world of modern young black women and shows the difficulties they face almost every day.
HBO spokesman Casey Bloys admits that he does not understand all the references from the film, but this is normal. Therefore, the White Crow has already been extended for the fourth season.
Killing Eve
Here is another Phoebe Waller Bridge series that gave us one of the most charming sociopaths in the history of television. Vilanel (Jodie Comer) is a fragile girl, with a radiant smile, putting knives into people and poisoning them. In fact, she has a completely different name, but she really knows how to kill, she has such a job. The actions of Villanel (highly inventive) come into the field of vision of MI5 analyst Eva Polastri (Sandra O), an ordinary woman with no outstanding abilities. The clash between the agent and the sociopaths will be an exciting ballet in which every dance can be the last.
Polastri does not look like a typical agent. She is confused, sometimes confused, and sometimes slow - not to name the heroine Sandra O "James Bond in a skirt." But it is precisely this vulnerability that makes it human, unlike the robot-like Vilanel. Waller Bridge recalls that during the development of the series she was told that you can not shoot as many women. “I answered: do you even have your mind? If it is well written and filmed, everything is fine. " And there is.
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Grace and Frankie
The Netflix series evil tongues at first tried to convict of “gentrification of television,” since the heroines Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are already good at 60 (and the actresses are coming to the 80 years). But the idea was very tenacious, and the story is very vital, despite the glossy picture. Once Grace led the cosmetic concern, and now constantly reproaches her daughter, who transferred the case. But life presents her with a new test: in her old age, her husband Robert (Martin Sheen) announced that he loved his colleague Saul (Sam Waterston) and intends to live with him. Sola, too, is left with a misunderstood spouse, Frankie's hippie, with which the prim Grace will try to arrange a Boston marriage.
The series has some problems, but due to its irony and the desire to show older women absolutely normal, “Grace and Frankie” have not lost their charm for five seasons now. Part of his secret and in the creators - for example, Martha Kauffman is well known as one of the authors of the cult "Friends".
"Trash" (Fleabag)
Almost 20 years ago, an example of a typical English woman was Bridget Jones - a wasteful blonde, so to speak, with excess weight, who loved to drink and write down her thoughts in a diary. Now Miss Jones, with her passion for Mark Darcy, is hopelessly behind the times. British girls have changed, and the approach to television heroines is changing. The heroine Phoebe Waller Bridge calls herself rubbish - just like that, without a name. She does not stand out: an ordinary girl under 30, lives in London, does not particularly care about anything in life and has a very disgusting character. She goes to work, argues with her sister, has sex, masturbates. And a lot of spicy. Modern teleheroine does not need to be strong or outstanding. Sometimes you have to be like Rubbish or Issa from the White Crow.
Phoebe Waller Bridge not only plays the main role, but also is the creator of the series. Black humor, which is registered with her heroine, is increasingly found in the series about women. And Phoebe herself is now busy with important business: she polishes the script of the 25 th James Bond film.
Unreal Bachelor (Unreal)
Buffy’s executive producer on the series and Mad Men screenwriter Marty Nokson and former linear producer of the Bach reality show Sarah Gertrude Shapiro created a caustic satire on TV backstage. Constance Zimmer plays the cruel and tough Quinn King, the showwright of the Everlasting program, very similar to Bach. Quinn manipulates the heroines, the hero, but most importantly - his colleagues. Most of all goes to producer Rachel Goldberg (Shiri Appleby), whose recent disruption on the air almost became the last day of the show. Rachel and Quinn seem completely different, but both are very vulnerable. However, one uses its vulnerability as armor, and the other - as a weapon. Together they are the perfect symbiosis for a program that squeezes everything out of their characters for the pleasure of the public.
The series lasted for four seasons, but it is better to stop after the second - Nokson left the project, leaving him due to disagreements with Shapiro, and “Unreal Bachelor” gradually began to roll into the usual soap opera.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Comedy with a touch of madness, like many of the above projects, the result of creative performer starring. Rachel Bloom came up with a very funny heroine. Rebecca Bunch works as a lawyer in a major New York firm when he meets his childhood love on the street - the young man Josh. Once they went to camp together, but now Josh lives in a California backwater and seems to be quite happy. Rebecca quits her job, moves to West Covina (slightly more than 106 000 people) and begins to win Josh's heart. Bloom alternates Rebecca's story with hilarious songs parodying pop culture, but don't let that fool you. In the center of the plot - the heroine with very serious psychological problems. If Vilanel from “Killing Eve” is a sociopath, then Rebecca is a truly possessed woman, capable of absolutely monstrous acts. But to break away from her is simply impossible.
To speak frivolously about serious is a difficult task. The “former” copes well with this, showing not only mental instability, but also parental burden, female sexuality, emotional affection, and even difficulties associated with the female reproductive system.
