The rise of the anti-hero has most TV and media reviewers heralding the past ten years as revolutionary, a “golden age of television.”
And I think it’s true, great television seems to be popping out of the seams of my TV and an ever-expanding “To Watch” list on my desk. In fact, looking at the recent figures for big summer blockbusters (most of which seem to have failed miserably) some (myself included) are wondering if Hollywood studios might be fading into the shadows of networks such as AMC and HBO.
TV, because of its much longer time allowances (12-20 hours of viewing per season) and recently-improved watching options (Hulu, Netflix, DVD releases and, let’s face it, illegal streaming and downloading) seem to create far more interesting characters and way more space for subtle scheming and intrigue in their plot lines. Increasingly, Hollywood opts for a bigger explosion to counteract its total lack of originality and character development.
So, in a word, I would argue yes, I find higher quality entertainment and better stories about life and humanity in television than I do at the movies.
But I don’t see many women in these shows either.
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| Some of Brett Martin’s “Difficult Men” |
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| Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in Homeland |
Do audiences consider stories with female protagonists un-relatable? Uninteresting? Too unbelievable? Or does this lack merely reflect life in that there aren’t any women doing enough “complex” and “darkly-human” things to model the character after?
I don’t believe any of that is true, but that doesn’t change the amount of women headlining an AMC show. In thinking about my favorite shows, I can only think of a few female characters that I would consider unique and groundbreaking. Consider Breaking Bad: while Skyler is an interesting enough character, she’s far less compelling (and obviously secondary) to the character development that Walt is showcasing, often being seen as no more than a “nag” or “hen-pecking shrew” to many viewers (not this one). In fact, the backlash against Skyler (Anna Gunn) has been so intense (consider the meme below as a common example of how the internet seems to view the poor woman) that Gilligan actually addressed the problem in a recent interview.
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| One of the nicer internet memes for Skyler White (Anna Gunn) |
So ladies, either we are far too flat and boring to be on TV, or as it has been for so long, our stories and interactions are still being undervalued. Therefore, we should set some goals for ourselves: be marvelously interesting (sarcasm) and (more importantly) continue to write, produce, direct and support more TV shows about women–because I don’t see many others doing it for us.
Rachel Redfern has an MA in English literature, where she conducted research on modern American literature and film and its intersection; however, she spends most of her time watching HBO shows, traveling, and blogging and reading about feminism.
GOT is really lead by the women and there choices, to me!
Thank you for writing this, Rachel!! I adore Omar Little (one of my fave characters ever) and find Don Draper and Tony Soprano intriguing. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lamented, “ANOTHER male anti-hero??!!” Ugh, enough already.
In addition to the women of Game of Thrones (love, love, love Daenerys, Arya, Brienne, Cersei — an intriguing anti-heroine), Weeds and Homeland, there are fantastic female anti-heroes on Damages (Patty Hewes is my favorite anti-hero, a nuanced and complex stone-cold badass), Scandal (Olivia Pope rocks), Nurse Jackie, Michonne on The Walking Dead, Carrie on Sex and the City (Emily Nussbaum’s article on SATC is amazing), The United States of Tara, The Americans, Girls, Orange is the New Black.
But I would love to see more. Many more.
If you’re talking just about the grand, epic, take-several-seasons-to-tell-a-big-story shows, Battlestar Gallactica is the only one that comes to mind immediately. The show had frequent storylines centered around women, which was awesome. And whenever there’s an ensemble cast, you often have major storylines devoted to women and their point-of-view (Mad Men as one example). And then of course if you go outside of those big dramas, there is some fantastic TV that places women at the forefront, for example Parks & Rec (I also love the Mindy Project – I think I even saw something on these pages about Mindy being a great antihero). But I absolutely agree with you that I wish there was much more, particularly on the scale of Sopranos/The Wire/Mad Men/Breaking Bad.
Parks and Rec, BSG and Mad Men are all AMAZING for women!! Leslie Knope, April, Ann Perkins, Retta, Kara Thrace, President Laura Roslin, Peggy, Joan…love, love. love. And someone mentioned on Bitch Flicks’
Facebook page, Sarah Linden from The Killing and Robin Griffin from Top
of the Lake who are also fabulous. But while they’re flawed and complex, I find all those women heroic, not anti-heroes like on Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad.
Interesting that the meme is anti-Skyler White, since she’s the main motivation for her husband Walter’s escapade into meth cooking. Pretty classic storytelling, which is why the show works in the first place (strong storytelling.) Walter wants to protect her and the family because he loves them – something the anti-Skyer’s seem unable to grasp. (Maybe b/c they’re too busy grasping something else?)
Some would say United States, of Tara, Girls or Nurse Jackie but I don’t follow either of those. I would say the Good Wife, the central character is female, and at least half of the main characters are both female and interesting, opposite of other shows which have good female characters but not as a lead.
Another option could be rookie blue, and maybe it’s not consider as premium tv but is a good show, the main is female, and a good bunch of the cast as well.
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I would add Syfy’s Stahma Tarr (Jaime Murray) of DeFiance. I think Sci-Fi does a good job of having leading women in dual roles; heroes and anti heroes.
Rebecca, would definitely agree with you that Battlestar Galatica had probably one of the best female characters with Starbuck and Mary McDonnell as the President. I’ve also heard some interesting things about the new show, “House of Cards” with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright I think, supposedly they’re both very anti-hero, but I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.
I’m going to second Orange is the New Black, but with a caveat: it’s highly sexualized (though from what I’ve read about all the male-centered shows you’ve listed, this isn’t terribly unheard of). However, I wonder if Orange is the New Black crosses the line at times, moving from a reasonable exposition of female sexuality to overt fetishizing (particularly lesbian fetishizing).
But despite the sexy bits, the show is as emotionally gripping as any I’ve seen. Orange is the New Black also boasts a cast of, not just women, but minority women as well. I’d love to see a bitchflicks writeup of that one. I’m still trying to process it: does it sit on the side of yay feminism or boo more stereotypes and sexualization of female leads? I can’t decide.
As far as House of Cards goes, Robin Wright is an amazing and complex character, but the protagonist is Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey). He has the monologues. He’s the Richard III character. And while Claire Underwood (Wright) is Lady Macbeth to his intrigue, she’s still just a supporting piece in the boys-only playset.
Laura Dern in “Enlightened”; Julia Louis-Dreyfuss in “Veep”; and, of course, Lena Dunham in “Girls” are all doing terrific work. Dunham’s especially inspiring since she created the show, writes for it, acts, directs, edits, and so on. (It’s unfortunate that AMC’s one drama featuring a female lead falls a distant third behind in “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men.” I don’t think, however, that anyone’s blaming Mireille Enos’ performance for that gap.)
The Skyler White backlash is particularly interesting (and disgusting) because it’s pretty clear early on in “Breaking Bad”s run that, despite his claims to the contrary, Walt’s motivation has very little to do with his family. What catalyzes Walt’s break? A death sentence from a doctor. The indignity of washing his student’s sports car, and being mocked while doing it. Walt cites his family’s well being to justify manufacturing and distributing poison, putting innocents at risk, and killing others, but he’s also willing to let Walt Jr call Skyler a bitch; emotionally terrorize Skyler, even going so far as to threaten her with commitment to an asylum; and risk Gus murdering all of them because he believes Gus is bluffing.
Walt points to his family because he knows that, culturally and socially, a man who can’t support his family is no man at all.
Skyler’s immortality is seen as shrewish and vindictive, while Walt’s is heroic and Romantic. It’s hard to avoid the fact that one reason Tony Soprano, Walter White, Don Draper, and their like are so popular is they embody a masculinity that’s wholly determined by self-determination and action– anything less is to be emasculated. Carmela, Skyer, and Betty are reviled because they attempt to hold those men accountable and to restrain them, and that’s the cardinal sin.
ANYWAY, Gillian Anderson’s great in “The Fall,” a murder mystery/procedural set in Belfast; Elisabeth Moss wows in “Top of the Lake”; and Diane Kruger’s been very good so far in “The Bridge.” So, we are doing better, there’s some excellent television featuring women in lead roles, but the ratio still falls shamefully short.
I’ve had problems with the anti hero lately. At least when it comes to the main characters. There’s just too many of them. Of course, nearly none of them are women which is a shame and I think it would do television good to have some. The over exposure is what I’d be afraid of because I’m already annoyed at the over exposure of anti heroes in general. What happened to the good ol fashioned hero?
That’s probably one of the reasons I watch Justified. It certainly has an anti hero(Boyd, who’s probably the most interesting anti hero on television anyway), but he’s not really the main character. Speaking of Justified, for such a male centric world that show portrays, it has some wonderful female characters. Season 2 and 4 in particular. I think that’s hard to pull off considering the world we live in. Portraying male centric worlds tend to reduce the female characters to tropes. It’s unfortunate really.
Mad Men can be frustratingly uneven in its storytelling for female characters. Sometimes it’s good and even excellent (e.g. Betty’s arc in S3, or Peggy’s in S1), but sometimes Matt Weiner completely drops the ball. This past season is a prime example, as apparently the only characters he deemed interesting enough to write compelling stories for were Don (obviously), Pete, and Ted (wtf?).
Emily Nussbaum wrote an article arguing for SATC and Carrie Bradshaw’s place in the echelon in the rise of the anti-hero:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2013/07/29/130729crte_television_nussbaum
Agree! Boyd is a great anti hero right alongside Eva, who I’d argue for anti-heroine to a certain extent! And yes, Mags Bennett for anti-heroine win!
Scandal for me is THE female anti-hero show, period.
Also, Top of the Lake- Robin.
LONG! SORRY!
Yes! I agree completely. Maybe it’s a testimony to the power of even half-decently written female characters. Female characters who are powerful in a certain way, if not anti-heroic- Meera Reed, Brienne of Tarth. At least somewhat anti-heroic or at least morally ambiguous- Arya Stark, Catelyn Stark, Cersei Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Margaery Tyrell, Olenna Tyrell, Yara/Asha Greyjoy, Osha, Shae, Ygritte, Ros, Lysa Arryn, Melisandre… the number of compelling female characters really boggles the mind!
Many of the women are made either less powerful or less morally ambiguous than in the books, though. Some of these, especially Arya, are done for plausibility reasons, but… in a show where the WMDs are dragons…
List below, but for those who wish to avoid spoilers, my point is that for Game of Thrones, the women are systematically somewhat weakened, with the only character who I would say genuinely fits the hallowed anti-hero model being Tyrion Lannister. (Cersei is made much more developed and sympathetic than she is before the fourth books, for obvious reasons of point of view, and could be an exception to the previous statement.) I couldn’t hazard to say why, aside from a general trend towards greater character development in non-POV characters from the books, or the need for sympathetic characters being more immediate in television. The changes, though, made for either sympathy or plausibility, are striking in what they may say or not say about what’s found believable, appealing, portrayable within the limits of TV, and/or expedient to the plot, particularly in the cases of Arya, Daenerys, and Cersei.
SPOILERS FOR BOOKS- list of changes- for fairness’s sake, obviously not counting things in the books that haven’t happened yet in show storyline (halfway through A Storm of Swords).
Daenerys- raped by Drogo on wedding night rather than consensual sex as in books, falls in love with him anyway; conquests shown much more positively on show than in books;
Arya- despite being aged up, the show has Jaqen kill the guards for her escape from Harrenhal, rather than having her participate as she does in the books;
Melisandre- only one of her curses on the three kings is shown to work immediately, as opposed to all three rather quickly in the third book; power over Stannis, Gendry, and Davos systematically sexualized as compared to its portrayal in books;
Sansa- makes no/fewer active escape attempts from KL;
Asha- demonstrates love/concern for Theon in rescue attempt;
Cat- kills another woman rather than a man at the Red Wedding; given less reason to doubt Tyrion’s guilt in her kidnapping of him; no sign of possible feelings for Baelish;
Cersei- expresses remorse for Bran, concern whether feigned or not for Cat, remorse over relations with Jaime, remorse over how Joffrey’s turned out, etc., etc.;
Shae- genuinely in love with Tyrion, it seems, as well as loving to Sansa, although she’s also far enhanced in other aspects;
Lysa- hatred/jealousy of Cat, apparent from first appearance in the first book, glossed over;
Ygritte- less actively pressures Jon Snow into sex, receiving more immediate genuine consent and emotional/physical reciprocation from him;
Margaery- enhanced friendship with Sansa, which continues strongly even after possible marriage ties are done- made a stronger character overall, though.
Additions welcome!
A similar list probably could be made for the male characters, too, of course…
Ooooh I have to watch season 2 of Scandal because for me, Damages is the top female anti-hero show. And I love Robin and Top of the Lake. But I found her to be heroic rather than an anti-hero. But either way, she’s fabulous.
A main character who often gets overlooked is Kate Beckett from Castle played by the extremely under appreciated Stana Katic. Obviously the show is named after Nathan Fillion’s character and Nathan Fillion was the big name drawing viewers when the show started. But those who continue to watch know that you start the show for Nathan Fillion and stay for Stana Katic. Her character has become the real star. Maybe not an antihero but definitely a character with flaws and struggles. BSG had two of the best female characters of course. Starbuck and the President, I’d vote for Laura any day. The women on Veep! Also I vote for all the women of Orange is the New Black, every single one of them is brilliant.