It’s official: we are living during the ‘Golden Age’ of television. This peak for the small-screen is very exciting for a medium that’s long struggled to break out of certain creative limits, and it’s even more special to see so many women dominating our screens. Nearly all of this year’s best shows have been both about and created by women. From Broad City to Killing Eve to Fleabag, let’s explore how the female vision is not only bringing a refreshing authenticity to the portrayal of women, but pushing the boundaries of the medium as a whole as it takes center stage.
The Emmy awards ceremony this past September is proof that women are making strides in television, and in every subcraft, from writing stories to starring in them. The mastermind behind Killing Eve, the story of a skilled psychopathic assassin and the woman on a mission to find her, is Phoebe Waller-Bridge. She penned the series and created two of the most intelligent, complex, and entertaining female characters on TV. Jodie Comer won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Villanelle on the show. While Waller-Bridge initially wanted to act in the series herself, she ultimately didn’t see herself fitting into the story but was bored and unsatisfied with so many of the roles offered to women. Her yearning for more interesting, authentic female characters led her to write her own wish into fruition, and thus, Fleabag was born. Discussing her connection to the titular character in an interview at the Hollywood Reporter Comedy Actress Roundtable, Phoebe says that, “for better or worse, Fleabag says what she thinks in the moment, and I’m still learning how to do that. There are so many things, like fear, in the way…so I write women who don’t give a shit because I am teaching myself how to be one”. Being able to both create Fleabag and play her lends itself to a very nuanced portrayal of life for a woman in her 30s grieving the death of her best friend, navigating her dysfunctional family, and trying to keep her café afloat. Fleabag is messy, crude, hilarious, self-sabotaging, and deeply human. The constant breaking of the fourth wall gives the audience an unfiltered look of a broken woman just trying to survive. It’s no wonder Fleabag swept the Emmys scoring four awards for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy, Best Directing for a Comedy, and Outstanding Comedy Series.
Another exemplary moment for women in television this year was the final chapter of Broad City, the story of two twenty-something women, Abbi and Ilana, as they hilariously attempt to navigate life in New York City. Their friendship is the foundation of the show, and remains the vessel for both the humor and sincerity. Rarely are female friendships captured as candidly and honestly as Abbi and Ilana’s, and that’s why the finale was so bittersweet. (Spoiler Alert!) The closing shot shows Ilana going down into the subway and out of sight, as the camera follows a new set of friends. Another pair of friends can be seen, and the camera continues to follow different women with a similar dynamic to Abbi and Ilana’s, all with varying backgrounds and identities. The takeaway? You’ve been watching Abbi and Ilana’s lives for 5 years, but there are so many women’s stories that have yet to be told.