I recently started The Bold Type on Hulu, seeing its fifth and final season this year. Originally a Freeform show, it stars Katie Stevens, Meghann Fahy and Aisha Dee as three millennial best friends who work in a fictional version of Cosmopolitan called Scarlet.
I had seen ads for this show but only started it recently when I read this HC article, and I realized it is right up my alley. Feminist (albeit with limitations), set in New York City, with a writer and a social media manager among its three main characters. And of course, with all the obligatory charm in Freeform shows (think The Fosters).
My favorite thing about the show is the range of realistic issues it tackles. Just in the first season, the main characters have dealt with the exploration of sexuality, unrealistic sexual expectations for women, women’s health, and their career aspirations.
Jane, played by Stevens, is a newly promoted writer for Scarlet, and most storylines focus on her article for the week. She is type-A and highly strung, and she writes mostly about her struggles, making it her goal to remind women that they are never the only person going through something. Her promotion as a writer is the beginning of her opening up to new experiences and letting down the walls she has had up since her mother died of breast cancer as a child.
Meanwhile, Sutton spends the first season working her way up to a position in the fashion department at the magazine and balancing a secret relationship. My favorite thing to watch in her story is the way she deals with doubts about where she is meant to be in her career and how to put herself out there to get what she wants. Sutton has great conversations about not settling for the comfortable route and getting what she believes she deserves out of her job.
The best of the three is Kay, Scarlet’s social media manager. The first season follows her as she develops a relationship with Adena, a feminist Muslim artist that she meets while trying to secure her for a profile in the magazine. While Adena is an out and proud lesbian, Kat had always identified as straight. This is a relationship between a biracial and a Middle Eastern character, which breaks the trope of lesbian relationships between one white and one brown character (as seen in Euphoria, The Fosters). Kat is also the most outspoken for the causes she believes in, and she is just a delightful character to watch.
Jacquline, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, deserves an honorable mention. She is played by Melora Hardin, aka Jan from The Office. To see her in a role where she is a tough but supportive mentor to all three girls is fantastic. The knowing and perceptive Jacqueline always knows how to draw out a poignant and personal story based on Jane’s experiences.
All of the representation and strong characters aside, this show does miss the mark in some senses. In July, Aisha Dee posted this open letter, describing the slow progress she has seen behind the scenes in terms of writers and crew of the show and her determination to advocate for more representation of queer people and people of color in the making of the show. In the storyline itself, some things are unrealistic and glossed over. For instance, in one episode, Jane writes an article about reaching 25 without ever having an orgasm, then proceeds to have one, within five minutes, the first time she sleeps with a stranger the next episode. The feminist storylines are not the most nuanced ever, but they are honest, relatable and inclusive.
In general, The Bold Type is heartwarming and a beautiful example of women supporting each other and going through the trials of young adulthood together.