The women who use their #MeToo rage to make beautiful TV
Subtle digs, Sicilian dreams and introducing the world to the Negroni Sbagliato, 2022 was a busy, brilliant year for female-led television.
Subtle digs, Sicilian dreams and introducing the world to the Negroni Sbagliato, 2022 was a busy, brilliant year for female-led television.
It was The White Lotus breakout star Jennifer Coolidge shimmying on stage at the Emmys, refusing to be played off as Hit The Road Jack boomed around the ballroom and went viral on social media.
It was Abbott Elementary’s Sheryl Lee Ralph busting into a stirring rendition of Endangered Species on stage because she – the Tony winning Broadway star – was speechless at winning her first TV award at 65 years old.
It was Zendaya’s record-breaking win, again. Not only was she nominated for a swag of awards. Taking out one as executive producer for Euphoria and another for writing original lyrics for two songs, the 26-year-old also became the youngest two-time winner for acting in Emmys history. She is now the first, and youngest, black woman to win the Emmy for lead actress in a drama series twice for her Fentanyl-laced performance as the most terrifyingly traumatised teenager we’ve seen since Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones.
It was her co-star Sydney Sweeney as Cassie screaming “I have never, ever been happier” in the season two finale.
(Language warning)
This was the year women roared on television.
They shot people, snorted drugs, pushed “smut” and used $100 bills as snotty tissues. They offered and delivered some of the sharpest writing ever greenlit and broadcast on television for more than just a pilot. So successful were most female-led stories and projects this year, studios and streaming services locked in subsequent seasons.
In the wonderful Nancy Meyers film, The Holiday (‘tis the season after all), there is a marvellous exchange between Kate Winslet’s downtrodden character, Iris, and her new friend, the elderly Oscar-winning showrunner, Arthur Abbott.
“Iris, in the movies we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend,” Abbott says.
“You’re so right. You’re supposed to be the leading lady of your own life, for god’s sake!” Iris realises.
Writers, producers, supporting cast, lead roles – 2022 was the year women finally had their Iris moment and became the leading ladies of the small screen.
Don’t just take the ones that garnered awards and mass critical buzz. Women and their stories, and stories told by them, swelled streaming services and linear TV like Coolidge did in her fancy dress when she won her first Emmy at 61.
Coolidge, on that fateful night back in September, said she’d taken “a lavender bath” just before the show, with it making her “swell up” inside her dress. “I’m having a hard time speaking,” she deadpanned. “But anyway, this is so thrilling…”
Thrilling it is.
The array of shows spanned everything from black Irish humour about plotting to kill an evil brother-in-law, to feeling sorry for a Melinda Gates-esque divorcee even though she is the third richest woman in the US.
Loot
It’s hard to make viewers feel sympathy for billionaires living in gilded cages as the cost of living in reality is soaring. However none are as personable and talented as Maya Rudolph - who stars as a wronged wife to a tech bro. When she discovers her husband (Adam Scott) is cheating with a younger woman she leaves, lands an $87 billion settlement then spends the rest of the season working with her foundation as one of the richest women in the US.
It’s a romp by the Parks & Recreation team, Rudolph also EPs a few episodes, and the script is sharp and sassy with little to no sympathy shown to the protagonist. In a delightful uplifting way there is no punching down, just subtle side-eye glances to the Elon-Bezos-Gates circuses touring the tabloids this year.
Minx
“Do people enjoy your company?”
“Not really, no.”
Minx – the story of the first erotic magazine for women in the 1970s – has some of the strongest and wittiest dialogue of the year. Imagine Succession if Kendall read Anais Nin. The magic sits in the electric banter and chemistry of cheeky and charming publisher Jake Johnson (of New Girl fame) and his buttoned-up, feminist editor played by Olivia Lovibond.
Full frontal male and female nudity, zinging one-liners including expletives and excerpts from famous feminist literature combine to make this series less “girl boss” and more thought provoking about sexual liberation – even 50 years since the revolution began.
Bad Sisters
For those with a weak constitution for swearing, Irish black comedy and more twists and turns than an afternoon in side show alley at the Royal Easter Show – this brilliant, moreish series is not for you. It’s the latest project from TV brainiac Sharon Horgan – of Divorce fame – and has received universal rave reviews.
It focuses on the five Garvey sisters who plot to kill their eldest sister’s awful husband, called The Prick. The gripping first season wrestles with domestic violence, sexual assault, and other serious themes, but as with everything Horgan is behind, it is also laugh-‘til-you-cry funny.
Abbott Elementary
The most delightful series to come out of this bin fire of a year. The hype machine got this right. If there’s ever been a “vibe shift” in TV, this is the result. It’s The Office-style mockumentary that is clever, never conscendeingdescending, but incredibly thought-provoking – especially for those working or involved in schools, or more specifically, the chronically under-resourced public education system.
Written by former BuzzFeed meme queen, Quinta Brunson, who also stars as a sweet but hapless second grade teacher, it is laugh-out-loud hilarious one minute, but will have you sobbing in the next scene. Binge it once, binge it again and it’ll never lose its charm and messages.
Hacks
The beauty and fun of this series rests in the generation gap, much like what we see in Abbott Elementary. Jean Smart is fantastic as comedy legend and hard nut Deborah Vance who hates (but secretly loves) being forced to work with Ava (played by Hannah Einbinder), a millennial/Gen Z writer who is tasked with keeping her “fresh”.
The second season was drip fed in two-epsiode bites which only aided its popularity, The White Lotus-style, allowing the fans to devour think pieces and discuss narrative arcs over weeks instead of hours. At its core is the dysfunctional yet charming relationship that is hilarious yet harsh as it paints pictures of the realities of the comedy industry and ageism.
Loot is streaming now on AppleTV
Minx is streaming now on Stan
Bad Sisters is streaming now on AppleTV
Abbott Elementary is streaming now on Disney+
Hacks is streaming now on Stan
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