Television that passes Bechdel, preferably currently running?

[cimorene]

I am doing a lot of knitting lately and I need something to watch in between lumps of Star Trek - an alternate genre to break up the space opera (I'm saving Watch All The Xenas for after I've watched all the Star Treks on the grounds of being more or less similar in genre, and both really long). I've been working through popular British detective series, but the problem with crime dramas, much as I enjoy them, is that most of the characters are dudes. (Except that one with Helen Mirren and I've seen it before. And Marple, ditto.)¹

I am already following Nikita and Once Upon a Time, which are both nice in this respect, but they're on hiatus.

What I need is non-relationship-drama centric shows aimed at and starring multiple women to watch. For example, I can't stand the soap operatic quality of interpersonal relationships and the histrionic personal drama of Grey's Anatomy or The L Word. Or Downton Abbey, for that matter, but it has too much dude onscreen for my present purposes anyway. I hate reality tv of all kinds except Project Runway. I've already seen Buffy and everything else by Joss. And I hate all sitcoms. I don't really know where else to look. I'd therefore appreciate suggestions.

Poll #8920

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

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Can you suggest a non-interpersonal-drama-centric television show about women?

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1. The other problem is when they Fail at various issues or, like the last episode of Frost I watched, actually don't fail but present the failure of a bunch of despicable toerags way too honestly. The protagonist was the only character I wasn't enraged with at the end, and that isn't good for my blood pressure.

Comments

[effex]

Hmmmm. I can't remember, have you seen No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency? Also Middleman (my recs are so predictable). Or The Good Wife, maybe? Might be too drama-y. Are you looking just for English-language stuff?

eta: fail, I totally missed that you had a poll set up. Sorry!

eta 2: ooh, Parks and Recreation!

[cimorene]

Do you watch No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency? I've been worried that I might not get as much from it if I don't read the books first.

[effex]

Regularly! I got the dvd set for Christmas... last year, I think? And adore it. I watched the show before reading the books (and like the show more, honestly, all the actors are amazing) and don't remember being confused about anything, or feeling like I missed out when I picked up the books.

[cobweb_diamond]

OH, btw having seen other ppls suggestions i'd definitely second Forbrydelsen/The Killing, although it's not as easy to watch as The Good Wife because you ABSOLUTELY must watch every single episode, whereas The Good Wife is slightly more episodic/traditional in structure.

[pineapplechild]

The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries is a short, older BBC mystery series that's based around the eponymous Mrs. Bradley, a divorced older woman who enjoys Freud and criminology. They're 1920ish based, and if you happen to have Netflix, there are generally one or two of them up there (they rotate in and out which ones). I keep meaning to pick up the books they're based on, there's some ridiculous amount of them.

If you like the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, there are a couple miniseries adaptations that are good. I really like the one with Edward Petherbridge as Peter and Harriet Walter as Harriet. They do the three main Harriet and Peter novels, and I do love those, particularly Gaudy Night.

Other then my tiny British mystery series love, I would second that No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency rec.

[dorothy1901]

Also worth mentioning is that The Mrs Bradley Mysteries stars Diana Rigg.

[pineapplechild]

I forgot to mention that? Wow, I'm falling down on the job. I love her so darn much.

[pineapplechild]

Also, the Rosemary and Thyme series is about two women who solve mysteries with the POWER OF GARDENING AND PLANT SCIENCE. It's a pretty darn good series, and ran for three seasons, most of which are on Netflix. It's fairly engaging, although I find it better background noise for knitting/working then engaging in its own right.

[cimorene]

Both of those sound pretty amazing if I can get them. *_* I don't think Netflix works in Finland, though, although my friend was saying something about a work-around.

[foursweatervests]

Also: Southland, Fringe (overall), The Good Wife, Once Upon a Time (like you already said; I'm just listing everything I can think of), Friday Night Lights, and if I can think of anything else I'll send you a note.

I hear The Vampire Diaries is good on female-to-female interaction, but I've never seen it myself. And if you decide to try a sitcom out, Parks and Rec is my personal favorite for female relationships (and everything else) and New Girl is surprisingly good in that regard. I would also watch any old episodes of 3rd Rock From The Sun. It's slammin'. :-D

[cimorene]

I... think Southland is that one with a gay male cop, right? The blond guy? I think Wax watched that. But maybe I'm confusing it with something else.

[foursweatervests]

Yep, that's it. Unless there's another show I don't know about with a gay male blond cop. Which isn't entirely unlikely. It's worth every minute, I promise.

[zvi]

Community appears to be more about storytelling than about a laughtrack, if you can get past the fact that it's half an hour.

Also, if you like Project Runway US, you should try Project Runway Canada. The same producers from the first five good seasons of ProjRun have made some other shows in similar vein: Project Accessory just wrapped, Top Chef and Top Chef Desserts are both good.

The Closer is pretty much a straight procedural, but you might like the episodes which include Mary McDonnell as a guest star, as she is Brenda's antagonist and interacts with her a lot, and their antagonism is all work-related.

Leverage has two women and three guys, one of whom is an obnoxious alcoholic that is the showrunner's Mary Sue. I don't know if the ratio is too far off for you.

[cimorene]

I do like Leverage, although the ratio isn't quite high enough to act as a counter to overdose-of-dudes poisoning. I haven't kept up with it the past couple of seasons, though; we had a brief break due to wanting so badly to strangle that old white dude all the time. But your Project Runway suggestions are very appreciated! I'll check those out.

[aeslis]

I was going to recommend The Closer as well, since it has many represented minorities within the team and is run by a super awesome lady. Of course her team are all men, but--wait. Actually, there was a lady of color working on her team as well near the beginning, wasn't there? And of course Mary McDonnell later on.

The series does start with her team looking down on Brenda for being a woman, but that doesn't last long, as most everyone starts to realize that it really doesn't fucking matter and she is all sorts of awesome and not about to let anything as stupid as prejudice stop her.

Using zvi's words, the ratio might not be quite right, but personally I do think that Brenda by herself makes up for it, as well as the fact that the cast has multiple people of color.

[cimorene]

I am intrigued by the multiple endorsements and will place The Closer on my list for checking out after The Good Wife and Lost Girl!

[bluesbell]

I always recommend The Good Wife to everyone. It has some relationship stuff, but it's not presented in a soap operatic way, and the focus of each episode is in the legal case. And it's very much about female character-driven plots, which is super.

Also I would suggest Lost Girl for your fantasy show needs. The main duo have a fun heroine + sassy sidekick dynamic that is quite femmeslashy (also the main character is canonically bisexual). It's one of those shows that's not consistently good, but is usually enjoyable and occasionally amazing.

[cimorene]

I will definitely try those two. And I remembered after I saw the poll results that I've seen people talking about them before and kinda thought 'oh maybe I'll check that out sometime!' But prior to my recent knitting craze I haven't needed to look for more stuff to watch in a long long time. We're actually caught up on all the currently running shows that we haven't given up on now and I'm down to Star Treks, but there's a limit to how much Star Trek I want to watch in a month. I mean, I love Patrick Stewart and all, but I may be in danger of 90s Space Fashion poisoning.

[mouselyhamless]

Man, I fail at polls.

What I meant to say was The Inside has some interesting twists and turns and the main characters in general, but especially the lead were fleshed out quite well.

Misfits (a British show about Juvenile Delinquents getting super powers) also has two women main characters. Both start out kind of stereotype-y, but both are wonderfully developped if you give them some time. That show does suffer from all the characters being...less than admirable, and occasionally annoying. However, they are pretty entertaining despite that.

[foursweatervests]

Just to jump in on this rec, I'd second Misfits. I don't think the two female characters (Kelly and Alisha) interact without a third, male character with them a whole lot until the second season, but it's still a wonderful, wonderful show.