For as long as there have been films, women directors/producers have been successfully making a mark. With this article, we aim to capture the sheer diversity these women leaders have brought to the table with shows created by them. Happy Binging!
Fleabag
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Emmy Award winner, Phoebe Waller-Bridge created and starred in this rather memorable series that follows the journey of a troubled girl in her late twenties who is struggling to get her personal and professional life together and seems to be at odds with her father, stepmother, and brother in law. Not only is the style of storytelling fresh, but also, the show nails the contradictions and complexities of grief, which are a challenge to achieve.
Killing Eve
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Another gem by Phoebe Waller Bridge (PWB) is a love story of sorts between Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a bored cop, and Villanelle (Jodie Comer), a serial killer. The story comes together when Villanelle goes on a killing spree and Eve makes it her mission to nabher. In the process, both fall in love owing to the similarities in their nature while standing on opposite ends of the moral compass. PWB possesses the art of keeping you engaged through correctly-placed dark humour.
Handmaid’s Tale
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This series has been adapted by Margaret Attwood’s eponymous novel. . The story is set in a dystopian future where the majority of women have become infertile and the state is taken over by a private organisation, Gilead, which essentially makes whatever remaining fertile women their property for procreation. The revolution, to break out of this system, is started by June Osborne/ Ofred (Elizabeth Moss), one of the captured handmaids. The show is gory, gut-wrenching, and inspiring. The writer, however, sees her work as a depiction of the class divide in which women in the lowest class suffer the most.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale has often been called a “feminist dystopia,” but that term is not strictly accurate. In a feminist dystopia pure and simple, all of the men would have greater rights than all of the women. It would be two-layered in structure: top layer men, bottom layer women. But Gilead is the usual kind of dictatorship: shaped like a pyramid, with the powerful of both sexes at the apex, the men generally outranking the women at the same level; then descending levels of power and status with men and women in each, all the way down to the bottom, where the unmarried men must serve in the ranks before being awarded an Econowife.’
-Margaret Attwood
The Mindy Project
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This one is about Mindy Lahiri (Mindy Kaling), a gynecologist who is trying to strike a balance between her demanding professional and personal life. No doubt, the storyline seems common in one go, but the sheer art lies in its execution, and, of course, Kaling’s acting chops.
Russian Doll
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Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) is celebrating her 36th birthday with friends when she unexpectedly dies. What’s strange is that she reappears, exactly at the same spot (which is the washroom of the lounge where she was partying) and this happens over and over again. She is now trying to understand what’s happening to her. During this time, she meets a man who is experiencing exactly the same thing in a different event. The critically-acclaimed series has been created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler.
"The idea was that we were going to essentially do different levels of a woman's experience until you got to, essentially what we would call between the three of us, Amy, Natasha, and I, the tiny doll. What is your tiny doll? That is your most vulnerable, the coding within your emotional makeup that has you act particular ways."
- Leslye Headland, Co-creator
Derry Girls
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This show by Lisa McGee is set in 1990s North Ireland and follows the lives of four 16-year-old girls as they go through their life surrounded by armed forces and curfews. Derry Girls is a delightful tale of friendship and a story that remains impactful no matter how many times you watch it.
Grace and Frankie
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This Netflix show is all about the friendship between two women who are poles apart. Grace Hanson (Jane Fonda) and Frankie Bergstein (Lily Tomlin) are divorced at the age of 70 when their husbands reveal they’re gay and have been partners for years. Circumstances land both women, who despise each other in the same houses, and comedy of error begins.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
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Miriam“Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a woman in 1950s America, is a happy homemaker until one day she discovers that her husband is cheating on her, and her world comes crashing down. However, this leads Maisel to the path of self-discovery wherein she establishes herself as a stand-up, a field that was then considered to be male-dominated. She is helped by Susie Myerson (Alex Borstien) in the process. From the dialogues to the Broadway-like scenes, this is one ride you definitely want to hop on. Both the central characters are unapologetic career-driven, outspoken women who are comfortable in their own idea of femininity.