"Nearly all of this year’s best shows so far have been about and made by women," says Alan Sepinwall. He points out that 2019 could've marked a down year for women in TV with Game of Thrones' disappointing final season, and the departures of Broad City, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin. Yet the best and most interesting new shows have been led by women, from Russian Doll and PEN15. "The year," says Sepinwall, "has offered one striking new female-centric debut after another, including Netflix’s Tuca & Bertie, an animated buddy comedy that’s emotionally rich and endearingly silly; HBO’s Gentleman Jack, starring Suranne Jones as a barely closeted 19th-century English landowner trying to figure out how to take a wife; and Hulu’s Shrill, with Aidy Bryant as a writer struggling to get the world to look beyond her physique." Sepinwall adds: "Not only that, many of 2019’s best shows have been returning female-fronted series that found ways to level up," from Vida to Better Things to Fleabag.
TOPICS: Russian Doll, Better Things, Broad City, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Fleabag, Jane the Virgin, PEN15, Shrill, Tuca & Bertie, Vida, Women and TV