The Best Ladies On TV Right Now- Part II

Whenever the words, ‘strong female character’ pop up, there are generally a few names that come to mind. Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica from Veronica Mars,  and Sydney Bristow from Alias are generally the most consistently listed characters. While all three of those women would be enviable role models for any girl, there is one problem. Those three women have all been off the air for at least ten years.

So lets talk about strong female characters on television right now. Lets first drop the hilarious adjective, ‘strong’ because it should just be implied that every female character is strong, with a bunch of other wonderful adjectives and personality traits, just like their male counterparts.

Let’s celebrate ten characters right now who are intelligent, flawed, crass, beautiful, feisty, deadly, mothers, addicts, kind, funny, wonderful, perfect and who all just happen to be women.

Because picking only ten was a near impossible feat.

The list created was a combined effort by my dear friend Glynis of https://tvfemmefatale.wordpress.com/ and I. She’s a wonderful human and I’m excited to announce this blog effort is the start of a new partnership, with many more blog posts to come. She is a lover of lists and has a wicked perspective on all things pop culture and I’m especially happy to offer her writing a new home here.

So without further delay here is our list of the top ten most badass female characters currently on tv. Also, there is no order because all these women are gems.

1. Arya Stark- Maisie Williams, Game of Thrones

Arya Stark could easily be television’s biggest victim. At the start of the series, Arya, played by the fantastic Maisie Williams, was the youngest daughter of a very powerful Lord. She was a little tomboy, who hated dresses and practiced fighting with her very own sword, Needle. Yet things change quickly in Westeros, and four seasons later she’s watched her father be beheaded, been kidnapped several times, been forced to change her entire identity and live on the run, and suffered extreme losses when she learned her oldest brother and mother were betrayed and murdered. She had no home, money, family and did I mention she’s only 9 at the start of the show? Yet Arya never became a victim in her eyes or the audience. With her fearless drive and adaptability, Arya continued to fight for herself and others on her quest for vengeance. No matter what she does, including murder, the audience will always continue to root for her. With a show like Game of Thrones, that has countless badass females, Arya is truly the stand out.

MAIN TRAITS: Fierce, Headstrong, Witty, Fighter

FAVORITE QUOTE: (When asked if she knew how to use her sword.) “Stick ’em with the pointy end.”

BEST EPISODE: “The Children.” After an entire season of being kidnapped by The Hound, Arya finally gets an opportunity to leave him when he is horribly wounded after being in a fight with Brienne of Tarth. Though he was her kidnapper, she did share a unique bond with him, and it was unclear at first what she would do. The Hound begged Arya to mercy kill him with her sword. Though she thinks about it, Arya does ultimately walk away from him, leaving him to die alone and in great pain. She finally becomes free for the first time in four seasons. And what does she do with her freedom? She heads to Braavos in search of Jaqen H’ghar, so she can finally take charge of her own destiny. Badass indeed.

2. Olivia Pope- Kerry Washington, Scandal

Have a problem? Need some legal advice? In a seriously sticky situation? Don’t worry, IT’S HANDLED. Just call Olivia Pope, played to perfection by Kerry Washington. Known in Washington, D.C. as a political fixer, Olivia takes on the cases, clients and situations that no one else would go near. Her employees lovingly call themselves, ‘Gladiators in Suits’ for all their effort towards the people they save. Though she proudly proclaims herself as a ‘White Hat’ she knows the world is not black and white, and sees the world more as a gray, which allows her to look at her clients in ways others could not. Her clients think she’s perfect, but Olivia and the audience know that’s far from true. She has many weakness and flaws, her biggest being her love of the President of the United States. From the very first episode, she’s carried on an affair with the married PODUS that has gotten her in trouble too many times to count. She’s been involved in voting rigging, murder, assassination attempts and kidnapping plots. But that’s what makes her so great. Because she is so imperfect. Because she has such a strong sense of morality with others, but finds it more difficult to use on herself. Because she fell in love with two men at the same time and instead of choosing one, she chose herself and told both men it would be on her terms. Because in a man’s world of cut throat politics in D.C. she has the ear of the president, and she is the one cleaning up all of their messes. Because Olivia Pope does whatever and whomever she wants, on her own terms, always.

MAIN TRAITS: White Hat.

FAVORITE QUOTE: “I am not a toy you can play with when you’re bored or lonely or horny. I am not the girl the guy gets at the end of the movie. I am not a fantasy. If you want me, Earn me!”

BEST EPISODE: “Where the Sun Don’t Shine” After seasons of fighting with her father Rowan, a fight to end all fights finally occurs between the two putting a definitive end to their love/hate relationship. Rowan presents Olivia with a gun and leers at her to just shoot him already if she hated him that much. Olivia holds the gun up as her father continues to taunt her. After a solid thirty seconds, Olivia at her emotional breaking point, fires the gun. Turns out, her dad only filled it with blanks and he is beyond furious and disappointed with her. It was all just a test in his eyes and she failed. Her father leaves her, vowing to never communicate with her again. This tense five minute scene may just be Washington’s greatest minutes on the show. To top it off, she also decides this episode not to pick Jake or Fitz, her two suitors, and instead picks herself. She tells Jake she can see a future with both men but doesn’t want to pick, so she’s picking herself. If Jake wants to stand in the sun with Olivia, then it has to be on her terms. Jake agrees and the two begin to dance.

3. Alison Hendrix- Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black

Alison is an uptight soccer mom who loves guns, arts and crafts, pills combined with alcohol, her children, community theater and watching her best friend get choked to death by a garbage disposal. Though Orphan Black is a television series about a bunch of clones, all brilliantly played by Tatiana Maslany, Alison has emerged from clone club as the most unique, compelling and fan favorite of the bunch. Once Alison finds out she’s a clone, she refuses to let it affect her family’s life. She still coaches her kids, and hosts the neighborhood block parties, just with a firearm or mace always on her.  She begrudgingly adjusts herself to whatever situation comes at her, and always does what’s right for her family first. Even as her life slowly starts to unravel, and she takes too many pills and drinks too much booze, the audience still always roots for her because she is innately a good person who was thrown a wicked curve ball. Also, it’s impossible not to love someone who sets up an arts and crafts station that includes a hot glue gun and feathers in her room in rehab.

MAIN TRAITS: Prissy and Pissed Off

FAVORITE QUOTE: “I can’t go to jail, Felix. I don’t have the temperament. In the shower, if they touch me, I will cut them.”

BEST EPISODE: “Mingling Its Own Nature with It” After sort of accidentally letting her best friend Aynsley,  get choked to death by a garbage disposal, Alison assumes her part in a community theater production. Though Alison is initially excited to be the new lead, she starts to feel guilty about Aynsley’s death and the role that she’s assumed. Alison deals with it the only way she knows, by taking drugs and alcohol and telling everyone she is fine. All her demons come to head opening night when she finally loses it and takes a nose dive offstage.

4. Peggy Olson- Elizabeth Moss, Mad Men

In the very first episode, Peggy Olson is hired to be Don Draper’s secretary. Draper was an advertising genius working at an advertising agency in the early 1960s and a complete ladies man with a love of alcohol and doing his secretaries. They thought Don had less of a chance of sleeping with Peggy because wasn’t the typical beauty. Don never did sleep with her, but the two formed a complex friendship that has been the heart of the show for the past seven seasons. After a throw away comment in season 1 about a product, executives at the agency realized Peggy was more intelligent and creative then their current employees and eventually offered her a job. From that moment on, Peggy redefined gender expectations in the 1960s by becoming a female copy writer in a male dominated world. In the course of the series, she saves accounts, comes up with brilliant campaigns, sleeps around, drinks, smokes and everything else deemed socially acceptable for men. She never let her gender define or limit her. When Don Draper decides to leave the agency and start his own company, one of the first phone calls he makes is to Peggy, asking her to go with him, selecting her over almost every male in the office. Peggy of course goes with him, giving herself a higher position and more respect from co-workers in this new company.

MAIN TRAITS: Intelligent, Honest, Hard-Working, Creative

FAVORITE QUOTE: “I’m Peggy Olson. I want to smoke some marijuana.”

BEST EPISODE: “The Suitcase” Don forces Peggy to stay late with him to work on an advertisement, and the two end up sharing an emotional, whirlwind night. When Peggy has to cancel her date with her boyfriend and family, the two argue over the phone and he breaks up with her. Though she does the obligatory cry in the bathroom, it’s what she does after that shows her inner strength and intelligence when an ex suitor shows up at the office. This masterpiece of an episode is a character study of Don and Peggy, but it’s Elizabeth Moss’s performance that provides more information on Peggy in this one episode than any other in the show’s history.

5. Annalise Keating- Viola Davis, How To Get Away With Murder

When law professor Annalise Keating first introduced her students to her class calling it ‘how to get away with… murrrrrrrder,’ audiences and students paid attention because of the commanding presence Keating demands of everyone in her presence. Played by Academy Award Winning Actress Viola Davis, Keating is tough as nails and incredibly powerful, and what’s better is that she owns it. Her life seems perfect, Keating is a highly successful defense lawyer and college professor with an equally successful husband as well. However she’s completely and utterly imperfect. She cheats on her husband Sam, manipulates her lover, colleagues and students to do her bidding, uses less than pure tactics to help win cases and has many enemies. Yet she’s incredibly vulnerable and emotional, choosing to share parts of herself to certain people when everyone least expects it. She’s currently one of the most complicated characters on television, constantly adapting to every situation so she can swiftly deal with it. She also broke the internet better than Kim K when she confronted her husband about his affair with absolutely no make and no wig.

MAIN TRAITS: Tough, Manipulative, Smart, Capable

FAVORITE QUOTE: “Prayers are for the weak — I’ll stick to beating your ass in court.”

BEST EPISODE: “Kill Me, Kill Me, Kill Me” After having the fight to end all fights with her husband Annalise storms out of her house, leaving Sam alone to drink. What happens next is a major spoiler alert, but let’s just say, the entire course of the series is changed and everything you thought you knew about Annalise is completely turned upside down. She is literally in control of everything in this episode and it’s her raw emotion, power and cunning that refuses to go away. Quite simply the episode and the character is a masterpiece, and Annalise transcends from being a good character, to a great one.

Want the next five? Check out the next section of the list on, written by Glynis on her blog.

https://tvfemmefatale.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/best-ladies-on-tv-right-now-part-1/

As always, thanks for reading and sound off in the comments section below.