TV’s smart females face punishment
Streaming today, the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black” enters its sixth season under lockdown. After ending season five with a full-blown prison riot, the action moves to Litchfield’s maximum-security wing.
This series has never been shy about creating strong characters or killing them off. What does it say that one of the more influential series around, one that ushered in an era of smart series centering on strong women, is set in a prison? Does “Orange” offer escapism? Or its opposite?
Must all smart female characters be punished? From the totalitarian Gilead of “The Handmaid’s Tale” to the self-mutilation in “Sharp Objects” and the peculiar conspiracies of “Dietland,” it seems almost trendy to subject assertive and cerebral women characters to some form of abuse.
And let’s not forget “UnReal,” a series set on a “Bachelor”-type show where producers manipulate naive contestants for maximum drama and cringe value. Hulu recently took over the series and began streaming its fourth season earlier this month.
Contrast the female characters on “Orange” and “Handmaid’s” with the “complicated” and “difficult” men of TV’s so-called platinum age. Tony Soprano, Don Draper and Walter White defined themselves by their actions and their choices, however sordid.
On television, male drug dealers have more wiggle room than the Queen of England! Heir to the world’s most fabled title and revered by millions, Queen Elizabeth (Claire Foy) on “The Crown” is constrained in a thousand ways, betrayed and undercut by her husband and sister, and a servant to protocol and tradition. Has anyone ever seemed less “free”?
Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) from “The Americans” was free to assume a variety of characters, but all in the service to a totalitarian power. “Homeland” gave us Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), a female variation on Jack Bauer, but not before making her psychotic.
Given such characters, perhaps it’s no mystery why so many viewers tuned in to the reboot of “Roseanne.” Putting aside all the noise about the “new” version, it is a show about a woman who does and says what she wants. Seen from that angle, perhaps it’s not surprising that CBS wants to reboot “Murphy Brown,” featuring another brash, confident, opinionated female character. Who knows, perhaps we’ve reached a point where audiences will prefer “Designing Women” to tortured and imprisoned women. Some might settle for new “Golden Girls.”
TOUR DE FRANCE
› Amazon Prime begins streaming the new documentary series “Eat. Race. Win.” It offers a behindthe-scenes look at preparation for the Tour de France, one of the world’s most popular and arduous sporting events. But rather than focus solely on athletes, it follows chef Hannah Grant, who left world-acclaimed restaurants to become the world’s expert on “performance cooking,” the art of preparing foods for competitors burning calories at a furious pace. A hybrid sports-cooking series, it’s often more interesting in concept than execution.
› Also for cycling fans, NBCSN covers the 19th Stage of the Tour de France (8 p.m.), from Lourdes to Laruns.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› A blast from the past on “Quantico” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› John Quinones hosts “What Would You Do?” (9 p.m., ABC).
› A victim’s mother gets a case reopened on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Experts look for the watery maternity wards of “Great White Shark Babies” (10 p.m., Discovery, TV-PG).
› Corporate cover-ups on “Whistleblower” (8 p.m., CBS).
› Competition continues on “American Ninja Warrior” (8 p.m., NBC, repeat, TV-PG).
› A nameless intake sparks a panic on “The Resident” (8 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-14).
› Dean Cain hosts “Masters of Illusion” (8 and 8:30 p.m., repeats, CW, TV-14).
› Undercover in a private school on “Hawaii Five-0” (9 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Stranded on a distant moon on “The Orville” (9 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-14).
› Illusionists audition on “Penn & Teller Fool Us” (9 p.m., CW, repeat, TV-PG).
› “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC).
› “20/20” (10 p.m., ABC). Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin. tvguy@gmail.com.