GIRL POWER IS BACK ON TV
This week offers something different, give it a go. Other people’s schemes, no matter how tempting, are ignored as you become more determined than ever to follow your own path. But take some time to relax too. A little rest does wonders for stamina. Pay outstanding bills, reorganise your cupboards and rid yourself of emotional baggage. Slow moving Mercury is prompting you to tie up any loose ends – sooner rather than later. In the same way, it’s not a great week for new ventures. No prizes for discovering that you don’t think or feel the same way others do. Most are used to this, so they should know better than to force your hand. Especially now, when despite a backwardmoving Mercury – you’re more inspired than ever. IN THE first episode of The Bold Type second season, a fashion assistant decides to break up with her boyfriend, an older man who works for the board overseeing the fashion magazine where she works.
“It’s a gamble, but I am putting my money down on my career,” she tells him. “And believing that love will fall into place.”
There’s something refreshing about seeing the women on this earnest series, about the rising staffers at fictional Scarlet magazine, place more emphasis on their careers than their romantic relationships.
It’s similar to what is happening on Younger, a dramedy that stars Sutton Foster as Liza, a 40-something woman posing as a 20-something book editor.
On Younger, Liza is a divorcee who discovers the long gap in her work history, years devoted to raising her now college-age daughter, means no one in book publishing is willing to hire her.
When she shaves 14 years off her CV, she gets a job as an assistant at a prominent Manhattan publishing house.
By Season 5, Liza and her colleague turned friend, Kelsey (Hilary Duff) have launched their own imprint, dubbed Millennial.
The Bold Type follows three friends: Jane (Katie Stevens), Kat (Aisha Dee) and the aforementioned fashion assistant, Sutton (Meghann Fahy), who start in entry-level positions at Scarlet and work their way up the various ranks. Kat ascends to social media director, Jane is promoted to writer after being an assistant for several years, but falters a bit when she leaves the magazine for a more prominent byline at an edgy digital start-up – only to get fired when her first story goes awry.
Jane, Kat and Sutton navigate the early years of their careers while falling in love, getting their hearts broken and beginning ill-advised flings.
But the show’s true heart is their friendship, which often involves the trio counselling one another on how to get the careers they want.
Although The Bold Type and Younger have comedic elements, they draw more inspiration from Carrie Bradshaw than, say, Liz Lemon or Leslie Knope. Both series are successors to Sex and the City’s unique brand of city single girl life.
Rarer still are the romantic dramas that place emphasis on the pride women – even millennial ones – take in their careers and how hard they work to achieve their goals.
*This is a guest column. Tumi Morake will be back next week.
The Washington Post