So I was thinking about how much I love TV and the feminist shows I have loved and needed in my life. Were there more before 2000 or more now? Those sorts of questions. I started thinking about this bc two of my favorite shows have recently been added to streaming and trying to think how they shaped me as a feminist. 1) Moonlighting: really not feminist but Cybil Shepherd's feminism is inflected in the show and their reworking of Taming of the Shrew is a classic. 2) Northern Exposure. I loved how none of the women are sexualized, and the founding of Cicely is one of the earliest representations of lesbianism, but also feminism, on TV. They just really allowed Maggie to look like a person and be this angry person and be much more than a simple love interest (even though Maggie Turner turned into some loony born again). These shows didn't have 'special' women or pick-mes. I am also thinking of shows that do not have rape in them, which is intolerable to me (there is a whole line of radical feminism that argues against the representation of rape that is highly persuasive). So here are my nominations, but in no real order:

• Roseanne
• Glow
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• Mrs. Maisel
• Northern Exposure
• maybe The X-Files, for Scully, but not all for sure
• Xena: Warrior Princess
• Dietland
• Downward Dog
• Cougar Town, actually
• That Girl
• Maude
• Rhoda
• Mary Tyler Moore
• Teenage Bounty Hunters
• I May Destroy You
• Self Made
• Jessica Jones
• Anne with an E
• Ellen
• Broad City
• Call the Midwife
• We Are Lady Parts (brilliant, loved every second of this British gem about a muslim girls punk bank)
• Designing Women
• Larkrise to Candelford
• Dead to me
• Santa Clarita Diet
• The Good Place
• Grace and Frankie
• Superstore
• DCs Legends of Tomorrow
• Veronica Mars
• Cagney and Lacey
• Kate and Allie
• Orphan Black
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (SMG, AH, Marti Noxon and all the other women deserve credit for this; Joss Whedon can rot in hell)

Admittedly, I do not buy the whole SitC, Fleabag, etc. sex addicted 'special' pick-me shows as particularly feminist. I personally do not see the redeemable qualities of the broken woman narrative as feminist, esp when the women behind them are thriving (usually bc they come from wealth and privilege).

Edit: a list of TV with mainly women was less my question than shows that actually raise some level of consciousness about feminist beliefs and values. Tv that helped teach us something about feminism, so must have at least a some explicit feminist content.