21 Shows with Serious Girl Power
Jay Ruymann
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Now these are squad goals.
Through everything, these girls stick together and realize their relationship with each other is more important than some guy with top ramen hair that would probably smell like a lake of mixed colognes if he were real.
Some of them even save the others' lives, repeatedly, and have such a true sense of trust that their exceed the limitation of friendship and become sisters, or are actually sisters to begin with.
There's one thing we can count on for sure: they stick together. If they're friends. Otherwise, you can be sure they will try their best to ruin lives.
Like Emily Thorne, for instance. Her and Victoria were far from friends, but they are two of the strongest women on television.
Below are 21 of our favorite girl power TV shows.
1. Pretty Little Liars
Pretty Little Liars follows Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily through their unbelievable and relentless torment and torture at the hands (or texts) of their infamous villain: A. A has been revealed numerous times, yet always comes back stronger, with more power and a rapidly quenched thirst for their blood. They've stuck together through the worst of times, along with the friend Alison and frenemy Mona, and save each others' lives countless times.
2. Orange is the New Black
Everyone's heard about Orange is the New Black. When Piper Chapman is sentenced to 15 months in prison, she's acquianted with a crowd of interesting, fiesty, fierce, and sometimes destructive women that can only rely on each other in confines of the messed up justice system. Each has their own story, their own crime, and their own methods of dealing with prison life, but they come together (never all together, somebody might die) and have become friends.
3. Scream Queens
What we do without the Chanels? Chanel, Chanel #3, and Chanel #5, are one of the tightest knit group of friends on television. They accuse each other of murder, then help cover it up to protect them, and save their lives. Even though they're all bitches, let's be honest, here's hoping they find a way to take crazy Hester back to the nuthouse in Scream Queens Season 2 this Fall.
4. Mistresses
Mistresses follows Joss, Karen, April, and formerly Savi, as they live drama-filled, sometimes disasterous lives in Los Angeles. Karen follows her heart into the most scandalous places, including a relationship with her patient and an intense polyamorous relationship in Season 3, while Joss is the free spirit who strikes up a relationship with her sister Savi's ex-husband, which is why Savi left the show. April is a mom, who is just finding her passion after putting it on hold to raise her daughter, and deals with a husband's betrayal. These girls stick together through the most scandalous times and will risk nothing to save the ones they love.
5. Rizzoli & Isles
Rizzoli and Isles, the perfect crime-solving team. Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles found a friendship in their dark line of work: Jane as a homocide detective and Maura as the coroner. With Rizzoli's street smarts and Isles' book smarts, they've helped each other grow and are unstoppable.
6. Girls
Created by and starring Lena Dunham, Girls follows four girls (Hannah, Marnie, Jessa, and Shoshanna) through their lives of ups and downs in New York City. They can count on each other in the hardest times as they attempt to figure out who they are and what they want from life, while dealing with hectic love lives.
7. Marvel's Jessica Jones
Jessica Jones is a private investigator with super abilities. Season 1 focused on her fight with Kilgrave, her abuser who also possessed abilities that nobody could explain. Along with her friend Trish, and business partner Jeri Hogarth, Jessica is out to help the city while helping herself develop. Her friendships with these women were strained, so hopefully in Season 2 they'll be able to flourish a little better. It's hard to focus on the friends when the show is titled "Jessica Jones."
8. Orphan Black
Can we count Orphan Black as an ensemble? Yes, Tatiana Maslany plays many clones, who all have their own identities and lives, while the main one, Sarah, fights to save them all and keep herself and her child from being killed, after witnessing the death of her fellow clone and assuming her identity.
9. Nashville
Although part of a larger ensemble cast, Nashville focuses mainly on Rayna Jaymes and Juliette Barnes, two country stars in their own right. They both attained fame in much different ways and vie to stay in the spotlight, but their shadows hardly cover the other's. Even though they may bicker and argue, Juliette and Rayna developed an interesting friendship.
10. Charmed
Charmed is a little older than these female led TV shows, but you can't write about female ensembles without writing about Charmed. You just can't. The show followed Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and eventually Paige through their Wiccan lives, as they learned the craft and balanced their working, dating, and demon slaying lives. They couldn't make many friends when they had a demon bursting through their too many impractical windows, so they relied on each other, and became best friends and sisters. But with sisters, be prepared for a fight or two.
11. Teachers
Ever wondered what your elementary school teachers did when the misbehaving children weren't around? Follow six teachers who are still trying to figure out their own lives while having the responsibility of molding the lives of the next generation. Whether it be hooking up with the janitor or flirting with hot dads, these teachers are relatable and witty, and nobody can quite understand how they're feeling except each other.
12. Devious Maids
There's really no show quite like it. Devious Maids follows Rosie, Carmen, Marisol, and mother-daughter duo Zoila and Valentina through sexy, scandalous, and deadly times in Beverly Hills as they deal with class and racial issues. When one of their fellow maids is murdered, these girls come together and help solve the crime, but even as their respective employers turn on one another, these girls hold their own and have a certain level of respect for their fellow maids.
13. 2 Broke Girls
Max and Caroline may be sometimes vulgar and crude, but their friendship was unexpected. Max has always been broke, working her way through life to survive, and Caroline was a spoiled, rich girl, until her daddy lost their money. Being broke leads to some hard times, but they've stuck it out together and survived long enough to open their own cupcake shop. Will they ever not be broke, though? They aren't broke on friendship.
14. Grace and Frankie
What brings two women closer than their husbands coming out as gay... for each other? Grace and Frankie's lives are thrown into chaos as they cope with their ex-husbands' recent announcement and their new single lives at 70 years old. They fight, they bicker, arguing is like a second nature, but they understand one another better than anyone else could, and they always stick up for each other. It's never to late to make a new life for yourself with a new best friend in tow.
15. Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce
Based on the book series by Vicki Iovine, Abby McCarthy, a self-help author, faces her upcoming divorce with her friends Phoebe and Delia. Now she must face her own life with a self-help attitude, while trying to restart her career. Nobody wants to take advice from a divorced woman.
16. Jane the Virgin
Jane Villanueva's life is thrown upside down when she's accidentally inseminated by product of her boss; product that is meant for the patient in the next room. Always so careful not to end up as a teen mother like her own, Jane has kept her promise to be a virgin until marriage. Jane, her mother, and her grandmother always have such sweet moments, because in the end, who can you count on more than family?
17. Desperate Housewives
Susan, Lynette, Bree and Gabrielle's lives were a bit less than ideal in Desperate Housewives. They dealt with mystery, domestic and family struggles, and secrets in Fairview, while their stories were narrated by their late friend and neighbor that committed suicide in the pilot episode. Always keep your door shut in the suburbs.
18. Gilmore Girls
Where would anyone of us be without the Gilmore Girls? With the upcoming Netflix reunion, we remembered our favorite mother-daughter pair, Lorelai and Rory from Stars Hollow, and their interesting lives with their neighbors in Connecticut. Parental troubles abound for both of them, Rory and Lorelai had a bond that nobody could break.
19. Sex and the City
Who could forget the most iconic girls of New York City? Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha always took the city by storm, and met a few bumps along the way, but their friendship never faltered. Even amidst the work chaos and boy troubles, these girls could always confide in each other for guidance and support.
20. Make It or Break It
Make It or Break It was an ABC Family (now Freeform) drama that followed Payson, Kaylie, Lauren, and partially Emily through their grueling Olympic training to become the top gymnast in the world. They fought over boys, got mad over little things, dealt with their parents' affairs, competed for the top spot, but when the pressure was on, each could rely on the others for help, even though they were essentially competing against their own team.
21. Revenge
Frenemies at best, Emily and Victoria were out for blood on Revenge. From each other. I like to think they became more than just enemies. They reluctantly saved each other's lives, though that was only to further their own plot. Even though they were never friends, they led the show in its dark roots, and showed how grey a moral compass can be. They showed a different kind of girl power.
