WONDER WOMEN
An ode to those television characters I’ll miss in 2022
An ode to those television characters I’ll miss in 2022
Saying goodbye to characters you love is a necessary evil when it comes to television shows. When those characters are smart, strong, complicated, funny, compassionate women … (like the ones we all know and love IRL) well, it’s even harder. In 2021, it seemed a higher number than usual were bidding us farewell. Women from all walks of life who left an indelible impression on my mind and in my heart.
These fabulous protagonists made me think, made me feel, had me cheering, had me crying. They didn’t always make the best decisions in the moment, but that’s okay. Through it all, I rooted for them because deep down I knew they would find their way.
Flawed. Real. Relatable.
Two-dimensional, cookie-cutter stereotypes can’t take me by surprise or rip out my heart or make me near hysterical with laughter. They don’t make me care in ways that I reserve for my best friend or a partner or a lover or family.
For most of these characters, they are just like you and me. Whether they’re saving the day or simply getting through it the best way they know how, it’s what they do that makes them so amazing.
It’s who they are.
Growing Pains
Navigating the obstacle course that is puberty is not for the faint of heart as a quartet of young ladies would attest. Best friends Maya Ishii-Peters and Anna Kone of PEN15 deal with the hell that is middle school by faking it till they make it. Their classmates may know that’s exactly what they’re doing, but what’s more important is the girls face that harsh world together. Maya and Anna are each other’s person, and it’s their impenetrable friendship that will ensure they survive the pains of adolescence. To find someone who understands you at that age is a miracle.
Matilda and Genevieve of Everything’s Gonna Be Okay have different approaches to life, but the sisters’ bond is what helps them adjust when their half-brother, whom they barely know, moves in when their dad dies. From first love to finding out who you are and evolving into who you will be, it takes a lot of strength and courage to embrace the unknown. The pair may be on separate life paths as their age difference would attest, but even when they stumble they keep moving — especially when it terrifies them. Yeah, the world is terrifying. These girls are also learning it can be kinda cool, too.
Running the World
Even as adults, obstacles can thrown at our most stable relationships. Figuring out the person we want to be — and the mistakes that can come during that time of self-discovery (so many mistakes) — can deeply impact a friendship. Insecure’s Issa Dee and Molly Carter are each other’s ride or die. So when their bond is stretched to the breaking point as they struggle to understand what they want from life, it’s heartbreaking (for them and for me). However, they find their way forward in life — finding success in romance and business — and back to each other. Issa and Molly come to stand on their own two feet, each secure in the knowledge their girl has her back no matter what. Now that’s a love story.
Standing on her own two feet is what Queen of the South’s Teresa Mendoza knows best. Born of fire and grit, she worked her way up from being a nobody on the streets of Mexico to become an international drug queenpin. Despite the extreme emotional toll it took on her and the numerous times she was betrayed or nearly died, Teresa continued to be true to herself. She wasn’t all business, there was a small circle of people she kept close — her chosen family, who she would die to protect if it came down to it. Confidence is sexy and Teresa wears it as well as she does that iconic white power suit.
Familial Bonds
Speaking of fierce mama bears, no one holds a candle to Pose’s Blanca Rodriguez and Elektra Abundance Evangelista. Each woman is a force to be reckoned with individually, but come after their family at your own peril. They will fight with each other while railing against a world that seems to go out of its way to ostracize them; the latter point driven home once the AIDS crisis hits. Still these proud, resilient women always come home again. Mother-daughter relationships are wonderfully complicated and powerful. Elektra and Blanca’s is one for the ages.
It ultimately comes down to family, which brings us to Wynonna and Waverly Earp, and Nicole Haught from Wynonna Earp. Family comes in different forms as all of the women I’ve highlighted can attest. There’s the one we’re born into and the one we choose along the way. This trio forms a hybrid, of sorts. Sisters (Wynonna and Waverly), lovers (Waverly and Nicole), and best friends (Wynonna and Nicole) coalescing into a dynamic bond that’s unbreakable. All three women have gone through so much, separately and together, that would have dissolved weaker relationships. Not these badass ladies. Whatever happens, their love for and faith in each other will see them through.
All of these fascinating, amazing characters have a place in my heart. I relate to each one in different ways, identifying and admiring them while also learning from them. There are so many places inspiration can from and that it can be found in people who exist primarily on a screen (I see you, fan fiction! waves) doesn’t make it less valid.
I feel a Better Things binge coming on as I’ll need to prepare to say goodbye to Sam Fox, her daughters Max, Frankie, and Duke, and her mom Phil ahead of that show’s final season starting at the end of February.
But that’s a column for another time.
Joanne Thornborough is pop culture junkie with a particular love for film, TV and the printed word. Find her at @cinelitchick on Twitter.