by Maya Brown

If you’re getting fed up with all the new TV shows starting this month that are as sexist and stereotypical as ever (more on this tomorrow!), maybe it’s time to take it back to some classics. Here is a list to help you out with my top 5 shows to watch on Netflix or steal from your best friend. My personal story with all of these shows is that I didn’t really watch a lot of shows on the actual TV when I was in middle school and high school, so I hold a lot of these shows deep in my awkward 8th grade heart.

I want to throw a disclaimer in that when I sat down to list these shows, I found that while I could list shows with strong female characters fairly easily, I couldn’t list any with women of color in anything but best-friend typed roles. So I apologize that even though I love these shows, they are all extremely white. Clearly we need to keep pushing for more shows with amazing women of color in them, especially since even shows like these, that are often considered “Feminist Icons,” don’t accurately represent all women.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I know we’ve written about this one before, but it’s been a while. Buffy is about your typical blonde 16 year old girl, except that she kills vampires and other demons on the daily. This show starts out in beautiful 90’s fashion, complete with belly shirts and miniskirts and terrible special effects, and just keeps getting better. Buffy adopts an amazing group of friends, nicknamed the Scooby Gang, who help her fight demons and generally support her all the time. She has really genuine friendships, and the demons have a weird habit of telling awesome feminist life lessons (one time an abusive boyfriend turns out to literally be an evil robot and it’s actually so satisfying). Without giving any spoilers, the whole series ends with a huge sisterhood, girl-power-centered last battle. Also, I’ve got to give a major shout out to Willow and Tara for helping many a young lesbian feel represented.

2. Veronica Mars: I watched this show right after Buffy, when I was mourning the loss of a high school girl who fought crime. Veronica helps with her dad’s private investigation firm, and by helps I mean she takes over the toughest cases and figures them out on her own. It’s been a little longer since I watched this one, but I remember loving her friendship with Wallace as an awesome platonic friendship where the guy doesn’t whine about being “friend-zoned.” Veronica Mars is a little less campy than Buffy, but she’s just as bad-ass. Would recommend if you love mystery/CSI dramas and also witty teenage girls.

3. Gilmore Girls: I love this show for a completely different reason than Buffy and Veronica Mars. For one, it has the best mother-daughter relationship of any show I’ve ever seen. It’s the only show that really depicts motherhood without relying on the tired trope of the stressed out working mother or the evil stepmother. Lorelai and Rory’s banter is hilarious, plus they each have really strong female friendships of their own. I love that Lorelei has dreams of starting her own inn, which shows that mothers can be more than just an overdramatic conflict for their teenage daughter. Everything in this show comes back to their relationship, plus Rory is a really great role model for anyone who doesn’t feel angsty enough for a lot of the teenage dramas now.

4. My So Called Life: This is the perfect show if you totally do feel angsty enough for teenage dramas, but want one with actual substance. Angela Chase is the main character and the main conflict comes from her trying to figure out her identity as a teenager. This was a show that I connected to really well when I was in freshman and sophomore year of high school. Angela’s narration of the episodes also includes some of the hands-down best lines in any show I’ve seen. They are dripping with sarcasm and I could have said every one of them in high school. Although she has a complicated relationship with her mom, the show always takes the time to include her mom and dad’s perspective as well. It’s also painfully 90’s in the best way, and is worth it if only for lines like “high school is a battlefield…. For your heart” and “my dad thinks every person in the world is having more fun than him. Which could be true.”

5. Bomb Girls: I illegally marathoned this show two summers ago and let me tell you, it is totally a hidden gem, and it’s finally on Netflix and everyone NEEDS to watch it. It’s different from any of the other ones I mentioned, and is relatively recent. It takes place in the 1940’s in Canada during World War II and is about the women who worked in the factories. It has an amazing female dominated cast and covers so many feminist issues of the time. To name a few, it handles women entering the workplace, the dangers of the jobs they worked at, and what it was like when the men started to come back. My favorite plotline is about one lesbian woman and what it means to her to finally be able to get a job and support herself without worrying about the societal assumption that she find a husband. If you’re at all interested in historical stuff, or just like women centered dramas, I would totally recommend this show.

Honorable Mention:

From what I’ve heard, Xena Warrior Princess should totally be on this list, but since it’s still on my personal “watch whenever you have time” list, I couldn’t do it justice here, but totally check it out if you have time!

What shows are you still missing?