Reviews of movies and TV focused on women
Archie Panjabi signed on as a recurring character for Blindspot season 2. The series stars Jaimie Alexander as a woman completely covered with tattoos who arrives in Times Square in a duffle bag addressed to the FBI.
Continue reading “Watch This: Archie Panjabi Joins Blindspot”
Quantico and Blindspot are two new dramas for fall. Both feature leading women who are smart and capable. Both are connected to the FBI. Quantico is on ABC. Blindspot is on NBC. Here’s a mini review of both based on the early episodes.
Quantico is about new FBI recruits. Priyanka Chopra is at the center of the story so far, but Johanna Braddy and Yasmine Al Massri and also in place as new FBI recruits. Aunjanue Ellis as an FBI trainer also has a prominent part. That’s a gift box full of women to work story arcs around, and I’m looking forward to seeing them all.
In interviews about her role in Quantico, Priyanka Chopra compared her character to Jason Borne. We learn why early on. As Alex Parrish, the new FBI trainee, she is found in the rubble of a terrorist bombing. For some reason the FBI agents who find her there are convinced that the act was committed by one of the recruits from her class at Quantico. In particular, they think it was her.
Alex gets away from the FBI team holding her after the bombing. My assumption is that she spends the next few episodes trying to prove her innocence from outside the system. That means she will be smart, creative, and resilient – all qualities to admire in a lead character. I’m happy to watch her doing this and am looking forward to seeing where the story goes.
Jaimie Alexander plays “Jane Doe” in Blindspot. She’s found in Times Square in a duffle bag, covered with tattoos and with no idea of who she is. Because of a gigantic tattoo of the name Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) on her back, she is taken to the FBI. There she works with Weller to unravel her own story.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste is the another woman prominent in the show. She plays FBI agent in charge Mayfair. Two other potentially interesting women characters who haven’t had as much to do yet are Ashley Johnson as a lab geek named Patterson and Audrey Esparza as Agent Zapata.
There have been two episodes of Blindspot now. Jane Doe has no clue about who she is, but her personality and training quickly assert themselves. She’s prone to physical violence and is trained in fighting, she’s smart and speaks several languages, she knows her way around weapons and technology. And she’s the best resource the FBI has to figure out what all the tattoos mean. In the first two episodes, her tattoos have pointed to crimes about to happen.
Weller thinks she is a person he knew as a child who disappeared and who is part of the reason he went into the FBI. Her disappearance has haunted him. Because of a scar on the back of her neck, her age, and her eye color, he decides he knows who she is. We should know by the next episode if he is right, because they were running DNA tests in episode 2.
Series creator Martin Gero told Variety that the puzzle represented by the tattoos could be figured out in the first episode – it was all there to decode. Let’s just say I haven’t solved the puzzle yet, but I’m willing to hang on for the ride.
Images via NBC and ABC.
There are a number of TV shows being announced now. Some star women in leading roles, some have more than one woman out in front, and some even boast women of a color other than white. Let’s have a look at them.
Supergirl begins this fall on CBS. We’ve been given a rather lengthy first look at the series. We may be able to skip ahead to the second episode, this trailer tells so much. As a bonus, if we start the season with episode 2, the whole wardrobe problem will be solved.
Melissa Benoist is Supergirl. Chyler Leigh plays her sister Alex. Mehcad Brooks is Jimmy (sorry, James) Olsen. Calista Flockhart plays Supergirl’s boss. The boss is some kind of horrible parody on every bitchy boss ever imagined by a male writer since the beginning of the Planet Krypton. (Really, fellas, can’t anyone do better than that?)
I’ve mentioned Supergirl a couple of times previously on this blog, if you want more in depth details check out Big Casting News for Supergirl and Brain Dump: Supergirl, Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Blacklist.
So here she is, the female superhero we’ve long awaited. If I were inclined to mangle famous poems, I might say,
so much depends
upon
a red skirt
with cape
glazed with pop
culture
beside the endless
patriarchy.
Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers are behind The Catch, which was created by Jennifer Schuur. This is a thriller centered on the brilliant Alice Martin (Mireille Enos). She’s a fraud investigator who’s about to be the victim of fraud herself. It sounds like a season long hunt for the bad guy, mixed in with other cases.
The Catch also stars Alimi Ballard as Evan, Damon Dayoub, Jay Hayden, Jacky Ido, Bethany Joy Lenz, Rose Rollins and Elvy Yost. Props to The Catch – although the star is white, there is ample diversity in the rest of the cast.
Although Mareille Enos is capable of super intense acting, I’m most looking forward to seeing Rose Rollins on my TV again.
I think Quantico is going to take the lead on diversity. The main character is played by Priyanka Chopra, an award winning veteran of a number of Indian films. Aunjanue Ellis also has top billing on this FBI story. The plot centers around a number of recruits at the FBI training center in Quantico. Jake McLaughlin plays Ryan Booth.
Of all the previews shown in this post, I like this one the best simply because of the diversity issue. But why is there only one show like this? (I’ll mention Proof later, it helps.)
Blindspot is going to be one of those season long searches for the truth like Blacklist or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. It’s about a woman who “wakes up” with no memory of her past life. She’s completely covered with fresh tattoos.
Jaimie Alexander stars as Jane Doe, with Ashley Johnson and Sullivan Stapleton backing her up in this tale about a vast international conspiracy.
Heartbreaker is a medical drama starring Melissa George. Other doctors surrounding the brilliant heart surgeon are played by Dave Annable, Don Hany, Shelley Conn and D.L. Hughley.
Jill Gordon and Amy Brenneman are among the producers for Heartbreaker.
Angel from Hell starts on CBS this fall. Jane Lynch looks happy about it, judging from her Twitter feed.
This Fall!! Thursdays! 9:30pm! @angelfromhell pic.twitter.com/AHvPOz64Hu
— Jane Lynch (@janemarielynch) May 14, 2015
The show will be on Thursday evenings, a tough slot for any show of interest to women, especially a half hour comedy. It stars Jane Lynch, Maggie Lawson, Kevin Pollak and Kyle Bornheimer. Other information is a little skimpy at this point, but the only names I can find for writers and directors are male names.
Angel from Hell doesn’t premier until November, so there will be plenty of time to fill in the details.
I love that wild hair on Jane Lynch. Perfect.
There are other female-led series I’ve talked about before on the blog. If you missed those posts, here they are.
I don’t think this is a complete list of the new shows with female leads, but it gives you some female-led shows to consider for your next few months of TV watching.
Looking just at the starring role in these women’s series, how do we stack up on diversity?
We have
I’d say that is a less than outstanding rundown if you’re counting diversity points.
It’s not that I don’t want Melissa Benoist or Jaimie Alexander or the other white women on the list to have great parts. I do. Lots of great parts. I also want lots of great parts for the rest of the female human race.
