Abstract
Cultural movements including #TimesUp and #MeToo have contributed momentum to the demand for and development of smart, justified female criminal characters in contemporary television drama. These women are representations of shifting power dynamics, and they possess agency as they channel their desires and fury into success, redemption, and revenge. Building on works including Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, dramas produced since 2016—including The Handmaid’s Tale, Ozark, and Killing Eve—have featured the rise of women who use rule-breaking, rebellion, and crime to enact positive change.
Recommended Citation
Watson, Courtney
(2019)
"Bad Girls: Agency, Revenge, and Redemption in Contemporary Drama,"
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy: Vol. 6:
Iss.
2, Article 6.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dialogue/vol6/iss2/6
Included in
American Popular Culture Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, Television Commons, Women's Studies Commons