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100 FEMALE TV CHARACTERS
(In alphabetical order by first name because, well, A) it would take me about 100 years to try to rank these 100 ladies, but more importantly, B) I want this to be more about celebrating how awesome these ladies all are and not about who's the best or whatever. And it's by first name instead of last because of the way I had my spreadsheet organized. And yes, I used a spreadsheet to figure this all out. It was the only way to narrow this down to 100 and keep track of everyone!!! I'm still afraid I might be forgetting someone I really love who should've made the list.)
51. Juliet Burke (Lost)
Juliet: It doesn't matter who we were. It only matters who we are.
When Juliet was first introduced, I remember being unsure of her as a character (I mean, she was an Other! I wasn't sure if she could be trusted!). It's also kind of funny because I didn't care at all about the Sawyer/Kate/Jack triangle up until that point, and even when she first showed up, I thought her purpose was mainly going to be to hook up with Jack and make Kate jealous, which I didn't care about. But then I saw how intelligent and strong she was, and I grew to quickly love her. I love that she's a doctor and looks at things practically, and I loved her determination in trying to help the women on the island with their pregnancies. I still didn't care about the love triangle (square?) stuff until it Sawyer and Juliet started interacting, and then I fell HARD for Sawyer/Juliet, which somehow managed to increase my love for Juliet even more. I'll always be sad about what happens to her at the end of season 5/start of season 6, but I'm glad that she and Sawyer were able to find each other again in the end.
52. Juliet O'Hara (Psych)
Juliet: Well, I did go to cheerleader camp for two weeks. I got kicked out.
Gus: Kicked out?
Juliet: Yeah, it's a long story. Suffice to say I don't like liars who steal nail polish and then pass out when you slap them a little bit on the back of the head.
I wasn't a huge fan of Juliet when Psych first started. I don't think I hated her or anything, but I saw that the show was setting up Juliet/Shawn in the future, and for some reason I really hated the idea of them??? I really have no idea why now since I adore their relationship (tbh their relationship is probably what kept me watching until the end of the series. Not that the series got terrible towards the end, it just started feeling kind of tired to me). But anyways, I did come to love Juliet at some point. I really like her growth through the course of the series, how she starts out in this new position and how, at the end of the series, she leaves Santa Barbara and goes on to bigger and better things. I liked how she could both be kind of a straight woman to Shawn and Gus and even Lassiter, but she could also get a little crazy and over-the-top herself.
53. Kalinda Sharma (The Good Wife)
Kalinda: That's the problem with good deeds. They multiply.
Kalinda is so different from pretty much any other character I've seen on TV? I'm definitely into female characters who have trouble showing emotion and are cold and closed off, so obviously I loved Kalinda from the start. I loved how she starts the show off not really forming close attachments and how her friendship with Alicia develops from there. While I still love the show a lot, the loss of Kalinda and Alicia's friendship from the first two seasons pains me. I liked how Alicia was one of the only things that caused Kalinda to reaction emotionally. I also adored her friendship with Will because it was so unlike any of the other friendships either character had, and I feel like they were able to be open to one another in a way that they weren't really open to anyone else. And I'm super into Kalinda/Cary and how that relationship has developed, and Kalinda's scenes with Diane are also wonderful, so basically, Kalinda with all the main cast is the best. I hate that this show often doesn't seem to know what to do with her character other than stick her in storylines with physically aggressive dudes. I'm hoping they're going to get away from that, especially what with the recent things that have been happening on the show. (And I'm also going to hope that Alicia and Kalinda can FINALLY start having scenes together again soon.)
54. Kat Stratford (10 Things I Hate About You)
Kat: If she is your little flower, what am I?
Walter: You're my big, tough cactus!
Kat: Green, spiny, and phallic. That's great, Dad.
When I first heard that they were going to remake 10 Things I Hate About You into a TV show for ABC Family, I was like, "WOW, that's going to be awful," especially since the movie is one of my favorite teen comedies. And then I heard it wasn't bad, so I checked it out, and it was just utterly delightful! The characters and stories were different from the movie, but not in bad ways, and Kat was just as awesome in the show as she had been in the movie. I love unapologetically feminist TV characters, and I love how she's tough and strong and fights for what she believes in, but she can also be soft and show vulnerability. I adore her relationship with Bianca and how, despite how different they are, they clearly love each other and defend each other. And of course Kat/Patrick is the most adorable, wonderful thing.
55. Kate Beckett (Castle)
Kate: I’ve let it define me, drive me. It’s made me who I am. But now I wanna be more than who I am.
Castle was a show that took me a little while to get into? I actually watched the first like 8 or 9 episodes as they aired and then gave up the show. I got back into it sometime mid-season 2, and it was really Beckett that got me invested in the show. She fits kind of a similar mold of some of the other characters in this post, where she's tough and strong and outwardly may not show all her emotions, but she can be vulnerable as well, and Kate Beckett crying makes me feel all the things. I also love when she's goofy and playful, and I like the side of her we got to see after she and Castle finally got together.
56. Kelly Kapoor (The Office)
Kelly: Daryl Philbin is the most complicated man that I've ever met. I mean, who says exactly what they're thinking? What kind of game is that?
Kelly is often kind of an awful human, but that's also what I love about her. She definitely got some of the most hilarious lines on The Office, and her romance with Ryan was consistently one of my favorite parts of the show. One of my favorite things about Kelly is how excited she can get about things. Like, it sounds silly, but I like how into pop culture she is and how much she cares about, like, Beyonce. It's nice to see characters on TV who actually like things and get excited about things like I do. And, of course, Kelly Kapoor introduced me to Mindy Kaling, which is a great thing.
57. Kima Greggs (The Wire)
Bunk: There's a downside here. We don't have the guns, no prints from the scene, no witnesses. But worse, we're going to be dealing with a Baltimore city jury, and a good man is hard to find in this town. Twelve of them together, especially. An ID of both your shooters will play a whole lot easier come trial.
Kima: Yeah. Sometimes things just gotta play hard.
The Wire if one of my favorite shows ever, but one of the major issues I have with it is its lack of major female characters. Kima is really the only main female character, but luckily she's amazing enough to almost make up for that. She's another tough and strong lady who only occasionally shows vulnerability (are you seeing a pattern here???). I adored her relationship with Cheryl, so I was definitely disappointed about how that fell apart over the course of the show, but their scenes together were always excellent. And her relationships with all her coworkers, especially Jimmy, and her friendship with Bubbles were so great. I loved how she absolutely took no crap from anyone. And I loved seeing her passion for her job and how, even when she tried to leave it for the sake of Cheryl and their family, she couldn't keep away.
58. Lana Kane (Archer)
Archer: I thought you were gonna shoot me.
Lana: The day's not over.
Lana is another one who fits into the pattern of tough, emotionally closed-off ladies I love. I like how she's pretty much the voice of reason (and most intelligent, in a lot of ways) of the bunch at Isis, but she also has her over-the-top moments. Like with Kima, I love how she takes no crap from anyone else, especially Archer; anytime she physically injures him and/or insults him brings me joy. Sometimes I get behind on Archer (like, right now, I haven't seen any of the last season), but every time I get caught up, it's because I'm reminded about how much I love Lana.
59. Laurie Keller (Cougar Town)
Ellie: I miss being a ho.
Laurie: You want back in? Because we'll take you back.
I feel like Ellie is most people's favorite on Cougar Town (this... might be an incorrect assumption, but it's the impression I've gotten for some reason), but Laurie has always been my absolute fave. I love how she has a lot of sex in the earlier seasons but never feels ashamed or apologizes for it. She's so fun and bubbly that it makes the moments when she's sad that much worse. The moment early in season 2 when Smith breaks up with her and Jules sees her outside crying was the first moment on this show to truly devastate me. I like that even though Laurie can be ditzy and shallow and may not seem as intelligent as some of the other characters, the show has allowed her to have ambitions and be successful with her cake shop. And her relationship with Travis has been the cutest.
60. Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)
Leslie: We need to remember what’s important in life: friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn’t matter, but work is third.
ugh, I don't even know what to say here because I could probably go on forever about how much I love Leslie. She's probably my favorite character of all-time??? She's a character that I didn't realize was missing from my life until she popped onto my screen, and now I can't imagine her ever not existing. (...if that makes any sense.) Leslie is basically who I aspire to be in life. I love how confident she is in her convictions and how tough she'll fight for what she believes in and for the people she loves. I adore her relationships with everyone on the show and what an advocate she is of other ladies. I love her support of Ann and how she's mentored April and of course everything with Ben, and so much more. I love how strongly she works to make Pawnee as great as she believes it is, even though many (most) of the other residents may not appreciate it. No matter where she is where the show ends, I firmly believe she will be elected president several decades in the future because obviously Leslie Knope can achieve absolutely anything.
Previous posts: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50.
I told you, I am getting through this list this year even if it kills me!!!! I'm actually already done with the graphics for the rest of this list, and making the graphics is definitely the most time-consuming part of this project (I can usually only make 2, 3 at most, in one day, assuming that that's almost all I'm doing all day); the write-up these posts take much less time, but I'm often lazy and procrastinate. I'm hoping to make one post a month until I'm done with this list, which I think should be doable, and that would mean I'd finally finish this project later this year. Also, reminder that I made this list back in the summer of 2012 and haven't wanted to alter it to add/remove character since because it would make everything too complicated, but if I were able to add/remove characters, obviously characters like Joan Watson and Amy Santiago and Abbie Mills, etc. would be included.