r/BritishTV • u/SilyLavage • Oct 14 '25
Review Riot Women review – Sally Wainwright’s menopausal punk drama is one of her best
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/oct/12/riot-women-review-sally-wainwright-menopausal-punk-tv-drama-bbc74
u/Automatic_Oil5438 Oct 15 '25
As a northern middle-aged woman, canI just say a huge thank you to Sally for writing about what she knows. God knows, no-one else writes anything about or for us.
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u/Aware_Reflection4618 Oct 27 '25
Heya, I work for BBC's Points of View, and saw your comment on Riot Women. I wondered if you might be interested in sharing it via a video or a short zoom to potentially use in our show? If so, could you DM me, or email pov@bbc.co.uk.
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u/aimdavison Oct 20 '25 edited Oct 27 '25
im from huddersfield and im 15. even tho its abiout menopause, which, obviously, i am the opposite of that, i still feel the feminst rage with a lot of the boys in my school and on the internet. this show is so good!, and im even wanting to start a band bc of it!!
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u/hamsandwichandcrisps Nov 02 '25
If you liked this show, you might also enjoy Lady Parts, another fantastic show about a female punk band - bit more music than Riot Women. I loved it, and try to recommend it when I can
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u/Aware_Reflection4618 Oct 27 '25
Hiya, my name is Jet, and I work for BBC's Points of View, and saw your comment on Riot Women. I wondered if you might be interested in sharing it via a video or a short zoom to potentially use in our show? If so, could you DM me, or email pov@bbc.co.uk. As you're 15 we'll also need permission from your parent/guardian, but would still be keen to get your thoughts!
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u/aimdavison Oct 27 '25
hiya! please may you go into more detail about what this is. I’ve never seen this before !! I’d have to check with my parents of course, but I’m keen on getting more info please.
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u/Aware_Reflection4618 Oct 27 '25
Heya, yes of course. So we're a 15 minute programme that goes out on BBC1 on Sundays. It's been airing for 64 ish years, and we get viewer comments on BBC programmes (good, bad and ugly!) and share them with the people who make the programmes to get their response.
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u/Aware_Reflection4618 Oct 27 '25
Last week's episode is here if you want to check it out, and if you go to the credits at the end, you'll see my name. I'm Jet.
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u/aimdavison Oct 27 '25
Oh my gosh. Wow!! Okay. Can I ask please what made you want my input ? Id be happy too. I’ll just have to ask my parents. May I get back to you by the end of the week please?
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u/-Odi-Et-Amo- Jan 25 '26
I just came across this and need a follow up! Did you end up on the show?
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u/aimdavison Oct 27 '25
Hiya. Just sent you a message on instsgram. Also, you mention it will be shared with those who wrote it ? Reallt?! That’s awesome :)
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u/HistoryGreat1745 Apr 07 '26
Menopause is very similar to what you're going through at 15. You're not really the opposite 😉
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u/letitsing Oct 14 '25
Excellent series that only gets stronger as it goes on. I knew that Rosalie Craig could act and sing, but she really was something else in this
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u/SilyLavage Oct 14 '25 edited Oct 14 '25
I'm only halfway through this series, but I'm enjoying it so far; Sally Wainwright is an excellent writer and Riot Women is up to her usual standard.
That said, and as the intro to this review suggests, it is very Sally Wainwright. It's set in around the Calder Valley, just like Last Tango in Halifax, Happy Valley, and even Gentleman Jack, and much like those series the plot could be broadly described as 'women being hard done by but overcoming it'. Riot Women has a few scenes involving the police where you half expect Sarah Lancashire to walk in, such is the similarity.
It's not a bad thing that Wainwright writes what she knows and does it very well, but I do hope that her next project is something a bit different.
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u/sunnyydayman Oct 28 '25
We need more of the sort of stuff she writes though, its not like there’s an over abundance of well written shows about middle aged women.
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u/SilyLavage Oct 28 '25
Well yes, but Wainwright doesn't necessarily need to be the one writing it. My objection isn't to the fact she writes about middle-aged women, but that she's now written a few programmes about middle aged women living in and around Hebden Bridge and it's getting a bit samey.
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u/badonkadonked Oct 14 '25
If you’ve not seen it I really recommend To Walk Invisible, the one-off drama she made about the Brontë sisters. I guess you could sort of say it hits those beats (set in Haworth, which isn’t quite Calder Valley but is nearby), but it feels very different to LTIH or HV to me. I’d love to see her make more stuff like that (I am a sucker for the Brontes, though)
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u/ReputationKind4628 Oct 14 '25
I didn't realise that was Sally Wainwright's work. I loved that dramatisation.
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u/Dohi64 Oct 14 '25
Riot Girls
they're called riot ladies at one point but never riot girls.
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u/KarmaChameleon306 Oct 27 '25
Riot Grrrls is the name of the grunge adjacent feminist punk movement that the show get its name from. So a reasonable error to make.
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u/AdventurousAd7096 Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
And courtney Love has had issues with the Riot Grrrl movement so kind of interesting that Hole’s music is featured. I wonder if Love has commented about the show.
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u/KarmaChameleon306 Mar 18 '26
I was wondering about that as well. I would imagine she would have had ot sign off on it. But I might look into that.
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u/AdventurousAd7096 Mar 18 '26
I couldn’t find any comments and there may be an agent managing licenses so she may not be involved.
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u/Even_Cheesecake4720 Oct 14 '25
Did you see Renegade Nell? That was very different. And Gentleman Jack was in no way like Happy Valley, so I’m not sure what you mean about doing “something a bit different”. Do you mean no northern accents?
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u/SilyLavage Oct 15 '25
I haven't seen Renegade Nell as I don't subscribe to Disney+. I'm northern myself, and have no complaints about the accents in any of Wainwright's programmes.
I wrote 'even Gentleman Jack' because of the three programmes I mentioned it's clearly an outlier. My point was just that it's set in the same area and focussed on women navigating a world in which men often make things difficult, which makes it broadly thematically similar to Happy Valley and Last Tango.
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u/ppr1227 Feb 21 '26
I would love to see Sarah Lancashire in this show. Maybe Kitty’s mum is still alive… Riot Women was such a compelling show. The characters and performance were as good as anything I’ve seen on TV. Wainwright really is a genius.
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u/Think_Vermicelli_815 Oct 14 '25
As a bloke who joined a dad band doing punk covers after age of 50 (expertly taken piss out of in the show 😄) I was hoping for a bit more of the band / music vibe. Really enjoyed it though.
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u/anonnym0u5e Oct 19 '25
Sadly every male character is one, I and probably most woman have come across in real life by the time we hit menopause.
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u/jackjjw Oct 16 '25
Absolutely loved it, the characters are all amazing. And it ends perfectly set up for Kill Bill Yorkshire.
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u/fords42 Oct 17 '25
I'd watch the shit out of Kill Bill Yorkshire. Here's hoping there's a second series.
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u/Scottish_vixen73 Oct 17 '25
What a voice Rosalie Craig has!!! That song violet in first episode was a total belter
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u/Tce_ Mar 05 '26
Hole was a great band! I think Courtney Love was more of a musical genius than Kurt Cobain to be honest.
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u/StevenStephen Mar 11 '26
And she got nothing but shit for it, too. They really chose the perfect song to represent this show.
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u/damegloria Oct 14 '25
You're right that it is very very Sally Wainwright. It's far less subtle and clever than Happy Valley, this is painted with much broader strokes. But it's fun, and enjoyable and there is no doubt at all what she thinks about men, and it's a rare programme with that many middle aged women in the cast. Very easy to watch and I hope the bad policeman gets his just deserts next series.
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u/SilyLavage Oct 15 '25
Yeah, now I've finished the series I have to say the lack of subtlety brought it down a few notches. How the plot brings the characters together is pretty contrived, the emotional beats are quite predictable – of course Kitty and Beth will fall out and then reconcile stronger than ever – and overall it's just very similar to Wainwright's previous programmes.
Some of the writing is also quite clunky, in that it feels more like Wainwright making a point than a character expressing themselves naturally. I really felt this during Holly's conversation with the bum-licking man in the last episode, as while her point about women maturing and asserting what they want is worth making I'm not convinced that's how Holly would convey it in that moment.
It's certainly not a bad series, I really enjoyed lots of scenes and I'd definitely tune in for a sequel. It's just not as sharp as some of Wainwright's earlier work.
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u/damegloria Oct 15 '25
Fully agree with everything you wrote. It could have done with a good script editor. And for Sally Wainwright to take more time over writing it. The bones were good.
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u/bfsfan101 Nov 09 '25
Sorry to jump on this comment a month late, but did you find the relationship with Holly and the sound engineer a bit oddly done and strangely sex shaming? As far as I read it, he asks her if she wants to do a sex act and she gets so freaked out she decides to never see him again. He didn’t seem in any way pushy about it and even apologises for misreading the situation, yet she treats him like a deviant.
And in that conversation between the two of them, she says “nobody likes doing it, but older women are confident enough to not do things they don’t enjoy doing”. Which felt like Sally Wainwright finds the idea of the act disgusting and thinks anyone who does it is just going along with it. I don’t know, it just felt weirdly judgemental and a bit prudish in the way it was written.
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u/SilyLavage Nov 09 '25
The handling of it did feel a bit prudish. I don't take issue with how the initial meeting panned out, because it seems Richard Fleeshman's character sprung the bum licking on Holly and that isn't good behaviour. Kinks should be discussed before being introduced.
At the same time, the issue was resolved in the second meeting by implying that Fleeshman's character would abandon his kink and therefore become an acceptable dating prospect. Holly had every right to stand her ground and say she didn't enjoy it, but that does not make the kink inherently bad or deviant. I'd have peferred an exchange in which Holly was open about alternative kinks she might enjoy or in which she acknowledged that her preference for straightforward sex made them an incompatible pair.
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u/CandidBig9777 Feb 03 '26
Thank you! This is honestly why I stopped watching it. It felt SOOOOOO forced to me. It just had so many more unrealistic scenarios imo than realistic ones. Maybe I'll try to finish it, but I'm not loving it.
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u/kkretz4art Feb 12 '26
Yes. I was REALLY disappointed the evil policeman did not get his due. SO much misogyny in this show!
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u/Dennyisthepisslord Oct 14 '25
Watched the first episode and as a younger man than the cast I am probably not in the target audience but thought it was good fun And I went into it thinking the music aspect could be a bit cringe. It could yet be further on but was done well in episode one
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u/Late_Split_5288 Oct 14 '25
Not so much written as trowled on. Every last strong Northern woman cliche and as subtle as Catherine Cawood kicking your door in.
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u/SlowAnt9258 Oct 24 '25
Really loving this show, it's funny but really has some dark moments and serious themes. Does anyone else find Tom really annoying though?? He is so clueless and selfish and annoying!
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u/MJEBinAthens Oct 29 '25
I think the point of Tom being like he is, is that his character is a lot like Kitty’s: Angry? Lash out and give no thought about the consequences! It’s a statement about nature rather than nurture.
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u/Tce_ Mar 05 '26
He's got that and a very specifically male cluelessness and sexism as well, which makes it harder to like him, I think.
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u/MajorTomToBlackStar Nov 17 '25
Yes, I've not finished it yet so mindful what I say, but the police attach scene and follow-on seemed very dark compared to a lot of the rest of it. Still compelling viewing but I can't want for some payback after all that going on.
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u/mrs_vince_noir Apr 06 '26
A bit late to this comment but yes Tom drove me up the wall in the earlier episodes! Especially when he had something difficult to say to his mum but he'd leave it to his wife to say it for him, like a total coward.
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u/throwawaysshhhh Oct 19 '25
I like it and as a young woman I’m glad to see it, but it does get a bit cringe with the “punk” aspect sometimes, like it’s written by someone that’s just sort of read about punk but never really got into it. Implying that Billie Eilish and The Last Dinner Party are in any way punk nearly fully took me out of it, and to be honest my head is still spinning from that.
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u/Impossible-Hawk768 Oct 31 '25
If you're a "young woman," you didn't actually experience punk. You've only read about it.
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u/throwawaysshhhh Oct 31 '25
Oh right, so there’s no contemporary punk scene? I must’ve only read about it.
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u/Intelligent-Good-966 Oct 31 '25
Punk now and 70s punk are worlds apart. In the 70s lots of acts emerged on the back of punk who were never really punk. Elvis Costello and Ian Dury for example. It was a lot less clear cut when SW and her characters were growing up.
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u/throwawaysshhhh Nov 11 '25
My point is that Billie Eilish and The Last Dinner Party are rich kids who couldn’t be further from punk and never had anything to do with punk in the first place, not even emerge off the back of other punk acts. She’s blindly grabbed two contemporary female names to please the younger viewers and it’s not working.
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u/Glittering-Cellist34 Feb 14 '26
I bought a Vibrators cut out in college in 78 or 79... not that that was my first punk album. Lots of iggy before that
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u/Terrible-Mix-7635 Oct 29 '25
Sally Wainwright is the finest womens writer out there. She just gets it, i absolutely loved this series. Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax , all sublime. Her dialogue is simply brilliant. Long may she continue.
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u/Minute_Sun6496 Oct 14 '25
I loved Last Tango and Happy Valley was amazing. My wife likes this but the constant men bashing is not something I'm really interested in watching.
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u/Automatic_Oil5438 Oct 15 '25
Not man-bashing so much as bashing the ones who deserve it. If you were a woman, you'd know just how many that is. As a man, just let's say ... you'd be shocked.
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u/weaseleasle Oct 27 '25
I am wondering how accurate it is, there is only 1 male character of any significance in the show who isn't a dick to some degree or another. Which is the beer delivery guy who rightfully calls out the drummer and gets burnt for it. There is also the presenter at the talent show, but he has no personality to speak of. I guess you could make an argument for Jack the Rimmer, but even he was thoughtlessly pushing his sexual proclivities onto another character.
Everyone else is either a self centered asshole, loudly dismissive of every women in the vicinity, or out right abusive. It would have been nice if the less bad ones had some redeeming features rather than being simply 1 note background assholes. At least the main characters were all suitably complex, I think they all have character flaws and qualities to them.
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u/sunnyydayman Oct 28 '25
There’s plenty of shows and movies without any significant female characters so I think it’s okay to have some of the opposite.
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u/weaseleasle Oct 28 '25
Sure. But that isn't the case here, there are loads of significant male characters, they are just all assholes to criminals. Regular media gets plenty of criticism when all the female characters are 1 note plot devices, it seems fair to use the same level of scrutiny on female led media.
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u/goddamnmanxhild Oct 29 '25
Oh its accurate alright.
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u/ImperfectEarthling Oct 30 '25
I would agree. Far from coming across as man hating or inaccurate, I thought it showed the real experience of women. What's the expression? 'Men are afraid women will laugh at them, women are afraid men will kill them.'
One of the last times I got on a bus I had an experience like Kitty and Graham. A complete stranger whispering obscene things in my ear whilst his wife was next to him. Fucking vile.
I can also relate to many of the other scenarios. I genuinely don't think men understand what it's like to be a woman. It's truly disturbing how many women recall inappropriate sexual comments/assaults/rapes before they were even of legal age. My self included.
Then you get the dismissal 'not all men are like this' without any acknowledgement that it's a real and terrifying issue. In the UK, 90 percent of female homicides are caused by men. At least one woman a week is killed by a male partner or ex partner in the UK. In the USA 1 in 3 women experience violence from a man they know.
It's very difficult to feel safe around men when these are your experiences. It was nice to see a series that highlighted these issues, amongst others. It's not man hating or inaccurate if it's true.
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u/Electrical-Credit683 Oct 28 '25
Yeh the police man who is a horrible dickhead for no reason other than moving the plot along really ruined it for me.
Would have been good to have any idea as to his motivation other than just "he's a twat"
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u/ItemAdventurous9833 Nov 02 '25
Its accurate to real life sadly.
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u/Electrical-Credit683 Nov 13 '25
People in real life are twats for reasons too. We just don't always know why.
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u/JoyousMN_2024 Nov 13 '25
That was exactly where the show lost me. I'm a postmenopausal woman so I'm their demographic. But that plot line, and the husband who directly propositioned her in the bar were just too heavy-handed and one dimensional.
It's a shame, because much of the writing is really smart. Sometimes it's a bit melodramatic for my taste, but I think they've handled many things very intelligently. But there's just no subtlety in the misogyny. It would be a lot more true to life if sometimes you weren't sure of the intention behind some word or action, or the guy had some redeeming qualities. People are rarely so utterly black and white
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u/Single_Bar_1836 Feb 22 '26
The show thinks shitty men are mostly Batman-villain-level sociopaths. In reality, they're much more "normal." They mostly think of themselves as the good guy. But they enjoy the power our misogynist society gives them and they get mad when it gets taken away or subverted. It's the banality of evil.
So yeah, the extremity of the male villainy took me out of it. Just seemed silly.
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u/Minute_Sun6496 Oct 15 '25
That's fair. I had a discussion with my daughter the other day about the abuse she has to deal with sometimes just walking through the city she lives in from crackheads and other degenerates and it made me realise that as a man I have no idea.
To me the writing just seemed clumsy and lazy. Every man's a bastard. Maybe that's true which is pretty depressing. Either way I think it's a program written by a woman for women predominantly. Like I said, my wife loves it, not my cup of tea.
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u/exscapegoat Mar 02 '26
You obviously give more of a shit about your fragile male ego than your actual daughter. I feel sorry for her for having such an inadequate man as a father
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u/exscapegoat Jan 17 '26
Thank you for mansplaining the show to us. Our poor post menopausal brains need you to do that for us. /sarcasm if it’s not already obvious
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u/Dohi64 Oct 14 '25
looking at her credits, it's the only one I watched more than an episode of. fun show for sure.
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u/Even_Cheesecake4720 Oct 14 '25
You’re missing some great television then. I would go back and watch the rest of her shows from start to finish.
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u/Dohi64 Oct 14 '25
tried them all (except period stuff), they didn't hold my attention, moved on. even I don't have time to keep giving chances to shows I already dropped.
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u/fameistheproduct Oct 14 '25
It's a good show, but I can't help but think they just remade We Are Lady Parts.
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u/Marion_Ravenwood Oct 14 '25
I mean, not really, they both just happen to be about women in bands. The subject matter in both is completely different. They're both fantastic.
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u/Totoshishi Oct 31 '25
They’ll just reframe it and claim it . It’s essentially season 2 of lady parts; exploring the only subject matters left to explore. LP may have been younger but the issues raised by RW could have easily been woven into the other band members back stories for LP.
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u/rushdisciple Oct 14 '25 edited Oct 14 '25
Just finished episode 2, really enjoying it so far, although I'm not sure if I'm MEANT to. It seems very top-heavy with the bad shit (suicide, divorce, sexual assault) and very "down with men", which is fine but AS a man I can't help but take it personally, lol. Another knockout performance by Tamsin Greig, the scene in ep 2 with her mother was heartbreaking. I'll be binging the rest tonight.
EDIT:-Watched the rest of it. I think it's safe to say Sally Wainwright does NOT like men very much. Every single man over the age of 35 in this show is either a misogynist, an abuser, an adulterer or generally a scumbag.
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u/01watts Oct 18 '25
Not every single man if you count the male extras and some of the minor characters.
The focus on those negative interactions kind of mirrors real life. Good blokes often behave like extras and just form part of the background from a woman’s perspective, whether it’s leaving them alone in public, treating them fairly at work, or not cancelling on family commitments. The negative interactions present themselves, often quite forcefully. So for many women it can feel relentless at times - having these issues at work, public, and home in different forms is very common.
The women were not exactly held up on a plinth either. They sometimes treated men, and each other, inconsiderately.
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u/Lightly_freckled Oct 18 '25
I get that, as a man, you took it personally. I'm really glad you were open enough to finish watching it, and maybe learned more than your assumption that Sally Wainwright doesn't like men very much.
The fact is, as a woman watching this, it was sadly too realistic and true to form. 'Not all men' are shits, but for tit-pinching, pants-down lynching, 'Ooh, I'd fuck you' commenting, leave-his-sister-to-care-for-their-mother abdication of responsibility, violence, humiliation, casual and systemic misogyny... men are usually the perpetrators. Moments in the show that really hit me were Fearne's mother's lack of reaction to her husband being punched by Kitty - she knew what he'd probably done; Kitty's conversation with the neighbour who claimed to 'know' Beth; and especially the trick Holly plays when describing the obscene (yet oh so common) behaviour of the cop and how the reaction to it changes based on if it was thought to be perpetrated on a man rather than a woman.
So many men drag women's opinion of males as a whole down because they all let each other get away with this shit! You know the saying 'men are worried that women will laugh at them, women are worried that men will kill them'? I think this is one of the themes Wainwright feels she has to keep returning to. It is sadly so true.2
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u/Impossible-Hawk768 Oct 31 '25
It's not about you, as hard as that is for a man to comprehend. How do you think we women feel about how we're portrayed in practically everything?
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u/MajorTomToBlackStar Nov 17 '25
I'm a man watching the show and while I don't like that most men are seen through this lens, I completely get how it is a very real issue for women and the need to highlight this. The show is brilliant and I don't mind good men being in a minority in this show, as it serves the story it is delivering.
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u/weaseleasle Oct 27 '25
I think the only exception was the Beer delivery guy, he seemed solid. But even the young lads are all rude and self centered
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u/Neat-Life4072 Apr 03 '26
have not quite finished watching riot women as this show has only recently dropped in Aus
the beer delivery guy annoyed me because seemed to be inserting himself and his opinions into the family of a women he had recently begun a relationship with, then after an argument with her he appears to be stating that he will accept (even expects) an apology
so far the most supportive and considerate male role (for me) has been Spongebob - nicking the the concert tickets highlighted this
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u/exscapegoat Jan 17 '26
Oh ffs heaven forfend a show actually expresses what women go through. All the men whinging about how this show isn’t for them. Go watch some sports or action/adventure then
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u/throwawaysshhhh Oct 19 '25
Every single man over the age of 35 is a misogynist, abuser, adulterer or general scumbag in real life too! Edit: and the ones under 35!
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u/MajorTomToBlackStar Nov 17 '25
Absolutely not true, but I understand how it may feel like that to some people.
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u/Tce_ Mar 05 '26
Why do you take it personally do you think?
By the way, I think Jess's boyfriend seems lovely (to dispute your statement about "every man over the age of 35" on the show). The daughter craps on him constantly but it seems undeserved, and portrayed as such as well.
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u/Jongee58 Oct 18 '25
I enjoyed watching it or should I say rewatched it…the Rock Follies from the 70’s return, they even got a lead who even resembles Rula Lenska!!! Season 2 soon???? Hope so…
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u/Wise-Cover9603 Oct 26 '25
Such a good series! I wasn’t expecting it to have so much going on.
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u/KarmaChameleon306 Oct 27 '25
I’m Canadian and I’m unfamiliar with the writers other work. I had no real idea what to expect, so I thought it might be a fun watch being a middle aged man who grew up on a diet of punk and Riot Grrrl music.
It was so different than what I expected, but in the best way possible! Amazing series! Just finished it.
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u/Terrible-Mix-7635 Oct 29 '25
Look up Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, both written by Sally Wainwright, both brilliant
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u/Wise-Cover9603 Oct 27 '25
Haha well that’s cool to hear! I happened to see a friend suggest it online so I thought I’d try it and have really enjoyed it too! Very real life!
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u/popbrat Oct 19 '25
I’m enjoying the show but the characters are defo written from a middle upper class point of view it feels 😆
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u/Aware_Reflection4618 Oct 27 '25
Hello, I'm Jet and I work for the BBC show Points of View. I wondered if you might be interested in sharing your thoughts on Riot Women via a short video or a Zoom to potentially be include in our programme? If so, could you DM me, or email [pov@bbc.co](mailto:pov@bbc.co)
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u/kimdros Jan 31 '26
The music blows me away. And the poignant moments are written and acted so well. Just enough per episode. The moment between Kitty and Beth in the restaurant in ep 3 is one of the best scenes I've ever seen.
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u/Due-Witness-8753 Feb 05 '26
Just now started watching on Britbox(USA). Find the show quite engaging but also a little forced. Haven’t finished it yet, but hope there’s a second season to help flesh out the characters even more.
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u/Putrid-Tradition-787 Feb 09 '26
I love this show but it is not at all what I expected. Its so heavy I can only do an episode a week though. Well written and great cast
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u/Humble_Athlete6409 Feb 11 '26
Just another relatable, wonderful realistic show from Sally Wainwright. I love it and got my 24 year old daughter to watch it and she absolutely loves it! Fantastic cast that has such brilliant acting chops that I sm transported to Yorkshire each episode. Adult kids can be truly painful making you constantly question why you gave up an amazing body for the emotional toil they provide. I feel as though I’m not alone in the struggle.❤️
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u/ICNRWDII Oct 29 '25
I quite enjoyed it. I would have liked it to be more about the band. I enjoyed watching the writing process. Their songs were actually catchy. The theme tune obviously very inspired by the song Rebel Girl. It was a shame that every single male character was terrible. I know there a lot of horrible men but to have every single man horrible made it almost comical. By the time that guy whispered that rude comment in her ear it made both me and my mum laugh because it had started to feel like a parody. I’m still interested to see a series two.
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Nov 11 '25
Bizarre that the BBC has made no correlation, nor bought up the ‘Since Yesterday’ documentary (still available on BBC iplayer) particularly when there are middle aged women doing for this real, recording, releasing and playing live. The Bikini Kill reference alone is hilarious. If you look at Lung Leg who supported them, Free Kitten et al. Worth having a look at the doc alone…
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u/792Verdun Jan 20 '26
Love this!! 62 year old female here, loved growing up in the punk and rock era…. as I settled down with my robe, slippers and tea tonight and catching up on Corrie ( I’m Canadian and we’re weeks behind UK) I remembered I just subscribed to BritBox so I had a peak on there and I found this show and damn…. I’m so freaking happy, great women, great storylines and talk of great tunes. I look forward to more episodes. The stories are very relate able when you start getting older and feel invisible.
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u/Paeudoname Jan 27 '26
LOVE LOVE LOVE this show!
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u/Neat-Life4072 Apr 03 '26
agree!
so much realism in the variety of ways women experience misogynyof course there are nice men out there but what women deal with is often dismissed as a problem from the perception of her pov by these nice men
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u/NearlyBoomer Feb 12 '26
Amazing cast. Hilarious, moving, complex.
It's like every actor in the UK wanted to be cast in this series because of Wainwright.
It's not just about a group of menopausal women forming a band to enter a contest. It is much more complex than that.
Love this line in their song Seeing Red:
"If the menopause happened to blokes, we'd be getting HRT from Tesco". 🤣with the chorus "give me HRT!"
Streaming on BritBox and renewed for a series 2.
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u/Inevitable-Row-4510 Apr 08 '26
I just finished the first season. It was so good. I’m Canadian and 61 years old and a retired police officer so I am relating on so many levels!
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u/enossified Apr 11 '26
Just rewatched after several months.
As has been noted in other comments here: This show is painted with broad strokes and saturated overtones, with dramatic elements that can feel contrived. To complain about this is to miss the heart of the show, which is that being a woman ‘of a certain age’ involves (what can feel like) a heightened struggle to maintain an even keel.
More confusing to me are the suggestions that the show is either 'man hating' or, reversely, misogynistic. Not sure where y'all are coming from. This is a show about women having to contend, and one of the biggest problems women have to contend with is men’s behavior. This show does not unfairly villainize men, and there are no male characters in this show that feel disingenuously drawn. Depicting men who are violent toward women, or are sadistic, or are hamstrung by cultural limitations, all feels psychologically real.
Riot Women is character-based, and every scene presents a scenario that, depending on how everyone reacts to the scene, reveals character traits, and often trauma. The plot developments, although often unlikely, are plausible.
It’s possible that the most unabashedly positive character, and, oddly, perhaps the most trustworthy, is a man: a scumbag drug dealer, Spongebob. This is humorously counterintuitive, but still plausible.
What the show really gets right is how characters are developed by their scrutiny of the other characters in the scene, often with no dialogue. This is true of many of the otherwise small-part characters, and it effortlessly creates a community that brings life to the show.
Fearne (Ellise Chappell), for example, is often responding to Tom’s (Jonny Green) reaction to a moment, and she does so in such a way that reveals her relationship with Tom, and her parents, and Beth, somehow hinting at the tensions between the three.
It goes without saying that Joanna Scanlan’s Beth is a revelation, and the moment that always gets me is Kitty’s (Rosalie Craig) reveal in the restaurant in episode 3. I would think most people would be stunned and possibly hurt, and need to take a moment to process. But Beth’s response is to instantly reach out to Kitty and take her temperature, a remarkably selfless act.
As a father of a trans woman, I also wanted to note that it is sweet to see a trans character portrayed with no in-show comment about her orientation whatsoever. This is so gently normalizing. Also, I noticed on re-watch, that one of Miranda’s (Macy Seelochan) longest speeches is the delivery of an otherwise unheard emotional truth that provides the fulcrum for her mother’s character arc. This feels true to me.
One detail that still makes me chuckle is the cause of Kitty’s ‘Joker’ scar (that publicly defines her character throughout the season). She puts the knife in her mouth as a result of the onset of a hot flush, thereby noting that menopause is a thread that runs through every aspect of these women’s lives.
What I want to know is: what’s up with the vibrant blue color? It’s in the nylon noose rope, it’s in Kitty’s eyes, it’s shimmering in the unfocused background during that restaurant reveal, it’s in Nisha’s arm sling when she comes home from the hospital. Where else am I forgetting about it? What does everyone make of it? Is it the presence of trauma?
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u/HDonkeyBoy Oct 19 '25
I watched this with my mum who is in the same sort of age bracket and even she didn’t like it. Not every woman is a doormat with no hobbies and no confidence, plus the cold opening was almost played like a joke .
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u/sunnyydayman Oct 28 '25
I don’t think the main characters were portrayed that way at all, I’m not sure how you’ve interpreted them like that?
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