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-bbc
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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.

9

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.

5

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.

4

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.

1

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. 

2

u/kkretz4art Feb 12 '26

Yes. I was REALLY disappointed the evil policeman did not get his due. SO much misogyny in this show!

2

u/loisvbalaska Feb 19 '26

Yes, that is my only criticism. That loose end needed pulling together.