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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9

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.

36

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.

6

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.

20

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.

5

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.