Six fierce female criminals on TV shows

From drug lords to assassins, these characters are complex, and in some ways, relatable

Some of the most famous crime shows have men at the centre (think: ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘Dexter’ or even ‘White Collar). While female villains have existed, albeit two-dimensional in comparison to male villains, where are the female thieves and hustlers? Well, things are changing. From those trying to make good of a bad situation to manipulative sociopaths to downright psychopaths and cold-blooded killers, some of the best criminals on TV are women. Here are some crime shows with female characters at the centre.

Ratched

The psychological thriller streaming television series is a prequel to Miloš Forman’s film ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, which is based on Ken Kesey’s novel of the same name. The show tells the origin story of Mildred Ratched (Sarah Paulson). Set in 1947, in Northern California, Ratched takes on employment at a psychiatric hospital where new and unsettling experiments have begun on the human mind.

Good Girls

The crime comedy-drama television series starts off with sisters Beth (Christina Hendricks) and Annie (Mae Whitman) and their best friend Ruby (Retta) robbing a local grocery store. Only problem? The store is a money-laundering front to a drug dealer. The tri takes ‘digging a hole you can’t dig out of’ to a whole new level when they realise that only a life of crime will help them pay the gang leader back.

Queen of the South

An adaptation of the telenovela ‘La Reina del Sur’, which is based on the novel ‘La Reina del Sur’ by Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte, the series follows Teresa (Alice Braga), who flees to the US after her boyfriend is murdered by a cartel boss. In a bid to avenge her lover’s death, she goes on to build her own drug empire.

Weeds

The dark comedy-drama follows Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a widowed mother of two boys Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould). She begins selling marijuana to support her family. As the show unfolds, the audience watches Nancy get drawn into the criminal system, developing a client base and even creating her own strain of weed called MILF.

Killing Eve

The award-winning black comedy-drama follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturing psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer). Eve and Villanelle go head to head in a fierce game of cat and mouse, which results in a mutual obsession.

How to Get Away With Murder

The line between right and wrong is often blurred in the series, that it might even be wrong to classify the lead as a criminal. Annalise Keating (Viola Davis), a criminal defence lawyer and professor, finds herself bending the law to her will when a group of her students get entangled in an aberrant murder.