5 Underrated Female Led Shows

*I am aware it is now Winter, but this post has been a along time in the writing haha!
Now that Autumn is here I feel like it's the perfect time to curl up with a blanket and a hot drink in my pyjamas as the weather's already started to turned here in England. I mean I do that in summer too, but now it's more socially acceptable. I do love summer but there is definitely something special about cosy evenings in with hot chocolate and your favourite tv. 

I've tried to avoid the more obvious choices so this is in fact a PLL free zone! I also tried to get options from a variety of genres, hopefully something to suit everyone. Enjoy!

^Best line in anything ever (Particularly with context)

1//The 100-  As I write this I'm just now sitting down to watch the newest episode of the third season and I can't believe how far the story has come and how well the characters have been/are being developed. But the reason I've chosen to include it among this list is because of how strong the female leads are. They don't do what other people say they should and they don't take the easy option. They have their own opinions and ideas and are constantly trying to do the right thing for the good of the others, even at cost to themselves. There's also a fair amount of action and a little side of romance, particularly a love triangle which I was never a fan of but I'll try to avoid spoilers!

2//Agent Carter- This is probably the most well known among feminist TV fans and comic book lovers alike. Peggy Carter, though introduced as the love interest of Steve Rogers AKA Captain America in the first Captain America movie, has managed to step out (gracefully may I add) of his shadow to become a near enough superhero in her own right. After the war Peggy (and women in general) are once again pushed aside as the men return home from the front-line, so the first season begins with her dealing with this at work whilst doing secret missions with the great inventor and scientist Howard Stark (Tony Stark AKA Iron man's dad) on the side. As Agent Carter, Hayley Atwell, plays a proud, intelligent, witty, unapologetic woman who can kick ass both physically and verbally all whilst embodying the glamour of the 1940's. To add to this she is simply gorgeous with an amazing figure and cute British accent. In my eyes this woman can do no wrong. The supporting cast of James D'Arcy, Enver Gjokaj and Lyndsey Fonseca in the first season provide ample opportunity for laughs, sass and cute heartfelt moments aplenty and I cant wait see what the second season has in store.

3//Sex and the City- This is the most light-hearted, comedic of the shows I picked. It's rather an old show now, and you will definitely cringe at the giant mobile phones and the clothes that they wear but it is genuinely so hilarious.
The 4 main characters are all female and pretty sure of themselves which I love. Plus I love the way it explores sex, sexuality, romance and relationships in a light hearted way, whilst still being quite thought provoking.There are times when a scene will play and I don't find it that funny and then 5 minutes later it clicks with me and I can't stop laughing. It's definitely for a more mature audience as you can probably guess from the title. I found the entire 6 seasons for £12 in Cex the other day and was so tempted to buy it, but since I've already watched 3 seasons I thought it would be bit of a waste.

4// Outlander- The weirdest thing about this one is that I've never actually seen any promotion for this or even seen anyone talk about it on social media except for the booktuber Sasha Alsberg who is obsessed with the book. After seeing her enthusiasm I had to give it a go and was very pleased that I did! As it's set in the Scottish Highlands I decided to watch most of it on my way to Edinburgh in the summer to get me in the mood. It was so surprising how strong Claire was in the story because neither of the time periods that she visits are periods particularly enlightened to equality yet in both the 1940's and 1700's Claire manages to speak up and more importantly get herself heard. Every time you expect her to back down she finds a new and better way of doing things. It's also a great romantic love story with plenty of angst and drama.

5//The Fall- This is a much lesser known option that's again for a more mature audience as it's very dark. It's about the hunt for a serial killer in Belfast and focuses around Stella Gibson who is the lead officer in hunting him. Her philosophies and attitudes towards sex and being a woman are very open and refreshing in a city like Belfast. The screencaps above are from the show and it's just so inspirational the way she deals with the daily sexism and harassment she  suffers, particularly in her line of work.

I think that what I've learned most from writing this is that all I want from a TV programme is to see multi-dimensional female characters who are not only able define and lead their own stories but are representative of real women- Which is something I really don't feel I should be having to ask for at this point! As always leave me your suggestions about what I should be watching below...

5 Great shows for LGBQT Representaion

Today I thought I'd share with you 5 shows that I watch that I believe offer positive and I hope accurate representations of sexual and ethnic minorities, as I know how difficult it is to find such shows. The idea for this post actually came from another TV post I was writing about female led shows and I found a probably quite unsurprising correlation between shows which offered great portrayals of women and those that offered positive portrayals of gay/lesbian/transsexual etc. people. It just goes to show that in order to believe in one kind of equality you often have to believe in all types of equality. Anyway I'm rambling now so please enjoy this little compilation and I hope that this article is enlightening to you.

1//Sense8- I'll admit, when I first heard the premise of this show, I was very sceptical, but I ended up watching the whole season within a week, it was that good. It centres around 8 complete strangers who become mentally and physically linked so that they can access each other memories, skills and feelings. There are Gay, Lesbian and Trans characters amongst the main 8 in this show, but what I love about it is that it shows so many different perspectives. One character is hiding the fact that he's gay for the sake of his career whilst others are out and proud. I also love that they have a trans character in the show but it doesn't centre around her transition and shows her post transition living a very happy life. Arguably the two lesbian characters have the most functional relationship in the entire show, which is unusual to see too.

2//Orphan Black- I think I've talked about this show on my blog far too much now but I really don't care because it's easily one of my favourite shows ever (And I say that as a committed TV addict). The entire idea of the show is brilliant and Tatiana Maslany is just such an incredible actress, I so frequently forget when I'm watching the show that it's just one person. I think my favourite clone is Cosima and her and Delphine are definitely OTP material. Evelyne Brochu is just gorgeous as well which helps. It really helps. The initial stages of their romance are just so cute; the way Delphine is slightly in denial about her feelings.

3//OITNB- I feel like this really doesn't need any explanation because if you haven't seen this you must have been living under a rock the last three years. It's brilliant and you should just watch it. So much sass. So much hotness. What's not to love.

4//Carmilla- Lesbian Vampires. I just thought I'd get that out there to begin with. This is a relatively unknown webseries as far as I know, but over summer I spent an entire day watching every episode available to me (1 1/2 seasons) and really enjoyed it. It's based off a rather old book and it's very cheesy and sometimes the acting really does make me cringe but the reason that it's included in this post is because the two main characters are lesbian and there's also an agender person and whilst this isn't part of the main plot, it's a great side story to see how the persons friends struggle with it. It's available to watch on the Verve Girl youtube channel with new episodes of season 2 coming out every week.

5// Girl Meets Boy-  I probably shouldn't be including this as currently I've only actually seen one episode of it, but I was just so impressed. It's rather a ground breaking romcom about a transsexual woman which I found genuinely very amusing and heart warming. I'm just very disappointed that it's on BBC 2 and not BBC 1 as I really think that this show needs a more prominent position on TV schedules simply because it's so unusual to see a trans character on British TV, especially on a major broadcasting network such as  the BBC.

As always, I would love to read your comments and hear from you, particularly about any shows which you think offer great representation!

10 Shows to Binge Watch this Summer / / Part two

Originally this was one post but it got reallllly long so here I am back with another 5 binge watching recommendations...

6// American Horror Story- I'll be the first to admit that when my friend first tried to get me to watch this I was very surprised, but it quickly became one of my favourite shows. When I first started I didn't really like it that much, but I continued to watch it mainly just to finish but by the end of season it had grown on me quite a lot and I decided to delve into the second and soon it was the third and fourth and then it was over and I wanted to cry. Season one is easily my least favourite so I wouldn't say it was the one to start on. That might sound kinda confusing as I forgot to mention the important thing about AHS. Each season tells an entirely different story! I think any AHS alum would say that Coven is the best (Season 3), but don't just trust me, give it a go!

7// iZombie- You know those shows that you hear about and you're just like 'NO'. I honestly thought that this was gonna be the worst thing ever but then I walked in whilst my sister was watching it and was immediately sold. It was just so surprising how funny and genuinely entertaining it was. It's a great feel good show and Bradley James' face really doesn't hurt.

8// Once Upon a Time- This is one of quite few shows that I have actually watched right from the beginning back in 2011, though we have had our ups and downs. The first season when no one believes in fairy tales is amazing, but then it slowly goes kinda downhill in my personal opinion, I'm not such a fan of the Peter Pan storyline. However with the newest season I feel like it's finally back on top and I loveeeeee the Wicked Witch storyline, along with the frozen one.

9// The Good Wife- I started watching this after my parents got me into it, as a result I haven't actually seen the first two seasons, so hopefully over the summer I will get round to that. Its about a woman called Alicia Florrick who goes back into law after a break to raise her children after her husband who is (I think) Districts Attorney at the beginning but gets involved in a scandal with prostitutes. It sounds rather boring but Alicia is literally an idol of mine. She's so sassy and fierce and the show is just so sexy and great. I'm being so illiterate right now, but I just cannot recommend this enough! Finn is bae (He's in season 5 so you'll have a while to go).

10// Outlander- I've been following a booktuber called Sasha on instagram for while now (I'm not too sure why as I don't watch her videos!) and she is constantly raving about Outlander so I thought I'd finally give it a go and have watched 3 episodes so far. As it's set in Scotland I think I'm going to watch it on the way up to Edinburgh in a few weeks but it's been rather hard to stop myself from watching them all straight away. It's an excellent story and Claire is just a brilliantly clever, funny and bold lead, especially considering the time setting.

So there we go, 10 shows to help you waste hours of your life, I'm always open to recommendations so leave them in the comments!

10 Shows to Binge Watch this Summer / / Part one

I wanted to ignore the super obvious choices such as OITNB, Game of Thrones and PLL and provide others who are spending their summers sloth-ing with new and somewhat less-known shows to binge whilst they have the free time. I have the feeling this might become a very long post as I talk about all my favorite shows. Alternatively these are great shows to curl up with in the fall, so even if this post does go up a little late, you can still enjoy.

1// Sense8- One of the newest offerings from streaming giant Netflix, Sense8, much to my intense joy, has just been renewed for season 2. The story centres around 8 strangers who become psychic-ly linked and are suddenly able to share skills and memories etc. The characters are so endearing and the way each of their stories becomes linked is so clever. I'm so excited for season 2!

2// Orphan Black- This is hands down in my top 5 shows of ever. It's literally unbelievable. How Tatiana Maslany plays almost all the characters in the show I will never understand. The programme starts with Sarah (the main character) watching a girl who looks exactly like her, kill herself. Whilst it sounds like quite the depressing start to the story, Sarah soon becomes embroiled in the mystery of how and why they look so alike. 

3// Reign- Is one of my guilty pleasure programmes that I hate to love, purely because it's so girly and cliche and unrealistic. But it's so addictive and cute and Mary and Francis are just so adorable together. And the hotness in this show is very good, comparable to PLL I would say. You see what I mean, I become so superficial when I watch it, haha! I like the fact that it not only explores Mary and Francis's relationship but also how they tread the careful political state that they leave in and also the lives of Mary's ladies and other important people in court. 

4// House of Cards- I confess that, for me, this is quite the hard watch. It's one of those shows that you literally have to pay full attention to or you'll just get lost which is annoying cus I'm almost always doing something else whilst I watch TV. It's a very intellectual programme and it's rather strange at points but I did really enjoy the first season, I haven't got round to the second one yet though.

5// The 100- This was another show that rather surprised me at how good it was. I stormed through both seasons of this soooo fast because it's so cliff hanger-y you just can't stop yourself. Clarke is an excellent lead and I love seeing a woman lead so well and that she's able to make the tough decisions herself and doesn't rely on anyone else.

Check back tomorrow for the next 5 recommendations and leave me recommendations in the comments...

Day 28: Essential Winter TV

All of these shows have had their fall finales a while ago now but that just means there's lots of episodes to binge watch whilst it's cold outside, with a mug of hot chocolate and a fluffy blanket!

The 100- I only very recently realised that the second season of this had started but I watched the eight new episodes in 2 days anyway so it didn't really matter! I love love love Clarke and Abby, I love the fact that this show has two strong female leads, and I especially love the fact that whenever you expect one of the male leads to swoop in and save the day, it ends up being Clarke or Abby instead.

Reign-Similar to The 100 one of the main reasons I love this how is because whenever you expect Mary to back down and let Francis sort out the problem and whenever he tells her not to interfere she goes ahead and does whatever she wants to because she thinks its the best thing to do. Apart from that I also love the setting and costume in Reign because its all so pretty and sparkly and luxurious. And the romance between Francis and Mary is just perfect. It's very cliched very romantic and not at all historically accurate but I love it!

American Horror Story- As I write this I have spent all afternoon watching the first 5 episodes of season 3 which is Coven and although it is super creepy and full of absolute psychos I still find it weirdly addictive. I really liked the first season but chose to skip the second one because A) Asylums already really freak me out and B) my friends said that it was one of the worst one so I chose to skip to coven. I wasn't too sure to begin with but I think I would recommend it now, it's a very edge-of-your-seat-have-to-watch-more kinda programme.

Flash & Arrow- I have put these two together because if you like one, I have no doubt you'll like the other, I really don't think I could pick between the two cus I adore Felicity in arrow but I also love Caitlin and Barry in the flash. They have the perfect mix of action, romance and comedy which is so rare, though Flash is definitely lighter and more comedic then Arrow. The crossover that they did just before their fall finales was amazing too and the finale's of both were just incredible too, I just loveeeeeee them.

Whilst writing this post the main thing I have realised is that promo shots are so bad, they always look really awkwardly posed and so airbrushed that they don't even look like the actors anymore. Anyway I hope you enjoy, let me know if try any of the shows out cus I have a tonne more recommendations!