Television has come a long way in its portrayal of women. Gone are the days when female characters were relegated to the roles of housewives or mothers, as seen in classics like I Love Lucy or The Brady Bunch. Today, we expect women on screen to be as complex and multifaceted as their male counterparts. Yet, some writers still fall into the trap of creating one-dimensional female characters. Taylor Sheridan, for all his success, often does this. Guy Ritchie, on the other hand, is proving he knows how to write women who feel real.
Taylor Sheridan's Women: Stuck in Stereotypes
Sheridan has built an empire with shows like Yellowstone, Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, and Landman. While these series draw massive audiences, his female characters often feel like afterthoughts. They tend to be extensions of male characters or gender-swapped versions of them. Common tropes include the overly emotional wife, the power-hungry businesswoman, or the trauma-defined victim. Even in his films like Wind River and Sicario, women are frequently oversexualized or defined by their suffering.
Fans have noticed. A Reddit thread titled "I'm convinced Taylor Sheridan doesn't like women" highlights the growing frustration. While Sheridan does create strong women, like Joe in Lioness, they often lose their femininity or fit neatly into a box without ever breaking out. There's room for improvement, and Ritchie is showing how it's done.
MobLand's Women: Complex and Compelling
In MobLand, currently airing its second season on Paramount+, Ritchie delivers a standout in Maeve Harrigan, played by the legendary Helen Mirren. Maeve is the matriarch of a powerful mob family, and she's anything but one-dimensional. She's loving and fierce, but also sociopathic and unpredictable. Mirren's portrayal is a masterclass, and it's a stark contrast to her role as Cara Dutton in Sheridan's 1923. While Cara was a protective matriarch, Maeve goes toe-to-toe with her husband Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) and shows she's just as formidable as any man in the family.
The show doesn't stop there. Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer) is a villain who commands fear, while supporting characters like Seraphina Harrigan (Mandeep Dhillon), Jan Da Souza (Joanne Froggatt), and Bella Harrigan (Lara Pulver) are richly developed. They're not just mothers and daughters; they're integral to the Harrigan empire's story. Each woman is brave, tough, and vulnerable in her own way, making them feel authentic and exciting to watch.
Ritchie's Other Shows Also Shine
Ritchie's knack for writing women extends beyond MobLand. In The Gentlemen on Netflix, Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) is a standout. She's the operating leader of her father's syndicate, and she's just as clever and competent as her male counterpart, Eddie Horniman (Theo James). Susie is tough as nails but never loses her femininity or vulnerability.
Even in Young Sherlock on Prime Video, Ritchie crafts compelling female characters. Xiao Wei (Zine Tseng) is a Chinese woman pretending to be a princess, using stereotypes to her advantage. The series also features Natascha McElhone as the intelligent Holmes matriarch and Holly Cattle as Beatrice, who undergoes a shocking heel turn. These women are complicated, clever, and never fade into the background.
Ritchie's approach to writing women is a breath of fresh air. He gives them agency, depth, and the ability to be both strong and vulnerable. It's a skill that Sheridan has yet to master, and it's one of the reasons Ritchie is becoming a dominant force in television. For more on Ritchie's success, check out MobLand's impressive streaming run and what's next for the series.
