Breaking the Mold

If you haven’t noticed, there’s are a few things that the anti-heroes I’ve mentioned all have in common: they’re middle aged white guys. This, for the most part, is the basic mold for TV anti-heroes. However, there are those who break this mold. Here, we’ll take a brief look at one of the more recent characters to capture the hearts and minds of viewers despite some of her actions.

Meet Annalise

Annalise Keating might be one of the only anti-heroes I’ve mentioned so far who has never committed murder (at least, she hasn’t as of the winter finale of season two of her show), which is a bit ironic when you consider her show is called How to Get Away with Murder.

A law professor and incredible lawyer, Annalise devotes her energy into trying to cover up the murder of her husband, which her students committed in the first season. She even went so far as to frame her boyfriend Nate, a police officer, with the murder.

She then contacted her ex-girlfriend Eve Rothlow, also a lawyer, and asked her to take up Nate’s case in her stead. Clearly, it would be a conflict of interest to represent your boyfriend in the murder of your husband.

Annalise’s maneuvering is sometimes cruel as the continually manipulates the people around her. Her lies are calculated, and though they sometimes come crashing down around her she never ceases to find a way out of yet another seemingly impossible situation.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

There are other female anti-heroes out there, but Annalise is practically in a league of her own.

From what I’ve read, it’s pretty difficult to sell a female anti-hero to an audience, and some believe that the pervasiveness of gender roles in society are to blame.

The traits we find likeable in anti-heroes can come across differently in anti-heroines. A lot of people find them to be harsh and abrasive, and tend to ignore that factors that, in a male character, they would use to justify the behavior (a traumatic childhood, for example).

Shows like Nurse Jackie, Scandal, and Weeds have also presented us with female anti-heroes worth rooting for. And while their crimes differ, they all face the same problem—being well-received by audiences.

Television may have “slowly started to unapologetically embrace the idea of women behaving badly”, but female anti-heroes face what some call the likability trap.