What to Make of Women-Led Crime Dramas?: An Interrogation of the Female Characters in Contemporary Crime Dramas

摘要

While recent research suggests the proportion of lead characters in the mainstream Hollywood films and television shows is overwhelmingly male, white and middle-class, contemporary crime dramas led by women as central characters relatively enjoying a significant increase. This paper interrogates the way contemporary crime dramas represent their female or heroines characters by analysing four running shows: The Fall, The Bridge, Deadwind and Unbelieveable. Each of the shows are being led by women as detectives in the pursuit of justice. This paper suggests that while it seemingly that women being depicted in a more nuanced and complicated characters, more development need to be addressed in the future. Female detectives are represented in a more agentive characters and while also acknowledging feminist issues within the narrative, however such shows also problematic in some aspects. Towards this paper it is suggested that female victims are treated as exotic objects and in a sexual way through the camera works and juxtapostions.