Television's War on Strong Married, Working, Women.

Also Spoilers Abound so READ WITH CARE!

Alright, so maybe it's not a war per se, but there still seems to be a strong not so subtle theme running through several television shows this season and I rank these three television shows from the least to the worst offender.

First, let me explain. After sitting in front of the television and watching these shows that depict these fantastic strong, often sexual females, I've noticed a tragic theme. Strong powerful women who work and hold their own within the office are at an increased risk for having a husband that will cheat on them, or do much worse, thus undermining their strength and credibility. It's almost, notice I say almost, network television is telling women, "Ladies, don't work too hard because, if you do, you're husband may cheat on you or may even murder someone. Yikes! Don't want that to happen. Why don you stay home, put that meatloaf in the oven, and we can just roll our clocks back to the 1950s". Now, notice I said almost. I do believe this isn't intentional but it does appear to be an unusual common theme and I demonstrate this with three television shows, the first being the least offensive.

"The Good Wife", a show I love and have lauded on this site already but it tells the story of Alicia Florrick, Julianna Margulies, as she returns to work following the reveal that her husband had been having an affair while in office and he continues to cheat on her despite their marriage. GRANTED, their marriage isn't what it used to be, Alicia was a happy homemaker and not a strong working woman when Peter cheated on her, Alicia had been cheating on her husband as well, but nonetheless, Alicia is a strong working woman whose husband can't stop cheating on her. This show does have it's redeeming qualities as well, as I've explained in my other article, mainly it's writing, it's progressive multi-ethic, strong female cast, and the fact that the affair is not the main focus of the show, all make this show the least offensive when it comes to this theme.

"How To Get Away with Murder", the show created by influential female African American writer Shondra Rhimes, also contains this theme within it. Annalise Keating, Viola Davis, is a strong African American lawyer, who works incredibly hard and is basically shown running the court room. But what does she fail to see? Her husband has been cheating on her. Not only that, her husband may have killed the girl he has been cheating on Annalise with and she may have been pregnant with his child. Yikes. Look what happens when you're a strong female character who excels in her occupation. Your equally strong husband may be cheating on you because, well, you don't spend enough time at home. Granted, Annalise does some cheating within this show BUT she isn't suspected of murdering her partner. This show is ranked somewhere in the middle when it comes to the use of this this theme because, well, "Gracepoint" is the worst offender.

"Gracepoint" follows Detective Ellie Miller, Anna Gunn, and Detective Emmet Carver, as they uncover the shocking truth behind the murder of a small boy within Miller's home town. And guess who the murderer was, if you said the priest or the creepy old woman that hangs around children leering for a bit too long, you would be wrong. It's Miller's husband! The stay-at-home dad just had too much time home alone with young children, so much so, that he became a pedophile, and somewhat psychopathic, and helped cover up the murder of the young boy. But guess who actually murdered the child, it was Miller's son. Yep. The detective who was working too hard missed all of the clues at home and her family was responsible for it all. If only she had stayed at home and not worked so much.... This show is by far the worst offender because in the end, Detective Carver is one step away from telling Miller that the reason she missed all of this was because she worked too hard. Nobody saw this coming and if you did you guessed. Her husband seemed genuine and caring and no one suspected that he was a pedophile for even a second, because there was no reason to. In the end, Miller says she missed it because she was too close to the investigation and Carver should have said, "Uhhhhh No DOYYYYYYY. Nobody could have saw this coming. I didn't see this coming, the audience didn't see this coming, nobody saw this happening". But instead he explains how he deduced. He being a strong single man who can successfully determine with ease who the killer was. If the priest never walked the town in the middle of the night, he would have never come upon Tom trying to destroy his computer, and no suspicions would have been directed towards Miller's family. Detective Carver didn't deduce anything even though in the end he made it seem like he did and how due to the fact that he didn't have a family and was "distant" from this case, he was able to figure it all out.

My hopes is that network television will realize this subtle theme running through their female lead shows and will attempt to discontinue this stupidity. Those are my hopes, but who knows what will actually happen.