Credit: Apple TV+
6 min read
In need of a new series? We’ve rounded up some of the best female-led shows from the past year that might have passed you by – and they’re all available to stream online now.
In the past few years, there have been some sensational female-led TV series. From Killing Eve to WandaVision and I May Destroy You, women have been at the helm – in front of and behind the camera – of some of the greatest, most thought-provoking small-screen productions across various genres and platforms.
Yet, we’re often left paralysed by choice. After all, so many great series are released each month that it can be difficult to know what to watch next. You might revert back to your faves, like Buffy The Vampire Slayer (as you get excited for the reboot on the horizon), tune into New Girl, take a nostalgic trip down memory lane with The Golden Girls or simply sit and ask yourself why Derry Girls had to end. Seriously though, why?
With the number of shows on offer, along with an ever-increasing number of streaming platforms, it’s hard to keep up with every new season or show that comes out, and some inevitably pass you by. Thankfully, we’re here to fill in the blanks.
So before you enter your Gilmore Girls era for the umpteenth time, take a little time to catch up with some of the best female-led TV series from the past year instead.
Bad Sisters
Back in 2022, Sharon Horgan blessed us all with her black comedy series Bad Sisters, and last year we finally got to find out what happened next when season two landed on our screens.
Based on the Flemish series Clan, the first series followed the five Garvey sisters as four of them plotted to kill ‘the Prick’, the horrific, evil husband of Grace (Anne-Marie Duff). In the second instalment, it’s two years after the ‘accidental death’ of Grace’s abusive husband, and the close-knit Garvey sisters have finally moved on. That is, until a dead body is found in a suitcase and the sisters are brought back into the spotlight once more.
If you needed any more convincing, the first season of Bad Sisters won the Bafta for best drama series. Need we say more?
Watch Bad Sisters on Apple TV+
Yellowjackets
Everyone’s favourite female-led cannibalism show, Yellowjackets, has just returned for its third season, meaning it’s the perfect time to catch up on the show if you haven’t already.
It follows a girls’ high school soccer team, whose plane crashes into the wilderness and they spend 19 months trying to stay alive… by eating their friends. Yum.
It cuts between the past and the present day (some 25 years later), as it examines how this life-changing trauma impacts the survivors as adults. If it’s somehow passed you by, it’s a must-watch.
Watch Yellowjackets on Paramount+
Black Doves
If you haven’t watched this Keira Knightley-fronted Netflix series yet, honestly where have you been?
With an admirable 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating – Stylist’s entertainment writer watched it in one sitting – Black Doves is the kind of show that once you start you just have to get to the end.
The spy thriller follows Helen Webb, the doting wife of UK defence secretary, Wallace Webb, who just so happens to be a spy working for a mysterious organisation, the Black Doves, to which she has been passing on government secrets for a decade. But when her lover is assassinated, Helen is left wondering who she can trust. Gripping stuff.
Watch Black Doves on Netflix
Am I Being Unreasonable?
From the brilliant brain of Daisy May Cooper, Am I Being Unreasonable? has crashed back onto screens in 2025 with a second season.
Cooper plays Nic, a lonely mum grieving a loss she can’t tell anyone about. Her son, Ollie, is her main source of happiness, until new mum Jen (Selin Hizli) moves into town and the two women quickly develop a deep friendship.
Season two sees more brilliant shenanigans as Nic is forced to move into Jen’s caravan, even though she no longer trusts her best friend further than she can throw her. And, of course, with Cooper still in the writing seat, every line is absolute comedy gold.
Watch Am I Being Unreasonable? on BBC iPlayer
The Change
For a coming-of-age story with a twist, look no further than Bridget Christie’s The Change. Written by and starring Christie, the show follows 50-year-old mum of two, Linda, who, on learning she’s menopausal, attempts to reclaim her identity by leaving her life behind to live in a caravan in the Forest of Dean.
In season two (coming early 2025), Linda’s faced with the repercussions of the lies she’s told the forest community, along with the arrival of her husband, Steve, who’s keen on bringing her home. A brilliant depiction of a stage of life we don’t often get to see under a comedic light.
Watch The Change on Channel 4
Amandaland
If you enjoyed Motherland, you’ll adore its spin-off show, Amandaland.
Following a post-divorce Amanda Hughes (played by the brilliant Lucy Punch), she’s been forced to move to South Harlesden – or ‘SoHa’ as Amanda calls it – and is facing the horrors of parenting modern teens head on while also dealing with her own mother, played by Joanna Lumley.
Every single line is snort-out-loud hilarious, but we also get to see a softer, more complicated side to everyone’s favourite social climber.
Watch Amandaland on BBC iPlayer
Palm Royale
If for no other reason, watch Palm Royale for the warm, golden aesthetic of 1970s Florida. The hair, the clothes, the wonderfully OTT parties… This Kristen Wiig-led show truly is a visual delight, but the social-climbing storyline is what will keep you coming back for more.
Maxine Dellacorte is an ambitious woman determined to squirm her way to a seat at America’s most exclusive and most fashionable table: Palm Beach high society. And she’ll do it by any means necessary.
Watch Palm Royale on Apple TV+
Queenie
If you missed Queenie when it aired last year, now’s the time to catch up on the series based on Candice Carty-Williams’s bestselling debut novel.
Dionne Brown stars as Queenie, a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman who straddles two cultures but slots neatly into neither as she comes up against all the universal trials and tribulations of twenty-something life – trying to be the perfect friend, girlfriend, daughter and colleague, while also trying to figure out who you are.
Watch Queenie on Channel 4
Joan
Based on the true story of Joan Hannington, Britain’s most notorious jewel thief, Sophie Turner stars in this exciting drama set in 1980s London.
Joan is a fiercely devoted mother who’ll stop at nothing to keep her six-year-old daughter, Kelly, safe. After escaping a disastrous marriage with her criminal husband, Gary, Joan uses her talent for adopting new identities to become a masterful jewel thief with her partner in crime, Boisie Hannington.
Watch Joan on ITVX
Agatha All Along
If you love all things spooky, you must make sure Agatha All Along is on your to-watch list. Led by the fantastic Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness, the series picks up where WandaVision left off.
A spellbound Agatha is on a mission to regain her powers and so enlists the help of a motley crew of fellow witches (including Aubrey Plaza and Heartstopper’s Joe Locke) to take on the Witches’ Road – a path which will test the witches in all manner of deceiving ways.
Watch Agatha All Along on Disney+
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