Which women are going to make the list this year? Let's go ahead and find out.
Before we get started, I want to preface a few things. While the physical appearance is naturally dependent upon the actresses cast in those roles, the personality is judged entirely on the characters themselves and not the actresses. Someone could be a horrible human being, but they're playing a sweetheart of a character and that's why they're on the list. Likewise, an actress could be gorgeous and a total humanitarian, but they're an evil villain I would want nothing to do with. The judgment system is entirely on the looks and personality of the characters and not anything from behind the scenes. Bonus points might seep in, but there isn't a points system, so I try to ignore that as much as possible.
In no particular order, here is the list of the top 10 ladies who have caught my attention this season (so far):
Daisy Johnson / Quake / Skye (Chloe Bennet) from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Since I started doing this list, there are only two people who have made it every list, and while she's changed her name from Skye to Daisy to Quake to Tremors and all sorts of other things, Chloe Bennet's character in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is one of them. She just continues to have it going for her. Admittedly, the more I see of Chloe Bennet herself doing cute things and coming off as a genuinely great person, the more I start attributing those qualities to her character, so that taints it a bit, but that's not to say the Daisy character doesn't have some of those qualities to begin with. I absolutely hate the overuse of the phrase "strong female character," but it's applicable here for sure. Daisy started off as a loner hacker orphan who was thrust into a world she couldn't comprehend, and over the course of a few seasons she's become one of the top agents in the organization who is reliable to put the mission above herself. When she struggles, it's usually due to her dedication to her friends or a confusion about the mission itself, not out of greed or laziness or anything like that. Sure, she's got her attitude problems—for example, she tends to have fistfights with every guy she hooks up with—but that's because it's a Marvel show, and with her having powers, that's a means to create tension. I'm sure if I were an agent working out of that base of operations, I'd be scoping Daisy out all the time.
Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
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| She doesn't really seem to be smiling all that much this season... |
I talked about Daisy, but while there have been plenty of worthwhile women from the same show that could also have made the list (Melinda May, Bobbi Morse, etc) the only other constant has been Jemma Simmons. She's an adorable genius with a good heart and a British accent, what's not to love? Elizabeth Henstridge is criminally underrated in the looks department, and while her character has had her share of moments where Jemma could have come off as irresponsible, standoffish, selfish, or bitchy, she's managed to breathe a sort of pitiful quality into it all to make it forgivable. In the end, everything Jemma does is for the benefit of her friends, and now that the character has finally hooked up with Leo Fitz, a lot of that edge has been taken off. In this season more than ever, she's just a flat-out likable character with no problems to get in the way (yet, at least), and every time she smiles, I just want to go "d'awww."
Ella Lopez (Aimee Garcia) from Lucifer
If Rush Hour had premiered earlier last year, Aimee Garcia's character Didi Diaz would have made the list, but it didn't debut until March of 2016. Since that show's been cancelled and Garcia has joined the cast of Lucifer as a character that has similar qualities but has actually toned down some of the sass in favor of amping up the cuter quirks that she has, all the better!
Ella Lopez fits a lot of check marks on my list: she's smart, a good person, and has a sense of humor, and all that is wrapped up in a pretty package.
Since I didn't want to include more than two characters from the same show, I had to bump Dr. Kim Martin (Rachael Harris) from last year's list, as she hasn't been as prominently featured this year. That's a shame, though, as she's still funny and attractive in her own way, but Ella Lopez and our next entry took precedence over her. Who is the other woman who usurped the spot?
Charlotte Richards (Tricia Helfer) from Lucifer
Okay, I'll admit it. This choice has absolutely nothing to do with personality. Tricia Helfer is just so goddamn hot that I can't have this list and not include her. While Lesley-Ann Brandt's Mazikeen character didn't make the list last year or this year because her sexy side didn't make up for her psychotic tendencies, I have to make an exception for Charlotte. There's just something about Tricia Helfer that I've been immeasurably attracted to in everything I've seen her in. Her character in Burn Notice wasn't a good person if I remember correctly, but I still dug her. I can't remember anything about her character in Two and a Half Men other than that she was hot. She certainly wasn't a role model in Community, but that didn't matter.
Who cares? Just look at her. Being behind the fourth wall, I know full well that her character is the literal mother of the devil who technically should be even above him on the list of the most evil characters in the history of creation, but if you put me in Los Angeles and she so much as winks at me, I'm sold. Also, think about all the puns I could make about her being a demon in the sack and such!
Amaya Jiwe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) from DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Season 2 has just started and this character was literally only seen for a split second, so I'm jumping the gun, but I already know from the trailers and previews that I'm going to end up wanting to put her on the list. I've never been too into the Vixen superhero, but Maisie Richardson-Sellers is absolutely gorgeous to that same special tier level that I mentioned with Tricia Helfer. The one positive that works in her advantage even more, though, is that her character is going to be heroic, so I know she definitely won't have anywhere near as many negatives as Charlotte from Lucifer. Essentially, she'll end up being a very positive person who has a few flaws for storyline purposes, but nobody's perfect, and obviously they can't take a superhero and make them some racist baby-killing monster, so I'm sure whatever smudges she has on her record will be more than easy to ignore in comparison to the positives.
Iris West (Candice Patton) from The Flash
It's funny to look back on the previous years and see what things remain constant and which things change. In the 2013–2014 season, Iris West didn't exist. Instead, Felicity from Arrow was there, and that character eventually became the reason I stopped watching the show entirely. Iris did make the cut in 2014–2015, but almost hesitantly, as her character wasn't really doing all that much from the start of the first season but I had a good feeling about her. She made the list last year as well, but I considered putting Patty Spivot over her in a retroactive vote.
This season seems like it will revolve even more around Iris, but I'm actually a fan of that. While Arrow spends too much time trying to make #Olicity the focal point, The Flash is still about Barry Allen and his powers more than anything else. We all know Oliver Queen should have ended up with Black Canary, but the Tumblr mentality that got behind the Felicity character turned it into a show about how she complains but is always right and Ollie just puts his head down like a weak little puppy and agrees, then praises her for some reason. Iris, on the other hand, proves herself to actually be Barry's rock like a good couple should be. She's supportive of him, but not in an enabling way, and unlike Felicity, she isn't written as a superior, but an ally. Hell, she even tells him he can go back in time to change history just so he can be happy…TWICE!! She just lets him know that while she supports his decision, she wants to make sure he takes necessary precautions. Now that's a woman you can call a partner in your relationship, as opposed to an Olicity combination which is just a codependent and essentially mutually abusive one.
Plus, Candice Patton's nice to look at :P
Detective Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) from Brooklyn Nine-Nine
The only character other than Daisy Johnson who has made the list all four years is Detective Amy Santiago. Nothing has really changed from season to season about her character, so if you're interested in knowing why she's been on the list four times, just check the previous years. She's awkward and cute and smart and pretty. The end.
Trish Murtaugh (Keesha Sharp) from Lethal Weapon
Trish has a ton of great things going for her. Like the situation with Iris and Barry, Trish is an incredibly supportive partner to her husband Roger, but she also isn't a pushover. She manages to have a no-nonsense tough side to her without being domineering or bitchy—something that is surprisingly difficult for many screenwriters to do, oddly enough. Keesha Sharp also has a swagger where you can tell she knows that she has it going for her, cause, well, she does. Beautiful woman with a great smile and as far as Trish goes, in just a few episodes she's proven that she's a warm, kind, inviting, loving mother and wife who is somehow able to put up with not just Roger's shit but Martin's as well.
Maureen Cahill (Jordana Brewster) from Lethal Weapon
I just think Jordana Brewster is hot. That's about it, really, other than her character being compassionate and smart. Mostly, though, it's for her looks—particularly her eyes.
Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) from Marvel's Luke Cage
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| I also don't like coffee, but I'll go for some (and some Chinese food) |
While Luke Cage doesn't fit under the same specifications as the network television shows, because it's on Netflix, being a VOD platform doesn't mean it isn't still a television show. Its premiere was in late September, so it qualifies as a fall 2016 show.
If you want more clarification on why Claire Temple was chosen instead of Misty Knight, Reva Connors or anyone else, click on the Wed, Bed or Dead article and you'll find out why she beats them out.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
I thought about putting some of the women from Big Brother: Over the Top as I can never really utilize that show for this list, since every season comes out in the summer. However, while Morgan and Alex Willett have piqued my interest along with Shelby Stockton, it's kind of not fair for them to be on a list of characters when they're just normal people. It's a reality show, so I would be judging actual people on their actual personalities and looks, which is somewhat separate. Therefore, I disqualified them.
I also put a lot of consideration into adding Van (Zazie Beetz) from Atlanta until the episode that revolved around her smoking weed the night before her drug test and trying to prevent being fired from it. Not only was that the first episode I didn't enjoy on an entertainment spectrum, but it killed the credibility her "higher-than-thou" character had going for it, which I know was likely the point, but it still demoted her to a problematic level. I have no tolerance for people who get negative repercussions for drug use. You know it's frowned upon and you get what you deserve, basically. Bye Felicia.
There are a ton of very, very attractive women on Gotham, but holy shit are they all so messed up. Leslie Thompkins (Morena Baccarin) is hyper judgmental. Valerie Vale (Jamie Chung) is bitchy and untrustworthy. While Maggie Geha herself is one year younger than I am (she's 28) and very hot, in the timeline context of the show, Poison Ivy is still a teenage Ivy Pepper, so knowing that just makes it creepy as hell. Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) and Tabitha Galavan (Jessica Lucas) are still gorgeous women, but their characters are sociopaths.
In a way, the same applies to the women of Westworld. I'm not the biggest Evan Rachel Wood fan out there, but there are positives to her character until you find out that she's probably going to be the biggest murdering robot of the bunch. When Tessa Thompson, Angela Sarafyan, Thandie Newton and Ingrid Bolsø Berdal are attractive but they follow the same path of being artificial intelligent robots who will kill you, it's kind of hard to justify them taking up a spot over someone like Ella Lopez, isn't it?
I normally include Penny (Kaley Cuoco) from The Big Bang Theory and Paige Dineen (Katharine McPhee) from Scorpion, but I actually haven't even bothered with Scorpion yet and I have a feeling I might stop watching that series, while Penny's character has just stalemated with me and didn't take priority over anybody else.
I'm interested to see if there are any characters from some upcoming shows that haven't debuted yet which I'll be checking out, such as The Great Indoors, Riverdale, Training Day, Falling Water, and Powerless, but that remains to be seen. The later debuts always get shafted on this list, which is why Mary (Dilshad Vadsaria) from Second Chance never made it into the group last year, even though she would have if it premiered earlier than December.
Well those are the top ten women I'm watching on television right now, but since that's all from my own likes/dislikes and opinions, I'm curious who everyone else has on their lists instead. Make sure to sound off in the comments below about the men and women on TV that you currently have a little bit of a thing for!
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